Winning Edge: September 2018 - My Learning Journey

I N ST I T U T E O F SA L E S M A N AG E M E N T

WINNINGEDGE R A I S I N G T H E VA L U E O F S A L E S

Number 3 2018 | ismprofessional.com | £4.95

GETTING! RESULTGSIVE

S ISM MEMBER VEY R U S T A GRE FEEDBACK

MY LEARNING

JOURNEY

Andrew Matthews on his path to an ISM Diploma and Master’s degree LOOK AT YOURSELF Are you prone to self-deception?

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STRONG MESSAGES How to persuade in your proposals

RIGHT DIRECTION Creating effective sales goals

11/10/2018 17:11

BOOK TODAY20!18

FOR BESMA LL TICKETS CA 9 4 0203 870 49

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I SMyBenefits will offer wide range of discounts, specifically chosen to support members both personally and professionally.

As an ISM member you’ll automatically be eligible to access these benefits by virtue of your membership.

he benefits offered will provide significant T cost savings on products and services you normally purchase, potentially saving you much more than the cost of your ISM membership subscription. There’s even a nifty savings calculator on our member l benefits The British Excellence Sales page, where youin can find Management out just Awards (BESMA) 2018 will highlight and celebrate how much you will be able to save. l

BE AT BESMA 2018!

outstanding sales expertise, talent and achievements

rom cinema tickets, meals out and F by individuals, teams and organisations. domestic appliances, to grocery shopping, l home BESMA is organised by the Institute of Sales insurance and professional training, Managementhas (ISM).

Now in its 12th year, the awards ISMyBenefits it covered. l

Don’t miss BESMA 2018!

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he BESMA winners T ceremony will take place at London’s prestigious Grosvenor House Hotel on Friday 26 October 2018.

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his magnificent event T will include a Champagne reception, sumptuous four-course dinner, celebrity guest speaker, and live musical entertainment.

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ook today – for you B and your team – at ISMprofessional.com or call 0203 870 4949.

continue to recognise and promote great work within,

esigned to make ISM membership D and the huge contribution of, the sales profession. even more rewarding, ISMyBenefits l provides BESMA has long been UKacross sales industry’s top a wide range of the offers awards event, and in 2018 the quality and quantity of the following categories: l

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entries have surpassed those of all previous years. l

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BESMA seeks to reward the efforts of individual sales professionals and teams in driving company performance, as well as recognising the key role of sales in creating a thriving UK economy.

ESMA judging has now been concluded. All that B remains is for the winners to be announced – and for the whole sales industry to celebrate their success!

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11/10/2018 17:11

CONTENTS

CONTENTS

44

18

WINNINGEDGE 16 LEARNING JOURNEY

NUMBER 3 – 2018 ismprofessional.com

The core mission of the ISM is “to promote standards of excellence in sales and sales management, enhance the prestige, integrity and profile of the sales profession as a whole, and inspire sales personnel to greater heights of achievement”

WEBINARS

18%

11%

MAGAZINE CONTENT

PROFESSIONAL SERVICES

16%

SALES

1-5 YEARS

39%

SIZE OF ORGANISATION

9,150 FOLLOWERS

4 MAGAZINES

501-1000 EMPLOYEES

MANAGER

23%

4%

25%

45%

ONLINE REACH – AND GROWING

23%

TECHNOLOGY, SOFTWARE & SERVICES

10+ YEARS

9%

37%

16%

6-10 YEARS

52 PAGES OF

9%

FINANCIAL SERVICES

DIRECTOR

31%

SATISFACTION LEVEL

85%

HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN A MEMBER?

MEMBER JOB TITLES

PUBLISHED A YEAR

34%

0-10 EMPLOYEES

23%

22 WEBINARS RECORDED

11-100 EMPLOYEES

ACADEMIC

1,645 TOTAL LIVE VIEWINGS

17%

23,489 FOLLOWERS* 19%

11

5,045 YOUTUBE VIEWS

CEO

WEBINARS UPCOMING

11%

40

123 YOUTUBE VIDEOS

MARKETING

7%

1,900 WEBINAR SUBSCRIBERS

10

*ISM MANAGES A GROUP FOUNDED BY A MEMBER OF ISM CONTAINING 18,112 MEMBERS

TES TIM ON IAL S

ISM IS A PER FECT BEIN G PAR T OF THE R CRE DIBI LITY WAY TO SHO W YOU

3 ISM Editorial 10 WINNING EDGE

MANAGER

160,000 VIEWS FLICKR ALBUMS

4%

31%

The latest ISM news and views

6 Smarter Selling

Printed by: Ridgeway Press © ISM 2018. Opinions expressed are not necessarily shared by the ISM. The publishers endeavour to check all facts and figures prior to publication, but are not responsible for errors in material supplied to them for publication. Any article published will automatically be deemed to carry the sole copyright and be the property of the ISM. International Standard Serial No. UK ISSN 1746-6849

Why sales training matters, and how to ‘LinkIn’ effectively

9 Tools for the job The latest in smart solutions for tech-savvy sales pros

10 Membership matters

1 Contents REVISE.indd 3

4MINS 30SECS TIME ON OUR SITE

17%

4.5/5

BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT

10%

KBO NE THE ISM IS THE BAC UST RY OF THE SAL ES IND

18 Just look at yourself

Most salespeople willingly deceive themselves, claims Gavin Ingham

Peter Colman’s analysis could change your mind – and methods

22 No room to grow?

26 Get your ducks in a row

Sales and marketing alignment is still a challenge, says Simon Kelly

30 Pointing the right way

Richard Higham and Alan Timothy on improving sales goal-setting

ISM members give great feedback

36 Are you getting through?

12 Sales performance

Sarah Hinchliffe explains how to write persuasive sales proposals

Learn key lessons, says Clive Miller

13 The human factor

40 Conquer your caveman

André Andersen on motivation

Primeval reactions cause stress in sales, says Colin Woodfinden

15 Artificial intelligence

44 Stretching the truth

Sridhar Iyengar on CRM technology

Neil Clothier warns of 10 dirty tricks in sales negotiations

16 ISM Education

ISMPROFESSIONAL.COM

DIRECTOR

22%

ISM IS MEM BER SHIP OF THE ZING BEN EFIT S PAC KED FUL L OF AMA

BESMA is almost upon us! Plus topical sales news and research

Chief Operating Officer: Roger Bradburn Director: Thomas Moverley Corporate Account Director: Dave Millichap Head of Marketing: Adam Brook Editorial: Marc Beishon, Tom Nash Design: Del Gentleman Advertising: Adam Brook Telephone: +44 (0)20 3870 4949 Email: abrook@ismprofessional.com

SALES

AVERAGE WEBINAR RATING

4 Sales Talk

Institute of Sales Management 18 King William Street London EC4N 7BP Telephone: +44 (0)20 3870 4949 Email: abrook@ismprofessional.com Website: ismprofessional.com

3,232

TOTAL ON-DEMAND VIEWINGS

3236

JOB TITLE

BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT

5%

30

MEMBERS

WHERE DOES OUR AUDIENCE COME FROM?

How an ISM Diploma began sales learning for Andrew Matthews

48 ISM profile Meet the ISM’s Rachael Bourke WINNING EDGE 1

05/10/2018 11:48

EVENTS 2018

THE ISM OFFERS AND SUPPORTS A RICH VARIETY OF EVENTS FOR SALES PROFESSIONALS

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ur rolling programme of events offers O unique networking opportunities and relevance to sales professionals at all levels

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he ISM also works in partnership with T other professional institutes and selected commercial partners to provide the most topical events programme to both our members and the wider sales profession

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isted below is a selection of forthcoming L dates for your diary

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or the most up-to-date information on F all ISM and ISM-supported events, visit www.ismprofessional.com/events

ISM 30-MINUTE WEBINAR 16 Oct 2018

11am Why is sales coaching such a misunderstood development tool?

Mike Lever

ISM MEMBER AND REGIONAL EVENTS 16 Oct 2018 16 Oct 2018 1 Nov 2018 15 Nov 2018

9am-5.30pm ISM Member Event, Transform Your Business Everybody Works in Sales, Milton Keynes 5.45-8pm ISM Midlands, Communication Skills Lyn Bromley, Stratford-upon-Avon 4.30-7pm Launch of ISM Scotland Edinburgh Business School, Heriot-Watt University 4.30-6pm ISM North East, Developing Sales Leaders Just Williams, Stockton-on-Tees

BRITISH EXCELLENCE IN SALES MANAGEMENT AWARDS (BESMA) 2018

GRADUATE SALES CONFERENCE 2018

26 October – Awards ceremony, Grosvenor House Hotel, Park Lane, London

A personal development day for graduates and students with an interest in sales, also co-located with NSC 2018. Attendees will also have opportunity to meet recruitment companies and prospective employers. Visit www.gsconference.co.uk

THE NEW RULES OF SELLING 7 November – Oulton Hall, Leeds A special one-day seminar, ‘The 7 Keys Of Selling, Persuasion and Influence’, which will give you all you need to know to increase sales and grow your business.

PROFESSIONAL TRAINING Multiple dates until 17 November Studying for a professional qualification can be a big decision, so Professional Academy invites you to book a one-to-one advice session with its qualification adviser Philip Perren.

Visit www.professionalacademy.com

NATIONAL SALES ACADEMY 2018 28 November – Ricoh Arena, Coventry A conference designed for sales professionals with up to two years’ experience. Co-located with National Sales Conference (NSC) 2018 (see right).

Visit www.nsacademy.org.uk 20% ISM member discount, quote: ISMSALES18

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28 November – Ricoh Arena, Coventry

NATIONAL SALES CONFERENCE 2018 29 November – Ricoh Arena, Coventry Sir Clive Woodward will address NSC 2018, which runs alongside the National Sales Exhibition, also endorsed by the ISM. England’s legendary rugby union coach will share his unique insight into the key challenge for sales leaders of creating cohesive, winning teams. He will describe the Teamship model he uses to create “an environment so positive that everyone wants to be a part of it and nobody ever wants to leave”. It is a formula he has repeatedly adopted to build outstanding teams – including England’s 2003 Rugby Union World Cup winners, and Team GB at London 2012 – and which he now applies successfully for major businesses. Visit www.nsconference.co.uk 20% ISM member discount, quote: ISMSALES18

For the most up-to-date information on all ISM and ISM-supported events, visit: www.ismprofessional.com/events

02/10/2018 11:37

INSTITUTE OF SALES MANAGEMENT | EDITORIAL

NEW AND VIEWS FROM THE ISM TOM MOVERLEY reports on BESMA judging day and highlights themes and articles in this issue of Winning Edge

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or two days recently the Institute of Sales Management welcomed professionals from across the sales industry to take part in judging the finalists of the 17 prestigious British Excellence in Sales Management (BESMA) awards for 2018. I was personally humbled by the overwhelming number of award nominations that the ISM received this year. After speaking with some of our amazing judges, expertly led by our head judge, Kerry Nutley, who all give up their own valuable time to support these industry awards and help us to ensure their credibility, it is apparent that the quality and standard of this year’s entries was higher than ever before.

Furthermore, the breadth and depth of the nominations proves to me that more and more companies are committed to seeking ways in which they can celebrate and recognise outstanding sales achievement.

As with everyone involved, we, like you, now await the BESMA ceremony itself where, on 26 October at the prestigious Grosvenor House Hotel, when we will all discover who the winners are. It promises to be a brilliant evening and even if you are not involved as a finalist, I strongly urge you to join us for what will be an exceptional night of recognition, celebration and entertainment, one that if you have never attended before, you will not soon forget and one that in my opinion, the sales industry richly deserves.

To everyone who took the time to enter the awards; it’s amazing to see how many people were being nominated for their achievements and, although it’s a cliché, I wish everyone could win. Further, many of the judges were first time BESMA judges – you were exemplary in your professionalism, consistency and ISMPROFESSIONAL.COM

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“The quality of this year’s BESMA entries was higher than ever before” dedication; it’s not as easy as some might think. The ISM and indeed the sales industry are fortunate to benefit from your expertise and without you, we would not be able to offer the credibility which is so vital to making BESMA what it is.

Last, but by no means least, I must thank the ISM team; it’s a painstaking process ensuring that everything runs as smoothly as it possibly can and you all did a fantastic job in making the judging process what it was.

Please visit the ISM website for details on booking your place at BESMA or contact one of the team. We cannot wait to see you there.

IN THIS ISSUE...

There is plenty to help you fine tune your sales performance and management in this issue of Winning Edge.

Richard Higham and Alan Timothy focus on goal setting, introducing us to several key drivers that are fundamental to today’s business world, including “volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous” (VUCA), with the warning that it is no longer possible for most companies to set long term sales plans and expect sales goals to be met.

As the authors say, the ability to set sales goals that meet multiple, and sometimes

conflicting, business outcomes will be a crucial capability for sales leaders. They also look at how to target high growth in our current low growth markets.

Complementing their article, Peter Colman focuses on sales strategy and how firms approach their markets, segment their customers and define their territories in their search for revenues. He addresses several biases you may have towards your customer base.

Allied to this, one issue that’s been ongoing ever since I’ve been in the industry is alignment between sales and marketing. ISM Fellow Simon Kelly gives a rundown of current research on the alignment gap and, crucially, how it impacts customer value propositions. In a recent issue of Winning Edge, we had already homed in on Simon’s book, Value-Ology, in a review, and now the man himself gives us a concise article on how we can close the gap, given the telling statistic that 58% of sales deals end in no deal because the customer has not been convinced of the value in signing the deal.

The value proposition, as we’ve often highlighted, is at the heart of selling and we need to keep on examining how we address it from all angles.

Getting personal is ISM Fellow Gavin Ingham, who asks us to take a long, hard and honest look at ourselves. Many of us are just not honest about the level of sales skills and commitment we possess, he says, asking us to make a list of core sales skills, such as listening, questioning, and objection handling, and then marking yourself out of ten for each of these.

And check out Colin Woodfinden’s feature on resilience and stress in sales.

He reckons we should take back control – now where have we heard that before – and develop the ability to manage your emotions and think before you act.

One thing’s for sure – our BESMA winners are all up there in the top tier for sales skills and also have great resilience to make it through our judging.

Tom Moverley is director of the ISM.

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05/10/2018 17:50

SALES TALK INDUSTRY NEWS STATISTICS

DID YOU KNOW… The most irritating co-worker traits cited by British workers are:

43%

BODY ODOUR

31% IGNORING EMAILS

30% 26% NOT WASHING UP

Source: Research by vapourcore.com

MESSY DESKS

21%

INTERRUPTING

BUZZWORDS PERSONALITY TYPES Personality type tests such as Myers-Briggs are popular, but psychologists tend to set little store by them. It is widely accepted that there are five personality traits (not types) of an individual – openness, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness and neuroticism (known as the “big five”). But the existence of personality types remains controversial. Now a study based on personality data from 1.5 million people, concludes that distinct types may exist after all. Researchers at Northwestern University, Illinois, have identified four personality types: reserved, role models, average and self-centred.

Whether the finding has any practical applications in the world of sales remains to be seen.

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AWARDS

BESMA BECKONS FOR SALES STARS With more entrants than ever, BESMA 2018 is the toughest so far The British Excellence in Sales Management Awards (BESMA) 2018 represents the UK’s highest level of recognition for outstanding sales achievement. The ISM, which organises the awards, has been delighted with both the number and quality of nominations this year, which has surpassed previous highs.

On 5-6 September the BESMA panel of judges convened in London for the BESMA judging days, where they interviewed scores of finalists from among the UK’s brightest sales talent. This year’s judges, chaired by BT’s Kerry Nutley, were impressed by the extraordinarily high quality of the nominees.

Speaking at the judging, Tom Moverley, ISM director, commented: “We’ve been overwhelmed by the quality and diversity of entrants, with small businesses taking on multinationals to prove they have the most effective sales talent, as well as a wide range of different industries.”

He continued: “The finalists have already proved themselves in one of the most competitive

BESMAs to date. They have shown exemplary sales skills, achievements and dedication, and the winners of awards this year will have proved they are the cream of the sales profession.”

Dave Millichap, ISM corporate account director, thanked the BESMA sponsors, which include Advance, Adjure Global, AO, Geberit, Maddison Media, National Sales Conference, Point Company, Price Bailey, Yara and Zoho.

“Their support makes BESMA possible,” he said.

Millichap also thanked the BESMA judges for their huge contribution, adding that, “This year will be the most difficult year to win a BESMA in the history of the competition. Congratulations to all the finalists on what they have already achieved in just getting to the finals.”

The BESMA winners will be announced at an awards ceremony and gala dinner, hosted by the legendary Jack Dee, at the Grosvenor House Hotel, London on 26 October 2018.

To book tickets for you and your team, call 020 3870 4949 or visit ISMprofessional.com

CORPORATE PARTNERS

ISM RECRUITS LEADING FIRMS New corporate partners are in the pipeline The ISM is delighted to announce it will be launching a series of important new corporate partnerships in the coming weeks. The big name recruits will include communications giant Virgin Media Business, agricultural products pioneer Yara, and three powerful players in the UK construction industry, Aggregate Industries, BRE Group and Redrow.

The ISM will offer each company’s sales teams membership and benefits, including access to the ISM Professional Sales Certification pathway.

This will ensure recognition of these salespeople’s existing skills and provide a structure to facilitate their ongoing professional development, which

will enhance their professional and ethical approach to working with customers.

ISM Professional Sales Certification allows salespeople to progress through the ISM’s membership tiers by completing a learning journey that requires evidence of key sales competencies being developed and assessed.

Feedback gained from an initial sales skills audit, benchmarked against sales professionals globally, will enable salespeople to identify their strengths and areas for improvement, supported by a wealth of learning resources from the ISM that can be accessed through the Institute’s sophisticated online learning management system.

ISMPROFESSIONAL.COM

01/10/2018 09:05

SALES TALK | INDUSTRY NEWS

SHORT SELLING

Talking Point

N EW S RO UND- UP

BENDING THE RULES

“12% of UK workers say they have felt pressure to compromise their organisation’s ethical standards – an increase from 8% in 2015. They say that the main source of pressure comes from being under-resourced” Source: Research by the Institute of Business Ethics (www.ibe.org.uk)

SALES RESEARCH

MARKET SHARE MYTH BUSTED Market share does not have a strong impact on a firm’s financial performance Companies should target investment on building customer relationships and a strong brand, rather than on winning increased market share.

Research from the University of Cologne reveals that if market share increases by 1%, financial performance increases by an average of only 0.13%. In addition, related research by one of the study’s authors, Alexander Edeling, shows a much stronger effect for key marketing assets, such as customer relationships, which deliver six times the impact of market share gains, and brands, which deliver nearly three times the impact.

“Many CEOs still hold market share to be the most important indicator of corporate success,” says Edeling, “But in today’s digital marketplace small companies can find ways to compete effectively with category leaders.

In addition, maintaining or increasing market share often goes along with decreasing prices or aggressive advertising campaigns, both of which can be harmful to a company’s bottom line.”

Edeling suggests that slow and steady investments in innovative products and product quality, enhancing customer service, and building brands with a highpotential target customer base, are the best strategies to grow and future-proof a business.

ISMPROFESSIONAL.COM

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TOP DOG AND BONE

MENTAL HEALTH

SAY NO TO STRESS The ISM is tackling mental health with its ‘Stress in Sales’ series

Every day salespeople encounter stressful situations and it is widely accepted that this is “part of the job”. Feeling a rush of adrenaline and endorphins when a major deal is closed can provide a temporary feeling of elation and drive the salesperson on to close the next deal. But while some stress is inevitable – and can be beneficial – too much can have a negative impact if it is not managed correctly.

To address this issue, the ISM is partnering with two leading mental health professionals, Zoë Douglas-Judson and Astrid Ennis, to develop a new Stress in Sales series of resources, such as webinars, whitepapers and blogs, to help foster mental wellbeing with the sales profession.

A recent survey to gather data and feedback from ISM members has received a great response, and the findings are currently being used to help tailor the content of the forthcoming series.

More details will be available soon in Winning Edge, as well as at ISMprofessional.com

Apple’s iPhone “is the best priced product in the world” according to pricing specialist Simon-Kucher. It has 87% of the global smartphone market’s profits, despite only having 20% of the market by volume of sales. “Apple achieved the distinctive position of creating a mass market luxury product, enabling both huge sales and large profit margins on each unit,” says the firm.

COSTLY CALLS

A study by global audio branding specialist PHMG finds that just 23% of consumers are happy with the way businesses handle their phone calls, while 73% will not do repeat business with a company if they feel that their call has not been handled politely and professionally.

FAREWELL FRANK

The ISM bids a fond farewell to Frank Rowe, who has come to the end of his term as the Institute’s President.

Thank you for a job well done and we wish you every success in the future.

DEFYING REASON

Having a reason for an indulgent purchase has long been thought to make for a happier customer, but research at ESMT Berlin business school finds some consumers are happier without a reason.

REALITY CHECK

Showpad, the first sales enablement platform combining sales content, readiness, and buyer engagement solutions, has launched augmented reality (AR) features to provide a more immersive buyer experience for large and complex products. It says the new capabilities “allow salespeople to leverage 3D models through Showpad’s iOS app to better educate customers and leave a lasting impression with prospects”.

CULTURAL READ

Sales leadership expert Alex Moyle has written Business Development Culture, a book showing that “taking sales culture beyond the sales team is critical to surviving the digital revolution”. It provides practical tools to transform business culture and embed selling. It is published

by Kogan Page and priced at £19.99.

WINNING EDGE 5

01/10/2018 09:05

SMARTER SELLING

TRAINING

MIND THE SKILLS GAP Paul Durrant explains why sales training is not just a ‘nice to have’

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adly, the failure rate for small businesses has been found to be as high as 50% by year five, rising to 70% by year ten. A few years ago the government commissioned a report from Lord Young to find out why – and he identified talent retention (or lack of it) as one of the main causes.

Lack of training is always cited as one of the main reasons why staff (including salespeople) leave their jobs. Lack of sales was another of the main factors identified in Lord Young’s report – and these two factors are inextricably linked.

The 2015 Employer Skills Survey, run by the UK Commission for Employment and Skills, provided additional insight. It highlighted that a lack of sales skills was a persistent issue, with 39% of employers believing that customer-handling skills were lacking among many job applicants, and a quarter saying basic sales skills were not present at all.

Some business owners are guilty of sending their salespeople to face customers and prospects without the necessary training, tools and support.

Many see training as nice to do, rather than a business-critical necessity, and put it on the backburner, especially when budgets are tight. This can have serious repercussions for the business.

A cost-effective way of addressing the issue is to hire a specialist trainer to provide in-company training. The main benefits include: l Ongoing investment in a company’s most important asset ie. its talent l Minimal disruption to business operations – with salespeople remaining accessible on site

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PAUL DURRANT is founder of sales training consultancy PDT. Visit pdtsalesconsultancy.co.uk

l Lower training costs – with no need to pay for external premises and travel expenses l Ability of salespeople to apply new-found learning immediately in their day-to-day roles l On-demand access to specialist sales trainers at a time that suits the business.

Formal training can be supplemented with remote, bite-size online training and regular informal sessions at weekly/monthly sales meetings – where the sales team can share successes and failures to consolidate their learning. Appointing champions, mentors or buddies to assist the less able and underperforming members of the sales team can also help make new training stick.

Sales training tools, techniques, and methods are continually evolving to meet the ever-changing demands of modern day sales-savvy customers, so salespeople need to be kept up to date with these changes, as well as being reminded of the basics that underpin consistent sales performance.

Thinking back to the sales training that I did in the earlier part of my sales career, I was always reminded of effective techniques or processes that I had forgotten about or had stopped using, and more often than not I learned something new, such as the latest sales method. I could also trade notes with, and benchmark against, fellow peers in an environment conducive to learning.

The latest sales methods demonstrate how sales continually adapts, with an increasing move away from field sales to inside sales. Conversational selling (using chatbots) is a reflection of how modern customers’ buying preferences have been accommodated. Salespeople need to be kept appraised of such developments, so they can offer the insight and preferences required by today’s’ sophisticated and technically minded customers.

Periodic sales training will achieve that. Standing still is not an option in today’s ultra-competitive marketplace, while delaying training only harms growth prospects and talent retention.

If a business owner is regularly churning salespeople, and putting them at a disadvantage to better trained and equipped rivals, then part of the remedy must be to invest in sales training.

It will help optimise sales performance, increase productivity, boost the top line, and improve staff retention – which also helps provide continuity of contact for customers.

And business owners should not forget the importance of scheduling regular training for themselves and their sales managers too.

ISMPROFESSIONAL.COM

01/10/2018 09:05

SMARTER SELLING

RE V I E W

TELLING IT HOW IT IS The ISM’s Rachael Bourke considers sales expert Niraj Kapur’s latest book

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COMMUNICATION

TWO WORDS THAT TURN BUYERS OFF Lee Salz says the most powerful sales differentiation tool in a salesperson’s toolbox is the words used, or not used, with buyers

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ome words excite buyers and make them to want to do business with you. And some expressions quickly turn buyers off. This means salespeople need to pause when planning buyer communication, so they use words that differentiate them positively.

Let’s first look at an expression that is deeply ingrained in our communication style and pervasive in sales. It is certain to repel buyers, making them want to buy from your competitor instead of you. The two words are: “I want.”

Many sales trainers teach salespeople to begin calls and buyer meetings with, “What I want to do today is…” Their belief is that this sets an agenda for the meeting. Agenda-setting is certainly best practice, but this approach tells the buyer that the salesperson is there for their own purposes, not the customer’s.

In sales, this expression is commonly used in these fashions: “I want to meet with you”, “I want to tell you about our products/services” and “I want to meet your colleagues”.

Salespeople don’t always realise it, but when they use the expression “I want” their buyers give them a virtual eye roll: “Of course, you want… You want to sell me something and get a commission.” There is only one person in the world who cares what you want – it’s mum. No one else.

When communicating with buyers, you need to put their interests first.

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What buyers want to know is: Why should they meet with you? Why should they learn about your products or services? And why should they introduce you to their colleagues?

Because this way of thinking doesn’t come naturally to all salespeople, care and planning are needed for effective, differentiated buyer communication.

What is the benefit to buyers in meeting with you, learning about your products, and introducing you to their colleagues?

The answer must differentiate you by showing care for your buyers.

The last question is a sales challenge that is often posed to me. “I’m stuck.

How do I get buyers to introduce me to others in the account?” The answer I always give is a question: “Why should they introduce you to their colleagues?”

If they struggle to come up with the reason, they now know why they have been unable to expand their account relationships successfully.

The words salespeople use, and don’t use, differentiate them. This is just one of 19 concepts you can learn from my new book, Sales Differentiation: 19 Powerful Strategies to Win More Deals at the Prices You Want, available now on Amazon.

LEE B. SALZ is a sales management strategist and founder of Sales Architects, offering consulting, workshops and keynotes on growing sales. Call +1 763 416 4321, Email lsalz@salesarchitects.com, or visit www.salesarchitects.com

his book was not what I was expecting. Based on its title, Everybody Works in Sales, I thought that perhaps it was going to give the reader some meticulous instructions on how to sell yourself whatever you do workwise. But what I found was entirely different. The book is a detailed and engaging account of the author’s life, and his brutal honesty makes it compelling reading. Kapur is a sales veteran, coach, author and ISM Fellow, and he openly talks about his failures and setbacks.

This warts and all approach makes him come across as all the more human. He is a character to whom the reader can relate, and with whom we can empathise because of the challenging experiences he has been through. His journey is all the more inspiring and motivating because he chooses not to dwell on his difficult circumstances, but instead, at the end of each chapter, to reflect on lessons learned from his struggles.

Although Kapur focuses on his own life experiences, the lessons he draws from them can help any salesperson. He also paints a fascinating picture of how sales has changed over the years, not least in how people interact, with technology increasingly having a prominent role in the form of email, CRM systems, social media etc. Of course, he acknowledges the challenge for many salespeople in adapting to these changes.

The final section features interviews with a range of professionals from entrepreneurs to CEOs of major companies who “sell everyday but aren’t in sales”. It offers powerful insights into their experience and view of sales from very varied perspectives. There is also a helpful section detailing the author’s recommended reading and events.

The book is available on Amazon at: amzn.to/2Q9N74T WINNING EDGE 7

01/10/2018 09:05

SMARTER SELLING

SOCIAL MEDIA

HERE’S HOW TO LINK IN Matt Rogers explains how he has built his Sales Training group on LinkedIn

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set my group up in 2007 with one clear aim: to be the most useful, and therefore the best, sales training group on LinkedIn. I remember asking myself how I was going to make this happen. My first thought was that if I had the most highly respected, most experienced and best people in the world in my group it would naturally turn into the group I wanted it to be.

First, I had to come up with a name. I tried Sales Training first, just to see if by any chance it wasn’t already taken, but thinking it probably wouldn’t be available as there were already so many salesrelated groups. But I was in luck – the name of the group was accepted.

Now I had to start building, if my goal for the group was going to become a reality. From this point on I set out on a mission to invite “the best of the best” from around the world into the group.

In 2007, LinkedIn was not the vast and sophisticated platform it is today – it was quite a simple website with few tools. This meant I personally invited approximately the first 2,000 members. I didn’t just send a generic invitation to all of them, but wrote to each person individually, with no use of cut and paste whatsoever. I chose these first 2,000 amazing members. I read their biographies and job histories and sometimes even checked out some of their work.

I put in this massive effort in the hope that one day the group would turn into the place I set out for it to be – a place with all of the best people in the industry, from all over the world, in one place,

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MATT ROGERS is a sales expert and founder of Miracle Training – #SalesTheory #SalesProcess #SalesBestPractice – @MiracleTraining

doing good things, helping each other, raising the standards of the sales profession, and the sales training and coaching professions too.

At the time of writing, there are 18,360 members in the group. I remember being so pleased when it hit 400. I can safely say that over the years I have declined or removed at least another 18,000 people who either broke the rules or had dubious accounts that didn’t check out. Quality over quantity, always.

I’m very pleased and proud to say that Sales Training has now grown into the place I always wanted it to be: l Real and authentic l No spam l No links without permission l Strictly moderated.

It is a place where people can feel comfortable asking for assistance from everyone else, or even just for their take on something they are working on. They can speak directly to, and learn from, some of the most successful and experienced icons of our industry who are group members. It is also a place to: l Find a change of career l Learn new skills l Network.

Last but not least, the group is a place where every member’s ego and status get left at the door.

STRATEGY FOR SUCCESS My tips to anyone starting a LinkedIn group would be think big and be in for the long haul. Invite your founder members, they are your “keystones” – maybe 2,000 in my case was a little bit over the top, but I was enjoying speaking to all these amazing professionals from around the world so much that I got carried away; 10-50 keystones would be absolutely fine to start off with.

Choose your keystone members carefully and thoughtfully. Why would you like them to be a part of your group? What would they bring to it? What would others find of interest about these people?

Make your content absolutely relevant to the group at all times. If conversations stray, they need to be put back on course.

Set clear rules for members to follow – and enforce these rules.

Communication is vital. Always ask group members their opinions before making sweeping changes. Any requests from group members must be made a high priority – do what you say you’ll do and do it immediately whenever possible.

ISMPROFESSIONAL.COM

01/10/2018 09:05

ON THE MOVE

G A D G E T S F O R D I S C E R N I N G P RO F E S S I O N A L S

WHAT’S MORE

TOOLS FOR THE JOB | GADGETS

NOTEBOOKS

THE ART OF ZEN

It doesn’t seem like it’s possible to innovate much with notebooks anymore, but Asus is doing its best with its latest clutch of Zenbooks. There are new 13, 14 and 15 inch models that have a frameless NanoEdge display, “for up to 95% screen-to-body ratio and a near-borderless viewing experience”. The Flip 13/15 are claimed to be world’s most compact convertibles, and the Zenbook Pro 14 (pictured above) has “the futuristic new ScreenPad”.

MERCEDES A 35 4MATIC

STYLE COUNSEL

APP

Mercedes says it is “presenting a completely new entry-level model in the world of driving performance”, although this marque may not be your idea of “entry level”. The A 35 4Matic is based on a new front-wheel drive platform and is powered by a new 2 litre four-cylinder turbo engine with a hefty output of 306 hp and shifts from 0-62 mph in 4.7 seconds. It has something called a twin-scroll turbocharger and Speedshift DCT 7G dual-clutch transmission, and the 4Matic designation gives the clue that this is an all-wheel drive model, which “combines the best possible traction with lots of driving fun”. You also get five driving styles – slippery, comfort, sport, sport+ and individual – and no slippery isn’t for certain type of salesperson... We really like that yellow colour, which seems to suit this one, and you’ll be able to order it for Q1 2019.

In the interest of keeping your mind on the job, here’s an app that blocks distracting websites and apps on your phone or computer. Freedom has, not surprisingly, been banned from Apple’s iOS store, which does seem draconian. Some users report freeing up 2.5 hours of productive time each day so it seems to work as a rather blunt instrument to fight addiction. Check out freedom.to for details.

DASHCAM

SMARTPHONES

APPLE PIP SQUEEZERS Apple has launched three new iPhones and also released iOS 12 in its usual annual refresh of the most desirable – and costly – smartphones. But which model to go for? The XS and XS Max (which has a huge 6.5 inch display) are the new flagships and they are pretty much excellent and futureproof, but there is no home button now, which may take getting used to. iOS 12 is reported to be a great release. But there is also an XR iPhone model, which is cheaper and where the smart money may be going.

ROAD SHARP

A roundup of dashcams by Which? shows that you do get what you pay for, and the Nextbase 612GW Elite– at £200 – is the first the consumer outfit had seen that records in both 4K and HDR and is the “highest scoring model we’ve ever tested”. It’s also easy to use and fit, has a 3 inch touchscreen, and has Wi-Fi too.

POWER PACK

UPPING THE AMPS

This is the Omni Ultimate, a power pack from a firm called Ominicharge, which claims it is the “most advanced portable power source”, boasting 40,300 mAh, pass-through charging and a removal battery. It features both DC and AC outlets, a USB-C port, two USB-A ports and Qualcomm’s Quick Charge technology.

The 40,300 mAh battery (145 Wh) is also at the upper limit of what you are allowed to bring on a plane, says the firm.

WINNING EDGE 9

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01/10/2018 09:06

The The core core mission mission of the of the ISM ISM is “to is “to promote promote standards standards of excellence of excellence in sales in sales and and sales sales management, management, enhance enhance thethe prestige, prestige, integrity integrity and and profile profile of the of the sales sales profession profession as as a a whole, whole, and and inspire inspire sales sales personnel personnel to to greater greater heights heights of achievement” of achievement”

HOW HOW LONG LONG HAVE HAVE YOU YOU BEEN BEEN A A MEMBER? MEMBER?

MEMBER MEMBER JOB JOB TITLES TITLES

DIRECTOR DIRECTOR

6-106-10 YEARS YEARS

16%16%

SALES SALES

31%31%

1-5 YEARS 1-5 YEARS

3939 % %

10+ 10+ YEARS YEARS

4545 % %

ONLINE ONLINE REACH REACH – AND – AND GROWING GROWING

MANAGER MANAGER

23%23%

9,150 9,150 FOLLOWERS FOLLOWERS

ACADEMIC ACADEMIC

23,489 23,489 FOLLOWERS* FOLLOWERS* 19%19% CEOCEO

5,045 5,045 YOUTUBE YOUTUBE VIEWS VIEWS

11%11%

123123 YOUTUBE YOUTUBE VIDEOS VIDEOS

MARKETING MARKETING

7% 7%

1,900 1,900 WEBINAR WEBINAR SUBSCRIBERS SUBSCRIBERS

BUSINESS BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT DEVELOPMENT

5% 5%

160,000 160,000 VIEWS VIEWS FLICKR FLICKR ALBUMS ALBUMS

4% 4%

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*ISM *ISM MANAGES MANAGES A GROUP A GROUP FOUNDED FOUNDED

BY A BY MEMBER A MEMBER OF ISMOFCONTAINING ISM CONTAINING 18,112 18,112 MEMBERS MEMBERS

PAEPREFRE FC ET C T A S S I I M M S S I I E E H H T T F F O O T ETSETSITMI MO NOINAILASL S B EBI NE GI NPGASPRHASTORHWTO WY OYUORUCRRCERDEI BDI LBIITLYI T Y W AWYATYOT O 05/10/2018 11:54

T

WEBINARS WEBINARS

MEMBERS MEMBERS

WHERE WHERE DOES DOES OUR OUR AUDIENCE AUDIENCE COME COME FROM? FROM?

SATISFACTION SATISFACTION LEVEL LEVEL

85%85%

18%18% FINANCIAL FINANCIAL SERVICES SERVICES PROFESSIONAL 11%11% PROFESSIONAL SERVICES SERVICES

16%16%

5252 PAGES PAGES OFOF

9% 9%

MAGAZINE MAGAZINE CONTENT CONTENT

9% 9%

37%37%

TECHNOLOGY, TECHNOLOGY, SOFTWARE SOFTWARE & SERVICES & SERVICES

23%23% 4% 4%

2525 % %

4 MAGAZINES 4 MAGAZINES

501-1000 501-1000 SIZE SIZE OFOF EMPLOYEES EMPLOYEES ORGANISATION ORGANISATION

PUBLISHED PUBLISHED A YEAR A YEAR

3434 % %

0-10 0-10 EMPLOYEES EMPLOYEES

2323 % %

1,645 1,645

2222

TOTAL TOTAL LIVE LIVE VIEWINGS VIEWINGS

WEBINARS WEBINARS RECORDED RECORDED

11-100 11-100 EMPLOYEES EMPLOYEES

17%17%

4MINS 4MINS 3030 SECS SECS

3,232 3,232

11 11

TIME TIME ONON OUR OUR SITE SITE

TOTAL TOTAL ON-DEMAND ON-DEMAND VIEWINGS VIEWINGS

WEBINARS WEBINARS UPCOMING UPCOMING

JOB JOB TITLE TITLE MANAGER MANAGER

3131 % %

SALES SALES

2222 % %

DIRECTOR DIRECTOR

AVERAGE AVERAGE WEBINAR WEBINAR RATING RATING

EHIES MI S MI S I S H T T F F O O P P I I H H S S R R E E B B M M M EM E NEENF EI TFSI T S E B B G G N N I I Z Z A A M M A A F F O O P APCAKCEKDEFDUFLUL L L 10-11 Infographic V4.indd 3

1717 % %

BUSINESS BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT DEVELOPMENT

4.5/5 4.5/5

1010 % %

BKOBNOEN E K C C A A B B E E H H T T IS IS M M S S I I T HTEH E SUT SRTYR Y U D D N N I I S S E E L L A A S S E E H H T T O FO F 05/10/2018 11:54

CLIVE MILLER offers solutions to ‘the trouble with learning’

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veryone remembers starting a new job. I was like a sponge in a puddle in the early months of my sales career, soaking up new knowledge.

In 1979 I got a job with a distributor called Rapid Recall to sell Intel components. Everything was new and exciting, and the learning just seemed to happen.

When the buzz wears off, learning doesn’t happen so effortlessly. Some things are easier to absorb than others. For example, the features of new products still seem to be easily remembered, while memorising the use-case narrative that connects features to SALES PERFORMANCE benefits requires a more deliberate effort.

L E A R NING L A S TIN G Telling customer success stories in a that is necessary to make change happen.

L E S S O NS manner that captures attention and connects Yet if new learning is to deliver the with common sentiment is more taxing. For anticipated results, change must happen. your stories, do you know the names of all the people involved, the problems they had to solve, LEARN ABOUT LEARNING how they found a solution, and the results they I have made three short videos to present the achieved? important things I have learned about learning Salespeople remember the end game – the sale, from my various careers – aircraft maintenance, what was sold and for how much. The rest, the electronics, selling IT, and sales training. most important elements, are seldom learned and The first video offers sales professionals a way to even less often related. discover “what we don’t know we don’t know”. It We forget too easily. I often hear participants on presents four stages of competence and reflects on training courses remark, “I used to do that”, so the circular nature of learning. naturally I feel compelled to ask, “Did it work?” and when the answer is yes, “Why did you stop?”

COMMENT

“People always underestimate the degree of forethought, planning and preparation that is necessary to make change happen”

ACT ON KNOWLEDGE Learning alone is not enough. If nothing changes, the learning is in vain. “To know and not to do is not to know,” wrote Stephen Covey. For learning to have any value, it must be used. New facts must be articulated, new skills practised, new methods employed. Otherwise the effort invested has no practical value.

Consider what happens the moment you get back to your desk after a fantastic, eye-opening, motivating training course. First, you must deal with all the stuff that piled up while you were away.

Later on, after a few days or weeks, the motivating effect of the course begins to fade. The actions are pushed to the back of the to-do list by everpressing immediate priorities – and the new learning dies.

MAKE CHANGE HAPPEN Everyone knows how difficult it is to implement lasting change. Embedding learning that leads to improved results is no different. Circumstances, perspectives and habits combine to throw up a wall of resistance. People always underestimate the degree of forethought, planning and preparation 12 WINNING EDGE

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CLIVE MILLER is a Fellow of the ISM. He is founder and managing partner of SalesSense, a consultancy specialising in sales performance improvement.

Email info@salessense.co.uk, call 01392 851500, or visit salessense.co.uk

The second video explains how to define the desired competence and how to leverage seven types of learning to make the process efficient.

The third video is about finding enough motivation to do things differently, to change behaviour, and take advantage of new learning.

It presents 11 distinct sources of motivation for behaviour change.

You can accelerate learning, increase adoption, and motivate implementation. All it takes is a little more forethought, planning, and preparation.

These videos, together with associated articles, tools, frameworks and templates, offer a toolkit.

I invite those who participate in our sales training and coaching programmes to view the videos as part of their learning preparation. They are part of the free resources available on our website.

You can view the videos and obtain the supporting documents at: salessense.co.uk/accelerate-learning ISMPROFESSIONAL.COM

01/10/2018 09:06

The human factor is the key to improved sales performance, explains ANDRÉ ANDERSEN

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he key measure that drives most companies is profit. But in their obsession with the bottom line leaders can forget that companies are successful through people.

If you want more water from your tap you just turn it, and if you want it warmer or colder you just adjust. We tend to do the same with people, just turn up the KPIs or sales targets and get more. When it doesn’t work, we analyse data to figure out what went wrong. In all this, we may not have completely forgotten the human factor, but we have given it very little attention – but that is your key delivery mechanism...

I have been in sales most of my life and in sales leadership roles for 15 years. It has given me deep insight into leadership, setting strategies, human capital and much more. I think I’ve been involved in almost every kind of organisational setup and go-to-market strategy. For me, it has always been about people. I have always been fascinated with what really makes us tick. This passion for people and human behaviour comes from a clear understanding that we all have much greater potential than we realise. Through my work with people I have also learned that, no matter who we are or what our background is, we are almost always driven by the same core values.

OPINION M OT IVAT IO N I T’ S AL L AB OUT P E OP L E

MOTIVATING YOUR PEOPLE Managers in general are poor at motivating their teams. The first thing employees need is for their manager to be “present” or “in the moment”. This means the manager paying attention to them and listening, not being distracted by their phone or laptop. It sounds simple, but in a performance environment with constant requirements to be met, it can be tough. We often try to multi-task and lose some very important information on the way.

THE POWER OF THE MIND My passion stems from a devastating experience.

I got seriously sick for long periods. It completely turned my life upside down. Lying sick in bed, with the possibility of potentially dying or never walking again, I was filled with sadness and despair. But in my search to find sense and meaning, I realised the supreme power of the mind. I discovered a new strength that empowered me to be positive despite my situation. The power of the mind was the key to unlocking everything else. Through selfmotivation and a positive mindset, I found the strength to fight and never give up. This experience fuelled my desire to understand and embrace others, helping them find their inner motivation, strength and positivity. Since then, through thousands of coaching sessions, I have gained insight into what really matters to people.

LOOKING FOR FULFILMENT According to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs – the cornerstone of motivational theory in psychology – today, on most of the levels, our basic needs are ISMPROFESSIONAL.COM

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fulfilled. It leaves us with the top of the pyramid, “self-actualisation” – and this is the essence of motivating the future sales workforce. We want purpose and we want a sense of fulfilment. We need to explain how employees’ daily tasks bring personal or greater value. We need to link what needs to be achieved from a company’s standpoint with salespeople’s personal goals.

“Employees are looking for a link, a connection between their purpose and fulfilment and what you, ‘the company’, are requesting of them”

ANDRÉ ANDERSEN (FISM) is a motivational guide and trainer specialising in personal leadership.

Visit: aa@thinkoutconsulting.com

Second, employees are looking for a link, a connection between their purpose and fulfilment and what you, “the company”, are doing and requesting of them. This is trickier. It takes time and understanding of human behaviour. And some of these topics can be a little too personal for an employee to share with their manager. The link is built on trust and if you are already struggling to be present, building trust will be an uphill struggle.

So, if the challenge of engaging with and motivating your salespeople is difficult, timeconsuming, and requires your full attention, is it really worth the effort? I can guarantee you it is.

For example, my own work in motivating people and improving organisational performance has resulted in a 58% increase in productivity, measured by activities, pipeline and revenue.

WINNING EDGE 13

01/10/2018 09:07

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01/10/2018 08:59

SRIDHAR IYENGAR looks at the role of artificial intelligence in sales

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oday, technology is helping sales teams immensely. Remember the scene from the Hollywood movie The Pursuit of Happyness where Chris Gardner, played by Will Smith, had all his leads listed on a piece of paper? The world of sales has come a long way from that.

The paper gave way to spreadsheets, which in turn gave way to a system of record software that has developed into customer engage with them effectively. Chatbots can ART IF ICIAL relationship management (CRM) software. be configured to help visitors navigate IN T EL L IG EN CE The boom in CRM software in the early seamlessly on websites, which could thereby 1990s was the first significant technology increase the conversion rates and the lead E M B R ACI NG breakthrough in sales. Developments in quality, as the visitor is better informed.

THE FUTUR E delivery models (from on-site systems, to Chatbots are a perfect fit for ecommerce software-as-a-service on desktops, to mobile platforms, as their visitor hits are vast. apps) further eased the operation and adoption of CRM, but on the downside this also led to a LEAD NURTURING problem: the rise of junk data in CRM systems.

Over the years, marketing automation tools have CRM systems, which were designed to help sales helped in automating lead nurturing programmes, professionals organise leads better and be more but they lack intelligence. AI tools can help in efficient, started to become an inconvenience smarter segmentation of leads and by providing themselves. One study conducted to understand better personalisation. An AI tool could connect this issue revealed that, on an average, salespeople updates from social sites and help determine the spend 5.5 hours a week on CRM systems. content. With smart scoring systems, nurturing However, CRM vendors are working on solving programs can help sales teams to make better this problem. The main questions they deal with predictions and align their priorities. are: How can my system make life easier for sales teams? How can the CRM system help sales READINESS FROM THE COMPANY SIDE teams win more? How can CRM systems make AI-based systems offer several benefits to the sales the sales team sell smarter? They can be answered teams in closing deals, as they get to predict and with the use of advanced data modelling and prioritise leads much better with the AI system. management techniques in the artificial As all marketing, sales and customer support intelligence (AI) space. data stored on the systems are crucial for the AI Today, with an AI-enabled CRM system, teams system to give accurate results, it is high time for can connect data from different modules within organisations with multiple siloed systems to look the system to make quick and informed decisions. at all customer-facing applications as a single layer.

CRM systems work across the main business This could help in transforming the way the teams functions: marketing, sales, customer support and work. One way of looking at this could be by finance. The bedrock of AI is data; a smart CRM having a single end-to-end customer engagement system should be able to bring the data from all platform to enable smoother flow of data from these functions onto a single dashboard in the right one module to the other without investing in context to present a unified view of the customer integration projects. Such projects are often tricky, across the various touchpoints. time-consuming and expensive as they involve bringing together products that are programmed LEAD GENERATION differently by different vendors.

The quality of lead generation and lead nurturing The future of CRM will be in bringing more is vital for every sales team. Both activities have a automation to the table that helps teams to take cascading impact on many processes. AI can truly smarter and faster decisions. From the humanSRIDHAR IYENGAR is head impact in ensuring the quality of leads. For computer interface standpoint, developments are of Europe at software developer Zoho Corporation, which has instance, on digital channels, AI-based website chat taking place around the “invisible interface” or created an AI platform called Zia, tools ensure that businesses are not missing out on voice assistance, enabling sales professionals to a conversational CRM assistant. any visitors and help customer service teams to converse with the CRM system.

Visit: www.zoho.eu ISMPROFESSIONAL.COM

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OPINION

WINNING EDGE 15

01/10/2018 09:07

an applications engineer supporting the sales function. In 2007, I joined major German engineering company Siemens, and in 2011 I became responsible for the business development of a particular product in the same company. Today I am in the business-to-business original equipment manufacturer (OEM) sector.

MY SALES LEARNING JOURNEY ANDREW MATTHEWS describes his path to an ISM Diploma and Master’s degree in sales I have worked in a sales environment for 13 years now. Why am I telling you that?

Because my background is of a technical nature, not in sales.

ENGINEERING AND SALES I gained a HNC in electrical and electronic engineering in 1992 and travelled the world commissioning industrial control systems – until 2005 when I decided I’d done enough travelling.

At that time I left the job that had provided so much pleasure travelling to places such as Norway, Bahrain and Vietnam, and which had allowed me to sample different cultures, and I moved on to a well-known Japanese company as 16 WINNING EDGE

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ANDREW MATTHEWS is an OEM account development manager for engineering company Siemens. He is a Fellow of the ISM and an ISM Mentor.

CHALLENGING ROLE As OEM account development manager, I operate at the core of UK manufacturing. This challenging position requires me to understand the business of the OEM and the issues they face. My aim is to use my technical background in a sales environment to help OEM customers reduce their design time, development and machine build costs, while producing world-class machines through innovation. In a tough global market, developing an innovative solution with an OEM, providing them with a competitive advantage, is paramount.

Embracing the digital world has provided new challenges. In an increasingly competitive environment, customers need to find new ways to optimise asset value and performance.

Digitisation can leverage data to increase availability of assets, optimise maintenance intervals and improve performance. Translating this for an OEM, creating value and insight, has raised new discussion points, moving the sales conversation from the traditional format.

These are exciting times...

SALES PERSPECTIVES Working within such large organisations with a global presence provided me with a view of so many salesmen and women, some of them having a lifetime of experience. It allowed me to observe a broad range of techniques and different styles of selling, and to filter out the styles that I, or more importantly the customer, did not agree with...

When I look back to my engineering career, the perception of salespeople was that they drove around in new cars, taking customers out on jollies and enjoying lavish lunches. How misguided I was. There is so much more to the position of salesperson than is often perceived.

The qualities of politician, psychologist, diplomat and ambassador are among those that are rarely mentioned – enough to scare many job applicants off and have them running for the hills. But in everyday life we employ all of these skills – we just don’t think about them.

ISMPROFESSIONAL.COM

04/10/2018 17:31

QUALIFICATIONS | EDUCATION

THE ISM DIPLOMA Learning the trade through following others and the techniques they use can be compared to learning to drive a car. You can pick up bad habits quite easily, but it’s not until you are taught by an instructor that these become apparent. I undertook the ISM Diploma in Sales Management because I wanted to become more professional. I wanted to learn more about myself, to draw comparisons between what I was doing and what I was being taught, and put what I learned into practice to achieve more success.

I recall some years back being thrown off guard by a confrontational customer and left thinking what his problem could be – and I took it personally. Through the ISM Diploma I’ve learned to ask why people behave in the way they do, and to meet the challenge of turning a negative situation into a positive one, and come out on top.

Today, in the B2B environment I work in, I not only take time to get to know the individual in front of me, but also to understand their business, its drivers, its issues and the hurdles it faces. I can start to build up an image of the business that helps me to understand the reactions of the person I’m talking to. I question whether the person is under pressure from legislative constraints, political uncertainty, marketforces or hidden issues that are not always considered; are they reacting to internal forces?

Taking the time to understand your customers, and employing insight selling techniques in a B2B sale, can reveal avenues to explore where you can tailor a solution to your client’s requirements. This builds trust and fosters the relationship between you and your customer, so you become the trusted adviser they dearly want.

MOVING ON TO A MASTER’S Towards the end of my ISM Diploma I became aware of the Master’s degree in sales management offered by Portsmouth University.

I had thoroughly enjoyed learning with the ISM and the thought of attaining the Master’s standard with a little more work was a definite draw. “A little more work” was not quite what it turned out to be and, if I’m honest, I was totally out of my depth at that point. But it was my choice to do something different, to put myself outside my comfort zone, and I was determined to strive to be a more professional individual, which meant putting in some effort. I found myself learning another language – one I’d never heard before – the language of academia. The way academics write, the terminology they use, the stringent rules on referencing, plagiarism and the ethical protocols one must employ before collecting any data for research, were all foreign ISMPROFESSIONAL.COM

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to me. Not only was I undertaking a Master’s degree and a research project, but I also had to adhere to language, methods and rules I had never considered before.

My dissertation looked at the effect middle management has on the performance of a sales organisation. There are thousands of books written about sales methods, and how to increase sales performance, and they are all focused on the salesperson. My new language informed me that I needed to find a gap in the literature and so I decided to turn the tables and look at the hierarchy in an organisation. I ignored the subordinate and looked at the management structure, in “I undertook the particular the middle layer. I ISM Diploma because unearthed almost 100 papers, books, journals and articles, I wanted to become spanning a period from the more professional” 1960s to the present day, which were relevant to my research.

My conclusions suggested that middle management in sales is seldom given the credit it deserves – but that’s a subject for another day.

PASSION FOR LEARNING The university advised that for those in full-time employment, limiting the amount of time they have available to study, then a good piece of work would probably be graded around 50%55%. My work was awarded 66% and the reason for this was that I became totally engrossed in my research. I had chosen a theme that had been the subject of some study by the academic community, but it had not been researched to death, leaving no gap to be found. I’d advise anyone undertaking a research project for their dissertation to choose a research subject that they are truly interested in. This sounds obvious, but you must ask yourself what literature exists already and whether you can add to the academic pool of knowledge on the subject.

Crucially, will you still have the same passion for your subject halfway through your studies?

I trust I have provided some insight into my journey from ISM Diploma to Master’s with merit. I wanted to share my experience with fellow ISM members in the hope of enthusing others to undertake the path I took and enjoy the learning pleasure I got from the ISM Diploma.

By combining my experience with my qualifications, and being an integral part of the organisation through ISM membership, I have now become an ISM Mentor. I welcome dialogue with anyone who is contemplating a career in sales, or is considering higher education and wants to know what it’s like to undertake a qualification while in full time employment.

Feel free to contact me through the ISM. WINNING EDGE 17

04/10/2018 17:31

FEATURE | SELF-MANAGEMENT

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ISMPROFESSIONAL.COM

01/10/2018 09:08

SELF-MANAGEMENT | FEATURE

JUST LOOK AT YOURSELF GAVIN INGHAM argues that most salespeople willingly deceive themselves – to their own cost

I

’ve been a speaker, author, and coach on things that really matter. People say, “I haven’t got sales and mental toughness for many years, the time to get fit. I haven’t got the time to spend and in my experience, most salespeople are with my family. I haven’t got the time to study.” not honest – with themselves. They don’t And yet other people manage to do it. admit to themselves the truth of their You need to be honest with yourself. You decided situations. They don’t admit to themselves not to make that time. You decided not to ask those that they are where they are because of the decisions questions of that client. You decided not to put time that they alone have made and the actions that they aside for prospecting. You decided not to spend time alone have taken. reading and improving your sales skills. You decided Salespeople don’t accept that they and they alone not to spend time preparing for that important client are responsible for the sales that they have made and presentation. You decided to do something else with the sales that they have lost. that time instead.

I meet salespeople every day In my talks on mental “Salespeople don’t accept that who have lost sales, and they toughness, many people they alone are responsible for say things like, “Well, the come in wanting “pixie the sales they have made and the client was never really into dust”. They want a us,” or “The client took us on magic pill to take away sales they have lost” a merry dance,” or “It was their pain – a simple, the economy,” or “We were unfailing strategy that too expensive.” They very rarely say, “You know will change their sales and their business. They do what, maybe I didn’t engage that client correctly. not want to be faced with the truth. They do not Maybe I didn’t ask the right questions. Perhaps I did want to know that they are responsible for where not add enough value.” they are and the results that they are getting.

I meet people who say to me, “I’m snowed under.

They do not want to consider that they were not I just haven’t got the time to do the things that motivated enough, not persistent enough, not skilled you’re talking about.” And the reality is, they’re enough, or not client-focused enough. They do not lying to themselves because we all have time for want to know that, despite all of those long client ISMPROFESSIONAL.COM

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01/10/2018 09:08

FEATURE | SELF-MANAGEMENT

YOU G ET OU T W HAT YOU P U T I N I have three small children. With small children comes paraphernalia – prams, travel cots, nappies, bags, toys and car seats. And that makes many cars unsuitable, mine included. With this in mind, my wife and I visited a well-known, executive car brand to seek advice on what we should purchase.

One of the first questions we asked about a car we were shown concerned how much space there would be in the boot after a pram had been crammed into it. The salesman had no idea and even less interest in finding out.

I could have been his easiest sale of that day, if not that month. I was ready to change vehicle, I had an immediate need (my kids would not fit in our car), and I had the money – but Mr ‘Executive’ Salesperson

could not even be bothered to look it up or make any calls.

I wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt. We continued our conversation, and I asked him about one of his competition’s cars that was in a similar class and price bracket. Somewhat arrogantly, he said that he had no knowledge about his competitors’ products and that all he knew was that his was the best. Really?

If you want to be a sales superstar, you need to put the effort in. You need to be an expert at what you do. You need to know more about your products, services, and solutions – the problems they solve, and why your clients really buy them – than anyone else.

Failure to put in that effort will most likely just end in failure.

conversations and proposals, they never actually got to the root cause of their client’s situation, and they never touched them emotionally.

Many people cannot handle the truth. They are not ready for the truth. They do not have the mental toughness to be honest with themselves.

They do not have the mental toughness to think critically about what it is that they do and how they are responsible for their own results.

And, here’s the thing – that’s OK. If you do not want to improve your sales, you do not have to ask yourself difficult questions. On the other hand, if you want to get amazing results, and if you want to be a sales rock star and drive yourself in the direction of your dreams, then you need to be more honest with yourself about how your beliefs, attitudes, and habitual behaviours contribute to your success – or lack of it.

So my question to you is, can you be honest?

Do you want to be honest? Are you ready to be honest? Is it time you made some changes in your life and got the results that you deserve? Is it time you looked more closely at how your actions have got you where you are and what you can do to get you where you want and deserve to be? Is it time you committed to what you can do to get you where you want and deserve to be?

BE HONEST ABOUT YOUR SALES ABILITY I have worked with tens of thousands of salespeople, entrepreneurs and business owners. I have sat with them at their desks while they made phone calls to new and existing clients. I have attended sales visits with them. I have watched them make sales presentations. I have helped them negotiate deals. I have consulted with them on their opportunities and their businesses. And many are just not honest with themselves about the level of sales skills they possess. They think that they are sales gods when they are actually sales minnows.

They think that their sales skills rock when, in fact, they wouldn’t even do a shimmy if their favourite song were playing in their favourite club.

Much of this stems from the mythical, unicornlike beast – the natural-born salesperson. People love to believe that some people were just born to be great salespeople. And other people were not.

And maybe that is true for some. But for most people, learning to be a great salesperson requires hard work. It requires dedication and commitment. It requires time and effort.

Learning to be a sales superstar demands a frank assessment of the sales skills that you currently possess. It requires a good look at where you are good and where you need to improve.

I remember working with a young salesman. He had only been a salesperson

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ISMPROFESSIONAL.COM

01/10/2018 09:08

SELF-MANAGEMENT | FEATURE

for a couple of years, but he already thought that he l Practising questioning, listening, and presenting? could walk on water. He saw himself as a top l Studying the techniques of the most successful performer. He thought he was the finished article. I salespeople in your market? am sure you know someone similar. His sales figures l Researching, learning, and understanding your were OK, but they did not support his total competitors and their products? over-assessment of his own abilities. When we went through some of his recent negotiations, it became TAKE 100% RESPONSIBILITY patently apparent that he did not have a clue about FOR YOUR SALES RESULTS how to negotiate a deal effectively. His principles of When you lose a sale, what do you say? Do you negotiation seemed to have been gleaned from TV blame the client? Do you blame it on bad luck? shows like The Apprentice and consisted of little more Do you blame it on your company? Your products? than market-stall haggling. Rather than being The market? The economy? Your competitors honest enough to acknowledge this, he chose undercutting market rates? instead to blame his clients. He insisted that they did Most salespeople and companies blame their lost not have the budgets of those of his peers and that deals on something or someone else. Anything else they just did not appreciate the real value behind other than themselves. If you want to make more the services that he was providing. Yawn. sales, you need to invest time and energy in If you want to improve your sales results, then an considering how you are responsible for the results audit of your sales skills is required. Make a list of that you are getting. You need to ask yourself some core sales skills, such as listening, questioning, and searching questions. objection handling, and then mark yourself out of One of my passions is asking the difficult 10 for each of these. Better still, ask someone else questions that other people don’t – the laser-like who knows you to mark you out of 10 for each of questions that will make you think about things in a them. Look at the areas where you can get better different, more resourceful way. They are gameand focus on doing so. You can dramatically changing questions that will make a difference for improve your skills by reading, training, watching your sales, your career, and your life. Without videos, or shadowing top performers. If you challenging questions, you will not grow. And improve even a point or two in any area, it can without growth, you will ultimately fail. make a massive difference Your sales results are to your sales results. your responsibility. If you “You can dramatically improve Be honest about your did not make the sales you current levels of expertise. want, it is down to you. your skills by reading, training, When I speak at If you have not got the watching videos, or shadowing conferences, I often ask clients you want, then only top performers” how many people have a you can do something degree. In today’s working about it. If you are not a environment, many people benefited from higher sales superstar, then doing something about it is up education. I often ask them how many books they to you. And sales superstars love this about selling. read as part of studying for their degree. Many tell They love the fact that whatever success they want, me that they read, or at least used, hundreds of it is down to them and them alone. books and did thousands of hours of work during The truth is this: if you blame someone else, then their studies. I then ask them how many books they there is nothing you can do about your lot. You have read on selling. Or communication Or absolve yourself of any blame, but you also absolve motivation. And how many hours of study they yourself of any responsibility for your results. And have invested in their sales career. Many have never with that, you lose control and all of your personal read any books on selling or related subjects. Most power to direct your own results and your own life. have never done any training other than that Taking responsibility might not be comfortable. prescribed by their company.

It might not be nice. It might not even be fair. But it I find it somewhat disturbing that people will does make you the captain of your destiny. It gives invest huge amounts of time, effort, and study over you control, and it means you can take positive several years in gaining a piece of paper, but will do action and move toward creating the sales results nothing to help their career, the rest of their life, and the life that you want. When you take and their destiny. responsibility, full responsibility for your clients, your How much time have you spent: sales results and your career, you are well on the l Improving your sales skills? path to sales superstardom. l Learning about your products and why clients In the next edition, I will move on to discussing really buy them? how you can really add value to the sales process, l Planning your sales activities and your strategies and how you can think like an entrepreneur to for approaching new and existing clients? make great things happen for you.

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GAVIN INGHAM is a motivational speaker on mental toughness. He is a Fellow of the ISM. This article is an edited extract from his latest book, Be more, do more and have more.

Visit www.gaviningham.com

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01/10/2018 09:08

FEATURE | SALES STRATEGY

SO, YOU’VE NO ROOM TO GROW…

...or have you? Asks PETER COLMAN in his second article on behavioural economics in sales management – reacting to biases to grow profits

W

hen we ask companies about uncovering new markets and customer segments, we often hear the reply, “We know everyone in our market”, especially in mature sectors.

While sometimes true, it can often be an example of “overconfidence bias” from within sales teams – and we regularly surprise them by highlighting the amount of untapped sales potential available.

Though we all like to think that we are rational, studies of behavioural economics show that we are heavily influenced by biases like this, which can cause poor decisions and actions.

As a top-line focused consultancy, we at SimonKucher conduct many commercial excellence programmes every year. In my previous article

‘WHO ARE WE DESC R I B I N G ? ’ AND THE DANGE R S O F DEMOGRAPHIC SEGME N TAT I O N As a fun example in our value selling training we ask the participants to guess who this description refers to: “He is male, 69 years-old and was raised in UK. He is married and has two children (who are now both adults themselves). He lives in a castle.

He is both wealthy and famous.”

Who are we talking about? A couple of bright sparks usually guess Prince Charles. When we reveal Ozzy Osborne as the mystery man, it usually gets a few laughs. That same demographic segmentation fits both though – and no doubt others – and therein lies the danger of demographic segmentation. It makes it very hard to target customers effectively.

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(Following the money,Winning Edge, No 2 2018) I covered sales incentives. This time, I focus on sales strategy and how firms approach their markets, segment their customers and define their territories in their search for revenues. Once again, I will explore barriers that can prevent them exploiting their full market potential – and some practical ways to overcome these.

#1 “We are clear on our objectives” (Groupthink)

If you are going to have a clear sales strategy, you need to understand what you are aiming for (ie. you need to set clear objectives). Pretty straightforward stuff so far. Probe a little deeper though and the story is not always so clear-cut, especially if trade-offs related to a particular course of action have not been discussed.

For example, in one of our projects we asked the sales leadership team the following trade-off question: “If in two years the overall number of customers was lower but revenue was higher, would this be seen as a success?” The group was pretty much split down the middle, with four people saying it would be a success and five people saying it would be a failure.

Now, if we had asked this during an open meeting, we suspect we would not have had such differing opinions. Once one or two strong characters voice their opinion it becomes harder for others to take a differing position. Instead, to avoid this “group think” bias, we asked the question blind, so each respondent was unaware of, and ISMPROFESSIONAL.COM

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“We often hear, ‘We know everyone in our market’. While sometimes true, it can be an example of ‘overconfidence bias’ from within sales teams”

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01/10/2018 09:09

FEATURE | SALES STRATEGY

NEEDS-BASED SEGMENTAT I O N C A S E STUDY: “HALF OF WHAT W E B E L I E V E A BOUT OUR CUSTOMERS I S W RO N G ” In one customer segmentation project, we were able to capture a list of 10 truths that described the client’s customer base from a series of internal interviews.

It covered a range of things: what bigger versus smaller customers wanted from their relationship, how the client was perceived, and which customers would say they weren’t good value for money. When we tested this with an extensive customer survey, we could only validate about half of the points.

For example, size was not a great proxy for identifying their needs and, despite being the most expensive, the survey showed that the customers on the whole believed they were very good value

for money. The anecdotal evidence from interviews was only half right.

While quite a surprise to them, the management team also saw the opportunities it offered. First, the findings were presented back by the management team to the wider organisation to ensure that some of the myths were displaced. Then, we worked together to create a distinct offering for each of the so-called needs-based segments. Finally, the insights that we had gathered were turned into a value-selling story back out to the customer base to promote the new offers. In effect, the needs-based segmentation had been deployed consistently across sales, customer service, marketing and product development.

therefore not influenced by, their colleagues’ answers. Highlighting the two differing opinions made the discussion much less political and allowed us to get a clear decision on the agreed direction.

PETER COLMAN is a partner at global strategy and marketing consultancy Simon-Kucher & Partners, where he leads the sales effectiveness practice for the UK and Ireland. He specialises in commercial excellence programmes to address strategy, sales, marketing and pricing topics. Email peter.colman@ simon-kucher.com or visit www.simon-kucher.com

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#3 “We’ve got pretty good territory coverage” (Panini effect)

As a reminder of my own childhood, I recently watched my youngest son complete one of the pages of his Panini World Cup sticker album. There is something very satisfying about seeing each area of a page (or territory map in the case of sales) covered by a sticker (sales rep). In the case of sales territories, however, this nice balanced pattern of geographical coverage is usually far from optimal.

It means that money is left on the table in high potential territories, while at the same time it demotivates sales reps in lower potential regions, who complain that their quotas are unfair.

Defining territories and setting more objective targets/quotas based on better data is a start. It is also worth mentioning that the changes need to be managed carefully to ensure that the sales team understands and accepts the reasons behind it.

For some it may require relocation and for others it could be perceived as restricting their earning potential. In other words, you may need to overcome some loss-aversion biases. The last thing you want is for your best salespeople to become disgruntled and start to think the grass might be greener elsewhere...

#4 “Our customers tell us we are expensive” (Confirmation bias)

Of course they do. During the course of our client interviews we often hear such things. If the #2 “All our prospects are salesperson hears this often enough from customers, it can easily become a self-fulfilling prophecy. When in the CRM” (Availability bias) For a well-established firm that has been using a we analyse “reason codes” within lost deals, price is customer relationship management (CRM) system usually the most frequent cause (conversely though, for years, it can come as a price is seldom quoted as the major surprise when we reason when the deals do “It is rare to find price highlight the number of come in). As an example, in as the sole determining potential customers missing one interview with an executive we heard, “Our from the database. In a recent factor across all customers market is almost completely project, we did a quick within the portfolio” commoditised. We have lost cross-check on two divisions power relative to our within the same client to see the overlap between their CRM databases (which did customers and we are seen as expensive”. To test not talk to each other). Two clear opportunities this explanation, we conducted a series of “voice of emerged from this exercise. the customer” interviews. Here is an extract of one The first was that there was very little overlap such conversation. between their existing customer bases, despite both Us: “Since you give [Client X] an 8 or 9 out of 10 targeting similar segments (with different types of for service, do you feel like you have to pay a products). Clearly, this showed there was quite premium for that service?” considerable cross-sell potential (as well as a need for Customer interviewee: “No, I don’t.” some CRM system improvements).

Us: “How easy is it to negotiate the price down with The second opportunity was that their prospect [Client X]?” lists also had very little overlap, making us suspect Customer interviewee: “Pretty easy. In fact that the market potential was considerably bigger [Client X] is a ‘cheap date’ compared with its than first thought. By segmenting the market and competitors.” buying in third-party data, we were able to map, So do you know and record which are your truly size and prioritise their market, giving their reps a price-sensitive customers as part of your customer richer and much more targeted hunt list. segmentation? Even in highly competitive markets it ISMPROFESSIONAL.COM

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is rare to find price alone as the sole determining factor across all customers within the portfolio.

#5 “When you say ‘strategic’ account, I hear ‘loss-making’ account” (Gamblers’ fallacy)

I am afraid this one is one of my own quotes, borne out of experience. When looking for outliers within a client’s customer portfolio, a few blue-chip names often show up with both low revenues and margins.

The usual explanation given for this is that it is a “strategic account”, often a firm that has had the potential to be a key account but for some reason is not. The assumption is that, if we keep trying, the bad luck will eventually reverse. To try to encourage growth, increasingly better offers are put on the table. If such a client ever were to grow to the size of a key account though, it would then expect even bigger discounts and so the account would end up underwater, if it is not already. The reality is usually that the service level from a competitor is superior, that switching costs are prohibitively high and/or that the client is happy to dual-source to keep their primary supplier on its toes. At some point it will be worth directing your energies elsewhere.

#6 “They don’t understand what we do” (In-group bias)

This is as much a lament as a quote. With the rise of professional procurement, many salespeople, ISMPROFESSIONAL.COM

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particularly those in highly technical/engineering companies, are having to come to terms with the need to visit a wider range of people within the buying centre. While much more comfortable with like-minded technical buyers, with similar backgrounds and interests to their own, topperforming salespeople know they must make an effort to identify, adjust their selling style to, and develop relationships with, a wider range of influencers (finance directors etc.) within the customer organisation.

In some cases, the biggest influence lies outside the firm paying the bills. For example, within the building technology sector we have seen smart companies targeting architects rather than contractors. They hope that such an influential specifier and stakeholder will help ensure that the contractor will not, or cannot, switch them for an inferior but cheaper alternative.

Summary: data is your friend

Once again, when it comes to providing antidotes to the above biases, data is your friend. This can and should take many forms: internal interviews, days with sales, customer surveys, voice of the customer research, transactional/invoice data, and CRM reports. A multisource approach is usually the most rigorous as it allows you to compare and contrast the answers to questions from different methods.

It also helps when you know where to look.

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01/10/2018 09:09

FEATURE | ALIGNMENT

GETTING YOUR D How well aligned is sales and marketing in your organisation, asks SIMON KELLY

I

n this feature I will consider the issues that get in the way of effective sales and marketing alignment with the customer.

I will draw on my experience of 35 years as a marketing and sales practitioner, as well as my recent academic and commercial research, to give an up-to-date picture of the state of alignment. I will suggest how to get better alignment around the most important facet of B2B sales and marketing, customer value propositions.

Much of the advice provided here builds on my co-authored book, Value-Ology: Aligning Sales and Marketing to Shape and Deliver Profitable Value Propositions (Kelly, Johnston, Danheiser, 2017).

So, how well aligned is sales and marketing in your organisation, not just with each other but with the customer? Judging by what the majority of the credible commercial and academic research says, things are still not looking good, and this at a time when alignment matters more than ever.

THE CASE FOR ALIGNMENT The case for alignment is compelling. Recent Aberdeen Group research shows that well-aligned organisations typically grow in excess of 20% in revenue compared with a 7% decline for those less 26 WINNING EDGE

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well aligned. Research by Sirius Decisions reveals that B2B organisations with tightly aligned sales and marketing operations achieve a 24% faster threeyear revenue growth and 27% faster profit growth.

In this omnichannel world, customers can be an average of 60% of the way through the buying process before they contact a salesperson (CEB research), by which time 67% of them have a clear picture of the solution they want (Sirius Decisions).

This means that the marketing content that the customer receives must resonate with them and be consistent with sales messages throughout the customer journey. It is strange, therefore, that 94% of customers claim to have disengaged with organisations because they are being sent irrelevant content that gives them no value (CEB research).

Maybe the most telling statistic is that 58% of sales deals end in no deal because the customer has not been convinced of the value in signing the deal (Qvidian Sales Execution research).

In a recent study performed by Televerde, 47% of B2B salespeople say that the major reason they lost a deal was because the product or service’s value had not been adequately conveyed to the prospect.

Little wonder that 46% of salespeople say the asset they most want from marketing is a value ISMPROFESSIONAL.COM

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ALIGNMENT | FEATURE

UCKS IN A ROW proposition. In Aligning Strategy and Sales, Harvard’s the way of alignment, using some quotes from our Frank Cespedes reminds us that, “Studies indicate practitioner interviews to illustrate the issues. that less than 40% of firms believe sales and marketing are aligned with what their customers GOAL ALIGNMENT: want” – the very reason for alignment.

ENABLER OR TENSION POINT? Nothing much seems to have changed at the sales A good starting point would be for marketing and and marketing interface since the seminal Harvard sales goals to be in sync, so it is somewhat surprising Business Review article “Ending the war between sales that Green Hat’s B2B Marketing Research report and marketing” (Kotler, Rackham and 2017 finds that only 45% of sales and marketing Kirshnaswamy, 2007), despite the heightened people have shared goals. This seems especially odd significance of the consequences of misalignment. as the practitioners we speak to see goal alignment From research results, it as a key enabler. In the appears that marketing words of an SVP sales “Marketing and sales alignment and sales alignment is for a global technology is proving difficult to achieve proving difficult to achieve company: “I think in practice... It sounds simple, in practice. As my old shared goals are a big but it ain’t easy” managing director at BT, enabler. You know, Danny McLaughlin, used shared objectives that are to say: “It sounds simple, but it ain’t easy.” So what’s tied to compensation. If sales and marketing people getting in the way of alignment? have the same objectives, leading to similar compensation, that is a big enabler in our business.”

GETTING TO GRRIPS WITH ALIGNMENT When sales and marketing do not align goals this My colleagues and I spend a lot of time talking with can become what the president of a global highsales and marketing professionals about alignment tech company articulately calls a “tension point”. in general, and specifically around the issue of value Sometimes marketers are overtly focused on goals propositions. If we add our findings to the major related to the broad end of the sales funnel, such as themes that come from other credible research “awareness” and “interest”. At a campaign level this sources, they roll up to our GRRIPS framework, as can lead to too much emphasis being placed on shown in the diagram on page 28. leads that were generated and passed to sales, often So, let’s get to GRRIPS with what we find gets in referred to as MQLs (marketing-qualified leads) ISMPROFESSIONAL.COM

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FEATURE | ALIGNMENT

or SQLs (sales-qualified leads). This can lead to themes that are important to customers like finger-pointing as sales throws doubt on lead quality productivity, agility or security. The marketing while marketing accuses sales of dropping the ball director should also lead the effort to align products or not having the ability “to close our awesome and services to the chosen themes. leads”. On the other hand, you cannot expect to Many B2B organisations split their customers drive sales immediately to into industry sectors. It the 80% of the customer should then be the job “The marketing team must base that does not yet of the “industry develop the ingredients and the know who you are. marketing leader” to sales teams must work on a Tip: Set common strategic take the value themes unique recipe for each client” goals for marketing and sales. and develop them for Integrate tactical goals that their specific sector. For complement strategic goals. example, what productivity or security issues do financial services customers face? How can we ROLE CLARITY address these issues? Answering these questions in In large organisations there are many different detail should lead to a productivity or security value flavours of marketers performing different roles, proposition for banks. which can present challenges getting agreement on Here, things can become problematic, because it is the point of handover between marketing and how value propositions are developed. In Value-Ology sales. Now the salesperson has to develop value our value proposition stack is a simple model propositions relevant for their customer that should designed to help role clarity, and ultimately provide align to the themes to help develop the overall salespeople with numeric value propositions for company brand. There is often a chasm at this individual customers (see diagram below).

From the perspective of the marketing director, marketing-sales handover point that a former SVP the first step should be to understand the key of sales colleague of mine insightfully called the customer issues and use these to focus on key “sophistication gap” as often the material that comes from marketing is too generic: “I think that generally speaking there is a sophistication gap and certainly you’ll hear from WHAT GETS IN THE WAY OF ALIGNMENT? – GRRIPS sales that ‘I need use cases, I need references, and I need a translation of your insights into actionable CUSTOMER discussions’. And I think the argument is about whose responsibility it is to create those actionable discussions. And I think it’s a joint responsibility.”

Building on this, Tim Chapman, managing GOALS partner at Sales EQ , has said: “Sometimes ROLES salespeople are looking for the ‘silver bulletpoint’.

The reality is that it is a joint responsibility. Sales RESOURCES MARKETING SALES and marketing need to work together effectively, or INFORMATION FLOW it simply falls down the ‘sophistication gap’. The PROCESSES marketing team must develop the ingredients and SUCCESS & REWARDS the sales teams must work on a unique recipe for

VALUE PROPOSITION STACK OPERATIONS

HR

IT

MARKETING

SALES

Decisionmaking unit

Customer value propositions Industry vertical propositions Core proposition themes Key customer business issues

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Source: Value-Ology

each client. The sales focus needs to be on listening and tailoring messages to specific customer business challenges. Or developing insights the customer should be thinking about…”

While the value proposition stack provides a great framework for alignment, it does place emphasis on the ability of both sales and marketing to “contextualise” at each layer of the stack. I asked a marketing manager responsible for account based marketing (ABM) at a technology company, who was praising the benefits of ABM for fostering alignment, “What sets your company apart?” His answer was, “Nothing, we are in a commodity industry.” A marketer needs to be able to provide context for what sets the company apart at the “5,000ft level” and give sales the tools to develop numeric value propositions at a customer level ISMPROFESSIONAL.COM

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ALIGNMENT | FEATURE

– “From stratospheric to numeric”, is how I would put it. For salespeople, the key is to be able to put things in the customer context, culminating in numeric value propositions that demonstrate the benefits of working with you outweigh costs. There needs to be enough insight coming from marketing to provide the basis for that numeric calculation.

Tip: Align roles at each layer of the value stack to bridge the sophistication gap.

RESOURCES This begins with budget allocation. With resources scarce, not all marketing and sales activity desires will get fully funded. There can be tension around the need for more marketing spend versus more “feet on the street” account managers. Interestingly, quite a few of the salespeople we speak to say they do not have enough marketing people to deliver what they need. Developing a mechanism for jointly sharing the “asks” for more resource is difficult, but a good place to get to. Reaching a joint understanding of what marketing and sales need to do together to deliver for the customer is key here.

Tip: Develop joint requests for budget and resources to develop value propositions.

INFORMATION AND CONVERSATION As a salesperson, how often do you get asked by marketing what is important to customers? In a survey, we found that only one in five salespeople felt they were ever asked this question. In our in-depth interviews, salespeople felt that marketing generally only spoke with them when a product was being launched. On the other hand, marketers felt sales often just came to them with tactical requests for events, or “golf balls and umbrellas”.

In developing a value proposition, there must be a focus on discussing customer value. In Value-Ology we call it the cohesive loop. Simply put, marketing must ask sales what is happening at the customer interface, on top of any direct customer research.

Salespeople must make time to engage in these conversations, and maybe this should be a more formal part of a sales job description.

Tip: Agree information and conversation flow for customer alignment.

PROCESSES FOR VALUE PROPOSITION ALIGNMENT Agreeing on the top five processes that need to be developed for effective alignment could be a great starting point here. Once this has been done, these processes can be mapped out with clear roles and responsibilities. We have already taken a look at how the value proposition stack can be the basis for a process for developing value propositions “from stratospheric to numeric”. At a tactical level, a good place to start is to develop clear definitions for what makes a good lead, along with a clear process for ISMPROFESSIONAL.COM

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GRRIPS ALIGNMENT SUMMARY Issues

Action

Goals

Set common ‘strategic goals’ for marketing and sales. Integrate tactical goals that complement strategic goals

Role clarity

Align roles at each layer of the value stack and to bridge the sophistication gap

Resources

Develop joint requests for budget and resources to develop value propositions

Information and conversation

Agree information and conversation flow for customer alignment

Processes

Agree five key processes for alignment – mind your language!

Success & rewards

Agree what success looks like. Measure against the strategic goals.

Make sure all top-level scorecards are the same colour!

passing leads to sales. Green Hat’s research showed that only 44% of B2B organisations surveyed are getting satisfactory lead follow-up, while a meagre 25% have any plans for sales enablement. In the words of a director of campaign management for a global company: “If we’re going to invest in generating leads we need a formal commitment from sales to work with us and pick up these leads within a certain timeframe.”

A crucial element of what is being said here is about developing a common language – in this case, what is a lead? What does a good lead look like?

The starting point for the five processes you select should be agreeing a common language. In Value-Ology we devote the first two chapters to getting common definitions for what a value proposition is, along with some war stories for what can happen if you do not agree them.

Tip: Agree five key processes for alignment – and mind your language...

SUCCESS AND REWARDS Defining what success looks like will help you set strategic goals and drive them down into both marketing and sales. Measurement of performance must reflect this, as must reward. At the executive level, goals and scorecards must be aligned, unlike the case of a divisional sales president for a global company, who said: “I have inherited a situation where all my scorecards are red but the marketing scorecards are green. That cannot be right.”

A sense of shared reward can be usefully nurtured here. If all the strategic goals are green, there has to be a mechanism for ensuring all marketing and sales scorecards are green too, so people feel the benefit.

Tip: Agree what success looks like. Measure against the strategic goals. Make sure all scorecards are the same colour...

SIMON KELLY is an honorary Fellow of the ISM. He is senior lecturer in sales and marketing at Sheffield Hallam University, having previously spent 35 years in industry. He is also a consultant in sales and marketing, describing himself as a “pracademic”.

He is co-author of Value-Ology: Aligning Sales and Marketing to Shape and Deliver Profitable Value Propositions, published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2017, available on Amazon, and reviewed in Winning Edge No1 2018. Take the alignment survey at www.shakemktg.com or email simon@shakemktg.com

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LINING UP

GOALS

RICHARD HIGHAM and ALAN TIMOTHY continue their series on data-led insights to help achieve impressive sales growth

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hat’s your sales goal?

Afghanistan and then the “war on terror”. The This ought to be a simple strategies that had served well in the past simply did question, but answering it not apply in a world that had changed so much. thoughtfully could transform In the same way, business in general – and sales in the way sales are planned particular – must adapt. In a volatile world, change and managed in your is more rapid, less predictable and more intense. For business. Setting sales goals is particularly example, US President Donald Trump seems to be challenging in a rapidly changing world. We’ve deliberately volatile, and the impact on international identified four major drivers for this change: trade requires flexibility and speed in entering and DRIVER 1: achieving high growth in a world that exiting markets as barriers go down and up. is volatile, uncertain, In an uncertain world, complex and ambiguous we need to build in spare “We have to plan and achieve (VUCA) capacity (the business our goals in a business world that DRIVER 2: achieving equivalent of a rapid is volatile, uncertain, complex high growth in a lowreaction force, not always and ambiguous” growth economy fully engaged but ready DRIVER 3: changed to respond fast to buying behaviours change). We also need to plan sales differently, using DRIVER 4: sales innovation. emergent strategies rather than classical strategies.

Taking these drivers into account will profoundly Classical sales strategies ask, “What is our goal... change the way we set and achieve sales goals. how do we achieve it?” and conclude that, “If we execute a good sales plan well we will achieve our ACHIEVING HIGH GROWTH sales goals.” That approach served sales leaders well IN A ‘VUCA’ WORLD 20 years ago – but it will not today. Emergent sales We have to plan and achieve our goals in a strategies have shorter-term goals within a longerbusiness world that is volatile, uncertain, term framework. While corporate governance may complex and ambiguous. This so-called require you to set a sales goal for the year, it may be VUCA approach is derived from the US wiser to set a more detailed sales strategy for the military, which recognised that its next quarter or half-year, which can then be strategic thinking needed to change. adapted as circumstances change. For example, Much military thinking had been one of us recently heard a Dutch flower exporter based on a predictable, broadly explaining the effect different customs regimes stable set of assumptions (the could have on her UK sales. Asked how she is Russians would invade the West planning for these scenarios, she replied that it is not across the North German plains), possible to have a single plan at the moment. She but the unpredictability of the just knows she will need to be ready to change Vietnam war was followed by quickly when the very uncertain future changes. For the chaos of Iraq and her, that may mean new markets, new channels, ISMM.CO.UK

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FEATURE | GROWING SALES

new distribution, and even new products. corporates was asked this question: “So, do you Complexity has a deep and wide-ranging impact want us to be customer-centric and responsive to on sales. One of our clients is a strategic risk what our customers say they need, or do you want consultancy that helps its clients plan for a complex us to focus on the bank’s strategic product mix?” world. The company’s view of complexity requires It was a very reasonable question that went to the flexible, fast, distributed heart of customer-centric decision-making, rather than selling. The highly “In a VUCA world, we will centrally designed decisions ambiguous answer came have to live with sales goals set in stone. For sales leaders, back, “Yes!” In a VUCA that are in tension, maybe this means equipping and world, we will have to live even in conflict” empowering salespeople to with sales goals that are in take quick decisions as close tension, maybe even in to the customer as possible. It means being able to conflict – you need to hit a target for this quarter, change plans when situations change and allowing but you also only want recurring income. You could new business and relationship management gain share of wallet with a key customer by a specialists to seize opportunities against slowertactical price move, but you must maintain overall moving competitors. Artificial (or augmented) margins. The ability to set sales goals that meet intelligence is playing a part here, whether in multiple, and sometimes conflicting, business accepting hour-by-hour changes to orders in the outcomes will be a crucial capability for sales soft drinks industry, prioritising key clients in leaders. This capability requires different planning, London’s private hire car sector, or allocating the negotiation and communication skills. right salesperson at the right time to a new ACHIEVING HIGH GROWTH IN A business opportunity in property sales. All these LOW-GROWTH ECONOMY responses to sales complexity are happening in The second driver for change in sales goal-setting is businesses right now. the need to achieve high growth in a low growth The fourth element of VUCA is ambiguity. We recently attended a “town hall” for a team of economy. GDP in both the US and the EU is corporate bankers in the Middle East. The head of predicted to be less than 2% in 2019. In the UK it is likely to be significantly lower. If you have a higher growth goal, you will need to achieve it some other way than by “riding the wave” as many did in CHOOSING GROWING CUSTOMERS the past. The table (bottom left) shows the effect of simply tracking economic growth over several years.

2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 So, what are the implications for setting highSell to customer £100 £110 £121 £132 £145 £160 growth sales goals? You could, of course, try and growing 10% seize market share from your competitors by going head-to-head. But that will almost inevitably Sell to customer £100 £90 £81 £73 £66 £59 require price matching and erosion of margins. shrinking 10% Is your business prepared to enter a price war?

What does your finance director have to say?

If “buying” market share is not attractive then there are alternative goal-setting options:

WHEN SALES GROWTH RELIES ON ECONOMIC GROWTH

1

2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 1.5% 1.6% 1.7% 1.7% 1.7%

Identify and develop existing high-growth customers and surrender low-growth customers. Again, look at the impact of holding the same share of wallet with growing customers (table, top left).

IMF projected growth – China

6.6% 6.4% 6.3% 6.0% 5.7%

2

Tracked sales growth – UK

£100 £102 £103 £105 £107 £108

Tracked sales growth – China

£100 £107 £113 £121 £128 £135

IMF projected growth – UK

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Build your strategic account strategy.

Data gathered by one of Europe’s largest engineering groups over a 10-year period indicated that its strategic accounts outperformed its “standard” accounts by 2.4 times. A global bank we worked with saw its trade finance division facing a major dip in trade volumes. While it did well with 4% growth in a flat market, its real achievement was over 20% from its strategic accounts. Much of this success was achieved by the following approach.

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GROWING SALES | FEATURE

3

Set “white space” goals. The bank looked for areas (both product and geography) where its customers’ needs were not being met but where the bank had actual or potential capability. One country stood out as doing very little business even though all the indicators suggested there should be high levels of activity. This led to a conversation with the group treasurer at HQ , asking if there was any reason for this anomaly. The treasurer said there were genuine requirements and asked who the bank was using as its contact. It turned out that the local bank relationship manager was speaking to the wrong contact. Once introduced to the right contact, business levels increased 10-fold over two years. Could you explore similar white spaces?

4

Co-innovate. A number of organisations we work with engage in co-innovation with their trusted customers. They recognise the areas where they know they are adding value to the customer.

They explore with the customer those areas where the company has strengths, but the customer does not appear to have needs (“Are there any areas of your business where you think these capabilities could be useful to you?”). They then hold an open conversation about how the customer sees them compared with the competition, and look for potential growth by taking direct “share of available wallet”. All these areas can generate mutually attractive growth. But the real prize is the white space where competitors are absent, but where the customer has potential future needs that could be met by the company if both parties worked together. Co-innovation takes hard work, high levels of trust and mature conversations, for example about shared intellectual property. But it can deliver radical change in relationship and result.

CHANGED BUYING BEHAVIOURS As you set sales goals for the coming year, consider using one or more of the above approaches to re-engineer sales goal-setting.

The final two drivers for sales change (changed buying behaviours and sales innovation) have less direct impact on sales goal-setting, but will be covered in more detail in future articles. For now, we will just mention two aspects of changed buying behaviours that do have a direct impact: Shorter-term decision-making. You may have to set shorter-term goals as your customers apply more emergent strategies themselves. They simply may not be able to commit as far ahead as you would like. However, if you can identify those customers and products where long-term planning is possible, this will help your own sales goal-setting.

More people involved in buying decisions. It is estimated (CEB 2017) that companies with 500 employees typically involve 6.8 people in their buying decisions – up from 4.8 in 2014). If this is

41

>120%

32

86

<60%

100-119%

123

80-99%

69

60-79%

TYPICAL QUOTA ACHIEVEMENT l Only 20% of the team achieved target. This suggests that success is seen as something only for the minority l 45% achieved under 80%. Falling significantly short would appear to be an acceptable norm l 35% are almost there but not quite. Instead of celebrating, they finish the year as “failures” l 55% are in the 60-99% band. The majority are in a group that could be labelled, “OK, not a real problem – I guess we have to live with it” l Imagine the effect on motivation and culture if, by more accurate goal-setting, just 50 (14% of the sales team) could have been helped over the line. Of course, the one in four who achieved less than 60% of quota need addressing, and there appear to be some major performance issues, but much of the problem seems to lie in setting the wrong sales goals and not taking into account differences between individuals l This example compares with a major consultancy we worked with that gave their country managers a KPI of 95% of consultants hitting target. My own view is that this approach is almost always the more effective one.

correct then one of your sales goals should be to broaden your spread of contacts in your prospects and customers.

In a rapidly changing sales world our sales goal-setting needs to change at least as fast. We will leave you with five practical ideas you can use to challenge your current sales goal-setting approach.

1

Ask yourself what proportion of your sales team you want to achieve their goal or quota? This matters not just for its impact on your sales compensation plan but also for its impact on the long-term result. In his excellent book, WINNING EDGE 33

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conference, they should use working figures early in the selling year.

What your CEO needs to know about sales compensation, Mark Donnolo of SalesGlobe points out that even in higher-performing sales organisations only 50-70% of sellers hit target. In some companies he has worked with, the goal is only to have 20% hit target. He cites one company with 351 salespeople that he describes as “typical” (see box on page 33).

4

In changing times, use account and market-based goal-setting rather than legacy goal-setting. Legacy goal-setting involves taking last year’s result and using it as the benchmark for the coming year’s goals. Typically, it just means adding a random percentage to last year.

There are three big problems with this. First, salespeople feel that this year’s success is punished by a bigger quota for next year. Often they will “sandbag” business – holding it back from months 11 and 12 until month 1 of the following year.

Certainly, they may avoid closing big, attractive deals in the last quarter. Second, it produces a “dolphin” pattern of success, whereby I overachieve in year 1 and get a huge target increase in year 2, which means I under-achieve, so I get a smaller quota in year 3, which I over-deliver on, receiving an unachievable target for year 4 – and so on. Finally, in volatile times, stable year-on-year growth is unlikely to happen. It is much better to use the sales equivalent of zero-based budgeting and examine each account or sector for recurring income, incremental income, cross-selling and new business income.

2

Avoid sales-goal inflation. Mark Donnolo’s experience in SalesGlobe is that as much as 5% is added to sales goals between frontline sales management and the CFO. He cites a Fortune 100 company that was regularly announcing to the markets that it was exceeding its topline sales goals, while across the sales organisation there was a deep sense of failure because all sales goals were being missed. This disconnect produced real cynicism and confusion in sales. In comparison, we know of one professional service firm that openly distinguishes between “budget” and “target”. It is widely understood across the firm that the budget must be

“As much as 5% is added to sales goals between frontline sales management and the CFO” hit for the overall wellbeing of the business. The figure is set from the top following consultation with sales management (“top down and bottom up”).

However, each individual or account team agrees a sales goal that they believe is achievable. Make sure the sales goal has not been over-inflated.

5

Build (or rebuild) trust in sales goalsetting. Many of the problems associated with sales goals arise from low trust. In his book, The Speed of Trust, Stephen Covey talks of trust taxes and trust dividends. This is seen clearly when it comes to sales goals. If salespeople do not trust the way goals are set, or if the board does not trust the sales director’s goal-setting, then the business will pay a huge trust tax. But if trust levels are high there will be a tremendous trust dividend. Mark Donnolo cites a great example of a sales leader being very open with his sales team as they started the year with a new proposition. He was transparent that he needed to achieve $100m of sales through his team of 15, but he was not going to set specific targets.

He simply expressed confidence in their ability to deliver the result and then provided them with the support they needed. Empowered by the high level of trust they had been shown by their leader, the team delivered target-busting sales of $127m.

3

Communicate clearly and early. The sales team needs to understand what is expected of them and why. They must buy into the sales goals.

It is also essential that the goals are in place early enough to make a difference to their activities. We surveyed 84 financial businesses and were surprised to find that only 39% communicated sales targets to the salesforce before the new selling year started – and 32% did not have targets in place a month into the new year. One organisation recognised this problem by starting the selling year two months before the financial year. Its selling cycle was rarely less than two months, so for the financial year beginning on 1 January it had these monthly goals: l Start of October – 7% of the following year’s quota written l Start of November – 14% l Start of December – 32% l Start of January – 37%.

It was accepted that if these quotas were not met by these dates, the whole year would be spent in catch up mode, which was in no-one’s interests. To achieve this early “in sell”, the sales leaders informed the sales team that, while the final actual quotas would not be confirmed until the January sales 34 WINNING EDGE

30-34 Timothy REVISE.indd 6

RICHARD HIGHAM (FISM) and ALAN TIMOTHY are directors of SalesLevers. Together with co-director Martin Allison (FISM) they cover the art, science and business of sales. Email richard.higham@saleslevers.com or call +44 (0)7712 588757.

RESOURCES We have identified four drivers for changing the way sales goals are set, and provided five suggestions for improving goal-setting. We strongly recommend Mark Donnolo’s book. Many of the diagnostic and goal-setting tools we refer to can be explored in greater detail on our website (www.saleslevers.com).

Next, we will explore ways of analysing sales results, and achieving sales performance by managing activity, focus and effectiveness.

ISMPROFESSIONAL.COM

05/10/2018 17:55

YES “Is that Mr ........ YES” ”Responsible for ......... YES” “and your company does ...... YES”

Right Person, Right Job, Right Place ”and GDPR safe to use - YES”

Your best sales prospects Accurate, detailed, up to date AND GDPR safe to use.

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YEARS

Dens text pages WE 3.indd 4

01626 777 400 sales@corpdata.co.uk

www.corpdata.co.uk

01/10/2018 09:00

PITCHING YOURSELF

PERSUASIVELY

SARAH HINCHLIFFE explains ‘the four Cs of persuasion’ that make all the difference to sales proposals 36 WINNING EDGE

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W

hether you go back 2,000 years to Aristotle’s theory of appealing to people through logic, emotion and ethics or dip into a more contemporary source, such as Robert Cialdini’s six principles of influence, there is no shortage of advice on how to communicate persuasively. As with most topics you choose to explore these days, there is so much information it is hard to distil what’s relevant.

In my world of business-to-business (B2B) sales proposals, persuasion must happen on the page through the written word. So, over the years, I have gathered a series of tips and techniques

from many sources, which I squirrel away under the following four categories: Connection: creating empathy and liking Credibility: establishing your reputation and credentials Clarity: making a clear, strong case Consistency: consolidating your position.

Let’s explore each one in more detail.

‘C’ IS FOR CONNECTION Connecting with your audience is natural when it is physically present in front of you, as it is in a sales meeting or presentation. Strangely, the need to connect seems naturally to disappear when writing a document. We lapse into “we this”, “we ISMPROFESSIONAL.COM

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SALES PROPOSALS | FEATURE

that” and “we the other”, forgetting the customer exists – out of sight is out of mind.

So, we must get our audience back in our minds at the start of the proposal development process. Who is buying? What are they buying and why? How can we connect with them?

A sure way to connect is to show you understand your prospect’s problems and can solve them. Your proposal must be responsive – the proposal term for demonstrating a deep knowledge of your prospect’s critical business issues and desired outcomes. Rather than simply writing about the features of your solution or service, connect your features to your prospect’s vision and paint a picture of the journey you can take together to realise that vision.

To connect more deeply, express the benefits of every feature. Quantify your benefits wherever possible to demonstrate the value and return on investment you will bring. This takes time and research, but it will show care and attention to detail – likeable and trustworthy traits.

Work out what your prospect likes about you.

Develop a proposal strategy around these strengths and emphasise them in your document.

But avoid coming across as arrogant – replace superlative claims with evidence and subjective opinions with balanced arguments. Complement your positives with humility about any negatives you need to address. Admission of weakness with well-presented mitigation is more appealing and less risky than sweeping a problem under the carpet and hoping they won’t notice.

Never forget that people buy from people.

Even in a B2B context this holds true. People tend to buy from people they like and trust, so your proposals need to connect to these values through sincerity and transparency.

Finally, remember that people buy from people like themselves, so use mirroring to further the connection between you and your prospect.

Reflect their terminology, style and spelling in your document.

A template for researching and preparing to write your proposal is shown in the table, which captures key data. This approach ensures you connect to what’s important to the prospect.

‘C’ IS FOR CREDIBILITY You need your prospect to believe in you – to believe you can and will deliver on your promise.

Top of the persuasion list in this category is evidence. As indicated in the table, find a proof point for every feature and benefit. Think about case studies, customer testimonials, third-party reports, auditable statistics and reviews of published articles – anything that confirms what you are saying is true. Try to find proof points that align with your prospect’s business – peer ISMPROFESSIONAL.COM

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approval is more crucial than ever in today’s online world, and evidence shows that other people believe in you.

And there’s more you can do. Writing with authority and accountability will inspire confidence. Try these three top techniques: l Use active language to show who is responsible: “Our project manager will develop the plan”, rather than passive language, which leaves the responsibility opaque: “The project plan will be developed” l Show commitment by using decisive language: “We will”, rather than “We would”, which sounds conditional. And avoid terms such as “We believe”, which suggest you are not quite sure l Choose action verbs such as “run”, “build” and “lead”: “We will build the solution on time”, rather than woolly language: “We will ensure the solution is built on time”.

Support your narrative with knowledge and experience to add insight into your reasons for working the way you do. Customers like to know not just what you do, but how you do it – this is what sets you apart.

Two last tips in this section: l Avoid negative language (ifs, buts and maybes) and caveats – they only serve to suggest you might be hedging your bets and avoiding commitment. Instead, include a considered list of risks, assumptions and dependencies, which will show thoroughness and transparency to your prospect and will satisfy your internal governance l Check the accuracy of your spelling and grammar. Even if everything else has gone swimmingly, you can still blow your credibility with a stupid error such as spelling your prospect’s name incorrectly – I recall an excellent proposal for a company with ‘Dairy’ in its name, except it was spelt ‘Diary’ throughout.

‘C’ IS FOR CLARITY Nothing is less persuasive than a rambling, cluttered and confusing proposal that wastes your prospect’s time. This is where clarity comes in.

CA P T U R I N G K E Y P RO P O S A L DATA PROSPECT PERSPECTIVE Critical business issues or objectives List the top three-five

Requirements

List the highlevel solution or service requirements for each issue or objective

YOUR POSITION Features

Benefits

Connect your features to the requirements

Explain the Find a proof benefits point per of each benefit feature

Evidence

Your strengths Competitors’ and weaknesses strengths and weaknesses Emphasise the positives and mitigate the negatives of the features

Note your competitors’ positioning

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01/10/2018 09:16

FEATURE | SALES PROPOSALS

S P OT T HE D I F F E R E N C E To guarantee a one-hour response time, ABC company is establishing a new service centre within one mile of XYZ’s premises. Our service centre manager will manage our fast response team. His credentials are:

l Over 25 years’ experience in maintenance and repair (M&R) l M&R Senior Professional certification l Winner of M&R Guild award in 2017.

To guarantee a 1 Hour response time, ABC company are establishing a new service Centre within one mile of XYZ’s premises. Our Service centre Manager will manage our fast response team. His credentials are:

l Over 25 years’ experience in M&R; _ M&R senior professional certification l Winner of M&R Guild award in ‘17.

If you receive instructions on how to structure your document, always follow them, even if they don’t suit you. Remember, the instructions are clear to them. If they aren’t clear to you, ask.

If you have the luxury of creating your own proposal structure, design it so it is clear where the prospect can find the information they have requested. The best device is a compliance or response matrix (a table that shows what the prospect has asked for and where it is in your document) in the introduction that allows the reader to navigate with ease.

Within each section, set out your information in a logical order, making one point per paragraph and using sentences averaging 15-20 words. Use straightforward language, avoiding jargon, gobbledygook and unnecessary words that pad your answer out. Don’t think you will impress your prospect with long, complex or flowery narrative – it is more likely to confuse and annoy them.

Clarity can be enhanced with graphics – any form of visual representation, such as a photograph, a diagram, an illustration or a flowchart. Choose your graphics early in the proposal development process to reinforce your story and take the place of text. Make sure every graphic is fully legible and its meaning can be grasped within 5-7 seconds. And to be sure the meaning is crystal clear, always include an informative title and an action caption (a benefit-oriented statement) underneath.

By the time you come to review your proposal, check you have clearly explained: l Your offer – your solution, the delivery journey (who is going to do what, when, where and how) and price l Why your offer is better than, and different from, that of your competitors l The value you bring in quantified benefits.

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SARAH HINCHLIFFE is a director of i4 Consultancy and Design, helping companies improve their win rates through sales and bid excellence. Visit i4salesperformance.co.uk or email sarah@i4salesperformance.co.uk

‘C’ IS FOR CONSISTENCY The final element of persuasion is consistency.

Uniformity and predictability instil confidence that you will be true to your word. Consistency should flow from your first prospect interaction right through to delivering the contract.

Consider the following ways of showing consistency in your proposal.

Develop the proposal sections or responses to your prospect’s questions in the same way.

Maybe a “Summary, Situation, Problem, Solution, Outcome” flow works for you, or “Summary, Challenge, Solution, Benefit, Proof ”.

There are various formulae – choose one and stick to it so your prospect gets into a comfortable vibe, carried along in a logical flow.

Select your style at the start of the proposal development and check you have stuck to it at the end of the process. Did you decide to write in the first or the third person, with your prospect and your company as singular or plural entities? Did you choose a formal or informal tone of voice? Did you agree to mirror your prospect’s spelling and terminology? What font, indent, bullet and capitalisation conventions did you choose?

These may seem trivial matters, but the devil is in the detail, and you need to cater for those who will spot and care about minor as well as major discrepancies. Have a look at the “Spot the difference” example, top left.

A style sheet and writing guidelines will minimise the amount of editing required, but you will still need to do what is called a “gadfly” review – skimming across the whole document to spot the inconsistencies. Allocate this task to someone with an eye for detail. And once all the checks are done, make sure your proposal is immaculately presented and consistent with other published material.

FINALLY, CONSIDER THE CONTEXT A proposal should be one step in a businesswinning process – preceded by earlier marketing and selling initiatives and soon followed by clarification, negotiation and closure. A proposal plays its part in the overall context of persuading a prospect to select you over your competitors.

Engaging your prospect early means you can woo and win them over before they request a proposal. This will leave you well positioned to use the proposal to reinforce and replay everything they have fallen for. Without this, you are left largely guessing – not best practice for a high win probability.

So, for your best shot at persuasion, start early and remember that there is plenty you can do on the pages of your proposal to help them like you, believe in you and understand you.

ISMPROFESSIONAL.COM

01/10/2018 09:16

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05/10/2018 18:03

FEATURE | SALES RESILIENCE

40 WINNING EDGE

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ISMPROFESSIONAL.COM

02/10/2018 11:40

SALES RESILIENCE | FEATURE

IS YOUR CAVEMAN IN CONTROL? COLIN WOODFINDEN explains why primeval thoughts and reactions still cause stress and hamper sales success today

I

n my experience, having the resilience to perceive your product or service, your self-belief, deal with stress sets the best salespeople and how you view the company you represent and apart from the rest. Resilience is defined by even your customers. the Oxford English Dictionary online as, “The Over the years, I have reached the conclusion that capacity to recover quickly from difficulties; you cannot simply teach somebody to be more toughness”. So, it is all about bouncing resilient in a classroom environment. Resilience is back from adversity – something that all sales largely built through life experience and overcoming professionals must be able to do. past challenges and learning from them.

But, in my view, it is much more than that. The Most people feel stressed when faced with danger, dictionary definition suggests that there is a release extreme workloads or rapid changes, and it is of the pressure applied, pointless to think you can and once that has taken enjoy a completely “You cannot simply teach place resilience is about stress-free life. We all somebody to be more resilient. returning to the same state have stress in our lives Resilience is built through as previously. For me, and stress can actually be life experience” resilience is all about good for you – it makes adaptability and flexibility you feel really alive and – how you react and continue to be effective in your function at your best. This is one of the reasons sales role while the pressure is being applied. It is people play or follow sport, play games and enjoy how you bend without breaking. Have you ever roller coasters. It is that feeling of “managed noticed that some people remain calm in a crisis danger” – that short burst of adrenaline and feeling while others just fall apart? And some salespeople of risk in a controlled environment. are energised by a deal that is on a knife-edge, while When I say a controlled environment, what I others cannot sleep at night because of it? It is as if mean is that nobody really gets hurt and there is a some people simply do not recognise pressure. defined ending to it – and this is one of the biggest differentiators between the fun, frivolous stress of a RESILIENCE MATTERS roller coaster and the type of stress that makes you Resilience in sales is crucial to your success. It affects ill. Another is the duration – imagine spending almost every area of the sales process – how you months on the Nemesis ride at Alton Towers.

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FEATURE | SALES RESILIENCE

We are simply not designed for prolonged bouts of stress, and it is these that require resilience.

what you want to achieve, your behaviour changes automatically and, on a subconscious level, you make better decisions.

Think about when you visit a supermarket: if you wander through the aisles aimlessly picking up food that catches your eye until you reach the tills with a full trolley, then you are focused only on the activity of food shopping. Now, think about a time when you visit the same supermarket but on this occasion you have a shopping list. You move swiftly through the aisles, ignoring all of the products until you get to the next item on your list. You will probably find that you spend a third of the money and complete the shop in a third of the time. Here, you are not activity focused, but outcome focused.

EVENTS ARE NOT OUTCOMES One of the biggest causes of stress is when a person feels they are being pushed or pulled in a direction they would not normally take, in a situation over which they have no control. One of the major problems is most people focus on the event even though they cannot change it. When you think about all the variables within a sales process, from volatile market conditions to capricious clients operating on a whim, it is no wonder stress is a problem, but the important thing to remember is that it can be managed.

A common way of thinking is that an event is the same as an outcome – or E = O. Thinking this way 3. Manage your response: In order to begin to gives you no control over the outcome as this control your response to an event, you must look why you chose that reaction. implies that everything is predetermined by what The first place that an event registers is in the happens (the event) and you leave your life to limbic system of your brain, which focuses on chance or luck. I have a friend who likes to gamble: feelings and emotions. Have you ever had a gut when he wins, he perceives it to be because of his feeling? You do not think skill and judgement, and with your gut. This is when he loses he regards “Your emotions are the slaves your limbic system, and this as bad luck. I have no to your thoughts and it has no capacity for issue with either line of you are the slave to language and it can be logic, but it cannot be your emotions” completely irrational. It both. How many times can also be a very good have you encountered survival mechanism: imagine a car is speeding sales professionals who think in the same way? towards you and time is of the essence – can you If you think about it, life is a never-ending flow of really afford your brain to start asking itself events and we cannot predict or control the way questions like, “Shall I move with my right foot first these events will unfold. Lots of people have or should I go with my left?” experienced the same or similar events, so if E = O Your internal response dictates how you act in then we would all have the same outcome to these any given situation. Did you know that we have events. In reality, of course, we do not. over 45,000 thoughts every day and around 80% of An event can be anything from a looming them are negative? It is not your fault, you are deadline, targets, traffic, the weather, even a person hard-wired that way – it is your survival instinct.

– it is anything outside your control that you cannot Your internal response, be that negative self-talk, change. You are, however, 100% responsible for thoughts, feelings and emotions will largely dictate how you respond to a situation, and that response your behaviour and the decisions you make, which will largely dictate the outcome or, at the very least, in turn will dictate your perception of the outcome your perception of the outcome: E + R = O. or even the outcome itself. As the American writer You are 100% responsible, and you need to be Elizabeth Gilbert observed, “Your emotions are the 100% accountable for everything you say and do. If slaves to your thoughts and you are the slave to your you do nothing, then you are 100% responsible for emotions.” what happens and you choose to be a passive receiver in whatever comes your way. Equally, you WHY WE FEEL STRESS are 100% responsible for how you react when We are still basically designed as we were thousands something is done to you. of years ago when we were cavemen. We have not There are three key points when it comes to evolved as quickly as our surroundings. Our making E + R = O work for you: purpose thousands of years ago was simple, to survive as far as child-bearing age.

1. See the event clearly: Look at the event objectively and try to remove emotion.

In order to survive, our brains developed certain responses to situations that we still have today.

2. Know the outcome you want: Consider when you have had an argument – what Understand what you want to achieve. If you know physical changes happened to your body?

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SALES RESILIENCE | FEATURE

THREE BRAINS CONTROL OUR THINKING I’m sure you have heard of your fight or flight response. Back when we were cavemen, not a lot happened apart from short periods of extreme danger or brief opportunities to catch food. If a sabre-toothed tiger confronted you, what you did within 20 seconds would determine whether or not you passed on your genes. So we got very good at dealing with short bursts of stress. The hormone adrenaline evolved to cause a range of changes to the body to occur very quickly when the need arose, enabling us to react by fighting or running at the peak of our body’s capacity.

Nothing has changed. Within a split second of a perceived threat, adrenaline is released that affects almost every bodily function: the heart beats faster, to pump more blood around the body; we become breathless so we can load up on oxygen; the eyes widen and we develop tunnel vision, so we can see the slightest movement; the blood vessels to the muscles and skin dilate, to allow for more muscular activity and to lose heat; we sweat, releasing excess salt from the blood; we release cortisol, a chemical designed to thicken the blood in the event of injury, but which also causes feelings of nervousness, anxiety and stress; and we shout, hoping to scare a predator away.

In addition, the bowels tend to open up, so you can quickly shed a few pounds and, because most of our predators relied heavily on their sense of smell, the confusion this causes might give you a few extra seconds to escape them.

Do you know why we get goosebumps when we are nervous – or even when we are watching a scary film? It is because when we were cavemen we were covered in hair and, like a frightened cat, we would puff ourselves up to look as large as possible when faced with an imminent threat.

TODAY’S THREATS These characteristics were extremely useful when we were being pursued by a predator, but are not much good to you when negotiating with a client or handling a customer’s objections. The problem today is that the threats we face are subtler and much longer lasting – and we are not designed to manage them. We react in exactly the same way to a mental threat as we do to a physical threat. Our brains tell us to react in similar ways, whether the threat we face is a sabre-toothed tiger trying to end our lives, or someone telling us that they do not like our product or service.

Think of your brain as three separate brains – by understanding this you can start to recognise which brain is doing the thinking in any given situation.

Steve Peters, a renowned sports psychologist and author of The Chimp Paradox, who has worked with the England football team and British Cycling, describes the three brains as the chimp (but in ISMPROFESSIONAL.COM

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Rules Laws Reasoning Judgement Motivation

CEREBRAL CORTEX (RATIONAL MODERN HUMAN)

LIMBIC SYSTEM (IRRATIONAL CAVEMAN)

CEREBELLUM (THE COMPUTER)

Motor skills Breathing

Feelings Emotions Instinct Fight or flight Pleasure/pain/reward

Distorts, deletes, generalises

Heartbeat

keeping with the caveman theme, we’ll call it the caveman), the human and the computer (see diagram above).

I want to focus purely on the “caveman brain”, the limbic system. It is paranoid, irrational, acts on instinct, and over-reacts in some situations. It “future thinks” and always looks for the worst-case scenario because its primary concern is to keep you alive. It is the voice in your head that says, “But, what if…” This was essential thousands of years ago, but today they have the potential to sabotage you and cause all manner of problems.

Because the limbic system receives the event first and, as I mentioned earlier, it has no capacity for language, this is why you say and do stupid things and make poor decisions when you are stressed.

Have you ever had an argument and afterwards had to say, “Sorry, I wasn’t thinking straight…”? Well, the truth is, you weren’t – it was your caveman brain. Your caveman brain is the reason you end up thinking, “I wish I had said that…” after you have reflected on the events of a client meeting.

TAKE BACK CONTROL If you can understand and recognise that the caveman is taking over, you can start to see your thinking as being irrational. A key trait of resilience is self-regulation – the ability to manage your emotions and think before you act.

A good starting point for controlling your caveman is to ask yourself: “Is this line of thinking appropriate for the situation I’m facing?” If the answer is no, then you have already started to rationalise the situation and the human brain is kicking into gear. In the next edition, I will explore some practical ways in which you can take this process further to change the way you think, feel and react to events – making you a more resilient and more effective sales professional.

COLIN WOODFINDEN is sales training manager for online electrical retailer AO.com, which is an ISM Recognised Centre for the delivery of Ofqual-approved ISM sales qualifications.

Visit www.ao.com

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FEATURE | NEGOTIATING

SAY NO TO SALES SKULLDUGGERY NEIL CLOTHIER describes 10 dirty tricks to watch out for during sales negotiations – and how to counter them

P

icture the scene. You are making the deal of a lifetime, yet you suspect foul play is at hand. The stakes are high and there is a certain level of distrust between both parties. Should you counteract your customer with your own dirty negotiation tricks to gain the upper hand?

Or should you take the moral high ground and try to tackle the situation head on?

It is a difficult scenario, and one that most seasoned sales professionals will be familiar with.

The solution is to know when you are at risk of being exposed to a dirty negotiation trick and how to overcome such a situation. Here are some key tips to help you avoid foul play and create a safe negotiating environment that will pave the way for a successful business deal.

JET LAG WHAT IS IT? Used on negotiators who travel long distances, this is where the counterparty arranges a meeting while the negotiator’s concentration is impeded due to jet lag or fatigue.

A variation on the theme is to “entertain” the newly arrived traveller, ensuring there is even less chance to catch up on much needed rest before negotiations begin. It can be particularly difficult to refuse offers of hospitality.

TIP FOR THE NEGOTIATOR: Travel early and leave time for recuperation before meeting the other party. Use this extra time wisely, both to get some rest and also to double-check your negotiation planning – an area that is frequently neglected. Where you suspect your hosts like to be hospitable, keep news of your early arrival quiet.

This will help to ensure you are not “entertained” until you are fully prepared for it.

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BLOWING HOT AND COLD WHAT IS IT? Here the perpetrator attempts to instil panic in the negotiator by changing from a position of enthusiasm with the negotiation to suddenly showing no reaction.

TIP FOR THE NEGOTIATOR: Being aware of this tactic allows you to remain calm. To counter their silence, and to avoid giving anything away, be ready to ask questions about their position. This way you gain information and, in doing so, gradually take back power.

ROLLING CONCESSIONS WHAT IS IT? This is frequently used to gain additional concessions from the unwary when agreement appears to be in sight. Giveaway phrases to look out for include: “I think we’ve nearly got a deal – if we can just agree on this last item I think we’re there...” or, “I feel much happier now – there’s just one small thing we need to sort out, then I think we have a deal...”

TIP FOR THE NEGOTIATOR: Our research shows that more concessions are made in the final stages of negotiations than in the whole of the main discussion. Draw up an agenda of all the issues to be discussed early in the negotiation, so that additional items can’t be introduced at a later stage. When faced with “final demands”, carefully check there is nothing else to come before considering whether to agree.

DELAYS AND DEADLINES WHAT IS IT? This is an attempt to gain concessions using time pressure. In its simplest form, the trick involves setting a deadline for the agreement to be signed, or the deal is off.

TIP FOR THE NEGOTIATOR: Build in enough time and keep arrangements flexible.

Time pressure may even work in your favour if you keep your flexibility to yourself until the deadline has arrived. People who have been expecting you to depart may be disconcerted by your sudden willingness to continue discussions.

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NEGOTIATING | FEATURE

DELIBERATE CONFUSION WHAT IS IT? A tactic sometimes used when the other negotiator is losing ground. Creating a smokescreen can help to cover up a weak case if it is being exposed by the other side.

TIP FOR THE NEGOTIATOR: Skilled negotiators deal with this by checking their understanding with the other side to ensure both parties have the same view, and summarising to confirm agreement on what has been discussed.

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This requires patience and listening skills, but is an effective way of refocusing on the real issues.

“I DON’T HAVE THE AUTHORITY” WHAT IS IT? A tactic to imply a lack of decision-making authority. The negotiator is quite happy to accept concessions made by the other party but qualifies any concessions asked for, saying, “I’ll have to check this out with my boss, as this demand exceeds my mandate”.

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TIP FOR THE NEGOTIATOR: Check at the outset that the other party has the authority to make a deal. If not, either match your authority to theirs (state that you will also have to clear concessions with your boss) or suggest that you negotiate with someone who does have the authority to sign off on an agreement.

“The most successful negotiators do not entertain dirty tricks, but strive to reach agreements that are satisfactory to both parties” remember that the other party has an equal investment in the negotiation. Are they prepared to write off all they have invested by pressing for an unreasonable concession?

“IT’S DIFFERENT OVER HERE” WHAT IS IT? A dirty trick often used against people visiting other cultures. There is no doubt that cultural differences can play an important part in negotiation. Some tricksters deliberately use and emphasise differences and local customs to gain changes or win points in particular clauses in the contract. The approach, “But we always do it this way over here”, can be difficult to counter if you are not prepared for it.

TIP FOR THE NEGOTIATOR: If you suspect this approach in advance, have a local expert with you who knows the customs. When negotiating in the US, for example, many organisations have found it a false economy not to engage a competent American expert (often a lawyer) to act on their behalf. Once you have a full understanding of their issues and demands, do not concede – start trading.

“DETAILS I CAN’T DIVULGE” WHAT IS IT? This is one of the most commonly used dirty tricks in negotiation.

People using this tactic often appear reluctant to release details of a mysterious competitor offer or other deal-blocking issue on ethical grounds.

Its purpose is to make you feel that you have misjudged the market or your relative strength and so give a concession that will make you competitive again.

TIP FOR THE NEGOTIATOR: Even though the other party will probably refuse to release details, such as the competitor’s name, you should not believe what they say about cost – you can check the credibility of the competitive offer by asking details such as: “What sort of operator training are they offering?” or “What response time do they guarantee?”

Alternatively, you can try: “I’ll need a strong case to persuade my boss to do better – you’ll need to help me with more details.”

MEMOS OF AGREEMENT – PLUS… WHAT IS IT? A rather unsubtle trick, whereby a manipulative customer offers to summarise the agreement reached at the meeting and then either changes or extends the agreement in their favour. This is often spotted by the other party, but can cause acrimony or embarrassment in correcting it later.

TIP FOR THE NEGOTIATOR: It is always worth collating the summary of an agreement while both parties are present. Our research shows skilled negotiators check that agreements are clearly understood by both parties.

SUNK COST TACTICS WHAT IS IT? This is based on the assumption that the more a negotiator has invested in trying to reach an agreement, the less willing they will be to abandon the negotiation.

For example, a negotiator faced with an unreasonable demand only 10 minutes into a negotiation is likely to reject it, even if it could potentially jeopardise the entire negotiation. On the other hand, if the negotiation has been going on for several months and progress towards an agreement has been made, it is much less likely that the negotiator will jeopardise the success of the discussions by rejecting demands.

TIP FOR THE NEGOTIATOR: Write off the previous investment. It then has no significant influence on current decisions. It is important to 46 WINNING EDGE

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NEIL CLOTHIER is senior expert at Huthwaite International, a leading global provider of sales, negotiation and communication skills development. For more information, email enquiries@ huthwaiteinternational.com, call +44 (0)1709 710081 or visit www.huthwaiteinternational.com

A FINAL WORD Some tricks are more obvious or conscious than others, but regardless of size or intent, an unethical manoeuvre in a sales negotiation is never a welcome development and can have a highly negative long-term impact on your trading relationship.

Our research shows that the most successful negotiators do not entertain dirty tricks in negotiation but instead strive to reach agreements that are satisfactory to both parties. When both sides are happy, they are far more inclined to work together towards a successful implementation – and further cooperation in future – which, at the end of the day, is the ultimate definition of a successful negotiation.

So, if you find yourself on the receiving end of something that does not feel quite right, what should you do? It is rarely the case that you should walk away. Indeed, in most instances, provided you recognise what is happening, you can address the situation and swiftly bring it back to a better place.

Use these negotiation techniques to counteract dirty tricks and transform tricky scenarios into more profitable long-term relationships.

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ISM PROFILE

MEMBERSHIP MAESTRO Winning Edge meets the ISM’s membership manager, RACHAEL BOURKE What attracted you to a sales career?

After I graduated from university with an English literature degree, I wasn’t sure what career I wanted to pursue. As inevitably happens with a lot of arts graduates, I turned to sales and became an IT recruitment consultant.

How would you describe the ISM’s membership mix?

We have a good mix of individual members and corporates from a wide range of industries – including strong representation from the technology, financial, manufacturing, automotive, and oil and gas sectors. Members are based internationally, with Europe, Africa, the US, Middle East and Asia all well represented in our membership.

What are your main areas of experience?

Since then, I have undertaken various selling roles including car sales, media sales and events sales. When I first moved to London I Which ISM benefits do you “We have a good mix of worked as an account manager for BPP highlight to sales professionals? individual members and Professional Education.

All of them! Seriously, there are too many to mention them all but, by way of corporates from a wide range How has this experience helped you example, I often encourage members to of industries and in your role at the ISM? get involved in BESMA, or draw their internationally” Of course, I had no idea at the time that attention to our online resource library, these roles would eventually lead me to which is filled with sales-related content become the membership manager for the UK’s that can help with professional development. Then leading professional body for sales. But although it there are regular ISM webinars and events, our wasn’t planned, they have given me a very good mentor scheme, learning opportunities and understanding of the sales industry. I appreciate the qualifications – oh, and Winning Edge, of course... hard slog that salespeople have to go through to hit Members can submit high quality content, which is targets, so I feel I relate well to our members. good for the ISM and the profession, while also I gained useful experience at BPP, where the helping to raise their profile – so it’s a win win. courses we offered to our corporate clients have some similar elements to those we offer at the ISM. What successes have you had?

I wish I had known about the ISM when I began As a team, we have made good progress in raising my career in sales because I think having some of the awareness of the ISM and engaging with the ISM’s resources available to me would have salespeople, including encouraging previous helped me greatly in some of my roles. members to rejoin. Regional events are growing rapidly, and it’s great to see so many of our What are your goals as the ISM’s members wanting to be involved in them. We’ve membership manager? sourced good quality content – articles, book, My overall objective is to manage the membership interviews, videos and more – that our members effectively and efficiently by engaging with members find worthwhile. And we’re currently developing the and developing the benefits and services to ensure mentor scheme by enlisting the support of senior members are getting the most out of belonging sales professionals – I could go on... to the ISM. I am also developing the events programme around the UK, to raise our profile What are your ambitions? further, engage more with existing members and, of To work on behalf of the members and maintain course, attract new members. the ISM’s status as the leading professional body for sales. To develop the membership in the UK and What are your key tasks and skills? globally – we are currently expanding our presence My work is varied, as the role is evolving as the ISM in various countries. To keep improving our offering grows. It includes speaking with many members through all the various projects we are working on, and non-members, answering queries, and raising such as new events, BESMA, our L&D Leaders’ awareness of benefits to ensure members are Forum, and our Stress in Sales series. And to utilising them fully. And I work constantly with the develop a larger presence with corporates, which whole ISM team to strengthen our offering. helps us when we speak to them about membership.

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For Sales Directors, Sales Managers & CEOs 29th November - Ricoh Arena

NATIONAL SALES CONFERENCE 2018 E D U C AT E • M O T I VAT E • I N N O VAT E

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Chris Brindley MBE You Can’t Manage What You Don’t Measure

Steve Head Building a Resilient Work Force

Shay McConnon Karen Blackett OBE The ‘How To’ of Know Yourself, Know Employee Engagement Your Customer

Jim Steele The Codebreaker Behind High Performers

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For Sales Teams, Executives & Account Managers

NATIONAL SALES ACADEMY 2018 G R O W • A P P LY • S U C C E E D

The DNA of a Sales Champion Sir Clive Woodward www.NSAcademy.org.uk

Andy Preston Stand-Out Selling: Who-When-What?

Simon Hazeldine How Storytelling Sells More Products

Julie Holmes The Million Dollar Question

Jeremy Malindine CX: Reframinng ‘Selling’ to ‘Buying’

Richard Newman Increase Your Impact and Influence

Warren Knight Social Selling in a Digital Age

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