Tips to get access to the real decision makers

By Pascal Persyn on September 1, 2009 @ 08:54

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I’ve seen and heard it over and over again. It’s difficult to get access to real decision makers. It’s even more difficult to keep them in the loop.

Entering late in the buying cycle is probably the single most important reason. A project manager is taking the lead once an opportunity is in the closed minded phase (in some businesses when the RFQ/RFP has been send out). This means that all requirements have been gathered and translated into buying criteria. Therefore real decision makers and those faced with the business problem are no longer involved in the market research phase. They will of course come back into the loop at decision time but that’s way to late to build a meaningful relationship for this opportunity.

5 tips to help overcome the main obstacles:

  • Research the power structure and contact the highest ranked person faced with the business problem:Marketing should influence all decision makers faced with business problems you can solve. See: how to influence key decision makers And the one with the biggest impact should be contacted by sales to make an appointment based on a value proposition adapted to the business problem you want to discuss. They will only accept an appointment if their ‘readiness to buy’ is far enough developed but not yet to the state that they’re already convinced to know the buying criteria the solution must meet.
  • Speak their language: Sales people are often pushed down or don’t get access to them because they’re unable to have a value add business conversation. Decision makers are not interested in a product or technology pitch. Nor are they interested in knowing more about your company. Remember: Decision-makers believe they know the destination but they have a problem getting there.
  • Understand the psychology: Your contact will probably have cold feet of introducing you higher up in the organisation. They’re not sales people and therefore be reluctant to sell the idea to their boss. Afraid of the impact in case of a wrong judgement or setting up an appointment with a sales rep that doesn’t speak the right language.
  • Get agreement on value chain impact: Showing that the business pain has an important impact on other key people in the organisation will help you to get access even higher in the organisation. the reasons are:
    • You helped your contact to build the needed story to sell the appointment
    • You proofed that you understand and have experience dealing with the business problem
    • You proofed that you speak the right language.
  • Negotiate access: You have to negotiate access if all of above has been insufficient to get access. Remember to check the status of the opportunity in terms of readiness to buy. All of above will probably fail if you came in via the project manger or buyer because the opportunity is already too far down the buying cycle. So if you came in at the right time you will get access when agreeing on certain work or commitments from your side that are of value to your contact in exchange for that meeting.

Closing tip: Be careful with your forecast if you put in opportunities without having access to the real decision makers. These opportunities will drag on and on in your pipeline. Quit normal of course since you have very little insight and control over the ‘real decision’.

Typical sales management traps and how to avoid them

By Pascal Persyn on April 24, 2009 @ 10:46

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Trap 1 – choosing skills over values:
Many managers ignore the value of corporate DNA; The set of values which are the common denominator of all people in the company, required attitudes and value discipline.  They rather go for the candidates with the best skills on their curriculum. Skills can be thought. Choosing DNA-match above skills-match will make sure you have the right people on board for the future. It will enable management to focus on customers and business challenges rather than on managing people and their behavior.

Trap 2 – neglecting training and development:
Dirk Verhaeghe told me that his first sales manager once told him: ‘If you think training is expensive, try ignorance’. Many managers tend to think of training as very expensive in money and time (keeping sales people away from customers);

Tip: However, I look at training as an investment; an investment with both short term and long term ROI. Appreciation for the  investment in their development. Motivation of your staff. Long term, training & development will make them better performers. Nobody is born a top performer, not in any discipline in life be it sports, business or art. We all need to exercise and train to become better. Sales people need to be continuously trained on:
• Skills (right skills to talk to decision makers)
• The customers environment
• The value proposition and your solution portfolio (pains, capabilities, ROI, enablers, differentiation and benefits)

Must do: Make sure you have an experience sharing platform where best practices are created and kept up to date, experiences are shared, etc…

Trap 3 – quick revenue panic:
When under pressure, a lot of managers tend to turn to tactical stand-alone actions to bring in quick revenue and squeeze their pipeline. Needless to say, that lot’s of stand-alone actions creates de-focus, lowers people engagement and will cause more pain than gain. 

Tip:

  • Narrow your focus;
  • Dominate your market;
  • Choose your battles;
  • Have a balanced pipeline;
  • Support your people.

Trap 4 – Specialists are the best managers for specialists:
A mistake often made is to promote the best performing account manager into the role of sales managers. This is never the best way to maximizing your potential. It takes a different skill-set to be a good manager.

Tip: Promote an account manager choosing or ready for a managerial role in another department to take on a first management experience rather than promoting them to sales manager.

Trap 5 – hiring a sales person to do a marketing job and much more:
In many companies sales are asked to:

  • Seek the right prospect;
  • Build the right pitch;
  • Know the market
  • Know the competition
  • Know the full product portfolio
  • Be experts in called calling
  • Draft their own proposals
  • Close deals
  • Keep a long term relation

Obviously very few people are capable of doing all these things.
Tip: Create a marketing function and a support environment build upon best practices and have sales focus on developing qualified leads, closing deals and/or develop existing accounts.

In other words build a scalable organisation!

Sales happy with management despite stress, lack of leads and training according to US survey

By Pascal Persyn on January 26, 2009 @ 17:44

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Categories: B2B marketing, Leadership, Motivation, Sales

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A survey taken in March 2008 amongst salespeople subscribed to salesdog.com show some interesting findings. 2.104 subscribers responded to the anonymous survey which asked questions on various job satisfaction issues.
The positive findings can be summarised as follows:

  • A surprising 75% responded to be happy with their  sales quota and found their quota realistic.
  • 70% said to be happy with their sales manager
  • 64% felt adequately recognized for their achievements

The survey also revealed some job dissatisfaction issues as well:

  • 58% considers the sales job to be high stress
  • 55% do not feel they are supplied with enough leads
  • 52% of salespeople feel they do not receive sufficient training.

“The survey findings suggest that most salespeople feel good about their chosen career despite the high stress levels,” said Michael Dalton Johnson, founder and publisher of SalesDog.com. “Considering that lack of recognition is a common complaint of many employees in all types of jobs, we were surprised to learn the large number of salespeople who feel adequately recognized for their work.”

While much of the stressful sales process is beyond a salesperson’s control, the high producing reps are experiencing less stress partly because they focus on what they can control. Learning how to qualify and disqualify prospects, execute the right actions at the right time, have a balanced pipeline at all time and taking personal responsibility for their on-going sales training and personal development.

While many successful sales reps actively seek ways to sharpen the saw, dissatisfaction could come from companies failing to provide an environment that promotes personal growth and experiencing sharing  as well as the right ongoing training and coaching.

Interesting as well is the fact that 83% would recommend a career in sales despite the high stress and all other issues revealed by the survey.

I’m intuitively inclined to support the findings when thinking about interactions I’ve had with sales people over the last year.

Other idea’s to share on this subject?