The Power of Thought and attitude in salesWhen that guy on the freeway nearly ran you into the median the other day (or maybe it was this morning)—were you angry or matter-of-fact about the situation?

Were you screaming obscenities, or was it a more pragmatic, “Hmm, it’s too bad that he’s driving dangerously; I really wonder why he’d put himself at risk like that”?

When it rains does it depress, or captivate you?

When a prospect doesn’t show up to an appointment, is it because they’re an idiot, or because they’re a business professional with exceptional demands on their time, who needs and deserves your best work, your best effort to help them?

The answer is, of course, it’s a choice. Your choice . . . .

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Loved a recent post by the self-proclaimed “A Sales Guy” talking about the fact that when a sale focuses on price, it’s because the relative value surrounding the price has no context.

Take, for example, two salmon fillets, one $6.00 a pound, one $9.50. Same size, same weight. All things being equal, you take the cheaper of the two, right?

But what if the $6.00 / pound fillet was raised in a fish farm with 10,000 other salmon and artificially enhanced—and the $9.50 / pound fillet is freshly caught, true Alaska Salmon?

The context controls the value here . . . .

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3-point specialists - Every sales team needs them

Question: What do the names Eddie Johnson, JJ Redick, Trent Tucker, and Craig Hodges have in common?

Answer: They’re all NBA basketball players who were able to have successful careers primarily by being proficient at one thing (and not much else):

Making three-point shots.

These were players who realized that the highest value to their teams was to focus on what they did well—and develop as many “sub-skills” around that core value as they could.

JJ Redick will never win a dunk contest, or be considered anything more than a mediocre defender—but he has perfected the art of coming off screens, and has a lightning-quick shot release.

It’s not always the case, but in today’s Sales 2.0 World, a lot of the time it’s better to be fantastically good at one thing than to be average at half-a-dozen . . . .

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There’s been a lot of talk ever since our 2009 InfoUSA study revealed that the inside sales industry was projected to grow at 7.5% per year over the next five years, while outside sales industry jobs is stagnating at 0.5% growth.

bNet Business’s Geoffrey James even sounded off on the topic, questioning the reasons behind the slow obsolescence of outside sales when the sales process and buying cycle have become even more “touch” intensive and complex.

In my mind, however, the trend is significant, but hardly inexplicable. The Web has made one of sales’ primary functions—distributing information to prospects—a much different activity than before. Even for complex purchases, there’s a wealth of information about available products and services, and the average prospect has significantly less of a need to rely on a sales rep to provide actionable information . . . .

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Metrics isn't just about productivityMost managers will tell you that the primary reason to use good sales metrics and sales management tools is to improve performance.

Good processes and metrics, the old idea states, makes it easier to track productivity, accountability, and reward reps accountable for the work they do.

What’s not talked about as often, however, is the idea that having clear, consistent sales metrics also acts as a motivational force.

When sales and lead generation teams have to work with goals that are unclear and poorly defined, it leads to a psychology of paralysis. Time and effort are precious commodities in a sales organization, especially when agents have to constantly reevaluate and prioritize their activities. Sales reps simply don’t have the time to work on “stuff” that isn’t going to produce a real benefit for them and the organization.

But without clearly stated goals, reps are forced to guess what the most important use of their time is at any given point. Should they take that appointment, or get back on the phone? Is this product demo really going to be worth it, or should they be re-contacting that deal that got put on hold last month, but had a lot of potential?

Without a clear indication of how any given action is going to help a sales rep maximize their time (and ultimately the company’s), it leads to frustration and apathy, and most reps in this situation react by going with their gut instinct of what’s going to make them more money, regardless of whether it’s good for the company or prospect.

Good metrics and processes allow managers to be more effective, but don’t forget that a rep who doesn’t know how to get maximum reward is rarely going to give maximum effort.

 

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In two previous posts, we’ve identified that: Sales and marketing come from different “cultural” perspectives. Sales is results-oriented, marketing is human-interest driven. In B2B, the needs of sales—i.e., getting good sales leads—overrides marketing’s impetus for branding and market research. The question I asked at the end of Part 2 was, “How can you align a…

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