Motivation vs Inspiration - What is the role of the Sales Manager?

“Outstanding leaders go out of their way to boost the self-esteem of their personnel. If people believe in themselves, it's amazing what they can accomplish.”
Sam Walton

Motivation or motivating sales teams is a topic that is often talked about, but rarely resolved..

WHY?

Disclaimer: I DON’T HAVE THE ANSWERS. BUT I DO HAVE A FEW QUESTIONS.

What is motivation?
Who owns your motivation?
How can a manager help motivate their staff?
Is it the role of the manager to motivate their staff, or to create an environment so they can motivate themselves?
Can you motivate others or are you inspiring them with your own thoughts, actions and results?

Let’s take a look at a few definitions:

Motivation – The intentions, desires, goals, and needs that determine human and animal behaviour OR Inner strivings of individuals that direct behaviour (McGraw Hill Concise Encyclopaedia)

Inspiration - Stimulation of the mind or emotions to a high level of feeling or activity. (Source: American Heritage Dictionary)

Is it your job as a sales manager to Motivate or Inspire?
If you are not a manager, who owns your motivation?

What steps can managers and their team members take to increase motivation levels?

How long does motivation last if you are not truly committed to it?

There are only two options regarding commitment. You're either IN or you're OUT. There is no such thing as life in-between.
Pat Riley (Former NBA player & coach, Current President Miami Heat)

What are you going to do NOW?

Look for sources of inspiration all around you and take ownership of your motivation...

Here are some sources to get you started...

"I've missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed."

Michael Jordan

"Champions keep playing until they get it right."

Billie Jean King

“Many of life's failures are men who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.”
Thomas Edison

“A leader's role is to raise people's aspirations for what they can become and to release their energies so they will try to get there.”
David Gergen (Commentator, editor, teacher, public servant, best-selling author and adviser to presidents )

"Never let the fear of striking out get in your way."

Babe Ruth

“Those who say it can't be done are being passed by those doing it.”
Unknown

How successful was I at inspiring you to take action and motivate yourself? Let me know @ christian@mysalesmentor.co.uk

"They're too senior and too busy to talk with me.. I am just a sales person." - Perception is Reality

How do you perceive yourself? How do you want your customers to perceive you?

I find from my discussions with clients, colleagues and prospects that many sales professionals often perceive the client to be more important than they are, particularly if they are targeting senior decision makers in their sales process.

It is no wonder that so many sales people fail to engage with their prospects and enter into a discussion as business equals!

Sure the customer is KING and they are indirectly paying your salary. But does that mean that you need to position them as more important than you?

What is your syntax currently like when you describe your position relative to that of your prospects and customers? Could it be more assertive?

What I am suggesting that you ask yourself is:

Is the prospect doing me a favour by taking my call or taking a meeting with me?

OR
Am I doing the prospect a favour by contacting them about an offering that will add value to their business, solve problems, save them time/money or even help them make them money?

Which question is more inspiring? Which is more assertive?

If you genuinely believe that you, your offering and your company will add value to your customers and help them better achieve their goals, why wouldn’t they be happy to hear from you?

The more confident you are that you, your offering and your company will be in a position to help your client and add value to their business, the more comfortable you should be that the decision maker you are contacting will see you as a value adding partner.
The more confident and comfortable you are, the more comfortable your client will be to engage with you and the higher the probability that they will perceive you as a value adding professional.

Believe in you;
Believe that your product or service will add value;
Believe that your company is a trusted industry partner;
Beleive that the client can and will want to buy from you.

If you don’t genuinely believe the above, why should the prospect perceive you positively and want to engage in a business relationship with you?

More importantly, if you don’t genuinely believe in the above, why are you turning up for work?

How you position yourself will have a direct impact on how your clients will perceive you and engage with you.

Position yourself as an equal to your customer and watch your business relationships flourish...

In sales perception is reality.

How successful was I at positioning myself as your equal - let me know @ christian@mysalesmentor.co.uk

"But they said it was their decision.." - Understanding the Decision Making Process

How often have you found yourself following up on a sales opportunity feeling confident that you are close to winning the sale, only to hear –

“It’s all looking good. I just need to run it by my boss before we can go ahead..”

OUCH!!! Don't despair. It happens to the best.

The reality is, your point of contact will more than likely have a degree of decision making ability. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have approached them in the first place, right? The issue you are facing now is that they don’t own both aspects of the decision making process... More on this later.

As a sales professional don’t expect the buyer to make your sales process easy or to willingly provide full disclosure on their company’s decision making process. It is up to you to qualify the prospect on their decision making process BEFORE you fully commit to your sales cycle – i.e. send information, proposals, samples etc.. – and invest your valuable time.

Make sense?

Good. Now back to my earlier point on both aspects of the decision making process.

From my experience there are generally 2 aspects or elements to a decision – Business Value and Budget Authority.

Most sales professionals unfortunately assume that if that they sell the prospect on the benefit of their offering that the sale has been won. Reality – your offering will cost money. If your contact sees business value but cannot also approve the level of spend required to buy your offering you are only 50% of the way there – at best.

So what’s the difference between Business Value and Budget Authority and who owns what?

The Business Value aspect of the decision refers to a prospect evaluating how valuable your offering will be to their business. In other words they are assessing the benefits of your pitch or solution relative to their needs, requirements and problems.

So what job titles will normally fit the bill here? Well of course that depends on what your offering is, however, the usual suspects will be departmental heads or line managers that will likely be the “end users” of your offering or will have to implement it. In other words, they are qualified in their company to evaluate whether your offering will add value.

For example, if you sell recruitment services, the Business Value decision maker could be the Head of Human Resources or in smaller organisations the CEO/ MD. Get the picture?

The Budget Authority aspect of the decision relates to individuals or, in some cases, committees that have the authority to approve a certain level of expenditure within their organisation.

Most organisations will allocate budgets to appropriate departments at the beginning of a fiscal year in order to help the overall organisation achieve its growth, revenue and profit targets whilst keeping an eye on costs. Agreed?

Job titles that have Budget Authority may well be departmental heads if they have been allocated a budget, but will certainly include more senior positions such as the Chief Financial Officer (Finance Director) and Chief Executive Officer (Managing Director).

Let’s put this into practice...

Qualify your client's decision making process:

Does the Department Head have the ability to assess Business Value and have Budget Authority?

Has your prospect used a similar offering to yours in the past?

Is your offering tried and tested?

If not, as a general guide, pitch the CEO/MD of small businesses, Global Heads of the Relevant Business Unit of Mid size businesses and Regional Heads of the Relevant Business Unit of Large businesses. Are you with me?

Better to be referred down and than being referred up after the fact. This is even more relevant during a downturn where every penny spent must and should be justified.

But how do I know if I am speaking to the right person? Simple. Just ASK!

Here’s a useful tip. During the course of your next presentation try the question “..What is the decision making process?” even if you are presenting to a CEO/MD. Not only does it allow you to better qualify if you are speaking to the right person than “Is this your decision?”, it will also give you insight on how well you have engaged the prospect.

So. How well are you and your team qualifying your prospect’s decision making process?

Next time you or your team members come across “... I just need to run it by my boss..” what are you going to do?

No point playing the blame game. Be proactive and seize it as an opportunity to train yourself/team to understand your customer base and how decisions are made within their companies. Chances are similar sized companies within an industry vertical you target will have similar decision making processes. Build your sales process around what you already know and then adapt. Next time you have a meeting with your sales team, why not have a discussion on the decision making process you went through with a sample group of existing customers? You will be amazed at what a little preparation can make to your sales process.

Don’t expect the customer to qualify and sell themselves. That’s your job :)

Take ownership of your sales process and learn from every interaction you have with a customer.

How successful was I at conveying my message. Let me know @ christian@mysalesmentor.co.uk

Engaging the Customer - Why didn't they buy?

"Why didn't they buy?" is a question that sales professionals and their managers ask constantly.

Unfortunately, for the majority the question leads them to try and associate blame. Blaming the customer, blaming the economy, blaming any potential variable other than themselves.

Get the picture?

So what is the right question? How about - "What can I do to engage the customer and guide them to buy?"

People buy on benefit.

So the number 1 priority for any sales professional should be to create value and benefits for their clients. Sounds simple, but how is it done?

Fine. Let's look into the basics of any sales process.

The typical sales professional will have a strong level of product knowledge. You will be able to list the features of your product/service at will.

Good start.

But what does a feature really tell the client? At best it will inform the client about a characteristic or trait of your product/service. For example, this laptop has WiFi capability. How clear is the value here to the client? Did it engage the client?

Better performing sales professionals understand that 'telling' the client about what your product/service will do for them will not win them over. You understand that in order for the client to be engaged, it is your responsibility to demonstrate the unique selling point(s) of your offering compared to other substitutes.

Next time you are presenting to a client why not incorporate "the advantage of X feature is...." into your presentation. Do you think that will make your value message clearer?

But I still don't see how this will help me engage the client you say...

Remember, people buy benefits. So what is the process of creating benefits?

Let me ask you this: When do you feel that you will benefit from using or buying something?

For me, it is when an offering helps me or I can see how I can gain from using that offering. Agreed? Right. So in order to create a benefit you must discover the needs and wants of your customer, and then match those needs and wants with the features and advantages of your product. Make sense?

Good. So how does this apply in the real sales world?

Example - The new X model laptop is WiFi ready. The advantage to you, Mr Customer, is that it will allow you to connect with your customers, work colleagues and suppliers seamlessly even when you are on the go. As an executive that travels regularly, do you think that you would benefit from using the WiFi function?

People buy benefits. Create value for your clients and they will want to buy from you.

I understand that the above example has been over simplified. That said, I trust that it was successful at demonstrating to you how you can modify your existing presentations to better engage the client and create more value.

How successful was I at engaging you? Let me know christian@mysalesmentor.co.uk

my sales mentor

....making success happen