I recommend this blog from Jill Konrath.
http://bit.ly/inh5u
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Why People are NOT Your Most Important Asset
Really an insightful article by Michael Webb, and I wanted to share it. Why? Because, as Peter Drucker said, "the purpose of business is to create and keep a customer". This article lays it out powerfully.
* * *
B2B Sales executives often believe that hiring the right people and training them well is the most important success factor in their business.
Unfortunately, believing this is a serious mistake.
Want proof? Consider:
You would probably agree there are a LOT of great people in companies like GM, Ford, and Chrysler.
Yet, Toyota, Honda, and Mazda have been kicking their ****** in the market for decades.
Would you say these landed Japanese automotive companies are winning because they’ve hired the right salespeople, or because they’ve trained them better? Is it because they use Sales 2.0?
Of course not. The greatest salespeople and the best sales training in the world will not save the American car companies.
The caliber and training of a company’s people are no match for the larger forces in play here. Yet, these same forces are pressuring every business all the time, especially in today’s market.
So, why are the landed Japanese companies winning?
They are winning because they create more value. The proof is in the market’s reaction: they sell more.
Clearly, the sales process is only one component of their success.
Unfortunately, many, many talented sales leaders are trapped in corporations that view the world in ways similar to those of American automotive companies.
It is high time for B2B sales executives to stop being so myopic about their trade.
I’m not saying people and training aren’t important; they are important. But they are not the most important thing.
The most important things are as follows:
Find a starving market (i.e., what customers want)
Develop a system that finds, wins, and keeps customers (i.e., a sales process)
Develop and continuously improve the organization to execute that process (i.e., the people, training, machines, materials, systems, etc.)
Businesses need to grow out of the false assumption that the sales process is “what salespeople do.”
This error causes B2B organizations to get their sales process completely wrong. It is the reason salespeople only give lip service to the sales process. Salespeople know better, although they are usually unable to articulate why.
The fact is, processes that work create real value. Not only that, people follow them.
In sales and marketing, the sales process is what causes customers to become:
-aware of their problems,
-interested in your solution,
-convinced of your value relative to your competitors, and
-committed to your products and services
Companies must recognize it takes more than just salespeople to do all those things, especially in today’s market.
It is irrelevant whether the customer’s actions are caused (or enabled) by copy-written ads, social networking, web pages, or the words of talented, trusted salespeople.
If something your company did got the customer to take one of those steps, it created value.
If your competitor did a better job of it, they deserve the customer instead.
If your prospects are now looking for information they need on their favorite search engine, and you insist on hiring and training more salespeople to make cold calls, that is your problem, not theirs!
Further, consider all the things your company does that cause no customer actions, such as generating tons of brochures no one reads, spending millions on branding exercises customers care less about, consuming thousands of hours on proposals that are never purchased, or asking salespeople to pull out picks and shovels to turn over more rocks in their territories looking for leads by hand.
All these are mostly waste.
It is high time that B2B sales executives stop being so myopic about their trade.
They need to learn to think of their business as a system for creating value. Value is created when customers take the steps listed above: it is called the “customer’s journey.” Every one of those steps is measurable with hard data. Data from the flow of people through their customer journey is proof you will be able to deliver revenue to your company in the future.
If it is to work properly, your company’s system for getting customers to act needs to be designed. It requires the best selling savvy you can muster. It must be as automated as possible. Your salespeople need be able to implement the portions of the process that cannot be automated.
Executives who cling to old-fashioned notions about selling (hire the best people! make more sales calls! twist more arms! work harder!) are riding the Titanic to the bottom and will be looking for bail outs, just as the American automotive companies are doing today.
The quality of your people is important, but it is not the most important thing.
* * *
Michael J. Webb, president and founder of Sales Performance Consultants, is the author of Sales and Marketing the Six Sigma Way (Kaplan, 2006) and is the foremost expert on sales process improvement. Michael and his team have helped executives of Fortune 500 as well as tiny start ups to improve sales and marketing results by eliminating waste and making the sales funnel flow faster. His company’s website (www.salesperformance.com) contains helpful information around designing, managing and improving B2B sales processes.
The most important thing is the quality of your business process.
* * *
* * *
B2B Sales executives often believe that hiring the right people and training them well is the most important success factor in their business.
Unfortunately, believing this is a serious mistake.
Want proof? Consider:
You would probably agree there are a LOT of great people in companies like GM, Ford, and Chrysler.
Yet, Toyota, Honda, and Mazda have been kicking their ****** in the market for decades.
Would you say these landed Japanese automotive companies are winning because they’ve hired the right salespeople, or because they’ve trained them better? Is it because they use Sales 2.0?
Of course not. The greatest salespeople and the best sales training in the world will not save the American car companies.
The caliber and training of a company’s people are no match for the larger forces in play here. Yet, these same forces are pressuring every business all the time, especially in today’s market.
So, why are the landed Japanese companies winning?
They are winning because they create more value. The proof is in the market’s reaction: they sell more.
Clearly, the sales process is only one component of their success.
Unfortunately, many, many talented sales leaders are trapped in corporations that view the world in ways similar to those of American automotive companies.
It is high time for B2B sales executives to stop being so myopic about their trade.
I’m not saying people and training aren’t important; they are important. But they are not the most important thing.
The most important things are as follows:
Find a starving market (i.e., what customers want)
Develop a system that finds, wins, and keeps customers (i.e., a sales process)
Develop and continuously improve the organization to execute that process (i.e., the people, training, machines, materials, systems, etc.)
Businesses need to grow out of the false assumption that the sales process is “what salespeople do.”
This error causes B2B organizations to get their sales process completely wrong. It is the reason salespeople only give lip service to the sales process. Salespeople know better, although they are usually unable to articulate why.
The fact is, processes that work create real value. Not only that, people follow them.
In sales and marketing, the sales process is what causes customers to become:
-aware of their problems,
-interested in your solution,
-convinced of your value relative to your competitors, and
-committed to your products and services
Companies must recognize it takes more than just salespeople to do all those things, especially in today’s market.
It is irrelevant whether the customer’s actions are caused (or enabled) by copy-written ads, social networking, web pages, or the words of talented, trusted salespeople.
If something your company did got the customer to take one of those steps, it created value.
If your competitor did a better job of it, they deserve the customer instead.
If your prospects are now looking for information they need on their favorite search engine, and you insist on hiring and training more salespeople to make cold calls, that is your problem, not theirs!
Further, consider all the things your company does that cause no customer actions, such as generating tons of brochures no one reads, spending millions on branding exercises customers care less about, consuming thousands of hours on proposals that are never purchased, or asking salespeople to pull out picks and shovels to turn over more rocks in their territories looking for leads by hand.
All these are mostly waste.
It is high time that B2B sales executives stop being so myopic about their trade.
They need to learn to think of their business as a system for creating value. Value is created when customers take the steps listed above: it is called the “customer’s journey.” Every one of those steps is measurable with hard data. Data from the flow of people through their customer journey is proof you will be able to deliver revenue to your company in the future.
If it is to work properly, your company’s system for getting customers to act needs to be designed. It requires the best selling savvy you can muster. It must be as automated as possible. Your salespeople need be able to implement the portions of the process that cannot be automated.
Executives who cling to old-fashioned notions about selling (hire the best people! make more sales calls! twist more arms! work harder!) are riding the Titanic to the bottom and will be looking for bail outs, just as the American automotive companies are doing today.
The quality of your people is important, but it is not the most important thing.
* * *
Michael J. Webb, president and founder of Sales Performance Consultants, is the author of Sales and Marketing the Six Sigma Way (Kaplan, 2006) and is the foremost expert on sales process improvement. Michael and his team have helped executives of Fortune 500 as well as tiny start ups to improve sales and marketing results by eliminating waste and making the sales funnel flow faster. His company’s website (www.salesperformance.com) contains helpful information around designing, managing and improving B2B sales processes.
The most important thing is the quality of your business process.
* * *
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Loyalbility
I used to think that my father was loyal to a fault…that it was even a liability for him. After courting me for seven or so years to leave P&G and then Clorox, I finally submitted and came to work for the family firm. Within the first six months, I leveled a department he had created to house more than a dozen “down on their luck” mis-fits he knew from church and the community.
My father never said much about their dismissal; he either bit his tongue, or was glad I did his dirty work. Very few ever came back to say “thanks” to him . Most were pretty hacked at me, but every single one knew it was coming. The Gravy Train Express had been cancelled. It was the right call for the business.
What struck me was that their effort to contribute was never commensurate with the generosity he provided. It bothered me more than it obviously bothered my father, because he never said a word about it…even when I would.
At his funeral, and for months after, we received note after note from friends and strangers talking about their fondness and appreciation for my father and some secret service he had provided them when there was nowhere to turn. Almost universally, they noted that they wished somehow they would have liked to be able to repay him, or somehow make it up to him.
It was in these mini memoirs of memorializing that I realized that I gravely mistook his kindness for some ignorant and blind loyalty. He was loyal to his charge to provide a chance for others…even when they weren’t everything they needed to be for him. He was willing to let them grow into it.
How do I know?
I’ve come to see that is what he did for me.
My father never said much about their dismissal; he either bit his tongue, or was glad I did his dirty work. Very few ever came back to say “thanks” to him . Most were pretty hacked at me, but every single one knew it was coming. The Gravy Train Express had been cancelled. It was the right call for the business.
What struck me was that their effort to contribute was never commensurate with the generosity he provided. It bothered me more than it obviously bothered my father, because he never said a word about it…even when I would.
At his funeral, and for months after, we received note after note from friends and strangers talking about their fondness and appreciation for my father and some secret service he had provided them when there was nowhere to turn. Almost universally, they noted that they wished somehow they would have liked to be able to repay him, or somehow make it up to him.
It was in these mini memoirs of memorializing that I realized that I gravely mistook his kindness for some ignorant and blind loyalty. He was loyal to his charge to provide a chance for others…even when they weren’t everything they needed to be for him. He was willing to let them grow into it.
How do I know?
I’ve come to see that is what he did for me.
Monday, March 9, 2009
The Plinko Principle
This is a post about two of our approaches to creating tradeshow traffic...
I’m a purist. I would rather our success come from a principled approach, than some cheesey manipulation. Unfortunately, I’ve had to reevaluate whether I wanted to stand prim and proper, or stand among a crowd clamoring to talk to me.
Let me explain two approaches we’ve used to drive tradeshow traffic (and just so you know, we’re no experts…just trying to do our best). One we have used and improved over the past nine years. Another we’ve used just twice…and probably will use a few more times given that we’ve generated five times the results from just two shows than we have over all our shows from the past two years!
Approach #1: The ‘Leading’ Questions
In preparation for the show, we’ll compile a number of good, non-threatening questions that lead people into our booth. Regardless of their answers, we flow to the next question that ultimately leads them to drop their guard and turn into the booth. We have a 33% success with this. Based on the attendance of the show, this translates to a great or good show.
The questions help to engage the buyer who carries some anxiety as they walk that fine, invisible line right smack down the middle of the aisle, carefully avoiding eye contact, and looking at your signage from the corner of their eye to see if there is any reason for them to stop.
Our initial question is designed for them to identify their affiliation (for us, it’s what program group they belong to). We ask, “Are you a _______ dealer?’ It isn’t threatening; in fact it builds a common link between us.
The follow up question takes them to an offer or information they might have received from another source that again ties us to each other. “You probably received the special offer for x, y, or z from [program manager].”
If they aren’t a dealer or with a group we recognize, we might say something like, “Most likely, you didn’t received the special offer for x, y, or z, did you?”
Again, it doesn’t matter whether they answer ‘yes’ or ‘no’, I always have another question that helps me bring them in our booth (and trust me, if someone doesn’t want to talk, we let them go).
Here is the key for us: Once they are in the booth, I can qualify them.
What about the 2/3 of show attendees that I can’t get in my booth? I let them go…happily. They weren’t ready to buy… yet.
Approach #2: The Plinko Principle
Let me create a tradeshow scene for you: Hundreds of people swarming your booth. People lined up 40-50 deep waiting to get in. Crowds standing around your booth trying to understand what in the world you are doing. The marketing company in the booth next to you absolutely embarrassed over the fact that you are not only outdrawing them, you are skunking them.
Believable?
We’ve lived it, and we are trying to figure it out.
We still start with a question: “You want to play?” Most everyone does. Those who don’t want to play, love to watch. Since they are in line waiting to play, we have a captured and friendly audience. They are mesmerized by the plinko tire bouncing down the board missing a road hazard trap or two. While in line, they answer our questions pretty openly. To play, they must give us a card with their contact information. We tell them straight up that we plan to call them after the show to sell them on our programs. “Are you going to be okay when we call?” Most assure us that they will.
“When we call, what would you like us to spend our time on?” After a quick overview of our programs, we get an upfront agreement; make a note of it on the paperwork, and turn them loose on the game.
Here are some of the dynamics we’ve observed with this approach:
1. Make it fun. …and you can make it fun by having the crowds react with the master of ceremonies. It was incredibly loud.
2. Make it loud. The bigger the crowd became, the more it started to draw others. People would leave their aisles and head towards the noise. It was hip to be where the action was. Don't worry about your neighbors...they'll feed off of your success.
3. Be unique…in a good way. We were quite literally, “the only game in town”. No other booth had a game or contest.
4. Crown a champion. We held a “Plinko Playoff” for those who qualify to come back on the last day of the show. You might think there would be some who would come to their senses, and not come back. Nope. 90% and more came back, and brought an entourage with them. Our second tradeshow had 37 out of 40 qualifiers there with bells on.
5. Give a prize for every player. Expensive? I haven’t done the ROI yet, but something tells me that it is less expensive than having workers twiddle their thumbs. I look at it this way, I had hundreds of qualifying conversations with people who actually buy and use what I sell. I’m willing to bet that it will pay out.
And…if you are looking for a Plinko Board, I’ve got a guy for you.
I’ll get pictures up soon.
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Never waste a perfectly good recession…
The auto industry is particularly important to my company. Yesterday’s news stated that Auto sales fell to 9.1 million seasonally adjusted annualized rate...far below even the worst case scenarios in the automakers 2009 plans (GM was planning on 10.5 M and Ford was planning on 12.0M). Continued months with sales rates in a similar boat will mean more drastic action is necessary from all automakers.
Furthermore, GM filed a statement with the SEC that bankruptcy was a possibility if its Viability Plan didn’t succeed. GM’s auditors, Deloitte & Touche said, “recurring losses from operations, stockholders' deficit and inability to generate sufficient cash flow to meet its obligations and sustain its operations raise substantial doubt about its ability to continue as a going concern." Basically, GM’s auditor has serious doubts about GM’s ability to continue without bankruptcy.
So what does that mean to me?
I’m not spending a whole lot of time waiting for the bottom. While we have traditionally sold our wares to the consumer, through the auto dealer, we are creating a product (quickly!) to go straight to the driver.
Tough? Very much so.
If I can generate 20% of our typical volume, I will more than double my net.
Why didn’t we go there before? Great clarity comes from opportunity wrought from adversity.
Will it work?
I’ll let you know…I'll even invite you to protect your tires and wheels!
Furthermore, GM filed a statement with the SEC that bankruptcy was a possibility if its Viability Plan didn’t succeed. GM’s auditors, Deloitte & Touche said, “recurring losses from operations, stockholders' deficit and inability to generate sufficient cash flow to meet its obligations and sustain its operations raise substantial doubt about its ability to continue as a going concern." Basically, GM’s auditor has serious doubts about GM’s ability to continue without bankruptcy.
So what does that mean to me?
I’m not spending a whole lot of time waiting for the bottom. While we have traditionally sold our wares to the consumer, through the auto dealer, we are creating a product (quickly!) to go straight to the driver.
Tough? Very much so.
If I can generate 20% of our typical volume, I will more than double my net.
Why didn’t we go there before? Great clarity comes from opportunity wrought from adversity.
Will it work?
I’ll let you know…I'll even invite you to protect your tires and wheels!
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