Train Your Sales Team with Michael St. Lawrence, How to “Sell for Results”

This training module is based on a conversation with Michael
St. Lawrence, president of Outsell Consulting and author of the best-selling book, If You’re Not Out Selling, You’re Being Outsold. He has keynoted and mentored sales executives inside numerous multinational and Fortune 500 companies. He can be reached at OutSell Consulting, Inc.,
250 N. Harbor Drive, Suite 305, Redondo Beach, CA 90277.
Telephone: 310/372-1348.
Web: www.outsellconsulting.com

What is “selling for results?”
In sales, a “result” is something that happens because of a customer-related activity. For example, if a rep sends a white paper to a customer and the customer then asks for a demo, the demo is a result of the mailing. Sales processes are, in fact, a series of activities that are intended to create a chain of “results” that eventually lead to a sale, gradually lead towards a long-term customer relationship, and – ultimately – create better financial results for the CFO to report at the end of a quarter. Thus, selling for results means paying intense attention to, and making tiny improvements to, each step of the sales process. The idea is to constantly increase the percentage of times that each sales activity actually generates the desired chain of results.

Any activity that sales reps perform that is not directly connected to moving the sale forward is not “selling for results.” This includes paperwork, internal email, monkeying with CRM, corporate politics, schmoozing with coworkers, complaining about broken computers, sales training, talking about the bad economy, or grousing about the weather. This is not to say that some of these activities aren’t necessary (like CRM), important (like sales training) or, at worst, inevitable (like corporate politics). It’s just that those activities are not helping the customer move forward through the pipeline and therefore are not “selling for results.”

Different sales teams face different selling cycles. In shorter-cycle “transactional selling” the key is to generate maximum honest and ethical results given the opportunities you get. If a top performer can generate a 40 percent closing ratio by being completely honest and helpful to the customer, then that needs to be the targeted result. The key to generating that result is to establish great rapport, do a good job of questioning for needs, present a compelling product solution, and identify buying barriers while applying positive closing methods.

By contrast, with longer-cycle selling it’s critical to move the sale forward with each interaction. But it’s also very important to have a continuing sales process of interactions, each with an expected result. Each interaction with someone in the buying chain needs to move the sale forward in a positive way. The best sales reps working with longer sales cycles are very creative in their approach toward moving the sale forward without becoming an annoyance to the company they are trying to sell to. In other words, “selling for results” varies according to the environment and the skills required to perform in that environment.

Why “selling for results” is
a neglected art
There’s often a disconnect between what sales management expects in terms of results and what sales reps think they’re supposed to be delivering. When sales reps write down the results that they think they’re supposed to be generating, and those lists are shown to their managers, the managers almost always admit to being surprised (and often alarmed) at how badly they’ve communicated their requirements. In most cases, the sales reps will simply list activities that they’re supposed to be undertaking (like making sales calls) or simply restate their sales quotas. Very few articulate the specific results that they’re supposed to be getting at each stage of the sales process.

It is challenging and time-consuming, but necessary, for a sales manager to clearly communicate the desired results of the sales process, and then assess the ability of each sales rep to create those results. In most cases, this means discovering how well each rep can execute on each step of the sales process by working closely, one-on-one with each rep, preferably in a sales call environment. Unfortunately, rather than spending that time and effort, many sales managers find it more convenient to “manage by the numbers” and spend their time looking at CRM reports and shooting not-all-that-helpful emails to reps who don’t seem to be making their numbers.

Similarly, top executives sometimes think so “big picture” that they have no idea of the chain of results necessary to actually execute a given strategy. Many times, the directives from top management to the sales group take the form of vague goals, like “increase the customer base” or “take out the competition,” accompanied by platitudes about innovation and customer service. Such pronouncements are often at odds with whatever sales process is currently in place, and thereby provide a reason for sales managers and reps alike to ignore incremental improvements and instead focus on the “big picture.”

How to encourage reps to
“sell for results”
Treat sales reps like world-class athletes. Sports organizations expend vast efforts working on incremental improvements for each aspect of an athlete’s ability to play the game. A coach might spend a day, for example, just working on the first second of movement that a runner takes at the beginning of a race, trying to shave a microsecond off the average time. The cumulative effect of those tiny improvements, over time, can give an athlete a vast advantage over competitors who have not trained so assiduously. Training reps to “sell for results” involves breaking the sales process down into steps, and then looking for incremental improvements in the ability of each rep to execute each step.

For example, one of the first results in any sales process is a good first impression. It’s a truism that most customers make a decision whether they might buy from a rep within the first 10 seconds. Because a bad first impression almost always scuttles a sales process, there are few results that are more important than a good first impression. Areas of potential incremental improvement include eye contact, handshaking, voice tonality, opening sentence, physical grace, relaxed demeanor, and the overall ability to use those elements to exude a sense of self-confidence.

With this in mind, a sales manager who wants to encourage a rep to sell for results typically goes on a sales call with the rep. During the call, the manager privately notes how well the rep handles various aspects of the sales call that are intended to create the result for that call. The manager then works one-on-one with the rep, working through repetitive role-play intended to increase the rep’s ability to excel at each aspect of achieving that result. The sales manager should also recommend regular exercises that the rep can perform on his or her own time to help the rep focus on correcting areas of weakness. For example, if a rep has an annoying voice tonality, the manager might ask the rep to record his or her speaking voice using different tonalities.

In other words, the sales manager should focus on incremental improvement rather than just on the “bottom line” of closed deals. For example, suppose that providing literature to the customer is part of a long-term sales cycle. Change a rep’s behavior so that he or she sends that literature immediately after a sales call, so that it appears on the customer’s desk the next morning. Or, focus on the effectiveness of the hand-written note that accompanies that literature. Or, hone the rep’s ability to ask for a future meeting in return for providing the literature.

Quick Tips for Your Next Sales Meeting

One of the most fruitful areas for incremental improvement in “selling for results” is building rapport. Here are some quick pointers for your team:
• Realize that the opening minute of any new interaction creates an impression that is difficult to change. Become a master of the first impression by focusing in on it.
• Remember who the customer is most interested in. If you find yourself talking too much about your weekend, your golf game, your family, or your job, then you’re probably not listening enough.
• When meeting someone for the first time, get their name right. Be fanatic about pronunciation with unusual names. People will appreciate it, and you will communicate that you care.
• Record interesting information about your customers, like the names of family members and birthdays. Show your customers that you remembered what they told you about themselves.
• Try to speak positively about others. Whatever the temptation, avoid criticizing anyone, even a competitor, in front of your customers.
• Develop a warm and friendly greeting. If you’re in sales, your smile, handshake, and eye contact should be top quality.
• Remember that rapport is a result of likability, competence, and preparedness. Pay attention to all three factors.
• Likable people are typically genuinely interested in others, enthusiastic, and eager to help. Your attitude will play a big role in developing rapport.

Sales Manager’s Training Guide

At Your Next Sales Meeting

Below are 12 practical steps to help your sales team focus more on selling for results. This sales meeting should take about 50 minutes.

1. Prior to the meeting, be certain that you have a stopwatch that you can use for the training.

2. Open the meeting by explaining that you’re going to work on improving performance in some small ways that will make a big difference. Point out that small improvements in sales technique can geometrically increase the positive results at each stage in the sales process.

3. Ask the team members to pull out their calendars and estimate the total minutes that they’ve actually spent talking with customers, either in person or on the phone, within the past week. Tell them to be honest with themselves because you’re not going to ask them to share this information.

4. Have the team members divide the total by 2,400 and multiply the result by 100 to get the percentage of time that they’re spending with customers. Point out that if their percentage is smaller than they expected (and it almost undoubtedly will be), they’d better be making good use of their customer “face time.” You should now be five minutes into the meeting.

5. Ask each team member to take a minute to prepare a 30- to 60-second anecdote of something that they’ve done over the past week that has had a positive impact on a customer.

6. Select a team member and have him or her share the anecdote. Use the stopwatch to determine the timing, demanding more (if the story runs short of 30 seconds) or cutting it off (if it runs more than 60 seconds.) Repeat this exercise with about six to seven anecdotes.

7. Explain that the purpose of that exercise was to help everyone focus on results rather than process, because every positive impact that a sales rep has on a customer is, de facto, a positive result. You should now be 15 minutes into the meeting.

8. Explain that the most important result is always the first impression that a rep makes on a customer or prospect. Therefore the team is going to work on the “elevator pitch,” which encapsulates in 60 to 90 seconds: who you are, what your company does that’s unique, and how that uniqueness adds value.

9. Give the team members five minutes to compose their thoughts on how they will communicate this all-important information.

10. Ask for a volunteer. Explain that, during a commuter flight, the volunteer has accidentally been seated next to the CEO of a prospective customer, who has just introduced himself. Have the volunteer deliver a handshake and greeting and give the elevator pitch. Have the rest of the team critique the volunteer’s performance, focusing on various aspects, such as voice tonality, naturalness, sincerity, and so forth.

11. Repeat step 10 five times, spending five minutes per volunteer. Take private note of where each volunteer is having difficulties and resolve to coach them personally at a later date.

12. Close the meeting by thanking the team for participating and suggest that they look through their customer interactions to find places where incremental improvements will yield better results.

Quick Tips for Your Next Training Session

If you want to ensure that ANY training session or
sales meeting is productive, have participants adhere
to the following eight guidelines:

1. Be on time.

2. Conduct one conversation at a time; avoid “sidebar” discussions.

3. Respect the opinions of others.

4. Respond to the topic; do not attack other participants.

5. Be solution-minded; when you identify a problem,
suggest a solution.

6. Don’t try to “derail” the meeting.

7. Avoid introducing tangential topics.

8. Observe time limits and end the meeting as scheduled.