Posts - Page 1

  • Hablamos Español - Jeb Bush, Sonia Sotomayor, Tim Kaine, Rubio, Paltrow, Affleck...

    Aug 21st, 2017 - Category: Sales

    Jeb Bush We have been studying Spanish for the past few years and after trips to Costa Rica, Spain, Cuba, Uruguay, Mexico, and Chile, it has become clear how incredibly pervasive the Spanish speaking culture is in the United States as well. Despite the title, this is not a political post, but a nod to the diversity that is so thinly veiled behind the English dominated world. A favorite restaurant employee, a Supreme Court justice, construction workers, many politicians (whether you agree or disagree with their political positions), landscapers, “caucasian” celebrities, professional athletes, and many others all speak the second most popular language on the planet (behind Chinese!).

  • Do You Know Where Your Customers Are?

    Jul 5th, 2016 - Category: Sales

    Google has done a great job with storytelling in their video on Micro-Moments. As part of their Think with Google series, it is a two minute introduction to capturing a customer in their “moment of need.” It’s especially powerful on LinkedIn where it presents complex scenarios as images delivered regularly. Four can be found at the end of this post.

  • Secrets of the Superbosses

    Feb 23rd, 2016 - Category: Sales

    To continue the recent post, “The Power of Silence,” I wrote that some companies I have worked with have no idea what “the silence” is saying about their products and services. The post ended by suggesting that grooming talent that cares about customers’ issues and needs is critical to breaking negative aspects of the power of silence. As so often happens, another example recently surfaced during a conversation at Phoenix Startup Week.  A national sales manager was having ongoing problems with an underperforming sales engineer. The engineer was well educated, well trained, and seemed to be doing all the right things in his large territory, but sales were mediocre. The company’s products were excellent and rapidly gaining worldwide marketshare so that wasn’t the problem. After some analysis, the sales engineer seemed to be better at supporting customers than making sales so the national sales manager hired local sales reps and promoted the sales engineer to a regional manager position. The result, sales were still stagnant. What was the problem?

  • Rethinking Sales: Part 10 – Sales as a Profession

    Oct 21st, 2015 - Category: Sales

    There is much more to be said about the topics in last month’s post Rethinking Sales: Part 9 – Sales Without Commissions,” but the writing is on the wall. Sales must stop being a black box where commissions go in and orders come out. It is the last part of an organization where a lack of understanding (and management accountability) results in unnecessary commission expenses. Sales managers may be the only people who know if their salespeople are contributing to the organization at a professional level and they ain’t telling. Their compensation is based on sales performance too! I’ve seen mediocre sales people making $200K+ a year after receiving large, unexpected orders from major accounts. Management has no clue whether the salesperson was key to winning those orders or not.

  • Sales Without Commissions - Some Additional Thoughts

    Sep 25th, 2015 - Category: Sales

    After writing the recent post, “Rethinking Sales: Part 9 – Sales Without Commissions,” I came across the post that started this series “Part 1 – Rethinking Sales: Overcoming Functional Fixedness in Commission Based Selling.” Although it was written over two years ago, the basic ideas are still relevant. If commissions are eliminated and a reasonable (even generous) salary replaces them, there can still be a lack of salesperson motivation. The original post references a TED talk by Daniel Pink related to his book “Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us.” The transcript of the talk is a quick read, faster than watching his talk, and a lot faster than reading his book. To summarize, Pink TED Talk employees prefer activities that include these three characteristics:

  • Rethinking Sales: Part 9 – Sales Without Commissions

    Sep 22nd, 2015 - Category: Sales

    What types of companies can begin to consider transitioning to a commission-less sales team? One answer comes from David Chichelli’s book “Compensating the Sales Force.” If salespeople are not the primary influence at the point of persuasion then why is commission being paid? These types of companies are common in high technology industries. If a company is the “gorilla in the marketplace” with brand recognition, effective marketing, great support, and significant mindshare from customers, then salespeople are probably not doing much to influence at the point of persuasion. These salespeople should be transitioned away from commission based compensation. R&D engineers are not on commission, support teams are not on commission, marketing is not on commission, why is the sales team so special? Apple’s retail stores are legendary for their sales performance and none of their salespeople receive commission.

  • Following-Up: Amazon's Fire Phone and Tipless Restaurants

    Sep 11th, 2015 - Category: Sales

    It has always been surprising to me how many times I eventually “get the rest of the story.” Why was that terrible (or great) business decision made? Why did that customer buy (or not buy) that major system? Why did so and so leave (or join) a certain company? In many cases, I have eventually met somebody (or read something) who clearly explained what was incomprehensible to me at the time.

  • Technical Sales 101: Part 9 - Sales Compensation

    Jul 28th, 2015 - Category: Sales

    As a result of a recent project (and several recent posts), I have been thinking quite a bit about salesperson compensation. Over the years, I have spent a considerable amount of time with salespeople and have heard the good, bad, and ugly sides of compensation plans. The overall goals are straightforward: reward exceptional performers and weed out below average performers. Most talented salespeople (and sales managers) are more comfortable with ”industry standard” compensation practices. One book that I have used as a reference is Chicelli’s “Compensating the Sales Force.” This author is a more conservative sales compensation consultant with ideas that are in line with the state of the practice. To summarize a long and fairly complex book, the basic philosophy is that the major function of sales is to “persuade buyers in the face of uncertainty and risk.” Therefore, salespeople should be compensated for their ability to “influence the point of persuasion.”

  • Some Thoughts About Salespeople (aka Coin Operated Idiots)

    Jun 17th, 2015 - Category: Sales

    Lars Dalgaard is a name you probably haven’t heard before. I certainly hadn’t until I read his article in TechCrunch “To Clean Up Your Startup’s B.S., Bring Sales Into The Leadership Team.” Even though I didn’t know him, the article grabbed my attention so I dug a little deeper and it immediately became clear that Lars is a heavy hitter in the business world. He sold his last company, Success Factors, to SAP for $3.4 billion and now he is on the board of Zenefits, one of the fastest growing business services startups in history.

  • Some Thoughts About 'Scum Reps'

    Jun 10th, 2015 - Category: Sales

    I heard it again the other day: a client complaining about his sales representation. After asking a couple questions, the reasons became clear: expectations and neglect. I’ve seen the same problems dozens of times  before. One of the reasons I was initially hired by Bruel and Kjaer is because they needed someone to manage their new “outsourced” sales team in certain territories. Who better to manage reps than someone who was one, right?