Posted by Patrick Stakenas at 6:10 PM
More often than not, when it comes to companies meeting their sales figures, there is a disconnect between what the CEO expects and what the vice president of sales can realistically deliver. The true challenge for the head of sales lies in how to substantiate to the CEO why the numbers were missed, or, if they were made, how they were arrived at.
A recent article published on MarketingProfs.com titled “Lies, Damn Lies and Dashboards,” stated that CRM and business intelligence dashboards are often manipulated by managers and marketing execs to present a positive outcome that doesn’t necessarily promote the truth.
The key to establishing a trusting relationship between sales and the boardroom is to put in place a process for determining how a representative or team is doing against expectations. This often involves using technology that can track, measure, and report on both the leading and trailing indicators of the company's sales goals. It also provides you with a system for tracking the progress of your salespeople.
Done properly, senior sales leaders can deliver the truth that CEOs can and want to handle. If things are going well, the vice president should be able to explain what is driving the success of sales and why, and also how those sales will be sustained. If it is a rebuilding model, the same applies. The vice president must be able to show where the bad news is; he or she should have an explanation for what is happening with the sales trajectory, and what the plan needs to be to correct the situation.
CEOs make the connection between fluff and what matters. And with sales, it can't all be smoke and mirrors.
Patrick Stakenas is president and CEO ForceLogix, a Chicago-based company that builds on-demand sales performance management solutions.
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Want more sales? Focus on the Highest Probability for Success!
Let’s face it, not all sales people are created equal. And, not only are they not created equal, some are successful regardless of the process or plan you have in place, and some fail, regardless. Identifying the sales people with the highest probability of improving will net you big results. So the question is, “Where do you start in determining who these reps. are?”
Start with what might not seem so obvious; your “B” players. Leave the “A” players alone for the time being, and focus primarily on the “B” players and up and coming “C” players and you will ultimately see better results faster. Within the “B and C” players, there are many reasons why they can’t seem to move up or ahead but they are often not obvious reasons, and focusing your energies here will help you determine what is holding them back. Many articles, white papers, and books may give you the holistic answer on solving your overall sales problem, but in a short answer, don’t try to solve the overall problem with one approach. Take a closer look at where your highest probabilities of success exist, and start there in determining how you are going to get them to sell more.
The main reasons salespeople fail to perform are due to lack of direction and little to no accountability. Salespeople, no matter how professional or how experienced, need direction and should expect accountability. Your “B” performing salespeople can be your best asset if managed properly. Here is some thought on where and how you might want to focus:
Create a process where your managers have access to key data that will open up selling environment. Make information easily available to the manager, track who they are spending time with and if they are coaching these sales people. The sales manager must take responsibility for the success of each and every sales person independently. They are leading the charge on the front lines and many managers will simply “hope” that things will miraculously turn around in the broad scope. Sales managers must provide leadership and support to the salesperson and senior executives or business leaders must provide the framework for success. Providing the necessary outputs, expecting “one on one” coaching, tracking the progress, and holding each manager responsible to the success of each person openly will help you zero in on the opportunities.
Sales people must know exactly what is expected of them, but unfortunately most managers fail to communicate expectations clearly to their salespeople. It is common for salespeople and managers to think they’re doing fine, but, the company is considering them as underperforming and frustration begins to build at the senior management levels. Communicate expectations, such as what is expected for sales activities, customer meetings, product knowledge etc. in addition to sales revenue, and document this on a consistent basis through the use of sales performance management tools.
Your salespeople have a quota for a reason. Why on earth would you risk not attaining revenue by not knowing who has the greatest opportunity to make the number? It is one thing to rant and rave about accountability, but another still, to dig deep into what you are holding people accountable to. If you are only holding managers and sales people to a number, they will never get to the number. It is necessary to hold them accountable to getting to the number. How many deals are in play, how deep in the prospect is the sales person, what is the predictability of the sales person’s ability to deliver? Hold your managers accountable for knowing this. Weekly team meetings are great and necessary to understand the sales pipeline and sales activity, but go deeper to find out what is really happening. Find out if your sales manager really understands what is occurring during the sell cycle. Don’t wait until it’s too late, track each and every individual salesperson and discuss their performance ongoing against expectations; don’t wait for the weekly meeting or monthly performance review. Where you have poorly performing salespeople, they should be on a plan to achieve small milestones within a specific time frame.
Often times, companies think that will drive the end result with just an aggressive compensation plan. If your “B” sales person is happy with a certain income, no compensation plan in the world will motivate them to sell more. Again, it is imperative to know and understand each and every sales person and set standards at their level for performance. Annual reviews will not help this either. The review process must be a day to day process and your managers must be actively involved with each and every underperforming sales person and this process must be tracked to determine the manager’s ability to get the sales person to perform.
Start by simply identifying and focusing on the sales people with the highest probability for success. Take this step first and use technology to track the process and you will begin to see better, longer lasting results before you know it.
Start with what might not seem so obvious; your “B” players. Leave the “A” players alone for the time being, and focus primarily on the “B” players and up and coming “C” players and you will ultimately see better results faster. Within the “B and C” players, there are many reasons why they can’t seem to move up or ahead but they are often not obvious reasons, and focusing your energies here will help you determine what is holding them back. Many articles, white papers, and books may give you the holistic answer on solving your overall sales problem, but in a short answer, don’t try to solve the overall problem with one approach. Take a closer look at where your highest probabilities of success exist, and start there in determining how you are going to get them to sell more.
The main reasons salespeople fail to perform are due to lack of direction and little to no accountability. Salespeople, no matter how professional or how experienced, need direction and should expect accountability. Your “B” performing salespeople can be your best asset if managed properly. Here is some thought on where and how you might want to focus:
Create a process where your managers have access to key data that will open up selling environment. Make information easily available to the manager, track who they are spending time with and if they are coaching these sales people. The sales manager must take responsibility for the success of each and every sales person independently. They are leading the charge on the front lines and many managers will simply “hope” that things will miraculously turn around in the broad scope. Sales managers must provide leadership and support to the salesperson and senior executives or business leaders must provide the framework for success. Providing the necessary outputs, expecting “one on one” coaching, tracking the progress, and holding each manager responsible to the success of each person openly will help you zero in on the opportunities.
Sales people must know exactly what is expected of them, but unfortunately most managers fail to communicate expectations clearly to their salespeople. It is common for salespeople and managers to think they’re doing fine, but, the company is considering them as underperforming and frustration begins to build at the senior management levels. Communicate expectations, such as what is expected for sales activities, customer meetings, product knowledge etc. in addition to sales revenue, and document this on a consistent basis through the use of sales performance management tools.
Your salespeople have a quota for a reason. Why on earth would you risk not attaining revenue by not knowing who has the greatest opportunity to make the number? It is one thing to rant and rave about accountability, but another still, to dig deep into what you are holding people accountable to. If you are only holding managers and sales people to a number, they will never get to the number. It is necessary to hold them accountable to getting to the number. How many deals are in play, how deep in the prospect is the sales person, what is the predictability of the sales person’s ability to deliver? Hold your managers accountable for knowing this. Weekly team meetings are great and necessary to understand the sales pipeline and sales activity, but go deeper to find out what is really happening. Find out if your sales manager really understands what is occurring during the sell cycle. Don’t wait until it’s too late, track each and every individual salesperson and discuss their performance ongoing against expectations; don’t wait for the weekly meeting or monthly performance review. Where you have poorly performing salespeople, they should be on a plan to achieve small milestones within a specific time frame.
Often times, companies think that will drive the end result with just an aggressive compensation plan. If your “B” sales person is happy with a certain income, no compensation plan in the world will motivate them to sell more. Again, it is imperative to know and understand each and every sales person and set standards at their level for performance. Annual reviews will not help this either. The review process must be a day to day process and your managers must be actively involved with each and every underperforming sales person and this process must be tracked to determine the manager’s ability to get the sales person to perform.
Start by simply identifying and focusing on the sales people with the highest probability for success. Take this step first and use technology to track the process and you will begin to see better, longer lasting results before you know it.
Monday, October 19, 2009
The CEO and Boardroom can handle the truth on sales performance
By ForceLogix CEO Patrick Stakenas
One aspect of being a senior sales leader or vice president just does not seem to change.
Each month or quarter when senior sales leaders meet with the CEO or get invited into the boardroom, substantiating why the number was missed or why the number was made is always a difficult challenge. The challenge becomes even more difficult when the conversation shifts from process and deals to salespeople and sales management teams.
CEOs and boardrooms have little choice but to trust what is often the vice president’s opinion or what is a consolidated opinion based on conversations with sales management. While having subjective input is necessary, facts speak much louder in sales.
Senior sales leaders must track both the facts (objective) and the gut/emotion (subjective) and have a succinct operating plan with backup data to support the direction they are providing.
CEOs and boardrooms are under immense pressure to deliver to shareholders and investors. It’s in the best interest of the senior sales leader to deliver the truth. The key, however, is that senior sales leaders really have to know what the truth is related to sales performance and their salespeople and be able to stand behind it.
In a recent article published by MarketingProfs.com headlined “Lies, Damn Lies and Dashboards,” it was sighted how CRM and business intelligence dashboards are often manipulated by managers and marketing to present a positive outcome that doesn’t necessarily promote the truth.
This can happen understandably as the person delivering the message wants to find the positive in the situation and the data is typically delivered to the manager level in Excel spreadsheets. These are easily manipulated.
The key is putting in the process and technology to lock down the truth about how a representative or team is doing against expectations and locking down the process and technology that tracks, measures and reports on both the leading and trailing indicators to achieving set goals.
Providing this information in an easy-to-use fashion is extremely important. If it adds work to a manager, they will not use it.
The process and technology have to eliminate tasks, reduce downtime and provide actionable insight into what is happening. It also must allow a manager to input how a salesperson is progressing against coaching and training. The data must roll up to senior sales management untouched by mid-level management.
As the business sets organization goals and revenue requirements, there is an assumption that sales will just deliver it. This is often a disconnect between what the CEO feels they must have and what the vice president can deliver.
However, senior sales vice presidents can manage what happens between the two points. If the proper process and tools are in place to manage sales and the people who must deliver, it is possible to connect the sales function to the rest of the organization in strategic terms and create a common format through which the sales process is formulated, executed and monitored.
Organizations must have a mechanism that can create a cohesive sales team. This should be managed by the same set of messages and reinforced through coaching. Senior sales leaders must be able to identify, communicate and respond to the needs of the organization.
This is not possible without an ongoing process that defines, measures and analyzes salespeople.
In order to gain trust with CEOs, senior sales leaders can no longer deliver smoke-and-mirror communications from the sales department. CEOs make the connection between fluff and what matters. You must have a system in place for understanding, refining and measuring your sales process and tracking your salespeople.
Done properly, senior sales leaders can deliver the truth that CEOs can and want to handle.
If things are going well, the vice president should be able to explain why and what is driving the success and how it will be sustained. If it is a rebuilding model, the same applies. The vice president must be able to show where the good news is, what is happening and why and the plan to correct the situation.
One aspect of being a senior sales leader or vice president just does not seem to change.
Each month or quarter when senior sales leaders meet with the CEO or get invited into the boardroom, substantiating why the number was missed or why the number was made is always a difficult challenge. The challenge becomes even more difficult when the conversation shifts from process and deals to salespeople and sales management teams.
CEOs and boardrooms have little choice but to trust what is often the vice president’s opinion or what is a consolidated opinion based on conversations with sales management. While having subjective input is necessary, facts speak much louder in sales.
Senior sales leaders must track both the facts (objective) and the gut/emotion (subjective) and have a succinct operating plan with backup data to support the direction they are providing.
CEOs and boardrooms are under immense pressure to deliver to shareholders and investors. It’s in the best interest of the senior sales leader to deliver the truth. The key, however, is that senior sales leaders really have to know what the truth is related to sales performance and their salespeople and be able to stand behind it.
In a recent article published by MarketingProfs.com headlined “Lies, Damn Lies and Dashboards,” it was sighted how CRM and business intelligence dashboards are often manipulated by managers and marketing to present a positive outcome that doesn’t necessarily promote the truth.
This can happen understandably as the person delivering the message wants to find the positive in the situation and the data is typically delivered to the manager level in Excel spreadsheets. These are easily manipulated.
The key is putting in the process and technology to lock down the truth about how a representative or team is doing against expectations and locking down the process and technology that tracks, measures and reports on both the leading and trailing indicators to achieving set goals.
Providing this information in an easy-to-use fashion is extremely important. If it adds work to a manager, they will not use it.
The process and technology have to eliminate tasks, reduce downtime and provide actionable insight into what is happening. It also must allow a manager to input how a salesperson is progressing against coaching and training. The data must roll up to senior sales management untouched by mid-level management.
As the business sets organization goals and revenue requirements, there is an assumption that sales will just deliver it. This is often a disconnect between what the CEO feels they must have and what the vice president can deliver.
However, senior sales vice presidents can manage what happens between the two points. If the proper process and tools are in place to manage sales and the people who must deliver, it is possible to connect the sales function to the rest of the organization in strategic terms and create a common format through which the sales process is formulated, executed and monitored.
Organizations must have a mechanism that can create a cohesive sales team. This should be managed by the same set of messages and reinforced through coaching. Senior sales leaders must be able to identify, communicate and respond to the needs of the organization.
This is not possible without an ongoing process that defines, measures and analyzes salespeople.
In order to gain trust with CEOs, senior sales leaders can no longer deliver smoke-and-mirror communications from the sales department. CEOs make the connection between fluff and what matters. You must have a system in place for understanding, refining and measuring your sales process and tracking your salespeople.
Done properly, senior sales leaders can deliver the truth that CEOs can and want to handle.
If things are going well, the vice president should be able to explain why and what is driving the success and how it will be sustained. If it is a rebuilding model, the same applies. The vice president must be able to show where the good news is, what is happening and why and the plan to correct the situation.
Friday, October 16, 2009
Coaching Results Speak Louder Than Words
Coaching Results Speak Louder Than Words
By ForceLogix CEO Patrick Stakenas
Behavioral research suggests that the most effective salespeople are those who understand their actions and understand their strengths and weaknesses.
Companies that understand this are typically the companies that have winning sales organizations. It is these same companies that understand the value of measurement of leading indicators and coaching to greater success.
Increasing awareness of the significant impact of sales performance management as a set of processes and information technology is leading organizations to focus on methods to coach sales talent to generate optimal performance. Winning sales organizations are providing a methodical approach to defining, analyzing and managing sales performance indicators.
The coaching of sales individuals and leveraging the experiences of existing talent to improve the performance of the entire sales organization has become a requirement.
As a result, management can examine the required skills that need to be sharpened to deliver the results rather than just focusing on the state of the pipeline or the end of the month’s results.
Using technology to manage the coaching process saves companies weeks and months of time as each coaching session and the score associated with the session can roll up to monthly, quarterly and annual reviews. When done, the chance of sales improving is dramatically increased.
Overall, any company can benefit from having a consistent process for understanding qualitative and quantitative metrics. Once understood and technology is put in place, coaching becomes a daily occurrence rather than an annual event. Improvement on leading indicators can now be tracked and coached on and a resulting increase in revenue is naturally evident.
Patrick Stakenas is president and CEO ForceLogix, which is a Chicago-based company that builds on-demand sales performance management solutions.
By ForceLogix CEO Patrick Stakenas
Behavioral research suggests that the most effective salespeople are those who understand their actions and understand their strengths and weaknesses.
Companies that understand this are typically the companies that have winning sales organizations. It is these same companies that understand the value of measurement of leading indicators and coaching to greater success.
Increasing awareness of the significant impact of sales performance management as a set of processes and information technology is leading organizations to focus on methods to coach sales talent to generate optimal performance. Winning sales organizations are providing a methodical approach to defining, analyzing and managing sales performance indicators.
The coaching of sales individuals and leveraging the experiences of existing talent to improve the performance of the entire sales organization has become a requirement.
As a result, management can examine the required skills that need to be sharpened to deliver the results rather than just focusing on the state of the pipeline or the end of the month’s results.
Using technology to manage the coaching process saves companies weeks and months of time as each coaching session and the score associated with the session can roll up to monthly, quarterly and annual reviews. When done, the chance of sales improving is dramatically increased.
Overall, any company can benefit from having a consistent process for understanding qualitative and quantitative metrics. Once understood and technology is put in place, coaching becomes a daily occurrence rather than an annual event. Improvement on leading indicators can now be tracked and coached on and a resulting increase in revenue is naturally evident.
Patrick Stakenas is president and CEO ForceLogix, which is a Chicago-based company that builds on-demand sales performance management solutions.
Thursday, October 15, 2009
A Book You Have To Read Dirty Little Secrets
A book you have to read… Sharon Drew Morgen, Dirty Little Secrets.
While many companies adapt specific sales processes, they are often using criteria that are too complex, too simplistic, or promote the wrong behavior to selling.
Pick up this book… Dirty Little Secrets.. it is a clear and concise outline of how to approach getting deals done through understanding the mindset of the buyer or the systems they work in. www.dirtylittlesecretsbook.com
An excerpt from the preface, of which I am in 100% agreement!!!!
“In Dirty Little Secrets, her groundbreaking work, she takes us
inside our buyer’s decision-making process to a level we’ve never
been before. We discover all sorts of factors that have to be
addressed prior to making any changes. And most of these issues
have absolutely nothing to do with our product or service offering.
When our prospects disappear into a black hole, that’s what
they’re dealing with. And, as Sharon Drew points out over and over,
our sales cycle is as long as takes our prospects to figure these things
out. Often these challenges are so daunting, that they decide it’s easier to stay with the status quo—even if it’s not a smart decision.
Up until now, we haven’t had strategies that taught us how to
deal with these “systems” issues that our customers face. We know
how to get them interested in our offering. We know how to uncover
their needs. We know how to showcase our solutions. But we don’t know how to help them get “unstuck.”
Patrick Stakenas President and CEO, ForceLogix, www.forcelogix.com
While many companies adapt specific sales processes, they are often using criteria that are too complex, too simplistic, or promote the wrong behavior to selling.
Pick up this book… Dirty Little Secrets.. it is a clear and concise outline of how to approach getting deals done through understanding the mindset of the buyer or the systems they work in. www.dirtylittlesecretsbook.com
An excerpt from the preface, of which I am in 100% agreement!!!!
“In Dirty Little Secrets, her groundbreaking work, she takes us
inside our buyer’s decision-making process to a level we’ve never
been before. We discover all sorts of factors that have to be
addressed prior to making any changes. And most of these issues
have absolutely nothing to do with our product or service offering.
When our prospects disappear into a black hole, that’s what
they’re dealing with. And, as Sharon Drew points out over and over,
our sales cycle is as long as takes our prospects to figure these things
out. Often these challenges are so daunting, that they decide it’s easier to stay with the status quo—even if it’s not a smart decision.
Up until now, we haven’t had strategies that taught us how to
deal with these “systems” issues that our customers face. We know
how to get them interested in our offering. We know how to uncover
their needs. We know how to showcase our solutions. But we don’t know how to help them get “unstuck.”
Patrick Stakenas President and CEO, ForceLogix, www.forcelogix.com
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