Sales Education Focus

Sales education can help your sales force achieve greater success. To be successful in our industry or any industry, our salespeople need to be more than just subject matter experts on products and services. Whether they are just learning basics or getting back to them, a good foundation is a pre-requisite to success in sales. Without the proper balance of training, your sales people are at risk of failing on the job. Sales people who don’t know the fundamentals of selling are more likely to burnout, get frustrated, lose confidence, quit or worst – you fire them.

Going into the 4^th quarter and on into 2011 there will be those that only “think about” improving sales effectiveness, those will be the companies that lose ground vs. those that act upon it. Companies that hunker down and cut investments in their sales teams’ effectiveness will watch the tail lights shrink in the distance of those competitors continuing to invest and improve.

2011 Sales Organization Goals

1. Increase sales professional revenue productivity

a. Increase sales revenues

b. Increase market share and share of wallet

c. Improve customer retention

d. Increase sales effectiveness

2. Reduce sales turnover

3. Improve access to key information

4. Revise or implement sales process

5. Improve margins

6. Decrease expenses

Surely companies will need to control expenses and wring out excesses (if any remain); but the answer, as with all aspect of a successful life, is balance. Initiating programs to increase your sales teams’ productivity and effectiveness is needed now more than ever. If you have recently evaluated and invested in your sales people’s education then you’re ahead of the game. But there is still plenty of room for improvement ahead. Recognize that whatever you have done until now has been enough to get you to here, but likely will not be enough to get you to there: there being where you want and need to be in twelve months.

There are many areas to measure when reflecting on how sales forces perform specific selling task during the sales cycle to educate the prospect, align solutions to needs, and win the business. Year over year, companies invest in sales training to teach sales executives the ability to understand the customers buying cycle.

A question many companies ask me when discussing sales education needs is the following “If I understand how my customers buy, can I sell with less effort?”

My research this past year shows that we at Strategy Development see some level of advantage attained in reducing the number of calls to close a deal through better understanding of buying trends. The real advantage though, is seen in the outcome of those sales opportunities. We see that sales executive win rates by companies who excel, or are adequate in this area are 12% higher than those companies that need improvement.

Taking the time to really understand how customers buy from you or a competitor seems to be well worth the investment. Buying processes can morph dramatically based on the changes in a customer’s industry. Take for example, the fact that some computer firms who generated a noticeable percentage of their revenues from financial institutions, they saw sales from those clients decrease in 2008 because of the subprime loans. Or consider the impact on pharmaceutical and health insurance firms with universal health care. If clients businesses change dramatically, the firms selling to them will see major changes in how they buy.

More than ever, there is a real payoff in acquiring marketplace knowledge (business acumen) about the customers upon whom your teams are calling. Figures from a recent CSO Insights survey show that if sales reps have been trained in marketplace knowledge (business acumen) and are willing to take the time to research accounts and apply what they’ve been taught (to speak about a customer’s industry), we will be able to impact their productivity through quota achievement and impact their ability to achieve income goals which directly ties into the ability for companies to retain personnel and reduce turnover. Companies focused on these areas of sales education see development in confidence for sales in analyzing customer needs and positioning products and services within the context of a buyer’s financial drivers and strategies. Armed with better business acumen, they demonstrate financial literacy in sales situations; engage in more strategic discussions with prospects, and open doors at higher buying levels. When sales training initiatives target marketplace knowledge (business acumen), sales personnel become better in offering products and services within the context of a customer’s real business needs. They become trusted partners as they develop long-term customer partnerships.

Strategy Development is a management consulting and advanced sales training firm with a focus to helping companies in the imaging space. Strategy Development advises companies on how to defend existing markets, assess entries into new ones, develop growth strategies, control costs and profitably invest resources. For more information on our strategic sales skills workshop and sales coaching consulting please contact me at ramos@strategydevelopment.org

How Do We Help Our Sales Force Become More Effective?

I recently read a great article in B to B Magazine titled “Been there sold that.” It wasn’t that a single sentence of the article was new information—as a member of a consulting and advanced training firm that spends a lot of our time helping technology companies improve their sales effectiveness we have great visibility into the sales practice—but the fact that the article focused on selling to CMOs and the advice from these CMOs to sales professionals was the exact same that we provide adds credibility to what we see:

• The number one frustration of the CMO was that the sales professional did not know their company

This is a common issue we find in our industry as well, with sales professionals at all levels of success. They simply do not take the time to get to know their customers and prospects. Decades ago all sales professionals were taught to engage in conversations on pain areas with the prospect but that was before the internet, and the plethora of information available to research. Take the time to understand your customer and prospect and how your offering will help them achieve their goals. The article, which is focused on the CMO, does quote an IDC survey of senior technology buyers that states sales professionals are “somewhat prepared” or “not prepared” 54% of the time. So more than half the time the sale is dead before it starts.

• Not listening during the sales presentation

This issue manifests itself in many forms. We see sales professional giving value propositions as a presentation rather than as a talking point, where the prospect spends at least 50% of the time talking. It is also common for the sales professional to speak about the benefits to their offering areas where the prospect has already said they adopted what the sales professional is selling—the sales professional doesn’t adjust.

• Buyers are looking for a sales professional that provide value and understand the customer’s need and the general environment of the vertical

The bottom line here is that buyers aren’t looking to get pitched; they are looking for sales professionals that understand their business and their problems and that can demonstrate how their product or service can help the buyer address their pain points.

• Buyers try to minimize meetings with sales people

A person in a position of authority is constantly asked for meetings, both internally and externally. If an senior manager or executive cannot manage their calendar they will absolutely fail, so getting a meeting is difficult. The number one approach to getting on that meeting is through networking. Build and leverage your network.

• Have relevant material available

Case studies specific to the industry you are calling on are critical.

• Going above the buyer in the organizational structure

I’ll simply take the sentence directly out of the article to demonstrate a point we try to emphasize all the time in our training. We learned this from two perspectives: The SD team are all former senior managers and executives, and we have been involved in a significant quantity of large complex sales. “Often the CEO is the approver, not the buyer. If you usurp the buying organization, they you have made enemies of the actual buyer.”

I also think the article does a great job in summarizing the points so I’ll simply give credit where credit is due and use the words of Mark Wilson, VP-corporate marketing at Sybase, Inc, “The most effective salespeople understand what our company does. They come in with an idea of how they can solve our problem. They are good at listening, and they continue to evolve how they can solve our problem in the meeting. They have a number of case studies, and they pick them intelligently for companies that face the same problems that map to ours.”

David Ramos developed a strategic sales skills workshop and I have to say his program is right on the money. It was developed using his significant experience in working with sales professionals in the technology industry but it is clear that there is nothing unique in our industry: sales professionals simply need an opportunity to learn how to sell in a complex environment. You can contact David to get information on his program at ramos@strategydevelopment.org

Introducing ClearView, a tool to properly price and position MPS opportunities

Strategy Development has worked with a leading software developer to translate their knowledge and insight of proper pricing of managed print services (MPS) engagements into a comprehensive Excel-based pricing tool: ClearView. ClearView is user-friendly and easily blends expenditures for mixed fleets, related consumables, and services into a single cost-per-page (CPP). The blended CPP can enable a customer to reduce costs and/or allow print providers to improve margins.

ClearView turns data into intelligence in order to calculate a current CPP, as well as what a blended CPP would be in a variety of potential scenarios. The tool enables comparisons of MPS transactions from simple outsourcing, to redeployment, consolidation or refresh of devices, as well as comparing total cost of ownership to the prospect’s/customer’s current cost. Additionally, ClearView provides the ability to contrast costs from period to period to assist in conducting quarterly account reviews, a process developed by Strategy Development for the MPS space.

ClearView is being made available to Strategy Development’s consulting clients and participants in the BTA MPS Workshops, which were developed and are instructed by Strategy Development consultants. If you are current consulting customer or have attended a BTA MPS Sales or BTA Operations & Service training workshop in the past twelve months, click here to register for the training webinar which will take place on Wednesday, September 1, 2010 at 11am EST/8 PST.

Are You Maximizing Your Business Potential?

Greece’s fiscal crisis is a clear indication that the global economy is not totally out of the woods. The “Great Recession” came in with a roar after Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy in September, 2008, and by most economists and Government accounts ended in the second half of 2009. Today, the US appears to be experiencing some level of recovery in almost all sectors, albeit against week comparables from last year.

Strategy Development’s copier company clients are experiencing year on year equipment growth and year on year click growth, although against weak comparables from last year in the copier segment. The big question is sustainability—does the short-term growth result in a sustained growth run.

Unfortunately, many companies react based on what is occurring today rather than on sound planning. If business is down—throw some bodies at the problem and when that doesn’t work, and you’ve needlessly drained cash—take an ax to expenses. If business is going well don’t take the time to understand “why” simply enjoy the ride. Yet history demonstrates that without planning and innovation the good times end and the bad times usually get even uglier.

I would suggest that now is not the time to be euphoric about your growth against weak comparables. Enjoy the additional revenue, operating income, and cash flow, but take the time with your senior team to understand where the industry is headed and how your business can properly invest today to be a leader tomorrow. Moreover, don’t assume that “better” is “best,” look for areas to increase revenue, improve gross profit, and reduce general and administrative expense (G&A).

Those of you that have heard me speak on business planning know that I use a concept of “air cover,” where I look for short-term gains in high leverage areas to provide me the investment dollars to grow the business. Service and back office operations were always two of the areas I looked to leverage. Both back office operations and service are quasi production environments. Without deep understanding of these areas of the business it is difficult to maximize gross profit and minimize G&A; yet they usually provide the greatest opportunity to provide the “air cover” you need to invest in growth.

MPS adds complexity to back office operations and service because many aspects of the MPS agreement are foreign to employees of a copier company. E.g., there were 100 devices on the initial assessment, 104 at the first quarterly read—plus three totally different from the initial assessment—then on the second quarterly read there are 103 devices, two reappeared from the initial assessment, and two others are different from the prior reads. And oh yea, the rep added four devices, changed the minimum and CPP rate, and extended the lease out six more months! Service has to deal with five different vendors and 18 different models.

Let’s say service represents 40% of your revenue and with the correct processes you can improve margins by 5%: That added 2% to your bottom line. Let’s assume you are in the 19% - 22% G&A range of most dealers and with the correct back office processes you can reduce that by 2%. You now have 4% operating income improvement to invest in sales. Isn’t that a lot more logical than hoping the new sales employees can outrun their expense? After all that expense coverage from sales never happens but by taking the “air cover model” you now you have money to invest in growth without feeling the severe pinch of cash flow.

Unless you have a team of analyst to run off and research back office operations and service—or you want to go down the trial and error route—you’ll need help. Fortunately for you Mike Woodard, service consultant and Jim Boulden operations consultant from Strategy Development have the experience to help you get your air cover. Every dealer engagement Mike and Jim have entered has had a three to four month payback period with ongoing savings that could be invested in growth. These two guys provide you the air cover!

If you are nervous about entering a consulting engagement enroll your team members in one of the classes they put on through BTA: MPS Operations and Service or Service Management University (SMU). Jim also instructs, along with Ed Carroll and me, BTA’s business planning workshop.

What about MPS? Where do you think you’re going to make those investments! Our MPS clients also experienced year on year click decreases on a comparable basis (same customers) during the recession (keep in perspective we’ve been consulting in MPS since early 2006); but they experience substantial overall growth because they were continuously adding new customers. How is your MPS program going—honestly? I add that qualifier realizing that it is hard to be honest when everybody you speak to says they have an MPS program, and at least in public, tell you it is going “GREAT.”

Strategy Development consults for the most successful MPS providers in the country so we know what great looks like. You want the first indication that “GREAT” may not be that good? When you are quoted a quantity of prints they manage (our start-up MPS clients did that until the figure was bigger than McDonald’s hamburgers sold). Let’s be realistic here: That “3,000,000 print” contract actually means 50,000 prints per month or $750 per month (most companies use 5 years as the multiplier even if the contract is for 3). And “we’re managing 60,000,000 prints” means they manage (maybe) 1,000,000 prints per month or $20,000 per month: Decent revenue for one rep 12 months into the MPS business.

What is good? Hyper growth to simplify the answer but here’s a quick financial look. After 12 months—from dead start—a good MPS specialist will be managing $24,500 in monthly recurring aftermarket revenue. After two years that same single rep will be managing $64,500 in monthly recurring revenue and will have sold $360,000 in equipment the second year; in other words your single rep will be a $1 million plus business by the end of year two. Use these figures to really get successful in the space! If you want to realize these results attend BTA’s Managed Print Services Workshop or download licenses from InfoTrends MPS Sales eLearning workshop through the BTA website (at a discount to members) or directly from InfoTrends.

What about copiers? According to the research firms you will continue to see year on year unit decreases. That doesn’t mean you cannot grow; you will need to increase your market share with better programs or processes than your competitors. Attend our BTA Sales Management program, or if you are a KMBS dealer the KMBS Sales Management Workshop, subsidized by KMBS and instructed by Strategy Development.

Finally, to tie it all together BTA has the Business Planning Workshop.

You probably see a theme here in that Strategy Development and the BTA have a training program for every ailment. Believe me SD didn’t invent the ailments we simply developed training programs to help dealers/resellers overcome the issue they face. We are in the business of helping you achieve success. Primarily, Strategy Development accomplishes that through our consulting engagements but the seven of us cannot possibly think we can touch all 2,500+ dealers with our consulting. BTA is also focused on helping the dealer community achieve success and we choose each other as partners to help dealers thrive.

Things are good now because most companies have very easy comparables from last year but don’t take long-term success for granted. Whether or not you work with Strategy Development, take the time to put together a business plan and take into consideration the environmental issues affecting the industry.

Hiring a Consulting Firm: Proceed With Caution

You engage a consulting firm to add skills and help you achieve your business goals. If the consulting firm is going to be successful in their support they need to still be in business 90 days after you sign the agreement. Over the last five years I have seen consulting firms come and go, and the going almost always follows the big announcement of the coming.

This last week I read a press release announcing that Supplies Network hired the former owner of a consulting business, who I congratulate on his new job, but what of his consulting clients? What do they do now? The same day I received an e-mail from the former owner of a consulting practice selling remanufactured cartridges as the director of sales for Virtual Imaging Products—he too apparently deserves congratulations for his new job. Six months ago he put out a press release stating he developed the first internet based MPS training program (Strategy Development has had an MPS sales mentoring program that is internet based for over a year). What if you bought that program? Two months ago Printer Essentials announced the hiring of another consulting firm owner.

Three consulting firms are apparently out of business in the last two months—this is just an example of what I have witnessed over the last five years. The biggest losers in this situation are those companies that engaged these consultants to help them launch their MPS program (they are all MPS consulting firms).

These “flash in the pan” consultants nibble at our prospect client base as well, but whenever we hear that a company hired one of these “Johnnie come lately” firms we simply feel bad for the hiring company. MPS is the most important growth strategy the industry has seen in over a decade and this company is going to get poor advice on making the transition and their “expert” will probably be working for a competitor before the hiring company comes to the conclusion they made an error in selecting the consultant. Worse, they may paint all consultants with the same brush as their short term advisor.

How do you make a decision to hire a consulting firm? The first decision point you have is do you need a consultant or trainer. If you want more information on that decision e-mail me and I’ll send a copy of an article on the subject (callinan@strategydevelopment.org).

Once you make a decision to hire a consultant look at the depth and experience of the consulting team. I would start by analyzing whether they are a firm or an association of independent consultants. If the latter there is a higher probably of them deciding to “find a job.” The other category of consultant that is apt to find a job is the sole proprietor firm. It is difficult to develop business, develop tools, and conduct consulting—and earn a living. You need a team. Make certain the consulting firm has experience in all areas of your initiative. For MPS this means you need back office operations, service, sales, and business planning. Finally, look for tenure; it appears as if most consultants fold in the six to nine month range, although some have made it as long as two years. I would not engage a firm that has less than two years of experience unless it is for a very short term project.

I am an entrepreneur and love it so I would encourage anybody to follow the dream of entrepreneurship if they have that dream. Failure is a necessary outcome of being an entrepreneur: I have a favorite saying that if you haven’t failed you haven’t tried hard enough. Nevertheless, make sure the entrepreneur you hire has a plan and not simply a dream--hire with caution and!

InfoTrends and Strategy Development Announce Development of Managed Print Services e-Learning Program

InfoTrends, the leading worldwide consulting firm for the digital imaging and document solutions industry, and Strategy Development, a management consultant and advanced sales training firm, announced the development of a new e-learning portal focused on Managed Print Services (MPS) Sales Training. The Web-based training program is designed to educate sales reps, sales management and principals on the requirements for a successful MPS strategy and sales execution plan around Managed Print Services. The portal offers a self-paced curriculum with guided audio and engaging interactive exercises that are available 24 hours a day - at an affordable price.

http://www.capv.com/public/Content/Press/2009/08.27.2009.2.html

We have a great training program in partnership with the BTA (www.bta.org) and we believe that classroom training provides many benefits, not the least of which is the questioning, interaction with other students, and ability to work on real world scenarios in breakout groups. Nevertheless, we realize that there are situations where eLearning is a better option. It is a great supplement for new hires after the manager or initial sales specialist attends the more intense BTA classroom training. It is also a great approach as a refresher. Finally, it is a solid option for those that want to keep expenses low, eliminating the need for travel.

InfoTrends is the leading research firm in the imaging space, to include MPS. The Strategy Development Team is excited to enter this strategic alliance; we know InfoTrends research will only help to improve our industry leading sales training.

For information on the MPS Sales eLearning Training follow the link above or contact Tom Callinan: callinan@strategydevelopment.org