13. November 2009 by admin.

Man it has been a tough selling season. I have a client  with an unbelievable sense of urgency. But once I sent them the proposal they jumped right back on the fence.

I have another prospect that either gets the service I offer or they better start making up excuses to the tax man on why they didn’t. Talking about a sense of urgency. This company knows they need it or else.

So I’m sitting in a friend’s office and we got on this subject of these businesses I have on the fence. He starts rattling off prospect after prospect of fence sitters that he is tracking. It’s been that type of season.

But hey I’m in sales and he’s in sales. The sales profession has unbelievable highs and unbelievable lows. Every month and every quarter we start all over. My wife doesn’t understand  how we can start at zero month after month. But I know that I’m not really at zero. As long as my pipeline is full then I’m fine.

The morale of the story is that in times of tight budgets, slashing staff, and a recession that can’t get out of its own way, you need to keep the pipeline as full as possible. Yea… I’m bummed that I have a couple of people on the fence. But I need to get over it because I got tens of thousand of dollars in the pipeline and I need to stay in the game.

YOU DO TOO - Get over it, keep calling, get more prospects.

David Peterson - President: Atlanta Sales and Consulting

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13. November 2009 by admin.

I just ran into this today and I got taken to the woodshed. I have been  killing myself trying to get a job out for my new client and then BAM! He says… “What do you mean that you are ready to go, we are not ready?”

With the kind of projects I work on that tells me that the last two weeks and the three other people involved on this project have just wasted a whole lot of time and money. So how high should you jump when the client or boss calls?

Let me tell you what I used to do.  This is my tried and true method of jumping through the hoops. When the boss calls maybe just maybe you should wait at least a day before jumping. The reason, things change and you could spend an entire day on stuff that doesn’t matter - i.e.: Busy Work!

Sales organizations have no time for busy work. This is typically the only revenue producing group in the entire company. As an ex sales manager DO NOT SEND ME BUSY WORK… I will ignore it and go about my day.

How high should you jump? Well this past week I moved away from my tried and true method of waiting at least a day before jumping. This was a new customer and I have the staff and the contacts to get the job done. The client was hot on the subject. Then, BAM! I just got burned.

If you have a hyper boss or a hyper customer you will do yourself a world of good by just waiting at least 5 minutes, 15 minutes or even 1 day before acting  on what ever just popped up in their heads. Hyper people make bad decisions. STOP let the situation come to you and then proceed.

This is 20+ years of experience talking. You have to wait before firing off that email to your team, or you will be taken to the woodshed. Right now the beating stings but by tomorrow I will use my 20+ years of experience to get everyone back on track.

David Peterson - President: Atlanta Sales and Consulting

Thinking about a new method of sales training… Read This

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12. November 2009 by admin.

I get to listen to a lot of phone calls in my business. As a sales consultant I’m always analyzing sales calls. The other day I was listening to Inbound payment processing calls at a local call center. Inbound phone calls are routinely recorded for training purposes.

Yes - call center personnel do get trained. You wouldn’t believe how much training goes into one call campaign.

The management and  I were actually listening for the tone of the call, the length of the call, and the accuracy of the call. In a call center since you are not face to face with your customer you have to be extra helpful, however sometimes that leads to very long calls and time is definitely money in this environment.

After a few calls we ended up on one where a customer was trying to pay a bill and handle a current problem. This particular call center can ONLY handle credit card payments. They can see the issues the customers are having but they cannot fix them (another department - and obviously any story).

The representative was professional and empathetic to the customer’s plight. Everyone has had this happen  to them at some point in their adult life. Yet midway through the call the customer was ready to pay. The rep was about to process the credit card and then she made a wrong turn. She went back to the customers issue to talk about it one more time.

5 minutes later they were still taking and the customer is NOW not sure he should pay the bill. Maybe he should dispute the entire charge!

Here’s the point, when you have a close deal, what ever that deal is, just stop talking. If you  reopen your mouth you reopen the closed deal. In the case above the rep could not fix the customer’s problem, she may have actually compounded the problem by allowing the customer not to pay.

Can you imagine when that customer actually calls customer service? He’s going to say…. “Your representative told me not to pay.” Now that’s not exactly what the rep said but she did make the situation worse.

JUST STOP TALKING. In all cases you should be doing more listening and less talking. Oh yea… If someone is handing you money then you should probably take it.

David Peterson - President: Atlanta Sales and Consulting

Do you need a BPO to process your credit card payments? Click Here

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11. November 2009 by admin.

Okay, what is it? What exactly is a BPO?

BPO is the acronym for Business Process Outsourcing.  The BPO’s function is to take on the responsibility of routine repetitive jobs that are labor intensive. As an example world-class businesses need to focus on their core best practices. Is it really cost-effective for a lumber company to build and staff a call center for inbound customer service billing questions?

30 years ago the answer would have been a resounding YES. However, technology and productivity has changed so fast that now the answer is a resounding NO. The development of call routing, IVRs, IP-based phone systems, the Internet, call monitoring software, call recording software, data collection,  and a host of other productivity enhancing technologies have enabled a single BPO to handle multiple customers at one time.

To make it more interesting today a single call center associate could be handling a payment processing call for customer #1, while a customer service call for customer #2 is being handled through a live chat… both at the same time. As soon as that chat session ends the next one pops up. As soon as that payment processing call ends the call center associate gets a little whisper in their ear telling them about the next call they are about to receive.

The moral of the story is BPO’s allow more routine business functions to be done with less personnel. If you outsource your routine business functions, like payment processing to a BPO then you will NOT have to:

1. Hire payment processing personnel
2. Pay for their benefits
3. Hire a training staff to train them on payment processing
4. Budget or expense any funds for recruiting the personnel
5. Hire a manager to supervise their activities
6. Expand your HR department for all of the above reasons… OR
7. We haven’t even touched on the build out of the technology or the technical personnel you would need to run a call center of your own. 

Years ago the big craze was to outsource routine business functions like payment processing, or credit card processing overseas. The American public is still not crazy about this thought. Luckily there are plenty of BPO call centers in the U.S. that can handle these types of needs.

If you have been thinking about outsourcing to a U.S. company and you don’t know where to start then my advice is to start by clicking here.

David Peterson - President: Atlanta Sales and Consulting

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11. November 2009 by admin.

Since everyone hates or ought to hate cold calling there is another option… Send a letter of introduction.

Sales representatives will find ANYTHING else to do besides cold calling. Unless you have a very good list to call off of it is hard to remain productive as a group and the reps will quickly become disinterested.

There is an option, when you send a personalized letter of introduction with a specific call to action in it then all of the sudden your cold call becomes a warm call.

Or at least that is what you can call it… a warm call. Your sales representatives will determine how warm the call really is. However your professional sales representatives will take this tried and true method of getting to 1st base seriously and begin the sales process right there.

The letter must state:

• Who you are…
  • “My name is David Peterson, I am a sales representative for XYX Corporation.”
• Who your company is…
  • “The XYX Corporation is a major player in the ABC industry, perhaps you have heard of us?”
• Why you are writing them…
  • “The reason for this letter is that I wanted to introduce myself to you and I think that I have uncovered an opportunity for both of us to succeed.”
• Call to action, or next step…  
  • “I will be calling you in the next week to discuss these opportunities.”

This is a very simple way to get your sales reps past the problem and stigma of cold calling by providing them with a list that they know #1 it is to their target market, especially since you spent the money to produce the mailing and #2 The prospect should be expecting a call.

Simple and effective. Give it a try both your sales reps and your prospects may enjoy the whole process just a little bit more.

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10. November 2009 by admin.

I have hired probably a couple hundred representatives over my sales career.  There is an art to hiring sales people. All of the good ones know that concentrating on the sales process, knowing where you are in the sales process are critical to enjoying success.

All of the successful professional sales representatives also know that some form of cold call will have to be done in order to fill their individual pipeline.

So why is it that so many professional sales representatives fail, or move on to other professions? That one is tough to put my finger on it exactly but I would have to say that cold calling is one of the areas that all representatives fear and loath to do.

There is a difference between loathing to do cold calls and not doing them. When I interview prospective sales candidates I always ask them these two questions.

1. Since you are looking for a new job this is your opportunity to get off the phone and stop cold calling, why are you interviewing for the exact type of job you just left?
2. Do you like spending 8 hours a day on the phone?

The first question I use to find out why they are leaving their previous position. Sales positions are easy to find but hard to keep. Sales representatives are also looking for a specific amount of money, so when they are not making that amount they tend to bolt.  Definitely drill down on this answer.

The second question is really the one that lets me know if the candidate is going to lie to me in the future. Nobody likes being on cold calls. If you hear something like “You have to smile and dial,” or “You have to stay on the phone to make money,” then my advice is to explore the candidate further. The sales candidate  is using both those statements because they think… “I know exactly what the new boss wants to hear.”

I have two final questions that I always ask prospective sales candidates. They are:

1. How much money do you want to make?
2. How much money do you need to make?

The answer to #1 needs to be at the high-end of your own pay scale. If it is not (way over or way under) then run and run fast. The #2 answer will immediately tell you exactly how much money they will make. Sales reps get comfortable with a set amount of money so if your “A” players are making $100,000 and your candidate needs to make $50,000 my advice is to pass and keep looking.

David Peterson - President: Atlanta Sales and Consulting

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8. November 2009 by admin.

Notice the picture says “DANGER THIN ICE.” I was speaking with a sales manager that had just returned from a quarterly sales award presentation. I could tell from the tone of her voice that it didn’t go well. Then the dreaded words… “I hate this job, can I come work for you?”

Here is an employee that should have been returning from a quarterly sales event FIRED UP, not looking for a new job. This sales manager was clearly on thin ice.

The reason: Management had screwed up the numbers so the people who should have won didn’t. Now she has an entire team pissed off at her for the mistake(s). Any momentum or motivation that she should have received is now gone.

As a sales consultant I work with organizations that fall through this ice. These organizations want to do well. They want to reward their employees. They spend the money, create the trips, offer spiffs, cash, dinner and plaques. The goal of a sales award presentation is to recognize the sales employees who have gone above and beyond the results  of the other representatives.

However the real goal of these sales presentations is to motivate the group of sales representatives that didn’t quite get on the stage. You want this group of sales reps to perform next quarter at a higher rate.

The award ceremonies are one of the most positive events you can have. They are usually a lot of fun with guest speakers, dinner and cash. Everyone has a good time.

So how do you blow it?

Mess up the sales numbers, or worse have representatives question the numbers. If your sales reps don’t completely understand  their compensation plans then the management of that sales department is doomed from the beginning.

The risk with not having a solid compensation plan is that sales reps will not know exactly how they are being measured. If you make changes to the compensation plan in the middle of a quarter then you better have good bean  counters and you better make sure all the representatives understand the change.

Otherwise…

Otherwise what happens is that all of the motivation will be sucked right out of your sales department. No amount of reward will be useful because the reps either don’t understand the numbers or they don’t trust the numbers.

Risk, Reward, and Motivation: You WANT and NEED your award ceremonies to go off with out a hitch. Before you assigned the date of your next award ceremony you need to make sure that all of the reps know their sales goals. They need to know the number they are responsible for. If not you will suck any motivation or worse momentum right out of the room.

PS: Talking about thin ice, it will take at least 1 quarter to move past a motivational problem like this.

David Peterson - President: Atlanta Sales and Consulting

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6. November 2009 by admin.

I just read an excellent blog post entitled Selling more by seeing your store through your customer’s eyes. The author did an excellent job of describing how your employees actions affects the buying habits of customers and how the customers feels about your store.

I encourage you to read her posting. I couldn’t agree more about how your employees create the general perception of a retail location. One way to really test how well your store looks through the eyes of a customer is to use a secret shopper.

The secret shopper will report back through unbiased eyes on how well your store personnel are performing and how well your store looked.

While that secret shopper is at it have them actually look at the merchandise and how it is laid out on the sales floor. I want to know… What does the customer see in terms of your merchandise when they walk into your store? 

I was talking to the owner of a small bike shop the other day. We were covering topics like using the good, better, best method of selling, selling what is in stock vs special orders, inventory turns, and a host of other topics.

Then I brought up the topic of what does the customer see when they walk into the store? Here is what I saw…

In the case of this bike shop the owner has hundreds of bikes, side by side, road bikes on the top, mountain bikes on the bottom. He had kid bikes in the corner, accessories along the wall. To the owner it was all very orderly. To me – it was a mess. It was overwhelming. Plus there were so many bikes that it was difficult for the salesperson to remove one to show the customer.

Here’s another example of bad merchandising. The next time you walk into a Lowe’s or Home Depot’s paint department I want you to check to see if your eyes can quickly pick up if you are in the interior or exterior paint aisle? Can you find the stain aisle? Which one of these 1,000s of paint cans would you choose if there was no help available?

My point is even companies selling billions in merchandise make this mistake. When your customer walks in, what do they see when you are not there to help? Is it overwhelming to them, are they confused? Could they steer themselves in the general direction of what they are looking for? Do they walk out without speaking to anyone - that is the real killer, they left and didn’t give you a chance.

David Peterson - President: Atlanta Sales and Consulting

http://www.atlantasalesandconsulting.com/

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4. November 2009 by admin.

In an article I wrote for Altanta Sales and Consulting on a new approach to conducting sales training.

I wrote “I would like to say to all of those sales trainers that I have had a privilege to work with that you all did a good if not great job at delivering your training program. These all encompassing training platforms and processes are terrific but… they rarely get to or they don’t spend enough time on the problems of the sales department.”

It boils down to 1 simple rule: Train on what needs to be fix, don’t try to reinvent the entire sales process.

Imagine spending $10’s of $1,000’s of dollars on a sales training program and have the sales reps leave feeling like it was a waste of time.

The new approach that was created by Atlanta Sales and Consulting is to focus on the strenght and weaknesses of the individual reps, the best and worst practices of your sales department, and to learn your exact sales process.

From there they will then build a new sales training program based on fixing what is broke. You can read about it here.

PS: They also claim this new sales training will produce immediate sales results!

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3. November 2009 by admin.

Can you have a worse day? You get just about through your entire day and here comes trouble walking into your office. One sales representative can’t get along with a coworker. They are actually arguing today. Somedays they just ignore each other. Other days they spread their karma throughout the entire call center.

Sales reps who are not involved feel uncomfortable. As a sales manager you have to do something. If you let it fester I guarantee it will get worse and you will get more involved.

Here are the minimum steps that you will need to take with all of the workers involved:

1. Identify the problem as seen from both sides. Make sure you understand the complete issue.
2. Document the problem to be used for this corrective action and the EOY evaluations.
3. Make a judgement call on who is causing the problem. In a lot of cases both employees are the problem.
4. This is a working environment bring both employees together to allow them to speak with each other in private while you moderate. This will be the last discussion on this issue.
5. Disciplinary action. Some form of formal discipline must take place for both employees.
6. If it continues terminate the employees.

Did he really write terminate the employees? Yes I did… When your employees work in an office environment you cannot have two or more employees effecting the entire sales floor.

Regardless of the issue: Office romance gone bad, sales reps accused of stealing sales, just a spat over the smell of cologne - you name it I have heard and seen it all. Regardless of the issue if in the end the two sales representatives cannot work together it will spill onto your entire sales floor.

Once it spills onto the sales floor your productivity just tanked. The easy fix for all of this is to hire professional sales people. Professionals may not like the person next to them but they can always work with them.

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