NZ Sales Manager Issue 22

 Now nd a ger ery big ev better threes! k wee

APR 22nd 2009 / Issue 22

Looking For

Efficiencies?

Don’t forget your sales process!

IS YOUR RAPPORT A BORE?

Build rapport with prospects and maintain your credibility

Inject Reality Into Your Sales

Forecasting

NZ’s e-mag for sales leaders

APRIL 22 ND / Issue 22

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THIS WEEKS MUST READ IS YOUR RAPPORT A BORE? How to build rapport with prospects and maintain your credibility.

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Looking for efficiencies?

Don’t forget your sales process.

10 NZSM CALENDAR 11 TWO MINUTE TOP-UP INJECT REALITY INTO YOUR SALES FORECASTING Brian Berlin on getting back to the basics of forecasting.

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13 FOCUS ON SELLING EVER THOUGHT ABOUT SELLING INSURANCE? In the second article of a twopart series, insurance expert Tom Somerville offers some insights into what it takes to succeed as an insurance sales professional.

15 SALES TRAINING DIRECTORY

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16 BOOK REVIEW CUSTOMER FOR LIFE How to turn a one-time buyer into a lifetime customer.

16 THE CLOSE

16 NZSM / aPr 22ND 2009 / 2

W

hat do you do when a customer can’t pay on time? Do you a) Take them to the cleaners and get nothing? b) Accept the slow payments or possibility of a bad debt thereby endangering your own cashflow? c) Threaten to take them to the cleaners while accepting the slow payments or possibility of a bad debt… thereby endangering your own cashflow?

A timely question to be sure, and one that many salespeople and business owners will be pondering. Somebody owes you, which means you can’t pay somebody, which means they can’t pay somebody, which means they can’t pay your customer… where exactly does it end? Looking at it the other way round is hardly any clearer. Your customer’s customer is in financial difficulty, which puts your customer in financial difficulty, which puts you in financial difficulty.

Suggestions anyone? Now I wasn’t “around” in our last financial crisis and neither were many of today’s salespeople. Safe behind my desk in the secure walls of a fine chartered accounting firm, the bursting of the “dotcom” bubble in 2000 and ensuing financial disarray was something that happened to other people. (Needless to say during the Asian Crisis of ’91 I was headbanging to Nirvana and in the Sharemarket Crash of ’87 I was still playing with my Transformers.) But with customers succumbing left, right, and centre, what can salespeople do when we still have targets to meet, budgets to achieve and businesses to feed? Just stop selling? Give up?

ABOUT / Short and sharp, New Zealand Sales Manager is a free e-magazine delivering thought provoking and enlightening articles, and industry news and information to forward-thinking sales managers, business owners and sales professionals.

EDITOR / Richard Liew ART DIRECTOR / Jodi Olsson GROUP EDITOR / Trudi Caffell ADVERTISING/CONTENT ENQUIRIES / Phone Richard on 09 523 4112 or email richardl@nzsalesmanager.co.nz.

ADDRESS / NZ Sales Manager C/- Espire Media, PO Box 137162, Parnell,

The answer is of course, “No.” As sales professionals we get paid to achieve results and as professionals, these are the times when a good sales person is worth more than their weight in gold. When customer spends are falling, a professional salesperson ensures that their company is getting more than “their fair share” and thereby enables the rest of the company to keep their jobs. Just as tough times present great business opportunities in the broader economic picture, tough times also present great opportunities for true sales professionals to shine. The point? Regardless of whether your company can help your customers through lean times, unless you’re selling people things they don’t need or can’t afford (finance companies take note), you need to suck it up and get on with finding more customers!

Auckland 1151, New Zealand WEBSITE / www.nzsalesmanager.co.nz

NZ Sales Manager is an Espire Media publication

But that’s enough ranting… More importantly those with attention to detail will have noticed that NZ Sales Manager is now “Bigger and better every three weeks!” Yes we’ve finally rebelled against the dork who said it needs to be every fortnight (me) and will now be delivering you a higher quality dose of sales know-how every three weeks. Happy selling!

Richard Have you subscribed to New Zealand Sales Manager? It’s free!

Simply visit www.nzsalesmanager.co.nz to get a copy of New Zealand Sales Manager delivered straight to your inbox every third Wednesday!

ND NZSM / aPr 22

2009 / 3

The 5th Annual

SALES MANAGERS’ Summit 27 & 28 April 2009, Rendezvous, Auckland

Create a motivated and resilient sales team to succeed in uncertain times Recession affecting your sales targets?

Struggling to keep your team motivated?

Don’t despair! Get some new inspiration and renew your leadership confidence at this year’s Sales Managers’ Summit.

Packed with case studies from successful Sales Executives Icebreaker

Be in

Gain v spired al from 8 uable ideas in-dep th cas e studie s

Fonterra Brands (Tip Top) Majestic Global NZ OfficeMax Oxfam Gen-I Rockwell Automation » Click here to view full agenda & registration details

Brought to you by:

A key event for all Sales Managers, Key Account Managers, Marketing Managers, Business Development Managers and all those that want to reach the top in sales management in today’s challenging economy

T H I S W EE K ’ S M US T R E A D

IS YOUR RAPPORT A BORE? The economy is tightening.

By Jeff Thull Getting appointments might be tough. If so, the first meeting with a prospect is even more critical. Blow it and you are gone, possibly for ever. Get it right, and you’ll be welcomed back.

By Paul Newsom

M

ost of us have been taught to build rapport at the beginning of any sales meeting, but I doubt if what we have all been taught actually works anymore in the complex business situation?

Rapport is built through effective communication.

Rapport is relating to people at a human level. It can be defined as minimising the differences between you and your client to establish a feeling of connection and common understanding between two people.

The problem with typical rapport building lessons is that they teach us to be observant as we meet the client in their office, and then start a conversation about the photo of the yacht on the wall, or the photo of the children on the desk, or the signed rugby ball on the bookcase. That is, you talk about something the prospect is clearly going to have an interest in the hope that it will establish some rapport.

Establishing rapport is the vital beginning to building trusting relationships – one of the foundations of selling.

What we are talking about here is social rapport. The small talk to break the ice.

In the role of sales professionals, building rapport is important because people are more easily influenced by people they perceive as behaving in a similar way to themselves.

The problem is that unless you are an experienced yachtie, you are unlikely to be able to offer any opinion of quality about yachting are you? You will just appear to be trying to be nice.

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Most of the people you meet really don’t want any more friends, so trying to behave like a best mate discussing things that you know nothing about can turn them off. It can work down at the pub, but not in the corporate office.

Executives can have no time or interest in idle chat, and the attempt at rapport building in this way is often forced and uncomfortable.

There is a more important kind of rapport building, one that you must develop the skill for. This is professional rapport. This is about establishing your credibility as an expert in the industry, and beginning the journey of building trust. This is what will make the difference in those early moments of a meeting.

Professional Rapport

Look at it this way too. Given that most sales people have been taught this way, think about the savvy buyer who sees 5 reps a day, how many mind numbing and boring conversations does he have about yachting in a day?

Exaggerated yes, but you get my point.

Why be so predictable? These techniques are worn out and it is time to be a professional! Even worse, you could talk about the weather.

Don’t knock the weather. If it didn’t change once in a while, nine out of ten people couldn’t start a conversation.

Kin Hubbard (1868-1930).

This quote has truly stood the test of time! So, to be different, to be the one out of 10, we need to be prepared to start our conversation and build rapport in a different way.

Professional rapport is built by talking about the prospects business – maybe industry issues and changes, regulatory changes, or news from industry associations.

You demonstrate from the first moment that you are knowledgeable about their business.

You do this by preparing before the meeting so that you can have an insightful conversation about their business on something that will be topical and important to them.

I was doing some coaching recently with a sales representative. We made a visit to a client and were taken to the canteen to get a coffee before the meeting started.

The sales rep knew the client reasonably well, and they freely engaged in social rapport.

In walked the CEO, who the sales rep didn’t know so well.

Greetings were exchanged, and the CEO said, ‘so what’s new (in your business)? The CEO wanted to talk, and was looking for some professional rapport. The sales person was totally unprepared. Their answer of ‘oh, business as usual really’ got the response it deserved. The CEO said ‘good, see you around’, picked up his coffee and walked out.

What a huge missed opportunity to make an impression on the CEO! I used to call on a lot of industrial sites where safety was of prime importance for the business. Many have a sign up by the gateway stating figures such as the number of days since the last lost time injury. Every employee on the site would be safety conscious.

I found a good way to build professional rapport was to have a conversation about safety on the site. Things like the attitude to safety and where the main risks were. People would always engage in this conversation, particularly senior managers. (I was working in a hazardous industry, but not selling safety equipment). The ice would be broken, rapport built with credibility, and some trust established.

NZSM / aPr 22ND 2009 / 6

5 quick tips to building Rapport 1. Always be prepared. Preparation is the key. If you are prepared, you will be more confident, be credible through having better quality conversations, and you will build trust quickly. Always be prepared to begin the conversation by building professional rapport. If the prospect chooses social rapport building time, then let this flow – that’s fine.

However your attempt to build social rapport is sometimes best left for social situations, or meetings away from the clients premises.

2. Be interested, and never appear to be following a rapport building process because the manual says you should. Be natural, genuine and empathetic.

3. Starting a rapport building conversation with a senior manager by making comment about the picture of the

racing yacht hanging on his wall, (or the weather or sport) is risky ground. Your credibility could be shot within seconds, particularly when you know nothing about yacht racing. You are predictable sounding just like every other sales person.

4. People are different by personality type. The socialisers will allow rapport building time, the assertive and decisive personalities won’t. Before you begin building rapport, observe physiology before any words are spoken. You will get a good indication of whether you will be getting straight down to business or not.

5. Keep an eye on time, as you don’t want to eat up your limited meeting time on rapport building discussion, particularly of the social kind.

Paul Newsom is Learning & Development Manager for the Rev Sales Network. Visit www.rsn.co.nz for more info

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Looking for Efficiencies?

Don’t forget your sales process!

By Brett Burgess

E

very business says they have a sales process, however many of these businesses do not have a process so much as an evolved way of doing things. When asked what is working well and what is not the answers are vague at best. It is very hard to measure something that isn’t managed.

(SOP) for their sales teams. From my personal experience over the past 14 years I would have to say the figure in New Zealand would have to be much higher.

A major study in 2006 in the States found that 51% of businesses do not have a standard operating procedure

The consequences for these businesses can be very expensive.

Problems caused by the lack of sales procedure include – Inconsistency in sales Which means an inability to budget accurately

Lack of a detailed sales plan Which means average results

Lack of sales systems and structure Which means reduced closing ratios

Salespeople spending all their time servicing existing and favourite clients Which means a lack of growth

Poor client management systems Which means lost clients and opportunities

Lack of structured prospecting activity Which means inconsistent growth

Poor reporting and measurement systems Which means a lack of accountability

While these may not all apply to you, any one of these could be impacting your profitability.

NZSM / aPr 22ND 2009 / 8

The advantages of developing standard operating procedures for sales include – A systemised process for selling Which means – more consistent sales A systemised prospecting system Which means – increased numbers of qualified prospects through referrals Increased closing ratios Which means – most efficient use of time and increased profitability Reduced sales cycle Which means – most efficient use of time and increased profitability System for maximising existing accounts Which means – reduced costs of sales A systemised presentation structure Which means - increased motivation and confidence of the sales team

By developing a systemized approach to the selling process you should be able to increase your sales team’s closing ratio by a minimum of 10%.

The key areas that need to be systemized are – • • • •

Sales Planning Prospecting Presentations Follow-up and 90 day contact system

In these so called tougher times businesses are looking to reduce costs and increase efficiencies. The key area to increased efficiency is in sales.

By developing a systemized approach to the selling process you should be able to increase your sales team’s closing ratio by a minimum of 10%.

What would a 10% increase in turnover mean to your business?

My point is it is vital to the success of any business to standardize their sales process. This starts with all of those involved in sales using the same processes and this is achieved through a customized sales training programme which then becomes a standard operating procedure for all the sales team.

Training is the first step – you learn process through training then practice and eventually it becomes habit.

Training is the first step – you learn process through training then practice and eventually it becomes habit.

Brett Burgess is principal of Sales Impact Group, a sales performance company based in Hastings. Visit www.salesimpactgroup.co.nz for more info

NZSM / aPr 22ND 2009 / 9

WED 22 APRIL

NZSM CALENDAR SAT 25 APRIL

SUN 26 APRIL

FRI 1 MAY

MON 27 APRIL

Professional Sales Negotiations AchieveGlobal Auckland (April 22-23) Sales Development David Forman Auckland (April 22-23) Workplace Coaching & Mentoring Zealmark Group Auckland

Advanced Serious Selling Geewiz Auckland

TUE 28 APRIL

WED 29 APRIL

Sales Skills Level 1 EMA Auckland

Sales Development David Forman Christchurch

Sales Development David Forman Christchurch

5th Annual New Zealand Sales Managers Summit Conferenz Auckland

5th Annual New Zealand Sales Managers Summit Conferenz Auckland

SAT 2 MAY

Professional Prospecting Skills AchieveGlobal Auckland

MON 4 MAY Professional Telephone Selling David Forman Auckland

WED 13 MAY Professional Selling Skills Core AchieveGlobal Auckland Advanced Serious Selling Geewiz Wellington

TUE 19 MAY Sales Planning David Forman Auckland Sales Basics Geewiz Auckland Cold Calling & Prospecting Top Achievers Sales Training Auckland

Cold Calling & Prospecting Top Achievers Sales Training Auckland - South

THU 30 APRIL

Sales Development David Forman Christchurch

Sales Development David Forman Christchurch Professional Prospecting Skills AchieveGlobal Auckland

WED 6 MAY

TUE 5 MAY Customer Service Zealmark Group Auckland Professional Telephone Selling

How To Cold Call & Have Fun

Top Achievers Sales Training Auckland

SUN 3 MAY THU 7 MAY

Sales Skills Level 2 EMA Hamilton

David Forman Auckland Leadership With Results Geewiz Christchurch

Prospecting & New Business Development David Forman Christchurch

Sales Skills Level 1 Essential Sales Skills Zealmark Group Auckland Selling Through Stellar Service AchieveGlobal Auckland Hit The Road Running Sales Seminar Top Achievers Sales Training Hamilton

FRI 24 APR

THU 23 APRIL

FRI 8 MAY Managing Performance Zealmark Group Auckland

SAT 9 MAY

MON 11 MAY Key Account Management David Forman Auckland

Selling Through Stellar Service AchieveGlobal Auckland

SUN 10 MAY THU 14 MAY Professional Selling Skills Core AchieveGlobal Auckland Key Account Management David Forman Christchurch Hit The Road Running Sales Seminar Top Achievers Sales Training Hamilton

WED 20 MAY Exceeding customer Expectations Geewiz Auckland Workplace Coaching & Mentoring Zealmark Group Auckland Sales Skills Level 2 EMA Northern Auckland

FRI 15 MAY Professional Selling Skills Core AchieveGlobal Auckland

SAT 16 MAY

Key Account Management David Forman Christchurch

SUN 17 MAY THU 21 MAY Territory Management Geewiz Auckland Hit The Road Running Sales Seminar Top Achievers Sales Training Wellington Telephone Sales Zealmark Group Auckland

TUE 12 MAY

FRI 22 MAY Prospecting & New Business Development David Forman Auckland

Sales Skills 2 Key Account Management Zealmark Group Auckland Key Account Management David Forman Auckland Presentations Top Achievers Sales Training Auckland

MON 18 MAY Sales Planning David Forman Auckland Negotiation David Forman Christchurch (18-20 May) Sales Skills Level 3 EMA Northern Hamilton

SAT 23 MAY

24/ MAY ND NZSM / aPr 22SUN 2009 10

T W O M I NU T E T O P - U P

Inject Reality into Your Sales Forecasting

By Brian Berlin

T

he complexity of the enterprise sale has led many sales leaders to employ a creative handicapping system for the different stages of the sales cycle. For instance, a Suspect is a 10% opportunity, a Prospect has a 50% chance of buying and a Closed Opportunity is rated at 100% (you think?) The early stages of the sales cycle are based on imaginary numbers since the sales rep has no way of knowing the value of a deal at the suspect stage.

A $100,000 deal at the Suspect stage now becomes $10,000. Now all the imaginary numbers are being handicapped and rolled up to a pipeline number.

Let’s say the rolled up number is $1,000,000.

Congratulations, you now have a million-dollar pipeline. Or do you?

A handicapping system based on percentages and incorporating imaginary numbers is a recipe for failure.

It creates a false sense of security and impedes the sales management process. Not to mention it can ruin credibility.

Distilled to its basics, a sales cycle has only three stages: YES, NO and MAYBE. If you want to know where you really stand in the sales cycle, try this exercise. Across the top of your war room whiteboard, write the headings YES, NO and MAYBE. Then put your open deals under one of the categories. Depending on where you are in the quarter, most if not all of your deals will end up under the MAYBE heading.

The percentage handicapping system would actually put some of your MAYBE’s into the YES column, simply because the rep has rated the deal as high probability. This encourages passivity about the true status of deals and encourages creative upward communication about the real value of the pipeline. MAYBE’s kill.

The sales cycle stage is meant to represent the progression to YES. The typical challenge question is “where are you in the sales cycle with XYZ Corporation?” The typical answer: “Should come in this quarter.” What percentage should be assigned to that answer?

Selling is about getting to YES or NO. Sales people hate NO, so sales cycles always represent the steps to YES. But NO doesn’t have to mean, well, NO. NO is better than MAYBE, but not as friendly as YES. NO is out of the sales comfort zone. Yet it does not mean THE END, it simply means NO. Managing your sales cycle means working towards YES or NO. Arriving at NO removes MAYBE and means you will have to determine if you can get to YES. The more efficient and scientific you are at getting to one or the other will determine how real your deals, and subsequently your pipeline, truly are.

Oversimplification? I doubt it. A deal is, or it isn’t. Try the exercise. Take the reality check. Get real about your deals and your pipeline.

Brian Berlin is the President & Founder of Straightline Strategies Inc, a US firm that helps companies to develop and deliver customer acquisition strategies and tactics for shortening time-to-revenue. Visit his website at www.slssinc.com NZSM / nov 12TH 2008 / 11

Can your business benefit from Toyota’s success?

Toyota found a way of cost-cutting without compromising operational excellence. Since 1954 Toyota has been committed to ‘continuous improvement in small steps’ - the KAIZEN (lean) way. Would you like to escape the high costs of redundancies and later re-hiring again? You can save yourself all the expense!

Inspired by this success we have carefully adapted Toyota’s winning lean formula for SME’s!

It’s called EZI-KAIZEN which we’re showcasing in a new, 40-minute presentation for you and your key people. Now you can have these same (simplified) Kaizen strategies working for your business.

EZI-KAIZEN STRATEGIES FOR STREAMLINING YOUR BUSINESS: ❖ 1. The 5 key Kaizen strategies that built Toyota’s success. ❖ 2. How to immediately stop the leaks in your profitability. ❖ 3. Leadership tips that improve staff engagement levels ❖ 4. The cost-free secrets for retaining your top talent. ❖ 5. Why ‘innovative changes’ often fail. ❖ 6. How to make changes without scaring your staff.

WITH CONFIDENT LEADERSHIP YOUR BUSINESS CAN FLOURISH IN ANY MARKET! Learning from Toyota’s success, here’s a close up look at how continuous improvement in small steps can quickly streamline your business. This interactive presentation is 40 minutes, plus if you choose, 20 minutes reviewing how you can apply these EZI-KAIZEN strategies to your business.

All this is offered with our compliments!

This original presentation is for SME’s with 5 - 100 employees. It’s straight- forward, practical and illustrated. It details strategies that you can begin to apply immediately to your business.

An EZI-KAIZEN handbook is also available for your reference.

Award winning presenter Clive Littin has been training and Coaching for twenty four years. He is available for follow-up Coaching to ensure your speedy application of these EZI- KAIZEN strategies if required.

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Clive Littin & Associates Ltd

PO Box 19177

Auckland 1746

F O C US O N SE L L I N G : I NSU R A N C E - P A R T T W O

Ever thought about selling insurance?

In the second article of a two-part series, insurance expert Tom Somerville offers some insights into what it takes to succeed as an insurance sales professional.

T

o me the insurance industry is all about what is really important but not urgent. This is as true for our clients as it is for us. Trouble is, with this stuff, when it becomes urgent it is usually too late. I’ve found this can trap us in a really frustrating cycle.

Firstly as a broker, most of your time you should be spent finding great prospects and cultivating genuine relationships.

Secondly you need to learn to ask in an appropriate and comfortable manner for the sale. It’s really easy to get side tracked and getting side tracked is our greatest enemy. The most common time gobblers are report writing, admin, processing of new business, and meetings that go on for too long. It is really important to stop and recognize the value of your time.

Finding great Prospects To start with, any prospect will be fine. When I started I would tell prospects that I was in training and ask would they be happy for me to “practice on them”. Many subsequently became my clients. My focus was always to do such a good job that they would gladly introduce me to their friends. As you improve you need to become more selective and understand just what kind of clients you really want, where to find them and how to get to know them.

This is a great industry because you can mould it serve you personally. What I mean by this is that you should use it to grow your own interests. Having passions makes us all more interesting and will lead us to meet new people with similar interests. I suggest you get involved, take leadership, get known and get to know more people.

NZSM / aPr 22ND 2009 / 13

If you are interested in golf join a club. If you don’t have any interests then take some up, it’s probably about time.

Build fun into your week and create that work life balance everyone talks about. For me this means fishing on a Friday afternoon any chance I get. Doing business with those whom we know and like is the name of the game. Action and activity are at the heart of this.

Cultivating relationships This is a learned skill and some are more natural at it than others. I look for people who are already busy and involved in their community because at the heart of this, these people have a genuine interest in others. They are a valuable catalyst for connecting people.

The skill of asking I was told that, “If you don’t ask, the answer is always ‘No!’” This statement made a lot of sense to me. Often people are afraid of being pushy and so they should be because no one likes to be “sold to”. By the same token we need to constantly have the courage to ask. Knowing how and when to ask is essential.

I say courage because every time we ask we put ourselves at risk. The risk of being rejected and as a result being hurt.

If you ever feel uncomfortable when asking for a sale, it’s likely you are coming from the wrong point of view and asking in the wrong manner.

The key is three fold.

Firstly understand why you are asking for a commitment from your client. When I meet

them for the first time, I honestly believe that 80% of people have inadequate or inappropriate insurance. My new clients are usually in agreement with this, otherwise why would they be doing business with me? As a result anyone they introduce me to is likely to be thankful for an introduction. You need to be enthusiastically on a personal mission. Believe me, people know if you are insincere, that uncomfortable feeling you will get is because you are selling instead of serving them.

Secondly set expectations of what you are going to be asking for. If they know they will need to make a phone call as part of your process and agree that would be acceptable, when the time comes for you to ask it isn’t a surprise.

Thirdly understand you should come from a position of non attachment. In ancient Japan, Samurai Warriors would enter battle with no fear of death and preparing their minds like this was the essence of their success.

When asking for that commitment, position your request as a pure invitation. From this position you give people complete freedom to choose for themselves. I think of it like asking a good friend to come to the movies with me, whether they say yes or no, no harm is done to our friendship.

The last thought I’d leave you with is about friends.

Surround yourself with the kind of people you want to become, if you want to be the best, work with the best. Be your own best friend and like a friend be kind to yourself, after all you deserve it.

Tom Somerville is a co-founder and director of Brokers Independent Group.

Visit his website at www.biggroup.co.nz.

NZSM / aPr 22ND 2009 / 14

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    NZSM / aPr 22ND 2009 / 15

R ES O U R C E C O R NE R

CUSTOMERS FOR LIFE

By Carl Sewell and Paul Brown Published by Broadway Books

D

rawing on his incredible success in transforming his Dallas Cadillac dealership into the second largest in America, Carl Sewell revealed the secret of getting customers to return again and again in the original “Customers for Life. A lively, down-toearth narrative, it set the standard for customer service excellence and became a perennial bestseller. Building on that solid foundation, this expanded edition features five completely new chapters, as well as significant additions to the original material, based on the lessons Sewell has learned over the last ten years.

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Sewell focuses on the expectations and demands of contemporary consumers and employees, showing that businesses can remain committed to quality service in the fast-paced new millennium by sticking to his time-proven approach: Figure out what customers want and make sure they get it.

His “Ten Commandants” provide the essential guidelines, including: - Underpromise, overdeliver: Never disappoint your customers by charging them more than they planned. Always beat your estimate or throw in an extra service free of charge - No complaints? Something’s wrong: If you never ask your customers what else they want, how are you going to give it to them?

- Measure everything: $32.34 from Telling your employees to do their best won’t work if you don’t know how they can improve.

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To me, the function and duty of a quality human being is the sincere and honest development of one’s potential Bruce Lee

NZSM / aPr 22ND 2009 / 16