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SEVEN DEADLY SALES SINS
In a difficult market even the most competent sales professionals are prone to making mistakes with potentially damaging consequences. What are the most common pitfalls and how do you avoid them?
Customers now make decisions mainly on financial grounds, are reluctant to take risks and are more concerned with survival than pursuing a strategy. It's also a sign of the times that sales performance is being closely scrutinised, with companies measuring not just profitability but individual productivity levels and the length of the sales cycle.
More pressure means greater potential for sales leaders to make critical errors. In my experience there are seven main danger areas – but all the mistakes are avoidable if you adopt the right approach.
Mistake 1: Taking the short cut to leadership
'Nothing happens until we sell something' is true enough. But we sometimes hear these words from sales managers trying to strengthen their own position by separating corporate headquarters and the field.
In practice, any leader who believes people outside Sales are just an 'overhead' will not succeed for very long.
Initially the salesforce might admire this maverick behaviour. But this soon changes as the sales organisation becomes more and more isolated from the support functions, creating an atmosphere of mistrust and poor communication. Once people find it impossible to get things done they will defect from what they perceive as a 'lame duck' leader.
Business today is so complex that everyone needs to work together and the natural checks and balances between departments ensure that the business moves forward in concert. Take a short cut and the sales organisation will suffer and eventually fail.
Mistake 2: Missing the opportunity to build muscle
In a buoyant market it's easy for sales people to become professional order takers – they can succeed without really having the right stuff. But when times are tough rather than expecting less from the team, sales leaders should actually demand more and be close enough to accurately evaluate their skills and activity levels.
Many successful companies focus on what is called 'The Performance Triangle', which has three equal points – Skills, Activity and Revenue. The aim is to get everyone in the team to be competent in all three areas.
Anyone showing competency in two key areas – eg they have solid activity and are hitting revenue numbers, but skills could improve – should stay. However, if two of the three are below standard, you must muscle build and upgrade. Remember there are plenty of talented people who are ready to step in and that real winners perform in any environment.
Mistake 3: Failing to link tactics with strategy
Currently companies are more intent on surviving than following a strategy. But unless sales leaders connect tactics to a sales strategy, they will struggle to make progress.
Achieving your growth plans depends on having the commitment of every team member and regularly reviewing both individual and group performance. Did they follow through on their commitment? Was the strategy valid and did the organisation execute the tactics to the best of its ability?
It's also vital to involve the rest of the company. Work out in detail how to meet sales targets and communicate it to the whole organisation so that they can lend their support. You need to know how much revenue will come from new clients and how much from existing ones, as well as how many clients will be lost.
These mistakes happen every day and, if unnoticed, have the potential to cripple the entire organisation. Much more difficult to spot, however, are the errors that sales people make in the field.
Mistake 4: Reluctance to make sales calls
You can't sell anything unless you are talking to live prospects. That's the bottom line.
Getting to know as much about the company and the business situation from face to face discussions can save time spent strategising further down the line. For example, one CEO we deal with asks three simple questions about any major deal.
- Who do we know at the company?
- Have we met with them?
- What problems could we solve for them?
Yet at a time when organisations should be maximising selling time to increase their chances of success, a high proportion of sales people are holding back from making sales calls.
There are several reasons for this. Many have been spoilt by a booming economy and are not used to cold calling and the hard sell. They may not have the consultative skills that sales people need when resources are under pressure, or perhaps lack the required expertise in technology, finance and customer services. Certainly buyers able to compare features and benefits on the Web will expect them to offer something extra that the competition can’t.
Fewer sales calls also means less reliable information for decision-making. Indeed Miller Heiman has found a disparity between what senior management believes is happening in the field and what is actually happening. The key to tracking market conditions (Are competitors slashing prices? Do clients really believe service is faltering?) is knowing what key sales calls are taking place and for sales leaders to make calls themselves.
Mistake 5: Not communicating the value proposition
Because marketing traditionally supplied leads, sales people really did not have to create initial awareness and interest. As budgets have been trimmed leads have become a luxury. Although it's Marketing’s role to accelerate the sales cycle through awareness, offers and brand development, the sales team is now actively involved from interest to closure and, therefore, should be clear about the organisation’s value proposition.
As someone who receives a lot of sales calls I know that this is often not the case. Claiming to offer solutions that increase revenues and reduce costs is no longer enough to win business. Now the key issues are:
- Do you have valid business reason for every prospect and client meeting?
- Are you sure about your company’s value proposition?
- Is it important to the prospect or customer?
- Are you communicating it clearly?
Ensure these are an intrinsic part of your sales management process and the sales team's vocabulary and test it out periodically.
Mistake 6: Failure to pitch to the most senior level
Sales people seldom get to pitch to the most senior level in an organisation but they must know how when it is called for. CEOs and their teams are now more accessible than ever, believing that the quickest ways to get answers is to ask questions themselves. What's more they are not budget constrained and understand in-depth the challenges facing the company. Match a solution to their concept of what they are trying to fix, accomplish or avoid – and winning is more probable, particularly if you create value and are clear about the impact on their business.
Securing and conducting meetings at this level is easier when you:
- Have a valid business reason – increase revenues and decrease costs is not specific enough.
- Do your groundwork in advance – they expect sales people to be informed.
- Are clear about the purpose, agenda and what decisions need to be made.
- Make it easy for them: through their assistant arrange to meet where it is convenient, for less than 30 minutes initially and ensure there's nothing to prepare.
It will also improve your chances of success if you begin by explaining why you are meeting, the time scheduled and what you intend to accomplish, while allowing them to set the tone. Articulate clearly and concisely what he/she needs to know in order to do business. This should include: the history of your company; how you provide value to your customers; how you differ from your competitors; what you know about their company; and what they will have to invest to do business with you.
Once this ground is covered executives will be open to discussing their concept and how a supplier/provider may be able to help and work within their organisation.
Mistake 7: Pursuing opportunities with little hope of success
You cannot afford to wait for leads in the current climate. Be pro-active, identifying the characteristics of an ideal customer and working to develop a model that the whole sales team can focus on…
- Look at current accounts and expired ones and identify common denominators.
- Get input from the whole organisation.
- Consider the kind of company you work best with, what problems they have and the initiatives they are pursuing. Publish the information and get everyone focused on it.
Pursuing opportunities that never materialise is a waste of time and resources.
In a difficult selling environment it is important to understand what is happening with clients’ businesses, to stay close to the attitudes and perceptions of employees and keep tabs on your competitors. If you can also avoid the most frequent mistakes you will be in a stronger position to succeed and to dominate once the economy gets back on track.
How to win in a downturn
- Don't play the maverick – ultimately it will lead to failure and undermine your position.
- Take the opportunity to separate the sales experts from the pretenders, to muscle build and upgrade the sales organisation.
- Use tactics that support your strategy.
- 'Time spent face to face with customers and prospects' correlates strongly with success – make it your key metric.
- Have a valid reason for every meeting and a clear value proposition.
- Be ready to meet executives at the highest level.
- Compile a profile of your ideal customer and focus your efforts on the deals you stand the best chance of winning.
Sam Reese is President and CEO of the sales consulting company, Miller Heiman. For more information please contact Lynda Marston on 0 or visit www.millerheiman.com.
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