|
|
11 Secrets to Leadership in Sales
In his classic book, “Think and Grow Rich”, Napoleon Hill discussed the eleven secrets of leadership. In reading this work, it appears that the attributes of strong leadership and effective selling have a tremendous amount in common. After all,...
Assumptions – The Hidden Sales Killer
Assumptions can kill a sale. In my sales training workshops, I frequently discuss the importance of not making assumptions about a person before, during, or after the sales process. Participants frequently nod and tell me that they NEVER make...
If It Was Easy Everybody Would Do It
Q: I started my business about a year ago and everything is going fine. We're growing and making a profit, but the stress of running the business is really starting to get to me. I spend more time worrying than working. Sometimes the pressure is...
The Sales Trail.....
The Sales Trail..........
www.motivatedentrepreneur.com
Sales & Marketing
The Sales Trail..........
By Ryan M. Hoback, Motivated Entrepreneur Incubation & Consulting
Everybody’s going selling, selling U.S.A……..
The sales...
Thoughtleading: The Art of Separating Yourself from the Pack
Lately the age-old business dilemma of how to stand out from the crowd has been haunting companies and professional service firms more than ever before. All too many firms nowadays look too much alike, with marketing strategies seemingly unable...
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Sales Process - How to Avoid Wasting Time on Prospects Who CAN'T or WON'T Pay
Do you have blind faith that, if you can somehow convince a prospect to engage in a sales cycle, you will eventually make a sale? If you do, watch out! This belief can waste your time, effort, and company resources.
Unfortunately, time and resource investments do not inevitably produce sales. How many of the opportunities in your pipeline have been stalled at the same step in the sales cycle for weeks...or months? In how many opportunities have you and your company invested enormous amounts of time, energy and resources (conducting product demonstrations, writing lengthy proposals, providing product evaluations, etc.), only to have the prospect decide they don't WANT to buy, or prove INCAPABLE of funding the purchase? Even when you make sales, how many turn out to be "nightmare" customers who are always dissatisfied and consume huge amounts of post-sale resources?
All Prospects Are NOT Created Equal
You DO need to help your prospects explore whether their business problems are substantial enough to justify investing time in a sales cycle. However, you also need to figure out whether each prospect is WORTHY of your time and resource investments! If a prospect is not a good fit, gracefully exit from the opportunity! (Why not refer them to a competitor and let the competitor burn some cycles?)
How can you determine whether a prospect is worthy of your time and resource investments? Many sales skills training courses teach an acronym, M-A-N, that stands for Money, Authority, and Need. The basic idea is to determine whether:
1. The prospect is willing to commit enough budget dollars (MONEY) to pay for the product or service
2. The key decision makers and influencers (AUTHORITY) have been identified; and
3. The prospect's pain (NEED) is severe enough to justify investing in a solution.
Unfortunately, even when you do a good job of M-A-N qualification, you can be "blindsided" by issues that delay sales cycles or destroy opportunities outright. For example:
* Some prospects prove incapable of securing financing. They may have a budget, but they are not "credit worthy", so they can't FUND the budget.
* Some decision makers need to have specific information provided in a specific format before they can authorize a buying decision.
* Sometimes you invest considerable time and effort in troubleshooting complex problems and designing solutions, only to be informed that the prospect must take the proposed solution OUT TO BID. This can lead to the opportunity being lost to a low bidder or the profitability of the opportunity being pummeled.
To avoid these issues, add additional questions to the M-A-N qualification process. The acronym that I have assigned to this revised process is M-A-I-N BP, which stands for MONEY, AUTHORITY, INFORMATION, NEED,
and BUYING PROCESS. Here are sample M-A-I-N BP questions:
MONEY
* How will your prospect pay for the product or service?
* Has a budget been established?
* Are they credit worthy?
AUTHORITY
* Who (in the prospect's organization) needs to approve an acquisition of this nature?
INFORMATION
* What information do the decision makers require before they can make a decision?
* What format does this information need to be in?
NEED
* What are the prospect's business problems?
* How compelling are they? In other words, can you quantify (associate dollars, percentages, and time frames with) the pain the prospect is feeling?
* Are the quantified business impacts substantial enough to warrant investment by the prospect's organization (and YOUR company) in identifying and fixing the problem(s)?
BUYING PROCESS
* What is the prospect's buying (procurement) process?
* What impact might this process have on the profitability of the transaction?
* What competitive advantage will you receive if you invest your time and resources in designing a solution that goes out to bid?
If you decide to add M-A-I-N BP qualification to your sales opportunity qualification process, here are some final thoughts to keep in mind:
* If you don't know the answers to ALL of the M-A-I-N BP questions, it is highly likely you are wasting your time and resources!
* Opportunity qualification is NOT A ONE-TIME EVENT. As an opportunity advances through the sales cycle, you should frequently ask whether any of the answers to the qualification questions have changed. If an answer changes, it could impact the length of the sales cycle and even destroy the viability of the opportunity. At minimum, an answer change will probably require a change in focus and/or a reprioritization of planned activities.
* Never feel bad about disqualifying an "opportunity". The amount of opportunity in each territory is virtually unlimited. If you carefully qualify and re-qualify each opportunity, and only invest time and resources in qualified opportunities, you will maximize your return on time and resources invested.
About the author:
Sales performance expert Alan Rigg is the author of How to Beat the 80/20 Rule in Selling: Why Most Salespeople Don't Perform and What to Do About It. His company, 80/20 Sales Performance, helps business owners, executives, and managers DOUBLE sales by implementing The Right Formula(tm) for building top-performing sales teams. For more information and more FREE sales and sales management tips, visit http://www.8020salesperformance.com
|
|
|
|
|
SellingPower.com | Solutions For Sales Management |
Targeted to sales managers and upper tier sales professionals, this magazine helps you train, educate, and motivate your sales team. |
www.sellingpower.com |
  |
Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management |
The official web site of the Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management has moved to the University of Missouri, Columbia, which is the home of the ... |
mkt.cba.cmich.edu |
  |
Management Articles |
Sales Management. Unleash Your Brand Ambassadors. A recent GlaxoSmithKline decision took the advertising industry by storm: The pharmaceutical giant ... |
gmj.gallup.com |
  |
Manage Smarter - Performance Gateway |
Manage Smarter is the online home of sales & marketing management, incentive, potential, presentations and training magazine. |
www.salesandmarketing.com |
  |
The 5 Biggest Sales Management Blunders |
Learn the biggest sales management blunders and how you can avoid them. Spending the necessary time wearing your sales manager hat will help foster a ... |
sbinformation.about.com |
  |
DEI Sales Management |
Stephan Schiffman's DEI- Management Group, offers sales training tools and educational forums designed to teach: Cold Calling and Closing Techniques, ... |
www.dei-sales.com |
  |
Sales Management Training - Selling Seminars - Reinforcement & ROI ... |
Offers sales and sales management training. Sign up to receive the monthly newsletter. |
www.brooksgroup.com |
  |
Sales Management Resource International |
Sales Management services, sales training, sales solutions, sales people. We provide a systematic approach to providing immediate sales results ... |
www.salesmanagement.com.au |
  |
Reconnect Sales Management to Profitability - HBS Working Knowledge |
"Work your pay plan" is one of the central tenets of sales management. ... In a similar way, top managers can reconnect their sales management to ... |
hbswk.hbs.edu |
  |
Amazon.com: Sales Management: Books: Robert J. Calvin |
Amazon.com: Sales Management: Books: Robert J. Calvin by Robert J. Calvin. |
www.amazon.com |
  |
Amazon.com: Seven Secrets to Successful Sales Management: The ... |
Amazon.com: Seven Secrets to Successful Sales Management: The Sales Manager's Manual: Books: Jack D. Wilner by Jack D. Wilner. |
www.amazon.com |
  |
Personal Selling and Sales Management: KnowThis.com |
KnowThis,com offers information, resources, reference and links for sales people, sales managers and other involved in managing a sales force including ... |
www.knowthis.com |
  |
Sales Training and Sales Management: KnowThis.com |
KnowThis.com offers information, resources, reference and links for anyone involved in sales training or sales management or other managing issues involving ... |
www.knowthis.com |
  |
SMR Career Services |
Sales Management Resources is a professional executive search company, dedicated to providing consumer products companies the recruitment of exceptional ... |
www.smrcareer.com |
  |
SalesVantage.com: B2B Advertising, Marketing and Sales Management ... |
B2B Advertising, Marketing and Sales Management Directory, Newsfeed & Business Referral Service designed for sales, marketing & advertising executives. |
www.salesvantage.com |
  |
Contact Management Software, Contact Manager & Sales Software for ... |
PC World Gives Prophet Contact & Sales Manager 4 Stars · eWeek praises Prophet for building a sales management solution into Outlook for a reasonable price ... |
www.avidian.com |
  |
Sales Management- 7 Secrets to Successful Sales Management, the ... |
7 Secrets to Successful Sales Management, written by, Jack Wilner, one of today's leading sales management trainers, coaches and consultants, ... |
www.7salessecrets.com |
  |
Sales Management Training |
Sales management training for the complex sale includes business development programs and sales training seminars. |
www.primesalesmanagement.com |
  |
Contact Management Software (SFA) price quotes - Free sales ... |
Contact management software buying advice and free sales management software quotes from leading suppliers. |
www.buyerzone.com |
  |
Waterhouse Group - Sales Training Programs: Consultative, Value ... |
With over 20 years of experience in sales, sales management and sales training, ... Selling Success: The Journal of Sales & Sales Management ... |
www.waterhousegroup.com |
  |
|