Black Sales Journal

In most sales positions, you are the relationship expert. You are the true  expert on the customer!  You may know well the product and process, but you may need someone who is intimate with procedures, tolerances, and even engineering and legality.  The call is yours, so know how to frame it!

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Whether you are you taking your manager or a specialist (such as an engineer or technician) on a call to see your customer, there are rules to follow.

This is normally done to facilitate a product or service with complicated nuances and utilizing this assistance correctly could push you toward consummating the sale.  No matter how much assistance you get, the sales call is yours to control, and the deal is yours to make.  This instant credibility and expertise could be very helpful to the Black sales professional because you strive for the credibility that happens when you put together company resources to produce a win.

If you are wise, you will learn how to master the assisted sale because in the end, the credit is all yours, and the compensation is usually not split.  Having someone else do much of the work is a benefit; having someone with you that gives your customer instant solutions coupled with your continued credibility is even more beneficial.  It also gives you a solid opportunity to learn more about your products that will benefit you on future calls.

You’re the Quarterback!

There are a few methods that you can employ to make sure that yourassisted sales call goes smoothly:

• Always have a pre-call meeting - Whether it is with your manager, his manager, or an engineer or specialist who is there to explain technical information, a discussion involving all participants before the sales call is essential.  Make sure you delineate call objectives and what information will be shared.  Make sure your people know who they are meeting with, the hot buttons, and discuss how you collectively should handle them.
• Do an agenda and the written introductions – You all know that the most important activity is to advise everyone who is going to be present, what their roles are, and what their credentials are for providing solutions.  This is not as necessary with your manager, yet with technical people, you want to make sure it is known how they will help your customer.
• Information must be from the same source and same dates – Make certain that you review all information that will be disseminated and that it is necessary and appropriate.  There should be one set of facts, and no situations where you are quoting numbers from different sources and with varied evaluation dates.  Nothing is more embarrassing than to watch a meeting derail while the participants joust about information facts and origins. You want to see each piece of information that will be handed out.
• Monitor the sales call – We all technical sales support people.  Whether they are in financial services, office equipment, machinery, or otherwise, we know that they may be very focused, and maybe not as solid in the role of communicating to the customer.  When you have one that does it well, you will want them as a ‘sales partner’ every time.  Your role is to watch your customer’s expressions and reactions to make sure that those assisting the sale deliver information in a format that is readily understandable.  You can clarify points, restate issues, and direct the conversation correctly to make sure your customer gets the information they need.
• Ask for the Business – It is the sales professional’s responsibility to close the sale, if the sale is at that stage.  No one should ask for the business but you.  As you are keeping tabs of the open issues, outstanding follow-ups, as well as any questions that can affect the sale.  Make sure that your pre-call meeting includes discussion about your responsibility in this important area.
• Open and close the meeting – The sales professional in the capacity of the relationship manager opens and closes the meeting.  Never give up that responsibility as that increases the control that you need.  You will do the requisite introductions, openings, summaries and, if appropriate, closing statements.
• Do the written meeting follow-up – As the quarterback, your summary with follow-up items once distributed gives the “now what do we do” and next steps that will shape the timeliness and quality of the response.  Do it within a day after the meeting.

Always Show Your Value

Part of the value that you will show is that you can bring the people that can make the difference to your accounts.  When your customers are consistently satisfied, you have value.  Be an integral part of that solution by assuring that the call goes well, and the results are achieved.  Know your company’s people and how to use them in a way to consummate the sale or provide solutions.

There is evidence of teamwork when a sales professional puts everything together well.  The customer sees a coordinated attempt to provide his/her needs, or solve their organizations problems, and you are the beneficiary.

Monitoring the Sales Call Revisited

I am going to focus on this aspect from above, as a result of its relative importance.  When you are on that call, you are doing no one any good if you don’t make sure that your customer gets what they need.  If the talk is technically too lofty for your customer, you must insert yourself into the conversation.

Saying to your own people, “Can you break that down for us?” is a start.  You can say, “Once more, can you help us clarify how we can get this solved, I don’t understand?” Don’t hesitate to force the issue.  Remember, you are the advocate of the customer, and if they don’t understand the commentary, they you are a part of the “circus”.

If you are adept at explaining, do so using terminology that your customer will understand, then ask your technical person if they agree.

Always remember the best sales professionals are not the most technically oriented, but they are the ones who understand best how their products, are perceived by the customer.

Create solutions for your clients, and you will prosper.

We would enjoy your comments.

I was gifted by having a good sales manager in my career, and I considered myself a solid responsive sales manager when it was my turn.  Remember, you will not know every reason why your sales manager does something, but you will be intuitive as to whether your manager is working in your interest.  Read this and give it some thought.

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Your sales manager can be your biggest asset.  They can have a profound effect on your income, your job title, and your longevity in your position.  If they are a successful manager, they do many activities that help you find success, yet by text book definition, the role of management is to plan, organize, lead, and control (POLC).

That description is certainly not a listing of activities that they do as much as the categories that the tasks would be assigned to.  The management role can be the most positive thing about a sales job, or it could be one of the most negative.  The person in the role will make all of the difference.

The unit sales manager or field sales manager will find and hire talent, provide important training, and will manage the ‘troops’ in the effort to make quotas.  No one is more important in the role of a new sales professional.  Additionally, if this person is good at the job, no one is more instrumental in the role of a successful sales professional, even if it’s because he removes obstacles, and stays out of the way.

I am going to share three key points that one of my former managers taught me in the course of his management of my early sales career.  I am not saying that I agreed with all of these points when I worked for him, yet it was amazing in how clear the logic was once I got into sales management.

Do the Most Important Things First!

When I was a young sales professional, I had a manager (I will call him Jim) who always had stellar sales results.  He constantly challenged the sales professionals and could mix in this motivation with some rather ‘pointy’ jabs about your performance.

He was in sales management for well over 30 years, and he knew the turf.  He was hopelessly impatient and let you know it at every turn.  His knowledge of the sales process well exceeded his product knowledge, yet believe me, he was extremely effective.

We would have meetings about our sales funnel prospects that would rival scenes from some of the greatest sales movies (such as Glengarry Glen Ross, 1992, David Mamet) and there was no doubt as to who was in charge.  The process was fluid and the expectation was simple…sell, sell, and sell.

Here are three primary points that he paid attention to:

Pay attention to the most important factors and work them!

He knew that a couple of the items that were most important were prospecting and quoting, and you could not find a rock to hide under that could shield you if you did not do these activities.  It was clear evidence that if you were doing the ‘grunt’ work, that you could have some success even if other facets were weak.

Jim would shield you from upper management, to a degree, if you were doing the most important things and making money for you and him.  The practice was successful as his units had the highest sales numbers, and he provided the highest amount of challenge, sarcasm, and support.  Eventually you would have to do some things that he did not think were important either, yet the real testament to his flexibility was that he knew when it was important to ‘show’ well.

Pay attention to your most productive sales professionals, and get the most out of them while you groom the next star for your unit.

Jim qualified for all of the sales trips because he know this important fact that.  His power and influence came from having the unit be on top.  I cannot say that I always agreed with the approach, yet it worked for him.  He knew that he had some ‘horses’ that he could ride in the present, and he would need more firepower in the future, and that was a constant vigil.  In the beginning, I was obviously opposed because when I was one of those ‘newbies’ who needed help as I found my time pre-empted by some of the veteran sales professionals.

I learned that the unit had to survive, and be on top, and that was to all of our benefit.  Having a conversation about it would not have helped, as no one wants to hear that someone else was more important.  In the end I eventually got my time, and made the most of it.

‘Smell the Breath’ of the Customer!

Be on as many calls as you can reasonably do, so that you can bring the message from the customer back to the organization.  Jim knew that if he stayed at the office that he would never have a complete feel for why sales efforts fail.  He decided that attention would be given to those who took him out to present quotations, or even to develop key prospects.

He knew that he could better explain our weaknesses in program and pricing to upper management if he heard it from the buyer without filter.  Additionally, relationships were out there to make, and being in front of the buyer allowed this to happen.

The best sales manager leads in this way, and controls in this way.  Leading sales professionals from the office does not work.  You have got to go out and ‘smell the breath of the customer’, and Jim did not take that lightly.

Relationships happen for good reason when there is a ‘connection’, and Jim was able to make connections that I was not able to make.

The Wrap-up

So when you ask that inevitable set of questions:

Why the heck is she always on me about prospects?  I feel as if I have a babysitter!

Or

What do I have to do to get some attention here?  This is ridiculous.  He spends way too much time with those two guys.

Or

What is going on with this pressure to go out on calls with me, does he not trust me?  I can’t believe that he wants to go with me…again!

You may have the answers above.

Your comments are always welcome.