Why Do Executives Join Peer Groups?

After 6+ years of interviewing candidates for the Chief Revenue Officer (CRO) Executive RoundTable, the primary business reason most join is clear – Leaders listen to employees and experts but believe peers.

Leaders know they have to make good decisions for their business to prosper and grow. Most have 3 primary sources of input:

Direct Reports – employees have good tactical knowledge about the business today but typically have limited bandwidth regarding growth possibilities on the horizon.

Outside Experts – experts bring knowledge, but applicability is always a “fear of discovery” concern.

Peers – experience brings the “been there, done that” tribal knowledge of how the real world works…and they don’t work for you or want to sell you anything. That is the core reason why executives value a peer group membership.

CRO Executive RoundTable – we help members take the guesswork out of growth options and revenue strategies.

Why Would a Sales Person Ever Say No?

Successful sales leaders and sales people are the ones who are skilled at moving through the prospect stages of KNOW – LIKE – TRUST.

Let’s begin with the underlying belief that it is always best to tell the truth. In any situation whether personal or professional - never tell a lie. Not only is this good for your stress level, heart, blood pressure, etc. but also because, in the words of Mark Twain, “if you tell the truth you never have to remember anything”.

For sales leaders and sales people, when in the sales process there are many situations that arise where it seems that the flat-out truth is the obvious response and it seems also obvious that telling the truth is very detrimental to winning the sale. In such situations, it is very tempting to avoid giving a direct answer like ‘no, we cannot do that’ and instead respond in a manner that stretches the truth so that the sales process stays alive and you can still hope to close the sale. Tempting as this might be, it is not a long-term success formula. One should never tell a lie. “A single lie discovered is enough to create contagious doubt over every other truth expressed” – author unknown. When you are found to have stretched the truth (or worse) your credibility takes a negative turn that is hard, if not impossible to recover from.

Ideally, you will always have the best product with perfect capabilities and be the clear leader in the prospects consideration. For many that is not the case and so sales training, skills and ability to ‘think on your feet’ become critical to the sales process and ultimately winning the sale. When you know your product capabilities, understand the competition and their strengths and weaknesses, have done your research on the prospect and the prospects business/industry, then you are in a strong position that minimizes the temptation to stretch the truth or even to have to say "no."

Although one should never say never, I believe strongly that in the sales process a sales leader/sales person should never say "no."  Why? Here are the primary reasons you will find yourself in a position to respond ‘no’ to a prospect, even though you have worked hard to identify a good prospect and qualify the opportunity:

Competition is doing their job! If the competition is any good, they will know your weaknesses versus their own strengths and weaknesses. The competition will work to put themselves in good standing and create ‘Fear, Uncertainty & Doubt’, or FUD, about you and your product/solution.

Prospect has partial or inaccurate information! Information received from well-meaning friends & family, peers & workers, or internet research often results in a biased view of your product/solution.

Prospect is focused on a symptom not the real issue! The humorous saying ‘When you are up to your *** in alligators, it is difficult to remember that your objective is to drain the swamp!’ applies here. Often the challenges of the day and resulting pain points drive a prospect to want to just fix the immediate pain.

Prospect is positioning for a concession! While not as common as the first three mentioned, there are times when the prospect wants your product/solution and this is a way of negotiating for a better price.

Encourage the prospect to talk about why they want to make a change and not just focus on a specific item that may not be in your favor. Rather than stretch the truth or say ‘no, we can’t do that’ or similar phrasing, it is best to bring the prospect back to the positive by reframing the opportunity in the context of the strengths you and your product/solution have for the prospect. Offer an answer on why the prospect benefits more from you and your product/solution than from any other option. Remaining positive throughout the sales process greatly enhances your credibility with the prospect and thereby enhances your chances of closing the sale.

CRO RoundTable is focused on revenue growth and the strategy, leadership and execution necessary to improve skills such as this.

The Inside vs. Outside Sales Rep Choice

Your company’s fate is in the hands of your sales people. 

Whether you are hiring for inside or outside sales, you are going to give careful consideration to the candidates in front of you. But back up a bit. Have you thought about the role that they will play specific to your business? This is essential; think it through.

The Nature of the Sales Role – Outside vs. Inside

If you’re hiring outside sales, also called “field sales”, you’re expecting reps to meet with prospects face-to-face, have a detail-oriented appearance, and probably do a lot of traveling. Their managers may see them only quarterly. The sales they’ll negotiate will tend toward greater complexity, and probably be a longer process to establish. Their communication, by phone or email, is often oriented toward setting up appointments.

An inside sales rep works in an office where they will show up most every workday, and may also be “on call” to cover additional hours. They spend a lot of time obtaining new business through cold calls, so they must be great at giving information without visuals or props. The ability to clearly articulate a product or service, while also reading the person across the phone line, is a gift common among successful inside sales people.

Reviewing these two styles of business sales, it’s obvious that each attracts its own personality type. You want to be sure of which you are seeking when you put out the call. But the question remains: which call to make? The answer is as unique to your own business as a sales rep is to the process of sales.

Tips For Determining Which Model Matches Your Business

• What kind of clients/customers are you going after? Is their industry more oriented toward one sales style over another? Example: if you’re in active sports, chances are you want a team of outside sales people demoing products and conducting clinics.
• What size is the business of the client you’re chasing? It your targets are SMBs, and your product isn’t demo-heavy, inside sales could be your best bet.
• Calculate what you can afford. If you need revenue to roll in NOW, you probably can’t afford to send sales reps across the map for face-to-face. Bear in mind that rep productivity must make good financial sense for you.
• Consider the solutions your product or service offers for the problems your customer faces. What is the best approach to deliver the message that their problem can be solved?
• Do you have the management in place to work with the type of rep you are considering hiring? If your management team regularly sits down with their reps, they’re going to want to keep the sales force inside. If they’re all about setting the reps up for success and letting them roll, outside sales are what they’re all about. Don’t force a square peg into a round hole!

Tips For Selecting The Best Reps

It’s all about you. The bottom line is getting the folks who are going to score wins for your business. You may already know how to hire salespeople: when reviewing candidates, keep your eyes open and trust your instincts, but let your instincts rely on these points.

• Select talent and skills over experience. Although experience is a benefit not to be ignored, it is not an ultimate predictor of success. Too many variables affect sales for you to rely on the individual’s experience as the highest hiring factor. It’s the opposite for skills and talent; these traits can be measured. Learn how to best assess and factor their abilities into your decision.
• Beware of the herd mentality. Hire salespeople who are not just like you. A diverse team brings varying skill sets, delivers fresh solutions and will likely have broader overall knowledge. Look for reps with unique styles that round out your needs.
• Set up hiring situations and put the candidate into play. Mirror the selling situation the salesperson will be placed in. Check out how they handle multiple questions, interact with varying levels of power and make eye contact. Be sure to envision the candidate selling for your company.
• Put the search for perfection to rest. Make a list of your company’s “need-to-haves” and a list of the “nice-to-haves.” Do not expect to check all boxes on each list. The right sales candidate will have some blemishes. This just means they have room for improvement, as well as the potential for adaptation and great growth within your company.

Clearly, you want the sales person you hire to be within the image of the rep you have in mind. If you hire a Clark Kent, don’t expect him to snap into Superman. But with the right basics starting out, and great guidance and tools from you, he just might become a superhero for your company.

A Sign of Cloning-Complete Agreement

Photo by Samantha Scholl on Unsplash

Building the best team involves picking the right horses

From the Harvard Business Review (emphasis mine):

“Team leaders want to nurture creativity. That’s why team building is often a high priority, because cohesion is supposed to help team members work together to achieve their goals. But you should avoid fostering too much cohesion. When it comes to creativity, the best teams fight a little (or even a lot). Structured, task-oriented conflict means that new ideas are being submitted to the group and tested. If your team always agrees, that might mean people are self-censoring their ideas or not generating any new ideas at all. Research suggests that when teams forgo traditional brainstorming rules and engage in debate, they end up with more and better ideas. As a leader, it may seem like your job is to break up fights, but don’t be afraid to act as a referee instead. Allow disagreements over ideas to unfold, while making sure it stays fair and doesn’t get personal.“

How true.  If your sales team is always in agreement, it is probable that you have either assembled a group cloned after yourself or you are overly domineering and no one wants to challenge any idea.  Either one is detrimental and definitely needs to be addressed (i.e. corrected).

If you have a group that you cloned after your own style and strengths, you are dealing with a group weakness effect whether you are aware of it or not.  Although you have strength in certain areas, other areas can be complete blind spots.  The problem with blind spots is that markets move, and if they move into one of your group blind spots, you will lose market share quickly.  The strongest teams we assess have a variety of styles and strengths which provide a well-rounded group skill set.  These teams are more difficult to lead and they often debate, but therein lies their strength.

If you are domineering, that is a different issue requiring a behavior change (no small feat).  The first step is to know you are overpowering some, or all, of your team.  As the article states, you should view yourself more as the referee and less of the active player.  A thoughtful pause, a question for others’ input, deflecting to the group…these are all approaches that will help empower your people to be more creative.

Find a Phrase that Pays: Let your Differentiating Value be your Message

You’ve heard it before: the KISS principle is smart for business. Keep your message short and simple, but it’s equally as important to make it memorable.

So why do people in business continue to bury their prospects with an avalanche of words? It’s because they haven’t stopped to define what they’re bringing to their prospect’s world, and to see that value through the eyes of their ideal client. Never lose sight of the objective: prospects must understand what they will lose if they opt not to do business with you. It’s your differentiating value – the most important aspect you are bringing to them.

Now start the process to artfully craft your message/elevator pitch, keeping your differentiating value in mind. You’ll use this to drive your message without interruption, break the ice when networking, and build prospect traction with your business focus. The challenge is to get outside of your own thinking and start thinking in the client’s terms. Your differentiating value is what the client thinks and cares about. What would your current clients say about you? These thought points will help you to get going.

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Define the purpose of your business. What value are you delivering to your client or customer? What would your current clients say about you?

Example:  We help other businesses find their ideal clients and grow.

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Define how your business delivers. Go with the action verb(s) that convey(s) what the company does.

Example:  Our company…works with / builds / delivers / enables / ____________

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Build a profile of your target market.  Ask questions:  What is the economic demographic? Annual revenue? Number of offices, employees, etc.

Think up as many questions as you like – you can have fun with this. Imagine what your ideal customer does throughout the day, and how your product or service fits in. Take it even further:  Consider anything that builds a true portrait of the organization / individual that is best suited for your product or service.

List what your prospects will lose by not using your product or service. You’re in business to solve a problem, right? So what problems will arise (or stick around) as a result of their declining your offering?

Now you have the basic points for your phrase that pays.  But go deeper to ensure that your message always hits the mark.

• Consider your intended audience. Who will read this and in what context? Are you going to use this as a mission statement on your website and throughout your sales and marketing materials? What tone will best present what your business is all about?

• Make clarity your ultimate goal. Use terms that are easily relatable. Forget the grand words intended to dazzle, rather than relay. You don’t want the person hearing your message to gloss over mid-way through. Rather, you want them to ask for more.

• Don’t have it all be about you. Prospects buy for their reasons – not yours.  Keep the focus on how you improve their business.  

• Leave room for questions. The mechanics of what you offer can come later. Right now you want to engage your audience; make them ask you questions, don’t overwhelm or bore them – two true turnoffs.

• Practice. If you’re going to be delivering before an audience, or one-on-one, practice saying it. Befriend your mirror; once you perfect your style of delivery, you’ll never walk away from a presentation wondering if you looked authoritative.

It won’t take long to get your message/pitch to a place where it comes naturally. Remember that if you’re not clearly and concisely translating what your product or service will do for your prospect, they are not going to do it for you. Get to the point and get your prospects engaged. Don’t waste time splashing around in the word waterfall!

Curious to learn more Sales Techniques - consider joining the CRO Executive Roundtable!

Source:

Chief Revenue Officer! B2B Success Model, Carl Moe, Eighth Edition, ©2016