Looking for the Right Sales Training Program?

by Lois Wong

Looking for the Right Sales Training Program?

When I was tasked with developing a training program for my company years ago, there were two things I needed

• #1: training for me (train-the-trainer)
• #2: training for the sales people.

There are many good sales training programs on the market; however, not many offer "Customization and Coaching".  In other words effective sales programs should provide customized training with follow-on coaching.  Without the follow-on coaching, the learning isn't reinforced nor are the metrics aligned with solid sales principles.

When sessions are taught in small portions (like a having small meals per day instead of one big banquet), information is ‘digested' more easily and ‘absorbed' more completely.  The combination of customized training and follow up incremental coaching enables better retention resulting in a higher degree of performance success.

Sales managers can provide a lot of benefit to their teams by doing their own "bite sized" training at weekly sales meetings. Spending even 20 minutes per week on training can make a big difference. Ways to structure these mini-training sessions include:

• Role playing an objection that came up during the week
• Assign each member of the sales team a particular sales skill that he/she needs to train the team on and rotate the training responsiblility among your team
• Assign a sales book, podcast, or video to the sales team and spend 20 minutes reviewing and role playing concepts that were presented
• Choose one deal per week that closed and analyze why
• Choose one deal per week that DIDN'T close and analyze why

These are just a few suggestions to get you started. We'd love to hear what's worked for you in the past. Let us know!

Top Three Sales Best Practices - advice for someone new to sales

 

Top Three Sales Best Practices - advice for someone new to sales

I'm constantly advising my clients to distill their message - to use fewer words. And it's a challenge! And so I decided to drink my own Kool-Aid and come up with the top three sales best practices. To come up with these, I asked myself - if someone new to sales could only work on three things - what three things would have the most impact on his/her career?

So here are my top three sales best practice tips (I reserve the right to edit this list in future blog posts):

• #1: Choose an organization/product that you believe in

There's an old adage that a great sales person can sell snow to an Eskimo. That's not true! Great sales people could never sell snow to Eskimos - because Eskimos don't need snow! A great sales person sells with integrity. And if you believe in the product or service that you represent, it is much easier to sell with passion and commitment.

• #2: Be willing to walk away from a sale

My first sales job was working for Xerox Corporation. I had my first big sale on the line with Ford Aerospace. When I went to present my proposal to the decision maker, he shared with me a proposal from a competitor who could do everything that needed to be done, and at a significantly lower price. My solution could do most of what he wanted, at a higher price point, and with limited expansion capabilities. The decision maker and I had developed some rapport - and he asked me for my advice. Despite wanting this sale very badly, I told him that if I were in his shoes, I would buy the other solution. And he did. I went back to the office with my head down.

However, back at Ford Aerospace, word got around that I could be trusted, and so whenever there was a problem that my company "might" be able to solve, I was invited to bid - and many times, I did have the superior solution and won. Ford Aerospace became my largest account and a very big account for Xerox Corporation. I lost that sale, but won a customer.

• #3: Be your own manager

Someone once told me that sales is as close as you'll get to running your own business without actually running one. I agree. A salesperson is responsible for managing his own time and territory. Salespeople are not only measured, but paid depending on how well they are able to manage themselves. The best salespeople are those who know in 15 minute increments how they should spend their time. They are clear about doing those activities that drive sales, and eliminating those activities that don't. It requires clarity and discipline but enables them to avoid the roller coaster income that many salespeople complain about (which is unnecessary!). The best salespeople are great managers - of themselves.

Upon reflection - this is a good list! Follow these three and I'm convinced that the rest of things that are important will fall into place.

I'm working on a book of sales stories to illustrate best practices. I'd love to hear about the experiences that have helped to shape your success. Send me an email!

Non-Profit Presentation Skills

Non-Profit presentations - there's a lot at stake...

I'm sitting on a train in India - traveling from Chadipury to Kolcata. I am here with a group of CARE supporters - looking at various health, education and economic development projects in rural villages around the country.

The work is stunning. The presentations are not. I am not tolerant of bad presentations with my technology clients, but for some reason, I am even less tolerant here. Perhaps because I feel that there is more at stake. The problem of poverty is enormous and stubborn. I don't know much about how to improve health in a rural village, but I do know how to craft a message that people will respond to.

So here are Bridget's Five Rules for a Non-Profit Presentation:

• Rule #1: Don't read your slides

Your slides are meant to serve as guideposts for what you want to talk about. DO NOT READ your slides. It is boring, insulting and a waste of time

• Rule #2: Choose three main points

Choose three things that you want the potential donor to remember (and no more!). Once you have identified the three most important things, build your PowerPoint presentation around those three points. Yes, it's true - that there is more to tell but you are more likely to lose your audience if you give them TOO much information vs. too little.

• Rule #3: Keep your slides uncluttered

Font size should be 20 points or greater.
Have no more than 4 bullet points per slide (and that's a LOT) with no more than two points under each bullet.
Use graphics.

• Rule #4: Remove unnecessary slides

Be RUTHLESS about determining which slides you need and which ones you don't. If the slide doesn't relate to one of your three main points AND if your slide isn't absolutely essential to the understanding of that main point - REMOVE IT.

• Rule #5: Present with passion

If you aren't excited about the topic (and if that excitement doesn't show), then why should the potential donor be excited? Moods are contagious - if your passionate about the topic, let it show. If not, perhaps you are in the wrong job.

Non-Profits will do well to spend some time and money improving the way they present and tell their stories. Andy Goodman (the Goodman Center) is a fantastic resource for non-profits and is full of free resources. Don't hide great work behind a poor presentation.

If you'd like help with your next presentation to donors, I'd be happy to review your presentation and offer feedback. Give me a call. 

5 Mistakes to Avoid in a Sales Presentation

 

5 Mistakes to Avoid in Your Next Sales Meeting Presentation

 

by Lois Wong

When is your next presentation and how will you prepare for it? Millions of presentations are given daily and most of them are mind-numbing. Need help? "The 6 Secrets to Great Sales Presentations" hopefully provided you with some food for thought and a good starting place.

 

While hosting Congresswoman Anna Eshoo in an executive meeting at Xerox PARC 15 years ago, she gave me timeless advice. Relate your solution to something that is part of a person's every day life: their families, their kids, their wants and desires. How your solution will affect that part of their lives? She's right. Address the ‘killer application.' Don't forget that your prospective buyer is a person with personal wants, needs, desires and motivations. Forgetting that fact is sales presentation mistake #1.

 

What are 5 other mistakes to avoid when presenting?

 

1. Minimize Geek Speak, acronyms, and jargon

2. Steer clear of citing numerous boring statistics

3. Avoid "Ummms" and a monotone voice

4. Don't cross your arms when asked a difficult question

5. Answer deliberately negative questions offline

 

As an executive coach I've seen thousands of speaker mistakes over the past 20 years. At a popular MeetUp in Palo Alto, one of the entrepreneurs asked me, ‘How would I know if my presentation was effective?' There are 3 major telltale signs that your presentation was unimpressive, unintelligible, or easily forgettable. But that's for the next blog post.

Click here to receive a free copy of the white paper "Was My Presentation Effective or Forgettable."

6 Secrets to a Great Sales Presentation

by Lois Wong

What's the secret to giving a great sales presentation? Besides practice, practice, practice, you should: know your topic well, be enthusiastic, use simple color graphics, stick to 3-5 bullet points per slide, maintain good eye contact, concentrate on voice projection..... well, maybe you know these basics.

So, what are some of the secrets that the most successful speakers share once they've mastered the basics?

1. Open with a grabber to excite the audience.
2. Use metaphors and analogies to explain complex information. It will most certainly help the audience do what I call ‘retain & explain' the concepts to someone else.
3. 3. Use humor to make a point. Not jokes but levity inserted in the right places.
   
4. Tell stories. Everyone loves to hear stories. Short stories.
5. Ask relevant questions right up front to involve audience participation and interaction.
6. And remember not to drink ice water which constricts the vocal cords, milk which causes mucous, or to have too much caffeine.

While hosting Congresswoman, Anna Eschoo in an executive meeting at Xerox PARC 15 years ago, she gave me advice that's still relevant today. To find out her advice and the 5 other major mistakes to avoid - tune in to tomorrow's blog post!

Sales: Time Management

 Sales: Time Management

Time management is one of the most important skills in sales, but one that is often overlooked. We're taught prospecting, qualifying, negotiating and closing techniques - but often forget to include time management. Learning how to organize your day is just one way that you can improve your time management skills.

Here are 6 tips for organizing your day to help you get started in improving your time management skills.

6 Tips for Organzing Your Day

1. Take the first 1/2 hour in the morning to organize your day. 
2. Prioritize your activities (A priorities, B priorities, C priorities, Don't do activities)
3. Make an appointment to be on the phone by a certain time every morning.
4. Don't multi-task! Studies have shown that multi-tasking actually slows you down and degrades the quality of your work.
5. Set timelines and deadlines. Tasks will expand to the amount of time that you give them to complete.
6. Use a Do Not Disturb sign. Interruptions can be costly. Create a Do Not Disturb sign to let coworkers know that you are in the middle of an important task and are unavailable.

Implement these tips for 30 days and see how much more time you have in the day for actually selling!

Test Your Sales IQ

 

How would you rate your sales acumen? Take the SALES IQ test below to determine how you "rank" as a salesperson.

TEST YOUR SALES IQ

1. Great sales people like to "wing it" if they've been selling for several years.	True	False
2. Talking about features early in the sales call helps to reduce the number of objections.	True	False
3. Every lead is a good lead.	True	False
4. Great sales people never have to ask for the order.	True	False
5. If there is more than one minute of silence after you ask for the order, re-state the benefits.	True	False
6. In a business to business sale, product and seller may be inseparable in the customer's mind.	True	False
7. Users respond more favorably to features than decision makers do.	True	False
8. Of all the sales skills in the book, good closing skills will put the most money in your pocket.	True	False
9. If you are sloppy and disorganized, your customer will assume that your company is also sloppy and disorganized.	True	False
10. All great sales people like to cold call.	True	False
Answers: TRUE (6,7), FALSE (1,2,3,4,5,8,10)

Sales Gold Medal: 9-10 Correct

Sales Silver Medal: 7-8 Correct

Sales Bronze: 6 Correct

Practice Makes Perfect: Less than 6

The quiz is not to be taken too seriously, but does uncover some sales myths that are out there floating about. 

Repeatable Sales Process

Repeatable Sales Process

 

Are the ups and downs of sales really unavoidable? Is the sales roller coaster a given?

As I work with sales teams across the country, it seems that the roller coaster effect is not only accepted, it is expected. This is a dangerous attitude for individuals, teams and the companies that we work for.

And I'm here to tell you that roller coasters are NOT a necessary function of sales. In order to create consistent results, you need a repeatable sales process. And the first step is identifying the metrics required for success, and then putting together the activities to support the metrics.

As an example, one of my clients sells cloud services, and each sales representative has a quota of (7) cloud deals per day. In order to make that number, we worked backwards to get at their metrics.

Customers generally sign up only after they've had a demo. But 90% of the people who see demos, end up buying the product.

Quota: 49 deals per week
Demos (90% close ratio): 55 demos per week

For every person that a sales representative talks to, 75% of them agree to a demo.

Demos: 55 per week
Conversations (75% close ratio): 74 conversations per week

A Sales Representative will get a live person on the phone about 20% of the time.

Conversations: 74 per week
Dials (20% close ratio): 370 per week

Now we have the beginning of a repeatable sales process based on metrics.

Quota	Week	Day
# of Cloud Deals	49	7
Activities	Week	Day
# of Outbound Calls (Dials)	370	74
# of Conversations	74	15
# of Demos	55	1

Once we have our baseline metrics identified, we can fine tune our sales skills to create efficiencies in the activities that we're identified as essential to success.