Winning Edge: January 2020 - BESMA 2019

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

No. 1 2020 | ismprofessional.com | £4.95

T H E B R I T I S H E XC E L L E N C E I N S A L E S M A N AG E M E N T AWA R D S

BESMA

AWARDS C E L E B R AT I N G T H E S U C C E S S OF THE UK’S LEADING SALES PROFESSIONALS

NUMBER 1 2020

BETTER TEAM APTITUDE DYNAMIC

IMPROVING SALES COMPETENCIES Cover V2.indd 2

STRUCTURE AND SIZE ARE KEY

GROWTH LEVERS HOW TO BE EFFECTIVE

SOCIAL VALUE

DOING BUSINESS, DOING GOOD 07/02/2020 08:57

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CONTENTS

CONTENTS

20 Cover BESMA WINNERS TAKE A BOW

6

WINNINGEDGE NUMBER 1 – 2020 ismprofessional.com

26

18

20 BESMA – just brilliant!

The latest views from the ISM

ISM signs up a new Corporate Partner, and other sales news

6 Smarter Selling Institute of Sales Management 18 King William Street London EC4N 7BP Telephone: +44 (0)20 3167 4790 Email: abrook@ismprofessional.com Website: ismprofessional.com Chief Operating Officer: Roger Bradburn Head of Marketing: Adam Brook Editorial: Marc Beishon, Tom Nash Design: Del Gentleman Advertising: Adam Brook Telephone: +44 (0)20 3167 4790 Email: abrook@ismprofessional.com Printed by: Ridgeway Press © ISM 2020. 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.

Advice on mending a broken team and building your personal brand

11 Tools for the job The latest in smart solutions for tech-savvy sales professionals

13 It’s all about them Keep asking your customers great questions, urges Matthew Hotten

14 Sales’s secret weapon Cassie Roper highlights the need for more women in sales

16 Slip sliding away How to stop deals dying from customer inertia, by Jim Preston

18 Up close and personal Jean-Paul Damen considers the importance of personalisation ISMPROFESSIONAL.COM

1 Contents V2.indd 3

32

3 ISM Editorial 4 Sales Talk

International Standard Serial No. UK ISSN 1746-6849

14

Celebrating all the winners from the UK’s leading sales awards

26 Drop your mask

Andrée Funnell explains why it’s important to be authentic in sales

28 More than an org chart

Sales organisations need the right structure, argues Peter Colman

32 New roads to competence

Simon Kelly and colleagues report on new sales competencies

36 Ace it with effectiveness

Keys to sales effectiveness, by Richard Higham and Alan Timothy

40 Doing business, doing good Sarah Hinchliffe discusses social value in public sector tenders

44 Personal development

Ruta Misiunaite shows how to get from lone wolf to sales leader

48 ISM profile We meet Leonard Fraser (FISM) WINNING EDGE 1

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INSTITUTE OF SALES MANAGEMENT | EDITORIAL

NEW AND VIEWS FROM THE ISM ADAM BROOK takes stock of the near Brexit future and articles in this issue that could help meet the sales challenges

S

o we’re into a new year and a new decade, and a time of real change in the UK as we finally enter the last lap after leaving the European Union.

Will we see an end to the uncertainty that has affected the business community? It doesn’t seem like it as we are not only embarking on the vital nuts and bolts of a trade agreement with the EU – and it is doubtful it will be completed by the end of the year – but also on deals with other countries, in particular the US, where controversy has already taken hold over issues such as UK plans to implement a digital tax on the internet giants such as Facebook and Google, and agreeing to Huawei, China’s major telecoms equipment supplier, installing 5G mobile technology.

And don’t mention chlorinated chicken...

Wise words have come from Mark Carney, the outgoing governor of the Bank of England. On the downside, he warns that banking authorities are running out of options to cope with the next global downturn, and a contracting market is a prospect we must all guard against by sharpening up our sales teams to be the first to pitch for existing and new opportunities that do come with any slowdown. But he has also highlighted the huge challenge of climate change and how the financial sector has to play its part in managing impacts.

Carney is moving to be the UN envoy for finance and climate change and we can expect products and services in all sectors that meet this vital challenge to assume ever greater importance among our prospects.

Along with sustainable, green business we can expect to see an uptick in public sector investment with contracts for industry if Boris Johnson makes good on his election promises. The articles we’ve

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“Our articles on bidding for public sector contracts could come in handy” published on bidding for public sector contracts in Winning Edge could come in handy here. The overall business outlook though still looks uncertain, and the consensus among economists and organisations such as the CBI is that there will be only modest growth for the UK economy this year.

It is reported that there is only weak business investment, steady but unremarkable consumer spending and poor productivity, and the prospect of yet another cliffhanger – a no deal Brexit at the end of the year – isn’t going to help.

Paving the way for trade, particularly for SMEs, will be crucial.

IN THIS ISSUE Practising excellence in sales as the engine of business will then be even more critical and in this issue of Winning Edge you can see who won the categories at our recent British Excellence in Sales Management Awards (BESMA), the flagship for the sales community. It was the usual great evening for the awards event, and a tribute to the quality of the entries and the work put in by our expert judges.

These companies and people have set a high bar that we can all look to emulate in our sales practices.

So how did the winners stand out from the competition? Each of us have our own strengths in the diverse markets we serve, of course, but common denominators can be found in the article

by Simon Kelly and colleagues in this issue (see page 32). There’s a three point plan here for B2B selling – executing sales according to the company’s goals and jointly with marketing (which we know can sometimes operate in silos); “joining the dots” and being an expert in understanding needs (this is often said but the vast majority of buyers say it needs strengthening); and what the authors call “balanced advocacy” – about achieving a balance between your own company and putting in that extra mile to ensure we have satisfied customers.

Peter Colman’s article (page 28), meanwhile, covers the structure of sales organisations in pursuit of goals such as being more customer centric and the correct balance between outside and inside sales. This administrative side of sales is complex and depends on getting the right data.

Also on topic is the article by Richard Higham and Alan Timothy (page 36), which is on sales effectiveness, and which they define as the capabilities of individual salespeople, and the tools and processes that support individuals and teams. The article focuses mainly on capabilities under the headings of talent, attitude, skills, knowledge and style, and is an excellent way of judging where you or a team member need to improve and fill gaps.

That last attribute – style – is what makes us individual, they write. “It allows space for all our talent, attitude, skills and knowledge to come across in a way that makes us individuals.” We are all different, and we are particularly impressed by ISM fellow Leonard Fraser (page 48), whose drive and likeability has taken him to great heights in the logistics sector. Now that’s sales delivery.

Adam Brook is the ISM’s head of marketing.

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SALES TALK INDUSTRY NEWS STATISTICS

DID YOU KNOW… The ratio of women in sales occupations is:

49%

ACROSS ALL INDUSTRY SECTORS

10.4%

IN MANUFACTURING PARTS

32%

IN COMMODITIES, SECURITIES AND FINANCIAL SERVICES

10.1%

IN TECHNOLOGY

Sources: US Bureau of Labor, Women in Tech World.

See Cassie Roper’s feature on page 14.

BUZZWORDS SOCIAL VALUE Social value refers to improvements to a community that can be measured. The “social” part breaks down into three elements – economic, environmental and social (people and communities) – and you will typically hear talk of improving the “wellbeing” of these elements. The “value” or worth can be expressed in financial terms, but other measures can be equally valid. Corporate social responsibility (CSR) focuses on the same three elements, but while CSR is a demonstration of your company’s ongoing commitment, social value is about procurement-specific improvements and the measurable return they will bring to a local area.

Source: Sarah Hinchliffe, director, i4 Consultancy and Design.

For more on social value read her feature on page 40.

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CORPORATE PARTNERSHIP

ISM TEAMS UP WITH CRANFIELD Cranfield School of Management becomes a new Corporate Partner Cranfield School of Management has become a new ISM Corporate Partner. These two leaders in their fields will support each other in raising the profile of the sales industry and providing educational opportunities for sales professionals across the UK. The collaboration aims to provide latest research and thought leadership, specialist webinars, speaking at regional events and exclusive offers to ISM members for executive development programmes.

Adam Brook, the ISM’s head of marketing, says: “I’m excited to announce a partnership that will see our members gain exclusive access to the phenomenal teachings that Cranfield has to offer.

As a former student at Cranfield University, I have no hesitation in endorsing it and by extension their other training programmes.”

Cranfield has also commented on the new partnership: “Sales organisations are changing, and so should sales leadership and key account

management. Over the last decade, sales leaders have witnessed unprecedented transformations, mainly driven by change in buying behaviour, technology, globalisation and competition. These are forcing organisations to revisit sales strategies, structures and practices in a fundamental way.”

For the past 20 years, Cranfield has been at the forefront of helping many organisations and professionals transform their sales practices across Europe. Through pioneering the development of this discipline through the Key Account Management Best Practice Club, it has worked with world-leading businesses to adopt new frameworks and best practice to fully leverage key relationships and sales strategies.

Whether you want to maximise the full potential of your sales function, enhance your strategic leadership, optimise your key account plans, or simply progress your career to the next level, Cranfield’s portfolio of strategic sales programmes can help you achieve your goals.

EDUCATION

BECOME AN ISM ENDORSED TRAINING CENTRE Enhance the validity of your sales training by working with the ISM

The ISM’s mission is to uphold standards of professional selling, which includes endorsing the highest standards of sales training.

As the leading expert in sales training, the ISM works with a network of ISM Endorsed Training Centres, whose sales training programmes have been subjected to a rigorous quality assurance process by the ISM’s education team.

Endorsed Training Partners of the ISM receive a package of benefits, including: l The ability to use “ISM Endorsed Training Partner” branding across their marketing materials, social media and website l A sales excellence listing on the ISM Endorsed Centre web page (which is the first page on

Google for the search terms “endorsed sales training” and “sales qualifications”) l The ability to share sales excellence content/ articles with ISM members via the ISM’s resource area and new learning management system l Involvement in new ISM Regional Groups, including guest speaker slots l The opportunity to run an ISM Webinar.

The ISM also works directly with Corporate Partners that gain ISM Endorsement for their internal sales training programmes as part of their wider learning and development strategies.

For more information, or to apply for ISM Endorsed Training Partner status, visit ismprofessional.com or call 020 3167 4790.

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SALES TALK | INDUSTRY NEWS

Talking Point

TARGETS

SHORT SELLING N EW S RO UND- UP

US IS TRUMPS FOR SMEs ARE YOU TERRIFIED OF FAILING TO HIT THIS YEAR’S TARGET? ADAM BROOK ADMITS THAT HE IS l lead the marketing function for a sales membership body – the ISM. Our members don’t care about clicks, likes and shares, and while all those are great to have, every action generated must have a reaction.

All our members care about is sales leads.

All I care about is membership leads.

With everyone I meet, I always ask myself why this person has approached me, and: l How can I offer value? l How can I ensure they come back? l What would make this a win for them?

Well, in 2019 I helped generate a six-figure sum in new revenue for the ISM, by creating new services, products and value.

But... l Can I do it again this year? l Can I go even further than before?

Fortunately, to help me in my quest, I have the most awesome salesforce on the planet at my disposal – our members.

Here’s to 2020.

Adam Brook is head of marketing at the ISM

RESEARCH

COACHING PROGRAMMES ARE WORTH IT They take time to bed in but are linked with high growth Research conducted by ValueSelling Associates, a sales methodology player, has found that 67% of B2B companies that have a multi-year sales coaching programme experience high revenue growth. In addition, 60% of high-growth companies use coaching as an integrated part of a sales training programme.

The study finds that: l Measuring the impact a sales coaching programme across several indicators is critical. This includes individual productivity and quota achievement, customer satisfaction, employee satisfaction, and bottom-line growth l The best coaching focuses on a wide range of skills, the top five being listening/communication, product/service knowledge, presentation, sales process and engaging prospects l Coaching all the sales organisation is important, including customer service personnel and business development

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The US is the top country for UK small businesses to trade with over the next 3 years, while the EU will remain the most important trading bloc, according to a report by the UK Trade Policy Observatory at the University of Sussex and the Federation of Small Businesses.

Making sure that trade agreements cater to SME needs should be a top priority for government. See bit.ly/3aSWuRG

ANALYTICS RETURN

About 42% of sales leaders rate the return on investment from sales analytics as significantly higher than expected, according to a sales operations survey

by Gartner. This is the case no matter where sales analytics is located – in sales operations, or outside of sales and in a department such as marketing, product or finance. More at gtnr.it/2RIELox

BOOK SHELF

Two books of note are about to be published. Executive Engagement Strategies: How to Have Conversations and Develop Relationships that Build B2B Business, by Bev Burgess and Dave Munn, is from UK authors, while The Expansion Sale: Four Must-Win Conversations to Keep and Grow Your Customers is by US authors Erik Peterson and Tim Riesterer.

They are listed on Amazon now.

C-SUITE TENURE

staff, as well as inside/outside sales reps l There are four top methods for developing sales coaches – pair existing coaches with new coaches, provide training courses aimed at basic coaching competencies, send potential coaches on external courses, and hire external coaches to train internal coaches.

“Sales coaching programs do not yield immediate results for the majority of companies,” says ValueSelling. “Coaching is a sales transformation that might take some time – but it’s worth it.”

For the research report see bit.ly/2UaPZne

Research by consultancy Korn Ferry, which recently acquired sales specialist Miller Heiman, on age and tenure of US executives in the C-suite finds that CEOs are the oldest and longest in post, but chief marketing officers the shortest tenured, and tied for youngest. Age has increased but tenure has decreased in recent years. See bit.ly/38S5Ye9

TAKEN FOR A RIDE

Here’s a nice piece of sales training history – it’s a set of VHS videos on YouTube given to Mercedes salespeople in the US in the 1980s. There’s forward thinking advice probing for needs never stops, nor does the listening, says the presenter. Have fun at youtu.be/ejA0wKTRHH4

ANY IDEAS?

If you are an ISM member and would like to contribute to Winning Edge, please email articles or ideas to Adam Brook, the ISM’s head of marketing, at abrook@ ismprofessional.com

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SMARTER SELLING

SALES MANAGEMENT

WARNING: THE TRUTH HURTS Your new business prospecting team is not working and it’s your fault! Steve Burton explains why

I

’ve worked with hundreds of vendors in the technology space. This truth I’m going to share is from my observations and real life experience. To clarify, it’s not a theory from any book or something found on Google.

Over time in this industry, I’ve heard every explanation under the sun for why teams are not performing to their potential. In my opinion, most of them are simply excuses. Here is the usual situation, as far as I can see it: 1. You are a senior sales professional who likes to micro-manage and control everything. You had success in the past, setting up teams 10 or15 years ago, but unfortunately things have changed and you don’t realise that. Your ego has told you that you should be the person in charge of the team.

Unfortunately, your ego is wrong.

2. You have gone out and hired some shiny new graduates who have no work experience and have never come up against adversity in their lives.

These hires were based on the fact that you think they will make great future staff members and progress into field sales. In reality, the team you’ve hired does not want to prospect, cold call or hear 6 WINNING EDGE

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STEVEN BURTON is director of sales and marketing services provider The Point Company and has twice won the accolade of Sales Trainer of the Year at BESMA. Visit thepointco.com

the harsh reality of “no”. Worse still, they secretly think they should be the new sales manager. I’m sorry, but your focus should have been, can they do the important sales tasks at hand? And will they be happy doing the tasks I need them to do now and for at least 12 months?

3. You had every intention of coaching your new hires, hosting morning meetings, delivering sales training and so on. However, you have quickly realised that listening to excuses about why people can’t make it in to work on a Monday after a festival is not as fun or useful as meeting clients to play golf and/or close those big-ticket deals.

4. You don’t want to admit it, but you are now bored with constantly trying to motivate the team and would prefer to outsource the lot. The future stars you hired now spend all day doing “research” as they are so terrified of rejection that they would rather quit than present to clients. It’s a few months in, so I’ll assume (correctly) that some already actually quit as they now think they are ready for a promotion and/or pay rise.

5. Your office environment is lovely – brand new, fully loaded with stylish chairs, strong wi-fi and latte machines. Indeed, you are so proud you wanted to fill it with staff and surround yourself with loyal subjects. Unfortunately, the atmosphere is not conducive to sales success – the office is mostly made up of admin or technical resource and you can hear a pin drop. This sterile environment breeds inactivity, and your outbound team neither have the skill nor the will to do any hardcore new business activity.

6. You have invested in LinkedIn’s Sales Navigator, but don’t know how to use it yourself and think that’s all people need for data.

7. You hired the staff, hosted lunches, drinks and conversation round the water cooler leading to a nice friendly atmosphere. The issue now is that you don’t have the heart to tell them the truth, fire and/or replace some of them, so the cycle of inactivity continues.

8. You are now looking at your number and what pipeline you have to hit it. The stark reality is you are already 90 days behind, as any action you take in the next 30 days will pay off in the next 90.

9. You have started to meet with recruiters, telling them your current position is not a good “cultural fit” – so the game continues.

Sounds familiar? Don’t despair. You may be behind the curve, but you are not alone, and there is still time to put things right… watch this space.

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GROWING BUSINESS

PUTTING THE CUSTOMER FIRST Matthew Silvester says customer needs are central to a successful growth strategy At StaySafe, which offers an innovative lone-working solution, we’ve found that to grow our business rapidly we must understand our customers and ensure their needs are central to our development. It is only by providing strategic consultation, rather than simply selling, that we attract and retain customers.

We had to start by educating customers more about lone-working and the fact that they have a duty of care to employees who are working alone. By creating tailored content that focused on their needs, we were able to attract prospects through inbound marketing and increase trust. We could then build on this by showing how the simplicity and flexibility of our app-based service would fulfil their requirements.

Throughout each iteration of the StaySafe app, our customers have been central to the business. By asking a broad-cross section of customers in-depth questions, we were able to create a framework for innovation. For example, one of our clients wanted to use the app to protect their lone-workers while they were shutting down telecoms masts. In this instance, they had very little signal, which would have affected the app. This led us to develop a low signal mode that uses SMS where a wi-fi or data connection cannot be made, so fulfilling the customer need.

We were also able to differentiate ourselves from our competitors by creating a full-service solution.

Historically, software as a service (SaaS) has been off-the-shelf and there has been little in the way of ongoing support. We strive to provide our customers with the support, onboarding and training they need to effectively integrate our product into their business.

MATTHEW SILVESTER (LISM) is account director for StaySafe.

Visit staysafeapp.com

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SALES STRATEGY

DEAL OR NO DEAL? Tim Robertson discusses the art of deal-making Selling is about negotiating deals.

It should be about achieving win-win outcomes for you and your customer, rather than an “I win, you lose” approach.

Deal-making is about persuading people to do business with you.

And, particularly in the area of high value, complex sales, “persuading people” means dealing with multiple decisionmakers and stakeholders who impact customer purchase decisions along the B2B buying journey. In an article entitled What sales should know about B2B buyers in 2019, Gartner’s Brent Adamson noted that, “When surveyed, 75% of customers agree or strongly agree that their purchase involved people from a wide variety of roles, teams and locations.” In these circumstances, an overly simplistic, naïvely optimistic approach to doing deals can lead to deal stagnation, or no deal.

In complex sales, where multiple stakeholders influence the outcome of purchase decisions, the need to identify and access those decision-makers is a crucial part of adopting a winning strategy. Navigating these “buying centres” and understanding their internal dynamics is critical.

However, the decision-making process within these buying centres may be a non-linear one, involving iterative internal processes, multiple reviews, assessments and reassessments, and intra-company negotiations

and trade-offs. And the person who has the most decision-making clout in the group might not be obvious – not the one with the most impressive title.

Sales professionals, therefore, need to know how to identify these multiple stakeholders and connect with each of them to secure their buy-in. This includes assessing what you know about your customers, uncovering missing information, accessing relevant stakeholders, and developing a winning solution.

This can be daunting for the average sales rep. The answer is to learn how to analyse and then improve on the processes they currently employ, in a strategic way. Improved processes will invariably include developing an opportunity plan, qualifying the deal, identifying decision-makers, accessing these key executives, influencing stakeholders, and outflanking the competition.

Fortunately, research into how large companies make decisions shows how sales professionals can work with corporate customers to help them reach buying decisions.

A research-based approach should be at the heart of any training or coaching for deal-making – because deal-making is not about chance, but proper methodologies based on sound science and research. That’s the real deal.

TIM ROBERTSON is an ISM-certified trainer in sales and business development for Collaborate Sales Performance. Visit collaboratesp.com WINNING EDGE 7

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SMARTER SELLING

REPUTATION

PROTECTING BRAND YOU

Terence Hathaway considers the importance of respect and integrity

PERFORMANCE

WHAT MAKES A GOOD SALESPERSON? Carol Kelly provides insight into developing high-performing salespeople

A

good salesperson has often been considered as someone who is enthusiastic and gets on with people, but the world has changed, and selling has changed with it. Today’s salespeople have to work harder to build value and gain commitment from customers. Time is limited and the window of opportunity is shorter.

So, how do we ensure in today’s world of convenience and volatile markets that our salespeople have the skills and support needed to deliver results?

The answer is focused training and development. Yet, according to research by innovation funding specialist MPA Group, a third of UK businesses offer no training or development time – even in 2019 – and other businesses that do often don’t see the desired return because their plan is not focused enough.

By using the simple high-performance formula illustrated below, you can scope out what good looks like.

Start with the end in mind; what does your training need to achieve? l Business strategy – what does a high-performing salesperson need to look like to deliver your business objectives? l People development – what people development is needed to retain staff and improve planning for the future? l Is there a requirement for a quick-win sales strategy – new products or services? Growing new markets?

Designing a tailored solution and focusing your development plans on performance ensures staff are better placed to transfer learning to the workplace, fulfil their potential and create positive business impact.

CAROL KELLY is managing director of KSA Sales Solutions, BESMA 2018 Sales Training Provider of the Year.

Visit: ksa-ss.co.uk

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People overlook the importance of personal brand.

My father raised me to always remember two things: respect and integrity. “These are both free, but they give boundless returns,” he would say, so as I moved through my career, first as a young engineer, then in sales, and later at board level and as a mentor and NVQ assessor, I have always tried to direct my activities with this in mind. I feel it is my brand and, like it or not, we are each a “brand” – it is our reputation.

Companies may think it’s sufficient just to hire some amazing sales talent using basic sales team structures, let them hit the ground running, and they will have a great sales team. But they would be wrong. Only by encouraging the individuals in the sales team to focus on their personal brands, allowing them to truly shine, will companies cultivate a high-growth environment and highperforming sales teams.

The rise of social media as a mainstream technology means we now live in a world where, almost with ease through modern communication, every day we connect and interact with people, markets and prospective customers locally and globally. Subsequently, these interactions are shaping “brand you” in the same way as every handshake and comment you make does.

This brand is how others describe you. It comes to mind whenever people think of us. It’s what we stand for – the values, ability and actions others associate with us. It tells your client who you are, what you do, what makes you different and how you create value for them. It’s not a title on a business card, but what you live up to and deliver every day in every meeting or telephone conversation. The way you walk, talk, dress, show up, perform and deliver on every commitment.

Accept that all of this is your brand. It can create the engagement you need, and with it your own security; the key thing for a better future.

Personally, I am intentional about demonstrating respect and integrity, in living up to these words in all I do and all that I am. This is my brand.

TERENCE HATHAWAY is owner and managing director of Alexander Grant Associates.

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10/02/2020 14:17

48% of sales people missed their targets in 2018 Your team will beat quota every quarter using Showpad’s unified coaching and content platform. Are you ready to take your sales team to the next level?

Visit showpad.com

Source: CSO Insights: Selling in the Age of Ceaseless Change

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06/02/2020 18:41

ON THE MOVE

E Q U I P M E N T 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

PROJECTOR

SOUNDS GOOD

Acer is the latest firm to add something to the crowded portable projector market, in this case excellent sound thanks to a pair of 5W chamber speakers with passive radiators featuring technology named as Waves Maxx Audio and Acer TrueHarmony. The B250i supports 1080p projection with auto focus and up to 1,000 lumens brightness. Wireless screen mirroring is available over wi-fi for Android and iOS users. It will be out soon in Europe at €699.

SMARTPHONE

WALK THE TALK

MERCEDES GLB 35

PETROL HEADS UP

APP

This latest Mercedes SUV can now be ordered for delivery this summer – and the AMG GLB 35 4Matic does show what can be achieved with latest engine technology. It has a 2 litre 4 cylinder petrol unit, which may seem weedy for a substantial SUV, but it delivers 306 hp and 400 Nm and will shift you from 0 to 62 mph in just 5.2 seconds. OK, so fuel economy is not great but at a claimed 32.5 mpg and 171 g/km CO2 it isn’t a bad offender. It has an 8-speed dualclutch transmission driving all wheels, and adaptive damping. Standard equipment includes a MBUX multimedia system with Hey Mercedes voice activation; 10.25 inch digital cockpit and touchscreen media displays; smartphone integration with wireless charging (for compatible smartphones) and Mercedes-Me connectivity. You also get 20 inch wheels and a Burmester surround sound system.

Post-It notes are widely used for personal and team notes, and in meetings such as brainstorming. We have even featured a nifty printer that prints them that you can access remotely to get people’s attention. Post-It’s maker is, of course, 3M and it has a free app for taking pictures of notes and organising them in boards. It’s just been upgraded to integrate handwriting and is available for Android, iOS and Macs, but not Windows yet.

POST-IT

NOTEBOOK

MAKING VERTICAL ROOM Looking around for a top recommendation for a notebook in early 2020, it’s very hard to get past Dell and the latest incarnation of the XPS 13. The focus is on the display: Dell has put in a larger 16:10 display (instead of the previous 16:9 unit) that spans from all four edges and so gives you minimal bezels and more real estate. Called the InfinityEdge10 display, it’s also 25% brighter. You’re getting a 13.4 inch display in an 11 inch form factor – fitting neatly on an airplane tray.

This unassuming smartphone is Samsung’s new Galaxy XCover Pro, which is a rugged design aimed at frontline workers in field and sales settings. A key feature is the introduction of Microsoft’s Teams software, which allows the phones to be used as walkie-talkies, which could be useful on the retail floor or a sales site such as new build housing. Just like a real walkie-talkie, you press a button to talk to colleagues.

It also comes with enterprise security management and point of sales software.

POWER PACK

JUMP STARTER

Could this be the ultimate power pack? The Powerstation Go from Morphie can charge your phone, tablet or laptop, and has a Qi wireless charging pad, but it can also jump-start your car, or so its maker says.

The battery is 44,400 mWh, and you also get jumper cables.

Mophie’s products feature on Amazon so look out for it there.

WINNING EDGE 11

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06/02/2020 15:57

GEBERIT. INSPIRED INNOVATION

A GUIDING LIGHT DURING THE NIGHT ODOUR EXTRACTION GENTLE DRYING HEATED SEAT REMOTE CONTROL PRACTICAL AND EASY TO MAINTAIN A TOUCHLESS LID GENTLE HYGIENE

ONS P S TO D U O PR fo r ards

OR

gy 9 Aw A 201 h nolo c M e S T E s T he B on i n S a le i t a v I n no

Geberit are one of Europe’s innovators in sanitary technology. Our AquaClean range takes toilets to another level with a whole host of innovations to give you a completely new feeling of freshness, cleanliness and sense of well-being. And with six inspirational ceramic ranges and unrivalled behind-the-wall technology we bring Swiss precision to everything we do.

That’s why we were named one of the Most Innovative Companies in the World by Forbes in 2017.

Find out more at geberit.co.uk

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10/02/2020 14:21

MATTHEW HOTTEN URGES SALESPEOPLE TO KEEP ASKING GREAT QUESTIONS

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an you remember the first date you had with that person? You know, the one you really fancied. The one you really wanted to get to know better. The one you were really making an effort to impress.

Drinks? Dinner? Maybe a film?

Before you get too carried away with nostalgia, remember you’re reading Winning Edge – so, what does your first meaningful date have to do with the profession of sales?

Everything. It has everything to do with sales.

Imagine going on that first date and just talking about yourself. Think how arrogant you would have appeared if you’d told that person everything they would like about you and that, based on this, they would definitely want to see you again.

It can be that way in sales too. Of course, we’re keen to impress a potential new customer for our products or service and, of course, we want to try and sell them something. That’s our job, right?

That’s what we’re trained for and paid to achieve.

In our haste to sell, we forget an important step in any credible sales process – questions or knowledgegathering – whatever you call it, the purpose is the same. Whether it’s a first date or a first appointment, the questions you ask are critical to your success. You can’t sell anything until you’ve spent time trying to understand what it is you do that your customer is going to love. Sometimes it’s a better product and

“You can’t sell anything until you’ve spent time trying to understand what it is you do that your customer is going to love” sometimes it’s a keener price, but more often than not it’s the value you can add to the customer that makes for a compelling sales argument.

We all know the difference between open and closed questions, and we know the myriad quotes and imagery that people like me use to emphasise their importance. Open questions help you gain more info and closed ones give you clarity… blah, blah blah... We all know this stuff, but what worries me is how blasé we can be about it. We know ISMPROFESSIONAL.COM

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ADVICE S ALES MET H O DS

I T’ S AL L AB O U T TH E M!

MATTHEW HOTTEN is people and organisational development manager UK & Ireland at sanitary products manufacturer Geberit, which is an ISM Corporate Partner.

Visit geberit.co.uk

asking questions is important, but how often do we stop and pay attention to the quantity and quality of the questions we ask.

It’s being professionally curious. Meeting a potential customer for the first time, it’s easy to ask loads of questions because you know nothing about them. As the relationship deepens and extends over time, guess what?

We stop asking questions. We stop being curious.

We start thinking we know everything.

Young children ask questions all the time because they want to know everything.

Unfortunately, adults stop asking questions because they think they already know everything.

Is there a danger that we become complacent?

I guess if you’ve been doing business with a customer for a few years, you start to believe there is nothing much left to discover about them.

Things change though, and things can change quite quickly. If we aren’t asking enough questions, we’ve got to be missing opportunities.

Opportunities to sell larger amounts, or a wider range, of our products. Opportunities to cement and deepen our relationship. Opportunities to shut the door more firmly on any competitor that might come a-wooing our customer.

This doesn’t mean asking random questions just for the sake of it. With a clear objective for the sales meeting, your questions should be designed to explore with your customer how to achieve that objective.

Perhaps you want to increase share of wallet? What questions will you need to ask to allow you to make a compelling sales case? Perhaps you want to upsell your customer to a different product? What questions will you need to ask to work out whether your customer is ready for an upgrade?

Questions are also a fabulous way of building trust, creating rapport and deepening the relationship you have with your customer.

Questions buy you time, help you understand objections, and work out how to overcome them.

If you’re a sales leader and you have a coaching day or field accompaniment planned this week with one of your team, pay attention to the questions they ask. If you’re a sales professional reading this before you make your next call, what do you need to know today from your customer that will improve your chances of effectively selling them something?

Finally, if you’ve ever wondered what the most-asked question is (outside of sales, of course), it really is very, very dull and not one that I suggest you ever ask a customer.

It’s, “What is my IP address?”

And if you’re asking yourself what an IP address is… great question.

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06/02/2020 15:58

YOUR SECRET SALES WEAPON: WOMEN CASSI ROPER considers the surprising underrepresentation of women in the sales profession

I

f I told you there was a way to increase your win-rate by 11%, you’d raise an eyebrow. If I added that it would also improve your working environment, bring fresh optimism to your whole sales team and give you new insights, you’d probably be suspicious.

Fortunately, it’s a weapon anyone in sales can employ: women.

Research by Gong, a firm that supplies a self-learning conversation analytics engine, has 14 WINNING EDGE

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revealed that women close 11% more deals than men. This wasn’t some minor study either – it was the result of analysing 30,469 sales calls.

The research concluded that women also close deals at a faster rate than men.

Similarly, when Joël Le Bon was a professor at the University of Houston Bauer College of Business, he gave the students of his sales CRM class a sales assignment every semester. Over 16 semesters from 2010 to 2018, there were 59% more top-performing women than men – and the women outperformed the men by 52%.

That’s a promising start, but there’s a problem.

While statistics from sources like the US Bureau of Labor show that the ratio of women in sales occupations is 49%, big variations occur ISMPROFESSIONAL.COM

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GENDER | FEATURE

across industry sectors. For example, in the securities, commodities and financial services sector, it’s 32%, while in the manufacturing parts sector it falls to 10.4%. In the technology sector, which I’m in, the figure falls even further. The 2018 Gender Equity Roadmap from Women in Tech World shows that the number of women in sales or business development roles in tech companies is just 10.1% – a figure that used to match our own experience at Redgate.

So, if you’re in the same position as we were at Redgate a while ago, what can you do to start reaping the rewards of a having a more genderbalanced sales team?

THINK ABOUT RECRUITMENT ADS DIFFERENTLY It starts with job ads because, very often unconsciously, we all use words that have a male or female bias. You can find out what they are by using free online tools like Gender Decoder, where you copy and paste the text for a job ad and it tells you which words are subtly coded as masculine or feminine.

For example, words like “driven”, “leadership” and “battle” are seen as masculine, while words like “support”, “collaborate” and “trusted” are seen as more feminine. The thing is, women tend not to apply for roles where the job description sounds like companies are looking for male applicants. Because, in general, women are more collaborative than competitive, they’re also turned away by superlatives like “expert” or “world-class”.

That leads to sources like the 2019 Gender Insights Report from LinkedIn Talent Solutions revealing that women are 16% less likely than men to apply for a job after reading the job description. Yet the same report also shows that women are 16% more likely than men to get hired after applying for a job.

Incidentally, words like “weapon” are also very masculine and I used it deliberately in the headline of this article because only 19% of women in sales are in leadership positions.

THINK ABOUT THE RECRUITMENT PROCESS DIFFERENTLY One of the biggest ways we find new salespeople is to hold recruitment days for entry-level positions. An external consultant will line up 12 or more potential candidates and they all come in on the same day and take part in group exercises to demonstrate what skills they have.

We asked the consultant to make more of an effort to encourage females to apply and also change the way the ads about the roles were written. It worked too. More women did come forward, but we found we were still setting them ISMPROFESSIONAL.COM

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up to fail. We were putting them in a setting where they were surrounded by confident guys and they were, quite frankly, intimidated by it.

As a result, most of them weren’t stepping forward and speaking up, and showing us what they could really do.

So, we changed the group work into separate teams of males and females. It won’t surprise you to learn that because we’d given them an environment where they could be a lot more assured that their opinions would be heard, the female candidates suddenly shone through and became very employable.

We’ve gone from employing virtually no females for sales roles to finding three or four on every recruitment day. We’re now aiming for 30% of new hires to be female and I’m pretty confident we’ll get there.

My view is that you can’t just wait for females to knock on the door, because they don’t naturally apply for sales roles. You have to go out and find the candidates you want – and then give them the opportunity to shine.

WATCH HOW YOUR SALES TEAM STARTS TO WORK DIFFERENTLY I used to look over the sales floor and see a team of almost identical people – young, male, confident, often with a fashionable beard, and very good at what they did. It was entirely understandable, almost natural, for my sales managers to hire people that were like them, to continue with this apparent formula for success.

At the same time, though, no one was pushing back on the way we were doing things because everybody was thinking in the same way. It’s a bit like having a first line team of managers who all agree with everything you do – when, in fact, that’s not what you want. You need to be challenged into different ways of working and thinking, because it’s not productive to do the same things over and over without ever questioning them or trying to improve them.

Now, our salesfloor has been transformed.

Bringing more women into the team has changed the atmosphere, the environment and the topics of conversation. Everyone – including the guys – has given positive feedback.

I’m not going to bang a drum, though, and say it’s because females make better salespeople.

They don’t – they make different salespeople and, in general, they connect with clients in a different, more collaborative way. They tend to like values and purpose and lean towards ethical selling and creating partnerships with clients.

In the end, it’s more than a numbers game.

Bringing diversity to the salesfloor brings with it new thinking, new ideas, and new methods that help everyone to be better at what they do.

“Bringing diversity to the salesfloor brings with it new thinking, new ideas, and new methods that help everyone to be better at what they do”

CASSI ROPER is sales director at Redgate Software, heading up the EMEA and APAC regions. In 2018, she received Sales Director of the Year Award at the British Excellence in Sales Management Awards (BESMA). Having worked in software sales for over 15 years, she has experience across all aspects of the sales process, with a focus on team leadership and the accounts-based sales approach.

She particularly enjoys the challenges of building sales teams in new territories and bringing stakeholders across the company together to land complex technical sales.

She can be contacted at: Cassi.Roper@red-gate.com

WINNING EDGE 15

07/02/2020 19:46

SLIP SLIDING AWAY? JIM PRESTON explains how salespeople can stop losing deals to large buying committees

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N

o salesperson enjoys losing a deal, but the reality is that rejection is part of being a sales professional. After all, even the best, most experienced salespeople don’t win every deal. Of course, sales professionals can lose a deal to a competitor. Perhaps a rival organisation recently released an enticing feature that sealed the deal. Or maybe the competitor offered a price that was significantly lower than yours. However, in some cases, a salesperson can better the competition but still go on to lose a deal.

Why does it happen? Because the prospect simply decides not to move forward – they choose not to make a decision. This is especially

common when selling to large organisations, which are becoming increasingly complex.

Obviously, this is highly frustrating for the salesperson, who has spent a significant amount of time and effort understanding and addressing the prospect’s needs – perhaps even more frustrating than losing to a competitor. But let’s take a closer look at the reason behind a prospect’s indecision and what sellers can do to overcome these challenges and be successful.

MORE STAKEHOLDERS INCREASE THE COMPLEXITY OF THE PURCHASE JOURNEY There are a number of reasons why an organisation might decide not to move forward with a purchase decision. Perhaps their financial ISMPROFESSIONAL.COM

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circumstances have changed, or maybe, for your organisation, either financially or otherwise. whatever reason, they’ve opted to continue using For example, perhaps the deal is large, with the solution they currently have in place. significant opportunities for upselling and In many cases, however, no decision is made cross-selling in the future. Or maybe adding a because of the large particular client is part number of people of a larger strategy to “With each additional stakeholder involved in the purchase start selling to a comes an extra layer of scrutiny. decision. Our research different sector.

This can slow down a purchase – has found a quarter of Assessing what the deal or stop it in its tracks” B2B buyers indicating is really worth to you that there were five or will make it easier to more people involved in their last B2B purchase. determine how far you’re willing to go for this We also found that as the size of the deal customer, in terms of financial concessions, increases so does the number of people involved. support, and other factors.

What we’ve heard anecdotally supports this finding. A contact recently told us that, 15 years 2. Understand the client’s processes ago, any purchase at their firm above £50,000 Spend time with your main point of contact to required review and approval from a buying understand what the organisation looks like and committee that included technology teams, how it makes decisions. Be sure to understand finance specialists, and a member of the who the stakeholders are on the purchasing management team. Today, deals as low as committee and what’s important to each of £20,000 frequently require the review of such a them. Ask what projects they’ve signed off on buying committee. and what metrics matter to them.

With each additional stakeholder comes an extra layer of scrutiny. This can very often slow 3. Bring in reinforcements down a purchase significantly – or even Leverage experts throughout your company to completely stop it in its tracks. address the needs and questions of each stakeholder. For example, ask a member of your HOW BUSINESS TO BUSINESS senior team to talk to the prospect’s CEO. Or ask DECISION-MAKING HAS CHANGED a member of your technology team to get on a At the same time, buyers today have more call with a member of the prospect’s technology information at their fingertips than ever before. team to answer any questions that may be In many cases, they spend a significant amount blocking their decision. of time doing their own research during the purchase journey. As the size of the deal 4. Enlist the help of your marketing team increases, so too does the amount of time a Collaborate with your marketing team to prospect devotes to research. develop an “account-based marketing” initiative.

Our research has found that about a quarter Or, ask to add your prospect to an existing of B2B buyers making purchases over £75,000 programme. will spend more than 40 hours doing their 5. Ensure sales content can be easily research. While conducting such extensive due shared by prospects diligence, stakeholders will certainly uncover Make sure the content you provide throughout reasons why they should make a purchase – but they’re also likely to find reasons not to. the sales cycle is easy for your prospect to share

with all stakeholders – both known and TIPS TO AVOID LOSING OUT TO unknown. A great way to do that is to share all A LARGE BUYING COMMITTEE content via a microsite. That way, all the This data may paint a bleak picture for today’s stakeholders involved have access to the sellers, especially when the reasons a prospect information they need – and you have data on decides not to make a purchase decision seem how the prospect is consuming your content. out of the seller’s control. But the good news OVERCOME ONE OF YOUR BIGGEST is that there are practical steps salespeople can OBSTACLES: THE BUYING COMMITTEE take to overcome the challenges of selling to To sum up, sellers are often not losing deals to large buying committees and emerge successful: a competitor, but because of the scrutiny of a 1. Determine what the deal is really worth large buying committee. Through these tips, A sale should be mutually beneficial to both the you can overcome the challenges involved in buying and selling organisations. Start by selling to multiple stakeholders and emerge determining whether the sale is significant to successful.

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JIM PRESTON is VP EMEA sales for Showpad, the sales enablement platform, where he is responsible for leading the team and growing the business across EMEA. He has over 15 years’ experience of business development with leading global SaaS companies, including Salesforce, Pitney Bowes and Neopost. He is also on the BESMA judges panel – see page 25.

Visit showpad.com

WINNING EDGE 17

07/02/2020 19:47

UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL

JEAN-PAUL DAMEN argues for using technology to personalise experience

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he sales process has undergone a makeover in recent years to focus on a personal approach for building and maintaining strong customer relationships, rather than one-off transactions. So what does personalisation mean and how can sales teams use it to help close deals?

IMPACTING ON TODAY’S SALES PERFORMANCE Gone are the days when it was all about closing deals by any means possible. Sales leaders and teams still primarily measure performance on sales numbers – and this can drive a laser focus on getting those last deals closed by the end of the quarter – but the process has become much more sophisticated, and the opportunity for improvement is greater. Customer demand and development of new technologies now enables sales professionals to create closer ongoing relationships that can drive customer advocacy, loyalty, recommendations and repeat purchases.

Sales teams should be very context-specific in 18 WINNING EDGE

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their interactions with customers. Too often we still see very generic customer service responses that look like they come straight out of a machine and miss the right tone of voice or personal touch to trigger the customer.

TECHNOLOGY AND CUSTOMERFOCUSED CULTURE The application of the right technology, reporting tools and coaching can assist in driving a customer-focused culture. This can stimulate a truly personalised approach whereby the salesperson understands and works to serve customer needs. CRM and marketing tools can inform sales teams about the context of the customer; reporting tools inform how the customer is using products and what the customer wants. Teams can use the information to offer tailored, contextually-based pitches on the next sale and, most of all, to prepare themselves before they engage with a customer.

This information can also help organisations determine how and where they may need to improve and how they can therefore deliver ISMPROFESSIONAL.COM

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SALES PROCESS | FEATURE

contextually-driven coaching for internal teams.

A real challenge is to agree on a format for everyone to use. You need to put energy into setting a new quality norm on how to use a set of applications and workflows that are integrated into a customer engagement platform. You need to know what best practice is and how to collaborate to get the best results. Buying good software is a first step; getting the culture right “Those who just chase deals, is also necessary. without considering what the

customer wants to hear, will find it ALIGNING SALES impossible to compete” AND MARKETING Sales teams should work closely with marketing teams to align on approach and information. Using a technology platform that draws data from both departments, and others, can provide a full customer picture.

Here, marketing provides insights that help determine the approach sales teams take. For example, if teams want to increase sales by lead generation, the tools could work to help determine which market segment is best to target, help determine a marketing plan, then sales would help nurture and close those leads.

It would help sales teams to have insights into how a prospect came to engage with them, such as through an event or a webinar, and what they were most interested in during that engagement.

This provides context to aid a personalised approach to further engagement when looking to convert a prospect to a customer.

So, the right sales and marketing technology suite can help salespeople get a strong understanding of the customer. This is crucial in proposing the right solution, understanding motivations along the various touchpoints of the customer journey, and how the products being sold can address the challenges that the customer faces.

This better understanding of the customer results in improving sales results. It can enable sales teams to deliver a faster response to the customer, resulting in shorter sales cycles. If all customer data is used and understood, the salesperson can provide a higher quality of response and a better customer experience, which can be crucial today in customer advocacy.

Then, better collaboration with other internal teams ensures a continued high-quality experience for the customer as they continue their journey from an evaluating prospect to a paid customer. A good embedding of a modern sales culture is of evident importance while implementing new tools for sales, marketing and support.

JEAN-PAUL DAMEN is There are also benefits internally, as the level director, key accounts, Europe at of automation that the right suite of products for Zoho. Visit zoho.com ISMPROFESSIONAL.COM

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sales and marketing provides ensures higher employee productivity for day-to-day tasks.

All aspects combine to help the sales team achieve its sales target as well as further target more customer happiness, bonding and more revenue on cross-selling and account growth.

MAXIMISING RETURNS THROUGH NEW TECHNOLOGY Sales teams should always stay updated on new technology and how it can help improve sales performance. Artificial intelligence (AI) and automation are being integrated into sales and marketing suites. They can help both internally, as well as with customers, by expediting many routine tasks. For example, when engaging with customers, CRM systems can have a lot of automation that helps with nurturing leads and providing valuable insights, such as what is the best time to call prospects, and to establish if certain activities are taking longer than they should. This enables corrective action to be taken to drive more successful business results.

Automation frees up time so workers can focus on higher value, often more strategic activities.

A good example is a combination of chatbots and agents (humans!) that can respond to website queries, depending on what they are. Such combinations enable sales teams to offer a mix of manual and automated responses. The choice of tools depends on which is most appropriate to deliver the best and most efficient sales approach or customer service.

That said, you can buy the best products in the market, but you won’t get top results without proper guidance on how to use the software.

THE ERA OF PERSONALISATION In summary, personalisation in today’s sales and marketing suites gives you the ability to scale up, while maintaining the personal touch and tone of voice during the whole customer journey.

Sales teams must act now to focus on a personalised strategy and use an integrated system that offers access to pooled customer data from across departments. It is only then that more contextual and intelligent approaches to prospects can be made, resulting in delighted customers and recurring business.

With such a wealth of information to provide context today, those who fail to deliver a more personalised approach will lose out to those who can serve customers faster, more efficiently and more effectively through directly addressing their needs from the first interaction. Those who just chase deals without considering what the customer wants to hear and how they want to be approached will find it impossible to compete.

WINNING EDGE 19

07/02/2020 19:48

2019 BESMA

THE BRITISH EXCELLENCE IN SALES MANAGEMENT AWARDS

JUST BRILLIANT! The success of the UK’s top sales professionals was celebrated at the recent British Excellence in Sales Management Awards

T

he finest UK sales professionals have been honoured at BESMA, the country’s premier celebration of sales excellence, organised by the ISM. The 2019 winners were announced at a glittering ceremony held at London’s Wembley Stadium, where celebrity host, comedian, actor and writer Ellie Taylor, handed out the coveted trophies.

BESMA recognises the success of the nation’s best sales directors and managers, sales executives and sales and marketing teams. The awards seek 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. The 2019 awards attracted hundreds of entries from leading organisations across the UK and Europe.

Many congratulations to all the winners, who are pictured on the following pages.

SPONSORED BY

SPONSORED BY

TELESALES TEAM OF THE YEAR MAIL & COMMUNICATIONS TEAM, NEOPOST

SPONSORED BY

SALES SUPPORT TEAM OF THE YEAR

CUSTOMER SERVICE TEAM OF THE YEAR

CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT TEAM, SSE

THE MINISTRY OF MAGIC, CUSTOMER THERMOMETER

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SPONSORED BY

SPONSORED BY

SALES TRAINING PROVIDER OF THE YEAR

SALES DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME OF THE YEAR

THIS IS PRIME

EMEA SALES LEADERSHIP PROGRAMME, SALES ACTIVATOR IN PARTNERSHIP WITH ARCADIA AND LINKS DEVELOPMENT

SPONSORED BY

SPONSORED BY

SALES TEAM OF THE YEAR UNDER 50 PEOPLE

SALES TEAM OF THE YEAR OVER 50 PEOPLE

RIVERFORD ORGANIC FARMERS

REASSURED

WINNING EDGE 21

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2019 BESMA

THE BRITISH EXCELLENCE IN SALES MANAGEMENT AWARDS

SPONSORED BY SPONSORED BY

AWARD FOR INNOVATION IN SALES TECHNOLOGY

SALES MANAGER OF THE YEAR

SALES PITCH PRO

REBECCA HEANEY, VIRGIN MEDIA

SPONSORED BY

SPONSORED BY

BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT MANAGER OF THE YEAR

KEY ACCOUNT MANAGER OF THE YEAR

NICHOLAS GABBOTT, NEOPOST

ALAN LACEY, GEBERIT

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SPONSORED BY SPONSORED BY

SALES PROFESSIONAL OF THE YEAR

BEST SALES EMPLOYER OF THE YEAR

KATIE BRITTAN, NEOPOST

REASSURED

SPONSORED BY

SPONSORED BY

RISING STAR OF THE YEAR

SALES DIRECTOR OF THE YEAR

SHANNON BORAWSKI, NEOPOST

RUTH KENNEDY, TALKTALK BUSINESS WINNING EDGE 23

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2019 BESMA

THE BRITISH EXCELLENCE IN SALES MANAGEMENT AWARDS

SPONSORED BY

NATIONAL SALES CONFERENCE 2019 E D U C AT E • M O T I VAT E • I N N O VAT E

CORPORATE SALES L&D TEAM OF THE YEAR LEARNING AND TALENT DEVELOPMENT TEAM, BIDFOOD UK

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD DAVID HYNER

SPONSORED BY

THANK YOU As with every BESMA event, there were many people who worked behind the scenes, often for many months, to ensure

This ISM special award is in recognition of an individual in the sales industry who, over many years, is highly regarded by peers, gives exceptional commitment and demonstrates very high levels of professionalism. The award is based on the informed opinion of the directors and management of the ISM, but also the much-valued feedback from our members. Respect, knowledge, leadership and inspiration are just a few of the qualifying traits. The winner, David Hyner, is a motivational speaker who brings humour and authenticity to a subject he has been researching over the past 23 years.

that all aspects of this wonderful celebration of sales talent came together in such a way that the evening was a success and enjoyed by everyone involved.

The ISM would like to say a very big

“thank you” to all those involved in helping to secure the success of BESMA 2019, from the sponsors, judges and entertainers to the many other service providers who contributed so effectively.

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BESMA JUDGES From our sponsors l Benjamin Rees, chief marketing officer – Redgate l Cassi Roper, sales director EMEA & APAC – Redgate l Christian Atherton, director – Simon-Kucher & Partners l Christine Bailey, general sales manager – James Walker UK l Dee Malone, chief customer officer – Yell l Jean-Paul Damen, key account manager – Zoho Corporation l Jim Preston, VP sales EMEA – Showpad l Mark Clisby, chief marketing officer – Yell lM atthew Hotten, people and organisational development manager UK & Ireland – Geberit l Michael Peen, senior director – Simon-Kucher & Partners l Owen Richards, managing director – Air Marketing Group l P aul Norman, country manager, transport and industry reagents – Yara International l Scott Amerson, VP sales – VanillaSoft l Will Offen, principal – Will Offen International​ From our partners l Andre Andersen, senior sales manager – Oracle l Matt Rogers, managing director – Miracle Training l Nick Squire, consultant – National Sales Conference

EXPERTLY JUDGED ‘BESMAs’ are awarded by the ISM after a rigorous judging process. The awards featured 17 categories celebrating the very best in sales practice and the teams and individuals behind it. All categories in the 2019 awards were judged by an influential and respected judging panel, chaired by Kerry Nutley. The judging is a robust, credible and transparent process, involving pre-scoring and a face-toface panel discussion. We thank all the judges – listed opposite – for their efforts, and show them at work above, providing a flavour of Judging Day.

From our corporate members l Adam Warsop, head of business development & sales – PWC l Andy Gray, business development – Ground Control​ lB en Faulkner, head of global sales operations – BT Global Services l Carol Kelly, director – KSA Sales Solutions lD arren Bayley, VP marketing – Dentsply Sirona Endodontics l Gary Pickering, director of sales and retention – SSE lG eraint Williams, director of business development – Greensleeves Care l John Woolley, head of technical sales – Iron Mountain l Jonna Sercombe, founder and CEO – Interactive Workshops lK ate Hopkins, leadership and sales training manager – Redrow Homes lM ark Holt, managing director international sales – Riskonnect l Mark Rose, director, major business – Total l Mike Wilkinson, managing director – Advance l Richard Hanscott, former CEO – Yell l Samir Patel, telesales director – Neopost l S imon Horsley, VP, regional executive UKIA – Bentley Systems UK l Stella Round, sales excellence change manager – NFU Mutual l S teve Corfield, managing director UK & Ireland – James Walker l Sue Preston, director solution sales – Microsoft l T amara McMillen, executive director sales – Virgin Media Business l Tim Valmas, head of IT and operations – Numis Securities l Vicky Nisbett, senior regional vice president – Salesforce l Will Matthews, sales transformation director – BAE Systems From our members l Hugh Stafford-Smith, director – SABA Consulting l Iain Rose, executive, business and sales coach – Ology Coaching l John Allison, managing director – Enable Sales Academy l Ian Moyse, EMEA sales director, Natterbox l Lorna Leck, managing director – Sales Activator l Martin Hutchins, managing director – Professional Academy l Richard Few, founder and chief geek – Sales Geek l S teve Burton, head of sales and training – The Point Company l Sue Reed, director – R&D Consultants

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BEING THE REAL YOU ANDRÉE FUNNELL explains why it’s important to be authentic in sales

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elling is all about connecting – because connecting with those who become your customers is the only way you can get that trust you need to make the sale.

Salespeople who are seen as authentic tend to be more successful at connecting than those who hide behind a mask or facade. They inspire their customers, build relationships and customers trust them. But what does “authentic” really mean? Let’s explore this often-misunderstood area of sales and look at how to balance personality with professionalism.

DO YOU WEAR A MASK? Have you ever felt that there’s a part of your personality that you keep to yourself ? That, for one reason or another, you don’t reveal to other people as much as sometimes you’d love to let it loose? Perhaps it’s out of fear of judgement. Or 26 WINNING EDGE

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it could even be down to the ideals that society has projected onto you about how you should behave. This part of your personality that’s hiding within is your “authentic self ”.

Many of us adopt a more professional persona in the workplace, behaving differently from how we would at home. During our careers we are told to behave “professionally”, but does it mean that we become someone else at work – the imposter? The imposter syndrome has derived from our feeling that we need to conform to a pattern of behaviour that fits in with the organisational culture. This often means that we are behaving inauthentically at work, only to revert to our true self with friends and family.

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AUTHENTICITY | FEATURE

with salespeople who are genuine and not scared to reveal their more sensitive human side.

How authentic you can be very much depends on the organisation and people you work with.

So, the extent to which you reveal yourself needs to be carefully considered as you can potentially damage your reputation and credibility. For example, in organisations where there is a hard sell culture, and the sales personnel are expected to be ruthless to achieve sales, then revealing your weaknesses can be career limiting.

Taking the need to be authentic too far can prove dangerous for some. Where they often go wrong is making the mistake of bringing their “raw authenticity” to work. Letting raw emotions come through depending on how they feel at any given time, such as ranting and raging one minute, happy or grumpy the next, can be dangerous. Being too honest and “telling it as it is” can lead to the customer feeling attacked or vulnerable. Using intimidating tactics to win a sale can leave the customer feeling forced into buying from you leading to resentment. The effect is that you are likely to lose repeat business.

Authenticity is an emotional rather than rational response and we all know that emotion is the driving force behind sales decisions. You could have the best product on the market but if you are not able to connect with your customer it is likely that the customer will walk away. But if you make them feel valued, and their core values are met, they are far more likely to buy from you.

Emotionally intelligent people are careful about the emotions they put on display and keep emotions that can elicit a negative response from others – such as anger – under wraps. It also means they are able to understand themselves as well as the impact they have on others.

Furthermore, as a rule, authentic people tend to be genuine, transparent and trustworthy, display a strong moral code and can be counted on to keep their word. This is extremely important for sales personnel.

Those who can display their human side are more likely to win hearts and minds than those who are aloof and don’t relax their guard. But it’s important to be consistent, or your actions will be viewed with suspicion. You need to be aware of how you come across to others. When I left my job in HR to become a coach years ago, I realised that the skills required to be trusted by people are the same skills that make me a great coach as I am able to build rapport and trust.

Authentic people are aware of what drives and motivates them, are reasonably comfortable with their feelings, and acknowledge that they too have flaws and are prepared to work on them.

Here are seven key observations and guidelines on maintaining authenticity in sales: ISMPROFESSIONAL.COM

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1. Customers can feel when you’re genuine.

Customers can tell when you are truly interested in the product or service you are selling.

2. You won’t seem like a salesperson People don’t particularly like salespeople. If you are being yourself, instead of being a sales machine, you are going to seem like an interested party who wants to help the customer, not like a salesperson who is looking for commission.

“If you want to be an authentic and 3. You can’t fail successful salesperson, you must No salesperson will put in some hard work to find out close every sale. It’s more about yourself” impossible. But when you’re being yourself, you’re not going to fail – you’re always going to succeed at being you. The more sales experience you gain, the easier it will be to get conversions without losing yourself in the process.

4. Don’t try to please everyone Trying to please everyone is an impossible task, as no matter what you do or say there will always be someone out there who will judge you.

5. Acknowledge your own – and your product’s – limitations To sell authentically, start by acknowledging your limitations as a salesperson. You need to sell the benefits of your offering, but also be willing to share its limitations.

6. Be truthful Admitting when you don’t have all the answers can feel counterintuitive – after all, you spend so much time perfecting your sales pitch to highlight your product’s strengths. Like everyone else, buyers appreciate authenticity – your self-awareness makes you human and credible.

7. Be willing to admit mistakes and change Acknowledge your imperfections and share uncomfortable truths about yourself with others.

ANDRÉE FUNNELL is a multiaward-winning, professionally qualified coach, NLP practitioner and trainer. She is owner and director of learning and development consultancy Aspiring Future Competence, and author of Behind the Mask (behind-the-mask-book.com) available on Amazon. For details, call +44 (0)7702 818665 or visit afcconsultants.co.uk

GETTING STARTED If you want to be an authentic and successful salesperson, you must put in some hard work to find out more about yourself – who you are, what you are about – and increase your level of emotional intelligence.

So how do you develop such self-awareness?

Engaging a professional coach is one way, but ensure you engage one who understands and empathises with what you are trying to achieve. My book, Behind the Mask, seeks to help salespeople, offering a life-changing impact on the way you think and act. It’s easy to read and follow, and will help you discover your true self, the mask you wear and why you wear it. It is full of practical advice and techniques that will help you overcome the walls you’ve built through your life that limit both your potential success and your happiness.

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FEATURE | SALES MANAGEMENT

STRUCTURE

MORE THAN AN ORG CHART PETER COLMAN continues his series on behavioural economics in sales management.

Getting the right size and structure for the sales organisation is crucial for growing the top line. How can we make sure those decisions are made objectively and avoid biases that could squeeze the bottom line?

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there is no difference between theory and practice.

In practice, there is!” Once you consider existing customer relationships, differing capabilities across countries, career trajectory of future leaders and internal politics it becomes a more complicated task. Neither is it static; markets mature and firms grow, diversify and often go through mergers and acquisitions. Accordingly, the operating model and sales structure will need to be adapted over time.

In previous articles I’ve covered a range of topics from incentives, sales strategy and tooling.

This time, I’ll focus on how sales leaders can ensure their sales structure and processes are fit for purpose and avoid common pitfalls in both the design phase and the migration phase to the new target operating model.

f the sales strategy is about deciding how to capture the market potential, then the sales structure should enable that by #1 “WE’RE MOVING TO A MORE deploying commercial teams to keep CUSTOMER-FOCUSED STRUCTURE” close proximity to customers without (FRAMING EFFECT) exploding the “S” in SG&A (selling, Who’s going to disagree with being more general and administrative expenses). In other customer-centric? No-one. Framed like this, we words, designing the all know on the surface it commercial operating model sounds like a good idea.

“In theory, there is no (the structure, processes and How this is actually done difference between infrastructure) is about though, is crucial to its theory and practice. managing trade-offs. Tradesuccess.

In practice, there is!” offs require decisions – and In one example where decisions, if not taken carefully, this had gone badly, the are prone to the same sort of company in question had behavioural biases that I’ve covered in previous recently transitioned from a product-led articles in Winning Edge. organisational structure to what it hoped was a Doing this well is not just a case of moving more customer-focused one, organised by industry boxes on an organisational chart. Sales leaders sectors. The idea was that this would allow better who have been through this type of change should service and more cross-selling across product appreciate this quote from Yogi Berra: “In theory, categories. Closer review of the target 28 WINNING EDGE

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FEATURE | SALES MANAGEMENT

customers in each sector though, showed that or acquisition, where our tendency to dislike there were only a few areas of overlap where this losses can be a very useful bias, at least for was likely to happen (at least to any sort of protecting margins. financially material level). The new operating Post-merger integration work to combine two structure, however, moved from a relatively organisations into one is highly complex. straightforward hierarchy to a very matrixed one.

Generally, the consolidation of back-office This reduced management accountability and functions is a relatively straightforward task, albeit required the sales teams to be educated on a vastly one that still needs to move through various increased set of both product categories (too many stages. It is usually the front-office (customerto be remembered) and customer segments (that facing) that is the much more complicated they were unfamiliar with). animal. What do we find Looking back, they’d there? Divergent go-to“Designing the right created a huge amount of market approaches, sales structure for a complexity and inefficiency overlapping product and company is a really big without increasing either the customer portfolios, differing level of service or revenue salesforce territories and ‘brain on’ activity” uplift. The irony was that their compensation schemes, previous “product-led” along with conflicting price structure was actually quite customer-focused positioning, all contribute to the complexity of because most customer segments tended to buy creating a consolidated commercial operating within a specific product category. Had they model for a company. reframed the question to be “how can we become Driven by combined top management desire for more customer-focused, while also maintaining “cultural integration”, in my experience there is our efficiency?” they would have taken a different usually an eagerness to move to a new structure as approach. By looking more closely at the customer soon as possible and then work out the details segmentation, their purchasing history, and a after that. I caution against that, particularly if range of potential structure designs, a better there is a big margin gap between the two conclusion was that their current structure was merging organisations. fine, but there was room for improvement within I often see the margins of the premium player certain customer-facing processes. Fixing those being eroded by this consolidation (usually it is would have improved the buying experience for due to premium products sold too cheaply by higher priority segments. some salespeople unfamiliar with them). From a profit perspective they would have been better #2 “COST SYNERGIES, YES; MARGIN kept apart, at least in the short term, to continue GAPS, NO!” (LOSS AVERSION) serving their distinct customer segments, with the One of the most complex transitions an exceptions, where there were overlaps, being dealt executive team has to steer through is a merger with on a case by case basis.

DEVELOPING INS I G H T S : “WALK A MILE IN M Y S H O E S ” When I ask sales leaders about where their teams spend their time, I usually get raised eyebrows and perhaps a wry smile, though not always an answer. A lot simply just don’t know. They can tell us which customers have been visited and by whom, but the type of time allocation information is typically not recorded in their CRM system.

As well as the usual interviews, analyses of funnel and revenue/ margin data, in our projects we like to supplement this with additional data directly from the salesforce.

For example, we ask salespeople to

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keep diaries or answer a survey including questions on how they allocate their time across, say, a typical week. We also look to include techniques such as listening to inside sales calls, conducting sales “ride-alongs” to shadow and observe outside salespeople in their natural environment, and mystery shopping to experience what it feels like to actually be sold to by them. When combined with, and cross-referenced against, the revenue analyses, this can be a very rich source of insights.

#3 “YOU CAN’T SELL THIS STUFF OVER THE PHONE” (IN-GROUP BIAS) The usual reaction when faced with the need to grow the salesforce is to add account managers to outside sales. It’s quite natural when you consider that sales directors have usually been promoted from this group and therefore this type of sales role is held in high regard by management.

In many cases though, a less glamorous but a more cost-effective way to increase market coverage is to add an in-house salesforce into the mix. Yes, their hit rate and average order value might be lower, but with a good smile-and-dial set up they can be very efficient as they don’t have the huge time sink of “drive-time”.

Despite the numerous LinkedIn blogs declaring “outbound is dead”, I know many clients who are successfully deploying these teams. When used with a good hunt list and a stripped-down product set this can be a great set up for targeting small to medium-sized customers.

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#4 “HOW MUCH TIME DO YOU SPEND WITH CUSTOMERS?” (ANCHORING) How much customer-facing time does your outside sales team achieve? The actual selling time can often be quite severely limited and this often comes as a surprise to sales leaders. Burnt by previous issues that have let down their customers, it is common to find a sales rep “managing the orders” through the system when they should be “managing the sales”. The creation of a sales operations team can be a good way to free up some of your sales resource.

Of course, there are all the other usual time sinks too, such as admin, team meetings, travel time and the like. So, how does the customerfacing time differ between your best and the rest?

As a general rule, the best reps would typically be at the top end of the range. Using the bias of anchoring, you can take the stats from the best reps and use that as a target for the rest. #5 “WHO TAKES CARE OF NEW LOGOS?” (OPTIMISM BIAS) Is all revenue created equal? Your CFO might come from that school of thinking but we know that selling into existing customers is usually both easier and more efficient than landing deals with brand new logos. If you expect the same sales reps to cover both existing and new clients, then you may be suffering from a bit of optimism bias.

We would expect the focus on “new-new” deals (new customer – new opportunity) to be significantly lower as street smart reps prioritise their efforts where they have had past success. It would be worth seeing if the proportion of new-new revenue is increasing, decreasing or static. If you do this, it will also be useful to cut the data to exclude pure inbound windfalls as this will muddy the waters.

See what the data tells you. In my experience, a fairly common result of such an analysis is recognition of the need to introduce a new logo pursuit team into the sales structure. #6 “WE GUIDE TEAMS ON BOTH WHOM TO VISIT AND HOW OFTEN” (PARADOX OF CHOICE) While it is the exception rather than the rule, the more data-driven sales leaders give guidance to their account managers not only on whom to visit but also on how often to visit them. In other words, rather than leaving these decisions to chance, these sales leaders have created a process based on their customer segmentation to ensure that the customers with the biggest spend and potential are systematically getting the most attention and highest intensity of support.

Outside sales can be a bit of a lone wolf pursuit so each account manager has far less visibility on ISMPROFESSIONAL.COM

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C A S E S T U DY: D E S I G N I N G A TA RG E T O P E R AT I N G M O D E L My firm was tasked with finding the right commercial organisational structure for a large speciality manufacturer. After conducting a diagnostic phase using many of the techniques mentioned opposite in Developing insights: “Walk a mile in my shoes”, we moved into the design phase. Here we set out a range of different options and, importantly, a range of criteria that we would use to assess each option. For example, the criteria included both strategic and implementation objectives.

Strategic criteria included supporting solution selling, limiting cost of sales increases, increasing accountability/transparency and maintaining similar line manager spans of control. Implementation-related criteria included ease of migration, impact on employee satisfaction/motivation etc.

With three shortlisted options (one of which was their current model), we were then able to rate each option and then compare and contrast the pros and cons of each. In the end, the client moved from a regional model to one that tied much more closely with how their customers were wanting to buy. While there were still lots of details to be worked out, the fact that the whole management team had been led through a structured process to debate and decide on their preferred option meant that the process of “winning their hearts and minds” had started early in the project, rather than being a necessary bolt-on at the end during implementation.

what their colleagues do compared with, say, the “numbers they post”. With so many decisions for the account managers to make about where they invest their time, it can be helpful to have some guidance. The sales leaders also know if they make it too prescriptive it will be demotivating and is likely to become a box-ticking exercise.

IN SUMMARY, DEPEND ON DATA Is there a perfect sales structure and operating model? I don’t believe so. I’ve seen numerous examples where what’s worked for one firm hasn’t for others, even in the same industry sector. One thing we do know though is that designing the right model for a company is a really big “brain on” activity. The best way to avoid over-simplistic platitudes, lazy heuristics and unintended consequences is to get the data needed to allow decisions to be made based on facts and, where possible, to pilot some of the changes first.

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 simon-kucher.com

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FEATURE | CREATING VALUE

NEW ROADS TO

COMPETENCE SIMON KELLY, PAUL JOHNSTON and STACEY DANHEISER consider the sales competencies required to stand out from competitors

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o conclude our series, in this article we give a view into our latest research on the roles and competencies required by salespeople to help their organisations differentiate from their competitors and stand out in a “sea of

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sameness”. The research will inform an upcoming book to be published as a follow-up to our 2017 publication, Value-Ology: Aligning Sales and Marketing to Shape and Deliver Profitable Value Propositions.

Our research programme centred on in-depth interviews with C-level executives, sales and marketing leaders. We asked

them to consider competitive advantage, the roles of sales and marketing in creating differentiation, and the personal competencies required to help an organisation stand out. In addition, we developed a survey questionnaire that we sent to a wider audience of sales and marketing professionals.

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Here, we will take a look at three competencies that came out of the first cut analysis from the interviews.

B2B BUYERS DEMAND A NEW TYPE OF SALESPERSON A 2017 study by Forrester, The ways and means of B2B buyer journey maps, found that ISMPROFESSIONAL.COM

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68% of B2B buyers prefer to conduct their own research online as their primary source of information. Today’s B2B buyers are more sophisticated than ever. In our omnichannel world, customers can typically be 60% through the buying process before they contact a salesperson, according to research by CEB.

A B2B millennials report in 2018 by Merit found that about 73% of 20-35 year-olds are now involved in making decisions related to new products and services at their companies. These “digital natives” grew up with the internet, and first turn to their laptops and smartphones to conduct generic searches before homing WINNING EDGE 33

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in on a particular brand. When, or if, they according to CSO Insights’ 2018-2019 Sales contact a salesperson for more information, they are Performance report, only 53% of sales reps are already well versed on their buying criteria, how meeting their quota. your product stacks up against your competition Take Robson, president of a global telco, who and how your current customers have rated their took the execution role beyond just “hitting the experience working with your organisation. While numbers” to being more aligned to the market your prospective buyers may have a pretty good goals of the company. The primary role of sales, he idea about what they want before they engage with said, “is to basically execute the go-to-market plan your company, Aberdeen Research Group found in in the field, simple as that. Sales is the execution 2019 that 48% of buyers are open to engaging early engine of the company to deliver the market plans with a sales rep who will challenge their thinking. that are set within marketing.”

Although being able to access high-quality Robson is clear that marketing sets the go-toinformation is certainly helpful, on the flip side B2B market plan and the sales team executes this plan, buying is reported as growing ever more complex. hopefully with some input from sales. Similarly, In a 2019 buyer enablement study Gartner found when we surveyed global sales and marketing that 77% of B2B buyers surveyed rated their leaders across various industries, 80% agreed that purchase decision as “extremely complex or “ability to execute” was a “very important” difficult” due to the vast competency for today’s amount of information salespeople.

“Sellers are contributing to an available and the growing From an execution already complex purchase, rather number of people standpoint, sales is seen than helping it along... the sales involved in the buying to carry a joint approach has to change” committee. And Demand responsibility with Gen’s 2018 content marketing, as Siobhan, preferences report found that 51% of B2B buyers head of strategic marketing for a UK university admitted to feeling “overwhelmed” with the sheer put it, for “selling the whole scope of what the amount of content available. organisation has to offer”. This view was expanded Now consider the feeling of information overload by other respondents who saw that sales had a joint coupled with what our previous research found responsibility in creating awareness of the offer and – that organisations are “swimming in a sea of its difference from competitors. The challenge for sameness” by communicating the same thing, using sales is setting the offer in the context of an the same words and promises to potential buyers. individual customer… or “connecting the dots”.

Sellers are contributing to an already complex purchase, rather than helping it along. This suggests 2. Ability to connect the dots: Connecting that today’s buyers are demanding a different the dots means having a clear understanding of the experience, which means the sales approach has to problems your customers are facing, what their change to meet these demands. needs are, and being able to articulate how your Our own research has revealed that business solution can uniquely solve their problems. An leaders are increasingly aware that, while being able overwhelming 88% of our survey respondents to articulate what makes their solution different to agreed that this is a “very important” competency prospective customers is “extremely important”, for sales professionals to develop. only 5% rate their organisation as “extremely As a salesperson, this means becoming an expert effective” at differentiating itself from competitors. in several distinct areas: your industry, your competition, your customer, your solutions. As HOW CAN SALESPEOPLE HELP THEIR James, a regional sales manager at a mid-size ORGANISATIONS STAND OUT? manufacturing company put it, his sales team The findings from our in-depth interviews and needs to display a balance of “technical training, survey suggest that there are certain competencies a competitor knowledge, application knowledge and, modern salesperson must develop to help their most importantly, good intuition on when to deploy organisations stand out from the competition. that knowledge”.

Here we share three such competencies related to Connecting the dots involves a mix of the evolving role of sales: entrepreneurial and imaginative flair and this is achieved using a facilitative style early in the sales 1. It’s all about execution: Either to buy interaction, as David, who works in vehicle themselves time, or as an instant answer to the open technology solutions, explained: “I’ll have a question, “What are the top 3 responsibilities of a flipchart at the front of the room, and I want salesperson?”, some interviewees jumped to, “It’s all my customer to tell me everything they want, about hitting the numbers”. This might seem trite, everything they’ve seen in the past, anything they but we do live in a world where, right now, like. All the things they’ve perhaps moaned about 34 WINNING EDGE

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behind the scenes, I want to know all of that, all the bits they really like and then from that I will get them to draw it all together… we’ll get the whole thing connected.”

One B2B buyers survey showed that a prerequisite for “connecting the dots” is being able to demonstrate knowledge of buyers and their needs; 97% of respondents agreed that it is important for sales reps to demonstrate a stronger knowledge of their needs and 95% said that sales teams need to have more insights about their company and needs. This level of understanding can be one thing that sets winning vendors apart from the others, and essential if a salesperson is to even begin to connect the dots.

On the broader point of being the customer champion for all their needs, it was interesting to see leaders like Kirk, an experienced VP for a technology product line, stressing balanced advocacy as a key facet of the sales role: “So, first and foremost, there should be balanced advocacy for your company – I definitely see sales organisations and sales professionals who forget that they do get paid by their current company.”

Kirk goes on to declare himself as a huge believer in customer experience, and as someone we have worked with, we would certainly vouch for that. He did go on to say: “Customers hold us accountable.

We should hold them accountable as part of the relationship as well.”

Successful collaborative working relies on candid 3. Balanced advocacy: We hear a lot about the communication between the supplier and the buyer role of the salesperson as the customer advocate. and an open-minded attitude to joint This can manifest in responsibilities. Both knowing what the sides need to take “We are starting to see more customer wants, responsibility for the emphasis being placed on advocating for that across welfare of the developing a new set of sales the business, and taking relationship. competencies” responsibility for customer The implication for satisfaction. sales competencies would The customer satisfaction element was something seem to be the need to be able to achieve this that Joseph, a VP of marketing with a long track balanced advocacy. While sales and marketing have record in sales, called out: “You can’t be a successful to be the voice of the customer to prevent inside-out salesperson and ignore customer satisfaction. You’ve product obsession, this has to be tempered with got to sell them something that’s working and meets commercial realism. In their 2017 book, The 12 the customer’s needs. If something is not working, Powers of a Marketing Leader, Thomas Barta and you will often be the point person for helping the Patrick Barwise make a similar call for marketers to customer figure it out… what I’ve seen over and focus on issues that are important for customers and over again is that the best salespeople are great for their own business, in what they call the value customer advocates too.” creation zone or “V-Zone”. Kirk and other sales Joseph recognised that the salesperson does run leaders seem to recognise that advocacy should be the risk of “getting in too deep” and there’s a line focused in a balanced zone where there is potential between advocacy and “wasting too much time” return for the customer and their own firm. away from the sales numbers. In an environment where organisations are increasingly trying to gain STEPPING UP, STANDING OUT advantage by superior customer service, this can be Here, we have scratched the surface of the rich an increasing burden on salespeople, who will have insight coming out of the in-depth interviews with to balance the advocacy role with selling. We’re sure C-suite, sales and marketing leaders. We are starting this is familiar territory to many readers. to see more emphasis being placed on developing a new set of competencies that goes beyond the traditional sales competencies such as relationship building, presentation skills and closing.

One thing is certain, as B2B buying behaviour continues to become more sophisticated, the sales approach must adapt. It is encouraging to see that some of the competencies leaders are talking about CUSTOMER COMPANY NEEDS GOALS call for closer cohesion with marketing, orchestrating other players in the broader organisation, and providing better and more balanced feedback to the organisation about what’s happening in the market.

If these competencies are honed, they may help you stand out in a sea of sameness.

ZONE OF BALANCED ADVOCACY If you’d like to contribute to our further research, please email simon.kelly@york.ac.uk ISMPROFESSIONAL.COM

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Stacey Danheiser, Simon Kelly and Paul Johnston are co-authors of Value-Ology: Aligning Sales and Marketing to Shape and Deliver Profitable Value Propositions, published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2017 and reviewed in Winning Edge No1 2018.

Stacey Danheiser is founder and president of Shake Marketing Group, a global B2B sales and marketing practice. Prior to starting her own consultancy, she spent 15 years as a marketing and sales enablement leader at large companies across the cable, telecommunications, financial services and banking sectors.

Simon Kelly (FISM) is a lecturer in sales and marketing at York University. He has 35 years’ experience in the ICT industry in customer service, sales and marketing. Now a “pracademic”, he has developed marketing and sales skills modules for Sheffield Business School, and he is chief cohesion officer at Shake.

Paul Johnston is a former lecturer at Sheffield Business School. His research specialism is B2B marketing management. Prior to this, he spent 20 years in the gambling and electronic games industry with board-level roles in competitive strategy, key account management, marketing research and product innovation.

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FEATURE | GROWING SALES

ACE IT WITH

EFFECTIVENESS

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RICHARD HIGHAM and ALAN TIMOTHY discuss the keys to sales effectiveness

his feature continues our series on a data-led approach to improving sales performance. We looked first at goalsetting and ways of monitoring and analysing results. Since then we’ve focused on “ACE”: getting the Activity levels right; Concentration of focus – talking about the right things, to the right people, in the right organisations; and here we look at Effectiveness – arguably the most difficult part of the ACE equation for sales organisations to get right.

We will divide effectiveness into two parts – the capabilities of individuals and the tools and processes that support individuals and teams. In this first part, on capabilities, we’ll break it into five elements – Talent, Attitude, Skills, Knowledge and Style – that together give the heading TASKS. TALENT – ARE SALESPEOPLE BORN NOT MADE? Dictionary definitions talk about talent as the natural ability to be good at something, often without being taught.

Ever since McKinsey’s research in the late 1990s and the publication of The War for Talent in 2001, the focus has been on talent in and of the workforce as a critical success driver for businesses.

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something innate, that comes from the very centre of their being and which has little to do with training.

What are the inherent characteristics that make successful salespeople? As so often in the new world of selling, we should turn to data rather than just experience and instinct.

One of the most powerful indicators of sales success is optimism. This is based on some fascinating work by Martin Seligman at the University of Pennsylvania. Seligman and his colleague Peter Schulman developed a questionnaire to let people position themselves on a pessimism-optimism scale. They got nearly 100 MetLife salespeople to take the test and then tracked their success over the next 2 years. Agents who scored in the optimistic half sold 37% more insurance than those in the pessimistic half. Agents in the top decile sold 88% more insurance than those in the bottom decile. Optimism also seemed to affect resilience. Those in the bottom quartile were three times more likely to quit their jobs in the first year than those in the top quartile. So, optimism seems to be a really important trait or even talent – not blind optimism, but what Seligman describes as flexible optimism, or “optimism with its eyes open”.1 (To take this test yourself just search for the attributional style questionnaire – there are several free versions). You can read more about optimism in Daniel Pink’s excellent book, To Sell is Human.

A piece of research by Steve Martin2 looked at 1,000 top performers, and

revealed some interesting findings: l 91% scored high on humility and modesty – the opposite of bombastic and aggressive sales behaviours.

Humility is not the same as being unconfident, but carries an acceptance that one always has plenty to learn from others; that one needs to listen.

Humility is essential to be focused on the customer l 85% of top performers demonstrated a sense of personal responsibility for their results, making this a second indicator of sales success l 84% had high goal orientation – continuously comparing their achievements against their goals l 82% showed high levels of curiosity – one of the key attributes of successful sellers is a fascination with what makes businesses work; a desire to learn and understand better and more; to get beneath the surface and to ask “why?” l Less predictably, top performers were 30% less likely to be gregarious than bottom performers.

ATTITUDE MATTERS If talent is described as the raw material, then attitude could be described as what we decide to do with the raw material.

Attitude is predominantly about choice.

It clearly builds on talent, but it lies more within the control of the individual and the influence of those around them. Many of the required attitudes interconnect, but the top 10 we would look for in salespeople are: 1. Self-responsibility: The willingness to take responsibility for one’s own ISMPROFESSIONAL.COM

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actions; to refuse to blame external factors or others when things go wrong. This does not imply blindness to the situation one works in, but rather the recognition that one can play any given hand well or badly.

2. Resilience: This is what some have described as “grit”, the willingness to keep going in tough situations and, having faced disappointment, being prepared to start over again. When everything is going your way – or “whatever you touch turns to sold” – selling is exhilarating, but when you get rejection on deals you thought were in the bag, or when selling conditions are just very tough, then resilience comes into “The final aspect of individual sales play. It’s a question of effectiveness is very human – let’s reminding yourself of not lose sight of the need for past successes, but also sellers with flair and style!” examining yourself to see how you could adapt effectively to the new circumstances. Where others would retreat, the resilient seller goes on stepping forward.

3. Goal orientation: The best sellers are focused on the goal. Many of the experiments in goal motivation apply to sellers even more highly than most. High achievement matters to them.

Goals are in themselves motivational, and it’s even better if they are seen as stretching but achievable, and better still if hitting a target brings recognition and reward.

4. Willingness to risk rejection: Selling involves willingly placing oneself in situations where rejection is the norm. In my 30s (writes Richard Higham) I had a selling job that involved making 100 completely cold phone calls a day to owners of small businesses. That took up Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. From those 300 calls I was supposed to generate 10 face-to-face meetings on the Thursday and Friday. If I closed 2 of those 10, the week was a success – more than two and it was stellar. So, for me to me enjoy success I needed to accept 290 rejections a week on the phone and 6-8 to my face. The job nearly broke me, but it probably made my sales career. Rejection became the norm in sales life, not something to be feared and avoided.

5. Openness to learning: When I joined my previous firm (immediately after the experience described above) I was told, “In your first year here you’ll learn at least 5 years’ worth of what you’d learn in a normal sales job. In the second year x4, in the third x3, and in the fourth x2, and then it will settle down at a full year’s learning each year.” My boss was partly right. The only difference was that I just kept learning two or three times more than what my peers in other businesses seemed to be learning. I was lucky in 38 WINNING EDGE

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having some great coaches and influences, but the continued passion to keep learning has to be one of the critical attitudes of top sellers.

6. Ability to cope with both isolation and social engagement: There is a lot of talk about salespeople’s introversion or extroversion.

To be an extrovert is not entirely about being the life and soul of the party – being outgoing. A lot of it is to do with how we validate ourselves.

Extroverts validate themselves against what other people think of them, whereas introverts validate themselves against their internal compass. So, an extrovert salesperson might be driven by being top of the leader board and getting “salesperson of the month” or by getting great feedback from a customer. The introvert salesperson will be more motivated by how they performed compared with their own expectations or how close they are to hitting their personal, private sales goal. In either case, successful salespeople can cope with both internal and external measures and are also happy with their own company as they travel or prepare, and equally happy being with customers and colleagues.

7. Curiosity: The best salespeople are continually curious. Their attitude is one of genuine interest in their customers and their businesses. They want to know things not just because it helps them sell but because they really care. When they are offered a factory tour, they are happy to engage. They like to understand “why?”. Of course they need good skills, but without the underlying attitude of curiosity the skills will come across as mechanical.

8. Discipline: Successful sellers have an attitude of self-discipline and team discipline. They take responsibility for their own actions and they have a determination to see things through. Some may seem better organised than others, but all demonstrate self-discipline. They are usually their own harshest critics and they push themselves to see tasks through even if they are not natural “completer finishers”. They also show team discipline. While in the past the maverick, rule-breaking “lone wolf ” may have been successful, selling today requires team discipline and compliance with rules and processes. As in successful sports teams, the best managers are able to engender this team discipline without constricting individual flair.

9. Courage: A courageous selling attitude takes many forms. It shows itself in resilience, in coming back from a disappointment. It shows itself in challenging the customer or colleagues when they lose sight of the right path or are settling for second best. It shows itself in taking tough decisions, either to keep pursuing a difficult sale when others doubt it can happen or in deciding to stop selling to a lost cause.

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Part of having a courageous attitude is to sell with integrity; to behave ethically in a way that goes beyond compliance with the business’s required standards.

10. Design-thinking: The last attitude that makes salespeople stand out is encompassed in design-thinking. This includes an attitude of being a creative problem solver. It involves something before that: being a creative problem finder. It is attitude that checks we are asking the right questions in the first place. This attitude of wanting to be a “sense-maker” with the customer is utterly different from the attitude of product pushing. It is an attitude that allows the seller to add real value for the buyer.

objections; deal with price challenges.

Gaining commitment and follow-up: Gain agreement to specific next steps; manage the process from verbal “yes” to full engagement.

KNOWLEDGE IS KEY While talent, attitude and skills will get you a long way, they are clearly not enough by themselves. Knowledge that underpins the right talent, attitude and skills will be highly effective, so sellers need a good knowledge base. Sales knowledge can be broken into seven headings: 1. Global “big picture”: Having an awareness of the world our customers operate in: PESTEL – the political, economic, social, technological, environmental and legal framework.

2. Sector specific: Being familiar with the sector(s) in which we operate: trends, major players, big names, KPIs, jargon, calendars, benchmarks, hot topics...

3. The customer’s business: Understanding the customer as a business (more than just their requirements for this purchase): finances, structure, strategy, key people, culture, future, competitors, markets...

4. Competitors: Knowledge about the competition we face – their claims, the reality, their pricing, their strengths and weaknesses, their people...

5. Product/application: Knowledge of our own products, how they are being developed, how and why they are priced, how they work...

6. Own company: Understanding of our own company: strategy, structure, key people, finances, KPIs...

7. Commercial awareness: Sound knowledge of financial matters and how businesses work.

Many of these 10 attitudes are interdependent, such as courage and resilience. Some of them depend on innate talent. All of them can be worked on and developed by individuals and those who coach them. Attitude underpins skill and allows the seller to add significant value to their own careers, their customers’ success and their company’s results.

SKILLS – THE ABILITY TO DO Some selling skills are specific to a particular role or market situation; some may be specific to a particular company at a particular time. The following is not intended as a comprehensive list of selling skills, but as a summary of the core skills of adaptive selling.

Self-organisation: The skills of building or applying a personal selling plan, of organising time to optimise selling activity; to conduct administrative tasks efficiently and effectively; technical skills.

Preparation: The skills of planning for meetings. The skilled seller prepares more effectively than the unskilled. The skilled seller prepares by placing themselves in the customer’s shoes (the so-called “Ben Duffy” approach) and uses the skills of mental preparation.

Pre-contact: Setting up sales meetings by phone or email.

Engaging: The skills of handling the first few minutes of the meeting; building rapport; capitalising on “rapid cognition”; building trust; creating and using a positioning statement; managing the “chat gap”.

Understanding: Create openness; ask appropriate, flowing questions; listen actively; summarise to confirm and challenge.

Proposing: Form solutions that match the customer’s requirements. Demonstrate the links between what they need, your offer and the benefits they will gain.

Resolving issues: Identify your customers’ spoken and unspoken concerns; handle ISMPROFESSIONAL.COM

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STYLE – THE HUMAN FACTOR That leaves us just one heading in the acronym TASKS: Style. Thus far we have been quite specific and hard-edged. This final aspect of individual sales effectiveness is very human and personal. It is often intangible, but it matters.

Style is what makes us individual. It allows space for all our talent, attitude, skills and knowledge to come across in a way that makes us individuals. It might include our appearance, our humour, our beliefs, our social lives. It might reflect previous careers, artistic interests, sporting achievements. In everything we’ve talked about in this article about effectiveness let’s not lose 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. For more information, email Richard. higham@saleslevers.com or call +44 (0)7712 588757.

1. Martin Seligman and Peter Schulman (1980). Explanatory style as a predictor of productivity and quitting among life assurance sales agents.

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 50 (4).

2. Steve Martin teaches at the University of Southern California Marshall School of Business. For more details of his research, read Heavy Hitter IT Sales Strategy: Competitive insights from interviews with 1,000+ key information technology decision makers, or an overview published in Harvard Business Review, June 2011.

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DOING BUSINESS, DOING GOOD

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SARAH HINCHLIFFE explores the growing importance of social value in public sector tendering

can’t recall exactly when I first came across the concept of social value, but I thought it was mainly something for buyers to worry about and that, from my side, a few fluffy statements about recycling would suffice. Those days are long gone. Social value is gaining traction and starting to earn big points in public sector tenders. It is quite common to see it counting for 10% of the non-price element of an evaluation. As a result, there is a social value “industry” taking shape.

In this article, I share my social value journey so far and help you to fast-track your knowledge, score more points and win more business.

WHAT IS SOCIAL VALUE? To understand social value, it’s a good idea to first think about the words individually. In this context, “social” relates to society or its organisation and “value” refers to worth. Put them back together and social value refers to improvements to a community that can be measured.

The “social” part breaks down into three elements – economic, environmental and social (people and communities) – and you will typically hear talk of improving the “wellbeing” of these elements. The “value” or worth can be expressed in financial terms, but other measures can be equally valid. The table below provides some typical examples.

If you are starting to wonder about the difference between social value and corporate social responsibility (CSR), then you are not alone, because CSR focuses on the same three elements. A good way to think about it is that CSR is a demonstration of your company’s ongoing commitment, whereas social value is about procurement-specific improvements and the measurable return they will bring to a local area.

EXAMPLES OF SOCIAL VALUE

Economic

Environmental

Social

Creating x apprenticeships per annum

Reducing carbon footprint by x tonnes

Providing x hours of volunteering

Using x% local supply chain

Achieving x% recycling

Increasing local employment by x or x%

Reducing landfill by x%

Making £x donations to local charities

Reducing water consumption by x

Providing x support for disadvantaged people

Investing x hours supporting local small businesses

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Paying the Living Wage

SOCIAL VALUE IN LEGISLATION Social value first achieved official status with the Public Services (Social Value) Act 2012, which requires public sector organisations in England and Wales to consider how their procurements can impact social value. This applies to any service procurements subject to the Public Contracts Regulations 2015.

Public procurement policy guides buyers to consider the three elements of social value early in the procurement process, how they might secure any envisaged improvements and whether they need to consult with experts and/or the community. The policy also stresses the need for social value to be relevant to the services being purchased and proportionate to the financial value. Although the scope of the Act is for services contracts (not contracts predominantly for goods or works) and for procurements covered by the Public Contract Regulations, consideration of social value is seen to be a sound principle for all purchases.

For readers in construction or infrastructure, the description above may resonate with the “balanced scorecard for growth” model introduced some years ago for projects over £10m. Indeed, balancing cost with wider societal implications is an established practice for such projects. Social value extends the same principles to a much wider scope of procurement.

WHAT IT MEANS TO SUPPLIERS If you want to supply to the public sector, you certainly need to wake up and smell the Fairtrade coffee. Social value is getting serious (remember, up to 10% of the score) and specific (directly relevant to a local area, not just general policies). And don’t think this is just for the big companies – SMEs competing for public sector contracts shouldn’t expect any favours. But they should think positively – the desire to have more SMEs and social enterprises as public sector suppliers has fuelled the increased importance of social value, and they are often wellWINNING EDGE 41

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positioned to make a strong local impact.

When you receive your next tender documentation, check the percentage set for social value. Also check the scoring criteria. As shown in the following example of a social value question, you may have to achieve a minimum score to stay in the game: Question: “Describe the social value benefits your organisation proposes for this project, including how you would assess the benefits to determine which would deliver the best outcomes for the local community.” Weighting: 5%; Minimum score: 2 out of 5.

If a minimum score requires you to demonstrate something you haven’t got or can’t do, then qualify out quickly. But also remember that minimum scores probably aren’t good enough to win – you really need to work hard to maximise every score, so get your social value position straight.

Think ahead and prepare. Get your board to recognise the importance of social value and to put it on the same footing as other corporate compliance initiatives, perhaps as an extension of CSR. Start to build a robust and reusable model for social value so you have an excellent baseline to jump-start your next tender response.

SARAH HINCHLIFFE is a director of i4 Consultancy and Design, which helps companies win more business through sales and bid excellence. See i4salesperformance.co.uk or email sarah@i4salesperformance.co.uk

USEFUL MODELS To support your preparation, there are some rich resources available from organisations that champion social value. For example (no recommendation or endorsement is implied): l The Social Value Portal (socialvalueportal. com) offers training, plus online models and tools to help you measure and manage your social value contribution. I have found its national themes, outcomes and measures (TOMs) concept, as outlined below, helpful: Themes

Outcomes

Measures

5 key issues: 1. Promoting skills and employment 2. Supporting the growth of responsible regional businesses 3. Creating healthier, safer and more resilient communities 4. Protecting and improving our environment 5. Promoting social innovation

18 pre-defined objectives or goals, aligned to the 5 themes. For example:

38 measures that can be used to assess whether these outcomes have been achieved. For example: Theme: Promoting skills and employment Outcome 1: More local people in employment Measure 1: Number of local people employed on contract for 1 year or the whole duration of the contract, whichever is shorter

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Theme: Promoting skills and employment Outcome 1: More local people in employment

Using the free downloadable national TOMs social value calculator tool, you can start to express tangible value. l Social Value UK (socialvalueuk.org) offers access to a curated library of models and tools based around its seven principles of social value: involving stakeholders, understanding what changes, valuing the things that matter, only including what is material, not over-claiming, being transparent, and verifying the result. It also offers training options, including the concept of social return on investment (SROI) – their term for measuring value.

THE FUTURE OF SOCIAL VALUE Last year, the government began a public consultation into social value aimed at reinforcing and extending its role and scope.

The consultation brief sought feedback on several ideas including a new model intended as a common standard. Described as a “light touch” model, easy for buyers and suppliers to understand and implement, it comprises 5 themes, 11 policy outcomes and a series of metrics – sound familiar?

The brief also proposed giving social value a minimum of 10% in any procurement evaluation. To support this, the new model was designed to provide “a clear and systematic way to evaluate”. As well as the themes, policy outcomes and metrics, there are suggestions for award criteria, questions to include in tenders and guidance on how to evaluate responses.

We await the outcome of the consultation, hoping it will bring clarity and not simply introduce confusion with yet another model for suppliers to grapple with.

JOURNEY’S END – OR PERHAPS A STAGING POST The purpose of social value is laudable – to bring a thoughtful and caring side to procurement and encourage buyers and suppliers to be accountable for the wellbeing of the community through their actions. I can see it becoming equally important in the private sector as the public sector.

A systematic approach can bring clarity and consistency, both crucial to support a fair procurement process where questions are relevant and appropriate, and assessment is unbiased. On the flip side, systemisation can make things mechanical and remove genuine thought and care. There is a risk that social value will become something we all pay lip service to in the interests of winning a contract.

I hope I have given you an insight into social value and inspired you to research and begin your social value journey, if you haven’t already.

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FROM LONE WOLF TO PACK LEADER RUTA MISIUNAITE advises on the journey from being a self-sufficient salesperson to a successful team leader

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id you know that an average person will have around 12 different jobs in their lifetime?

In sales, everyone starts off as lone wolves, laserfocused on developing skills and smashing targets. You know the type: competitive and ambitious self-starters, who prefer to prowl on their own, but can always be counted on to bring home the big game.

At that point, climbing up the career ladder simply means going after bigger and higherprofile clients. Indeed, prowling on your own can feel thrilling and daring. And the best part is, you’re in control of your own destiny.

That said, sooner or later you will be faced with a choice. You can either continue your career path as an individual contributor or pick a new challenge and step into a leadership position. Gone are the days of wandering around the business development woods on your own. Now, you have a chance to become the leader of the pack.

TRANSITIONING TO TEAM LEADER Perhaps you have been anticipating this career move for a while. After all, there comes a time when even the biggest wins no longer bring as much joy into your life as they used to. Or maybe the opportunity was thrust ISMPROFESSIONAL.COM

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onto you after yet another restructuring.

Whatever the circumstances, the transition from a sales rep to a team leader is not easy.

It requires a completely different set of skills and behaviours to succeed. Plus, I hate to break it to you, but no amount of training will ever prepare you for the real deal.

The good news is that I am about to share with you five easy strategies that you can implement in your first few weeks as a team leader. They are simple, effective and will make the whole process a much smoother and more enjoyable experience for all the parties involved.

1. PUT YOUR TEAM FIRST I have always been a big believer that if you look after your people, they will look after your clients and in return, the money will follow. So, it will come as no surprise that your number one task as a newly appointed leader is to get to know your team.

If you’re not sure where to start, put some time into your diaries to have an informal chat over tea or coffee. Ask your team about what they love most about their job and what they would like to change; find out about their career development goals and what they like to do outside of work. Most importantly, discuss how you can best support them.

Then, listen carefully to their answers.

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Doing this regularly will not only help paint a better picture of how your team operates, but will also aid in understanding how to get the most out of them. In return, your team will be more likely to trust your decisions and buy into your vision.

A great example of how important it is for a leader to have a strong relationship with their team can be found in the music industry. For instance, I often imagine myself as an orchestra conductor, who guides her ensemble into delivering an exhilarating evening full of wonderful music. When you think about it, it’s really not that different from leading your sales team to greatness.

The priorities of an orchestra conductor and a sales leader are alike. First, you need to assemble an elite group of talented players and make sure they work well together. Then, you need to set the tempo by establishing clear goals and expectations. Next, you need to control the interpretation and pacing of the music by introducing a clear set of rules and “Your team will look at your processes that define best behaviours rather than training practice. Last but not manuals to determine what is OK or least, you have to listen not in the workplace” critically and shape the sound of the ensemble by coaching and training your team to help them reach their full potential.

If this sounds like a walk in a park, pause now and listen to the presto movement of Summer in Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons concertos. You’ll soon find out that it is a fast-paced, aggressive and rather turbulent piece of music. In my opinion, it is one of the best examples of what a year in sales feels like.

You could be the best conductor in the world, but if your team does not believe in you and does not want to follow your lead, even playing something simple will turn into a disaster. Remember, people buy into the leader before they buy into the vision.

2. LEAD BY EXAMPLE Like it or not, your team will copy everything you do. There is no way of escaping it. This includes the way you talk to your clients, how you treat your colleagues, and your overall work ethic. As a leader, you set an example of what good looks like in your company. The truth is, your team will look at your behaviours and not training manuals to determine what is OK or not in the workplace.

It is important, therefore, for you to model behaviours that you want to see. For example: l If you want your team to stay calm under pressure, don’t let them see you lose your cool when things get tough l If you want your team to follow internal processes, make sure you don’t cut corners either l If you want your team to be accountable for their actions, always do what you promise. Also, don’t be afraid to admit when you make a mistake 46 WINNING EDGE

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and show how you can learn from that experience l If you want your team to invest in their personal development, let them see you do that regularly too.

It sounds elementary, but it’s easier said than done. The trouble is, many managers can talk the talk, but true leaders must be prepared to walk the walk, no matter how difficult it might be at times.

This means that you may need to start getting rid of your own bad habits.

The alternative can be detrimental to not only your team’s sales performance but their morale as well. If your actions don’t match your words, your team will quickly lose trust in you. Every single one of your decisions will be questioned and they simply won’t follow you as enthusiastically as they would otherwise. Why should they? No-one wants to work for a sloppy boss with double standards.

Hence, in your first few weeks as a team leader spend some time identifying the behaviours you want to see in your team and then make sure to lead by example. Remember, you can’t demand excellence if you’re not modelling it.

3. COMMUNICATE EFFECTIVELY You will learn pretty quickly as a team leader that effective communication is vital. Never assume that you and your team are on the same page if you’re not in constant dialogue with them.

Sure, now you get to make the rules and tell people what to do. But are you getting your point across and do they understand what it is that you want them to do? More importantly, is your team interested in what you have to say? At the end of the day, if you’re not able to inspire your team to take action, can you really call yourself a leader?

This applies both to your expectations around key performance indicators (KPIs) as well as the type of behaviours that would cultivate a highperformance culture. To overcome this challenge, focus on the following three key areas the next time you’re communicating with your team: l CLARITY: Make sure to set SMART (specific, measureable, attainable, relevant, timely) goals.

There is simply no place for vagueness or reading between the lines when it comes to sales management. Always make sure that your team is crystal clear when it comes to understanding business priorities as well as your expectations. l TRANSPARENCY: Your team wants to know what’s going on with the business. Make sure to update them on both the successes and the things that don’t go as planned, as well as the big picture projects that are discussed at your senior leadership meetings. If there’s anything you’re not free to share, simply say so and move on to another subject. This will not only build trust but will make your team feel part of something bigger. l CONSISTENCY: As a leader you want to be predictable. Whether it’s strategic priorities, ISMPROFESSIONAL.COM

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performance KPIs, or something as seemingly trivial as your mood, you should never leave your team guessing what might be coming next. Just think back to how frustrating it was when your boss changed their mind about an important decision after you did all the work based on their previous choice. You just wasted weeks and you’re back to square one. Sure, you might want to switch your sales tactics occasionally, but they should never distract your team from the long-term goals.

Every leader should have a succession plan in place.

For example, if you have a sales rep who is currently acing their pitches, give them an opportunity to work on a client that you would normally assign to someone more senior. It will be a stretch assignment and they will most likely need a lot of hand-holding at first. However, it will help build their confidence, broaden their horizons, and give them an invaluable opportunity to start learning the ropes of their future role early on.

Think of it as an investment in their future.

4. FOCUS ON WHAT’S IMPORTANT AND DELEGATE THE REST 5. CELEBRATE SUCCESS Learning how to delegate changed my life. It truly is When you celebrate, your body releases chemicals one of the most important skills you must develop called endorphins into your body. At that moment, as a leader. Why? Because you simply can’t do you feel incredible. Suddenly, you get an everything yourself – so don’t even try. extraordinary surge of motivation to go after As a leader, your time should be spent on strategic another one of your key accounts. The momentum planning, performance evaluation, coaching, starts building and you keep closing one deal after removing roadblocks to help your team progress another. Success breeds success. deals and, finally, motivating your employees.

Yet, we have been conditioned to move Everything else is priority number two and can be immediately on to the next goal instead of delegated to your team. celebrating our wins. Often, leaders brush off their “Time is money” may be a cliché, but it’s true, team’s victories as them simply doing their job. A and you need to spend your time in areas that will salesperson is supposed to sell, right? Technically, drive the highest return on investment. After all, that’s true. However, there’s so much more to sales why would you waste all that time and energy on management than just hitting your monthly recruiting and training your sales superstars if you numbers. You need to motivate your team and end up doing their job yourself anyway. That simply make them feel appreciated. You need to show that doesn’t make sense. their work matters to you and the business. That’s It’s simple if you’re new to the company and can how you build loyalty and create a high-performing start afresh from day one. It’s more challenging if culture. If you fail to properly celebrate your team’s you’ve been promoted into a leadership position. accomplishments, you are essentially telling them Chances are, you probably that what they are doing hate the idea of handing isn’t all that exciting and “As a leader, your key priority over your favourite clients important. is your team. From now on, to less experienced team As part of my team’s focus on supporting them members. After all, you personal development first and foremost” spent years getting to plans, I ask them to know them and building come up with a list of the relationship, so it’s just easier all round if you champagne moments. It’s a collection of their key keep looking after them in your new role as well… career ambitions, such as winning their first client, I’m sorry to say this, but you need to learn to let booking the first £1m of revenue, getting a go. As a leader, you will not have enough time to promotion and so on. It doesn’t have to be sales manage all your prospective clients and effectively related. Once they hit that goal, we make sure to look after your team at the same time. From now pause, savour the moment and celebrate. on, your key priority is your team. Focus on Sometimes, it’s something as simple as a high five supporting them first and foremost. or a bottle of whisky. You don’t have to be If your role also requires you to pursue any extravagant to show your team you care. prospects on your own, make sure they match your level of skill and expertise. All other accounts can be NOW, REAP YOUR REWARDS left in the capable hands of your team members.

So, there you have it – my five tips on making the Remember, deciding on what not to do is just as transition into your new leadership role a lot more important as deciding what to do. successful and enjoyable. There will be a lot of trial If you’re still not convinced, let me tell you this: and error during the process, and things will not delegation provides opportunities for growth. This always go your way, but if your true passion lies in means that you should anticipate your team’s career uncovering your team’s talents and unleashing their paths and provide them with opportunities to full potential, then a leadership position will be one develop skills needed to qualify for a promotion. of the most rewarding roles of your career.

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RUTA MISIUNAITE (LISM) is senior business development manager, mid-market, at IRI, which provides integrated big data, predictive analytics and forward-looking insights on technology platform IRI Liquid Data. In 6 years, she has progressed from junior salesperson at IRI to leading her own team. She is dedicated to continuous personal development, and to helping fellow sales professionals by sharing her knowledge and experience in blogs, webinars and, of course, Winning Edge articles.

Visit: linkedin.com/in/ ruta-misiunaite

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ISM PROFILE

SALES DELIVERY Winning Edge talks to LEONARD FRASER, who has made a career out of getting things from A to B, about the A to Z of selling What brought you into sales?

I started off at Magnet & Southerns, which sold doors and windows, but it was when the company sent me on a Dale Carnegie selling course and I also read the famous book, How to Win Friends and Influence People, that I really became enthusiastic about selling and that it was a job I wanted to get into. What I like about Dale Carnegie is that he made simple, clear points with examples that anyone could relate to, such as calling people by their first names when appropriate.

You soon moved on to logistics...

I have worked for several firms in the sector that has been my career. I was very enthusiastic and good at relationships – people just liked me – and I got headhunted.

But looking back it can be a mistake to just respond to approaches for more pay and a potentially more challenging role, as you are not necessarily the one in control. I had early success – at Parceline (now DPD), the first such firm I was at, I won a contract with the then largest wholesaler in the UK. Those that lost the deal kept an eye on me.

What was the sales learning curve?

As I had started off in retail, just learning about commercial, B2B selling was a big part of my first steps into logistics. I was rapidly promoted to account management, so handling this level of relationship was also important, and I always honed my skills, as I did at DHL, which invests a lot in training. But my biggest assets are my enthusiasm and drive – it’s true that people buy from people. It’s about what you make people feel, and prospects just warm to me quickly and the way I get to their pain points and what we can do together to solve them.

What could you have learnt sooner?

Looking back I can see that I could have spent more time on classroom learning, such as on the administrative side of account management – I tended to learn through mistakes rather than getting a grounding in the technical side of selling.

What’s changed in logistics?

It used to be that customers would be very happy with delivery in 2 to 3 days. Today, they want it now.

Same day service – and what we call the final mile delivery – is now the forefront of the sector. Take 48 WINNING EDGE

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Amazon – if someone had said just a while ago you could order something and get delivery in 2 to 3 hours they would have said you’re crazy.

You then started your own business...

Yes, with immediate success – one of my greatest deals was negotiating with DHL to offer a technical service to manage projects such as swapping out tills in branches of Tesco – it took great credibility for my small firm to convince these big players we had the skill set to do this. I’ve “Put yourself about – use also done a lot of business development LinkedIn, network and work in the sector. persevere. It took me What is your current company?

18 months to win Amazon.

I’m head of sales at Delivery Mates. We But I didn’t give up” offer final mile delivery. It means for example that a customer in a fashion shop such as Browns (part of Farfetch) can get a garment delivered to them in an hour or so if it’s out of stock at a branch. I also head sales and am a director at parent company OTL Solutions – we have teams in Italy, Spain and Germany as well as the UK. One of our largest clients is Amazon for it’s Prime Now service – it is a hard taskmaster as you’d expect but has given us a number of performance indicators we now use across our businesses.

What do you look for in salespeople?

We tend to take people from our sector such as admin staff and drivers who we can mentor; it’s critical that they fit in with the team and have the same vision. My view is that everyone is a salesperson in our firm – for example, our drivers are always out spotting opportunities. City Pantry was a prospect recommended by a driver who was delivering to them; he opened the door for us.

What are the sales development plans?

We do monthly informal sales training and assessments working to KPIs that allow the team to develop confidence and build aspirations. I am looking to introduce ISM qualifications and as an ISM Fellow I may get more involved with the institute to develop and enhance my own skill set.

What is your top tip for salespeople?

Put yourself about – use LinkedIn, network and persevere. People will remember you. It took me 18 months to win Amazon – but I didn’t give up.

ISMPROFESSIONAL.COM

06/02/2020 16:17

ISM MEMBER BENEFITS

Don’t delay, benefit today!

Did you know that as an ISM member you are entitled to a wide range of benefits and services? We can help you progress throughout your sales career in a number of different ways, such as by providing learning opportunities through our high quality content and insight from senior leaders within the sales industry

ISM MEMBERSHIP BENEFITS INCLUDE: PROFESSIONAL RECOGNITION Displaying your membership designation, such as EISM or FISM, from the leading professional body for the sales industry demonstrates your commitment to ongoing development as a sales professional.

It also significantly strengthens your customer proposals and enables you to stand out from the competition QUALIFICATIONS We offer professional and accredited sales qualifications approved by the government’s qualifications regulator, OFQUAL REGIONAL EVENTS ISM events provide great networking and learning opportunities as we invite senior speakers to present on topics relevant to the sales industry CPD SYSTEM Track your continuing professional development (CPD) activities, such as event and webinar attendance, and sales-related reading. Engaging with the ISM’s CPD system ensures that you are kept up-to-date with industry knowledge and enhances your ongoing professional development

ISM MENTOR SCHEME All our mentors are ISM Fellows.

They come from a range of sectors and are on hand to provide guidance and support to other members, assisting in their professional development. The scheme operates on a one-to-one basis, with mentees choosing the ISM mentor they would like to be paired with, based on which profile best matches their specific individual requirements SALES LITERATURE Members can borrow the best in informative sales and business books for up to 21 days across a range of titles and topics VIDEO LIBRARY Bite-sized thought leadership interviews with senior professionals from a wide variety of different industries, including both SMEs and large blue-chip organisations

WEBINARS Our webinar programme brings the wisdom of top sales leaders straight to you, with essential insights into improving your sales techniques WINNING EDGE Free subscription to the ISM’s industry-leading quarterly magazine, which comprises news, comment, advice and thought leadership on all aspects of the sales profession FREE LEGAL HELP Access instant, authoritative support from Lyon Davidson solicitors LIFESTYLE DISCOUNTS On travel, insurance, shopping and more, bringing down the cost of consumer and business purchases A 30% DISCOUNT On all purchases from leading business publisher Wiley

ISM RECOMMENDED READING Further videos, podcasts, articles and blogs relevant to your ISM membership level, helping develop your career through professional knowledge and understanding

For further information, visit ISMprofessional.com IBC ISM benefits ad V3.indd 2

06/02/2020 18:07

Become an ISM Corporate Partner The ISM is proud to partner with a wide range of organisations, from major blue-chip companies such as Aggregate Industries, AO, Geberit, Redrow, Siemens and Virgin Media Business, to many smaller firms, education providers and others

Corporate Partnership with the ISM provides unique engagement, learning and networking opportunities.

Join us and boost your sales performance REAP THE REWARDS OF CORPORATE PARTNERSHIP WITH THE ISM: l Position your organisation as an ISM Partner, dedicated to sales methods that are professional and ethical l Align your organisation with the ISM’s code of conduct l Reinforce your organisation’s professional status, enhancing customer conversations and sales proposals l Benefit from a sales skills audit – to identify key areas for salesforce development and coaching l Achieve company-based Professional Sales Certification for your sales teams l Access OFQUAL-approved sales qualifications

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l Support your sales staff with a continuing professional development (CPD) plan l Attend unique networking events with top business leaders and sales experts l Influence the ISM’s mission to gain Chartered status, to elevate our representation of the sales industry l Strengthen existing recruitment and retention strategies l Deliver and/or take part in webinars to the ISM’s global audience l Be part of BESMA (the British Excellence in Sales Management Awards) – the UK’s top sales awards

Find out more…

If you are interested in enhancing your brand’s credibility, while developing and recognising your salesforce, ISM Corporate Partnership can help!

For more information, email Adam Brook, ISM head of marketing, at abrook@ ismprofessional.com or call him on 020 3167 4790

06/02/2020 18:09