Can CEOs Drive Sales Growth?

It may appear to be critical these days, but the fact is that CEOs have lamented for years over their need for more sales. Whether it's a small business or a large corporation, growth is king. Numerous studies and a variety of personal interviews state that growing sales is #1 or near the top of the largest issues CEOs face.

SO, WHAT ARE YOU DOING ABOUT IT?

This is one of the first questions I ask leaders when they tell me they need to increase sales. The responses are interesting to shocking. Here are a few of my favorites:

"We are going to just ride it out. When the economy comes back we will get our share."
"I am not happy about it, but it is up to our sales leader. If he does not get it going soon, I will have to replace him."
"We are cutting back the sales staff. If we cannot sell enough at least we are going to spend a little less. And, we can weed out the lower performers."
"We brought the sales team in for a three-day training workshop to improve their skills."
"We invested in a CRM system so we can see what they are working on and get more accurate forecasts."
"We are cutting our prices so at least we can generate some volume."
"I would like to get rid of the entire sales team, but people keep telling me I need them."
"I am personally getting a lot more involved in deals to make sure that we win."

These responses, and the ones going through your mind right now, prompted me to ask the logical follow-up question: "How's it going so far?"

Overwhelmingly the responses included gems such as "Not very well," "We spent the money but didn't see any change," and "Things actually got worse."

If these are the alternative available to us and they don't seem to be working, WHAT DO WE DO NOW?

Let's start by reflecting on how the CEOs beliefs and behaviors contribute, OR NOT, to sales. Answer the questions below to see how you are helping your sales team succeed or are hindering their improvement.

ARE YOU, AS A CEO, CONTRIBUTING TO SALES?

By answering 10 questions, you can discover how you, as a CEO, are personally impacting your sales team and how the entire company feels about them. Answer the following questions quickly with a YES, SOMEWHAT, or NO.

Do I foster a culture (policies, recognition, stories) that enables the entire company to support the sales team?
Have I invested in our sales team to give them a competitive advantage?
Have I worked with my sales team to understand the critical steps our customers take in evaluating our products and services and have documented the best approaches for all to use?
Do I have a clear strategy for where our growth will come from, determined our most probable customer, and communicated it to the entire organization?
Have I encouraged my sales leaders to understand what behaviors and activities lead to sales and supported the deployment of the tools they will need to implement them effectively?
Do I understand that a sales leader's job is to develop a team of sellers, and do I devote part of their pay to making it happen?
Do I continually invest in my sales leader to be sure they have access to the best education, tools, and practices to drive continual improvement?
Do I routinely make sales accomplishments visible to the entire organization, recognizing sellers and those that support sales?
Do I believe that sales is a process that can be taught versus a skill that is inherent in certain people?
Do I look at sales as an investment in the business versus a cost to be managed?

If the majority of your answers were YES, you are most likely helping your team succeed. Continue to reinforce the behavior and support your sales leader.

If the majority of your answers were SOMEWHAT, you are doing some of the right things but need to take a closer look at ways you can improve.

If the majority of your answers were NO, you have an opportunity to make some changes that can make a big impact toward improving your sales.

If you want to grow sales, it all starts with you!

CEO STEPS TO GETTING RESULTS

Below are a few of the changes our clients have made that are getting results.

Publish a growth strategy. Let everyone in the company know what type of client you want to work with and show them how to get the leads to sales people. Follow it up with a routine communication that shows people how their efforts are driving sales. You would be surprised how many of your employees are connected to people that could be customers.

Invest in your sales leaders (if that's you, still do it). Sales is a discipline like any other function in the organization and it's driven by the boss. Sales people do best with a clear set of expectations regarding what they're supposed to do, how they should behave, how frequently and what results they should be getting. Most managers learned their job from their former manager who never learned to do it well. Be clear their job is not to sell, but rather develop a team of people that can sell your products and services. Then, provide them the education and support they need to do it well. If you dedicate a portion of their compensation to how well they do it, you'll definitely so improvement.

Create a step by step method for engaging your customers, but understand that you can't fix people over the weekend. Put in a methodology that clearly outlines what activities help your prospects make effective decisions. Document which steps, tools, and resources advance the sales, and reinforce them over time. No one changes their behavior over a weekend. If that were true, we would all stop smoking, lose weight, and strike the ball like Tiger Woods. If you want the new approach to stick, think of it as the beginning of several months of teaching, or re-teaching, skills to resistant adults. It takes time and it's up to the manager to teach and coach until a new habit is formed.

Stop making your manager the score keeper. When I ask sales leaders their biggest challenge, they tell me they just don't have enough time to do it all. When I inform their boss, I hear "They'll just have to work harder." As we dig into what they spend their time on, we often find that more than 50% of their time is spent adding up forecasts, sitting in meetings to communicate the latest projection, working with the CRM team on the latest upgrade, or helping marketing with what signage to use for the next trade show. Studies show that when they spend their time in the field coaching their reps, sales go up significantly. Reduce their administrative time wherever you can and help them focus where they're needed most, teaching their team to be better.

Take as much pride in your sales team as you do your products/services. In a world of the internet and products that are obsolete by the time they get to market, how you go about engaging and working with your customers may be your biggest advantage. The best sellers want to work for companies that believe in, invest in, and continually develop their sales leaders and teams. If you're not doing this, they know it and it shows up when they talk to your customers. Participate in significant sales events. Send an email to the entire company recognizing key wins, let the sales team know they are the lifeblood to your cash flow.

The exciting part is that this is all within your control and it works. And, it works in every economy. Your customers are always looking for the best value. Sales team that help their customers make good business decisions by understanding their needs, concerns, and risks, will always have a competitive advantage.

We've worked with studied, and witnessed a transformational change that takes place when the CEO modifies how they look at the sales team and its purpose in the organization. Modest investment, new focus, and a sales philosophy driven from the top will get your sales team moving confidently and quickly.

Mike Braun is a speaker, author, and co-founder of Pivotal Advisors (http://www.pivotaladvisors.com), a national sales improvement firm dedicated to helping companies drive sales performance through the development of their sales management. He's dedicated to providing sales leaders the knowledge, tools, and support they need to succeed. His experience includes many years as a consultant/facilitator providing advice, coaching and support to hundreds of sales organizations from large, public companies to small businesses. Mike also has 25 years of selling, sales management, and executive level experience. He's led small start-ups, professional service firms, and was Vice President of Sales and Marketing at a $1 billion technology company. Mike holds an MBA from the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota and received his Executive Education from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

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Executive Briefing - How Sales Process Improvement Can Help to Increase Margins and Revenue Growth

I find it useful to remember, everyone lives by selling something.

Robert Louis Stevenson

We never lead with product; we lead with need.

Zig Ziglar

My creativity strikes at the heart of sales - it's focused on building relationships, improving presentations, and closing a sale.

Sidney Friedman

"Nothing happens until somebody sells something."

Unknown

Introduction

In the rapidly changing landscape of business, competition is stiff. Customers are more sophisticated and demanding in the face of better available options. A sales opportunity can become clouded or loose momentum with the constant requirements on the part of businesses to add more customers, crunch the sales numbers, and boost profits.

To achieve aggressive revenue targets and meet customer needs businesses have to make organized and systematic approaches. Sales form a formidable part of such approaches. Robust sales along with other factors such as: better products or services, attention grabbing advertising, and reliable customer service help businesses successfully in attracting and retaining customers, generating more revenue, and pushing profit levels higher.

A better product or service may not necessarily translate into higher revenues. How the product or service is launched in a specific market can determine revenue. Selling is widely regarded as an art form. Those born with innate talents for a career in sales can succeed, but success can be elusive for the most seasoned sales professional if they do not follow a process. Academicians however, stress that a sales genius may have inborn talents for the trade, but with adequate training any average interested person can turn out to be an outstanding salesman. The topic still remains as the Holy Grail. However, each business has its own sales force using a unique selling model. And all successful businesses have some common sales methods.

Underscoring the Importance of a Sales Process

Having touched upon the weight of sales in business processes it will be necessary to note that robust selling is based on a sturdy and effective sales process. If you are saying, "we do not have the time to work on the process, we have numbers to meet" - your approach may not be right and you might want to reconsider it. To reach the destination, the path should be right and the journey should be enjoyable. Many salespeople are so caught up with the numbers (targets and quotas) that they do not enjoy the process. They do not realize that if the process is correct and executed properly that will take care of the numbers. In fact, true and successful sales professionals work the process thoroughly and enjoy each phase of the exciting sales process that finally ends with stellar sales figures. Being process driven is the mantra. The results will follow naturally.

A sales process is not a panacea, but many organizations are increasingly realizing that it's an indispensable tool that no business can do without. Having a sales methodology in place by firms increased to 84% in 2007 from 42% in 2004 (Source: CSO Insight). Analysis of all successful businesses shows that they all adhere to and execute against a well-defined sales process. Though the exact structure and methodology of operation of their sales processes may differ, they all serve the purpose of boosting sales. An effective sales process is the strong edifice on which the entire structure of sales stands. A weak and ineffective sales process will produce poor sales results and hamper growth as a strong and effective sales process can boost sales and help to increase margins. It is imperative for businesses to have a fail-safe, well-defined and solid sales process in place.

Sales process and sales staff complement each other to take a company to the desired level of growth. One cannot work without the other. A persuasive and experienced sales staff may not be able to perform at its optimum level when the sales process of a company is not efficient. But when the combinations are right the results can be astounding.

About the Author

Doug Dvorak helps companies and professionals achieve results through customized, creative and non-traditional sales training systems that are "one size fits one" and developed to the unique business needs and "sales pain points" of each client. He is available to speak on these topics.

For more information visit http://www.salescoach.us or call 847-359-6969

Permission is granted to reprint this article in print or on your web site as long as the paragraph above is included and contact information is provided

Copyright 2008 The Sales Coaching Institute, Inc.
Sales Skills Training l Strategic Sales Coaching
Chicago, IL l 847-359-6969 l doug@dougdvorak.com
http://www.salescoach.us

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9 Catalysts For Sales Growth

Background

The discovery of the 9 catalysts that help a firm to achieve high sales growth happened while I was working at a Regional Staffing Company that specialized in light industrial labor. This firm was located in the Midwestern United States. From the years 2001 to 2008 the Staffing Firm achieved on average 30.5% growth rate per year. Later myself and our management team would looked back at our sales process to determine what our firm did differently then our competitors. Light Industrial Staffing during that period as an industry had paltry 3% growth rate. Not exactly a hot industry. We developed our hypothesis and then began interviewing a group of 30 CEOs to test our assumptions. We evaluated companies from all industries as well as a sales manager from a major league baseball team. At the end of the day we began to see very predictable trends. Companies that had good sales force alignment in the 9 areas were achieving very good sales results. In all cases where a firm had aligned at least 7 categories the year over year growth rates greater than 25%. Later we would become skilled enough to accurately guess the growth rate of the firm within a few percentage points based merely upon our interview with the CEO regarding the firms sales process.

Evidence we were Correct

We had a unique interview that solidified our beliefs that we were on to something. A company that was purchased by a "Venture Capital Turned Around Firm" in the Cincinnati area put in place a new CEO. This CEO was a company turnaround expert put 8 of the 9 catalysts in place and achieved a growth rate of 37% each year for a 4 year period. The Venture Capital Group then sold the company to a business enterprise in the same industry. The acquiring enterprise placed its' sales manager over the combined companies sale force. The sales manager removed all of the catalysts for growth. The result was a complete disaster. The acquired firms growth rate went from over 30% the prior year to under 7% on an annualized basis. We did consider economic factors for the degradation of the firms performance. Other companies in the firms industry were not effected and because the firm created cost savings for its' customers the service paid for itself out of the savings. It was intuitive that in a slow economy a firm should experience even more growth as cost cutting becomes more important to the firms prospective clients. The the turnaround CEO removed the acquiring companies sales manager. Put back in place the systems that were leading to sales growth and a much higher growth rate ensued.

So what are the 9 sales catalysts?

1. Strategic Hiring

2. Presentation and Training

3. Consultative Selling

4. Tracking and Evaluation

5. Compensation Alignment

6. Return on Investment

7. Resizing Sales Force

8. Drive Management

9. Negotiation

Strategic Hiring

Our first question we would ask a firms CEO was about the firms hiring process. Time and time again we would hear from the CEO with a smile, "I just know a good sales person when I meet them." Our next question was of the last five sales hires how many of them are still with the company? The CEO would typically blush and sometimes say one, other times say two and even more often say zero. Firms that had a well defined hiring process typically fared much better in terms of lower turnover and therefore were less afraid to hire additional sales people. This is the compounding effect of a poor hiring process, a firm needs more sales people to grow, yet every sales person the firm hires ends up begin a "dud". Of the 30 firms surveyed all firms that had averaged greater than 10% sales growth over the past 3 years had a well defined hiring process. One firm had adopted the hiring strategy of only stealing its competitors top sales people. This firm did achieve a growth rate of 10% for each of the previous three years. So we do give some merit to this strategy if a strategic hiring process is not going to be laid out in detail, this is the second most effective strategy we encountered.

Presentation and Training

Most firms would have a very detailed training program of a multitude of positions with their company. But when it came to training their sales people it was "trial by fire." Sales people would enter the field with substandard product knowledge, an inability to ask or answer question, and no formalized sales presentation at all. Organizations without at least two weeks of training and a formalized sales presentation "one that tells a story" had low sales growth rates. Occasionally we would run into organizations that had hired a consultant to provide a week long session of expensive training. These organization fared no better than their counterparts who had none. The firm must have its own formalized training process in place, with lists of questions that must be asked to every prospect to determine problems they are having and then this must be followed up with a compelling story that solves these needs. Firms that understood this had lower learning curves for their sales force and had explosive growth rates. Those with out formalized training and presentations always grew at marginal rates.

Consultative Selling

Consultative Selling and Presentation go hand in hand. Companies that had high growth rates train their people to solve problems. Not to sell a product that is not needed by the firm. The sales people would do this by always asking questions so that they could tailor their products to their customers needs. Features and Benefits selling is "dead." Effective sales people are problem solvers period. This problem solving process originates with having and understanding of the potential need of each individual client and not spewing product knowledge.

Tracking and Evaluation

All firms tracked some form of data on a weekly basis during a weekly call as most sales mangers would prescribe. The next question we would ask is "what do you do with this data?" The answer in over 90% of the time was "well nothing?" Tracking sales activity is essential to improving the performance of any sales organization. If sales behavior is not being tracked and compared to the performance of the given sales person at your organization it is highly unlikely your sales organization even in the best of time would ever achieve double digit growth. Organizations that took the information from weekly meetings such as number of dials or meeting a sales person had each week and compared these results long-term to performance were able to find deficiencies in their sales people as well as track down more importantly "Why were their top producers, their top producers? What were these people doing differently?" During our interviews it was discovered this was focal to the learning process.

Compensation Alignment

Sales forces that had properly aligned compensation structures fared much better than those without. One firm who struggled in all other areas took pain staking efforts to convert all sales people over to 100% commission based pay after the first year. This company even though all other areas of sales management had large problems was able to grow at 11% per year over a five year period. The top performing company had starting base salaries for sales people at $100,000 per. These sales people were making an additional $200,000 per year in commission. The CEO's rational was "I want to view every top candidate in the marketplace, and I want every candidate in the marketplace willing to jump ship to work at my firm." This type of pay structure only works well when the CEO is confident all other processes are in place, such as strategic hiring and training. When you are paying for the best you had better be getting the best. But the results are incredible when all of the pieces come together.

Return on Investment

Top sales management viewed sales people based upon new business that the sales person delivered to the company that year. Accounts were valued based upon harvest period of the account, and discounted back to net present value. Sales people that rested upon repeat business from prior years were quickly reduced to commission only and the base salary was eliminated. We asked one top performing CEO how base salary should be viewed? His response was "Base Salary is what the sales person gets for bringing new business to the table, commission are what sales people make for retaining accounts."

Resizing Sales Force

Firms that analyze or develop ways to self monitor their territory typically are able to achieve additional revenue by properly allocating their people resulting in more revenue. Only the highest growing firm had a program in place for resizing its sales territories on an annual basis. All other 29 did not have a resizing program in place and looked confused when this question was posed.

Drive Management

Drive Manage is the process by which management uses to keep its sales force motivated. People with optimistic outlooks are well documented to be able to outsell people with a pessimistic disposition on life. Therefore top sales organizations coached employees and helped those employees establish their own goals and "dreams." These organizations help the employees achieve these goals fared better than managers that took a "carrot and stick" approach to managing their sales forces.

Negotiation

The top three sales organizations spent a large amount of time on teaching negotiation and providing parameters in which a sales person could negotiate with clients. These organizations appeared to have a better understanding of their cost model as well as having developed the means to share this information with the sales force. The sales manager would also provide incentives with the commission structure to maximize firm value in deals obtained by the sales force. Training people how to negotiate and giving them parameters to do so in short creates value. "We make money when our sales people make money." one CEO said, "this is the only way to align our interests and maximize profits."

Call to Action

If you are a CEO or a Sales Manager and have read this article attempt to implement these 9 catalysts one at a time. Once all nine parts are working together growth will become a process that is scientifically managed not a voodoo medicine man that we all pray for the survival of the firm. Sales growth is achieved by superior process and management structure. We believe this to be our finding.

About the Author

Todd Luttenegger is a CPA with an MBA from the Owen Graduate School of Management from Vanderbilt.

http://www.salesk.com/
http://harvardbusiness.org/

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Wisdom Literature - 10 To Do's To Expand Your Horizons and Accelerate Your Growth

As promised, here is some more wisdom gleaned from the Willow Creek Global Leadership Summit...

The work of Jim Collins is the subject for today.  He is a creator of wisdom literature at its best!  He is a researcher and student of companies, examining how they grow, the leadership styles they incorporate, how they achieve superior performance, and how organizations can learn from them and become great within their own circle of influence.

Jim spoke to us about team dynamics and leadership, with great emphasis on the traits of teams on the way up, and teams on the way down.  Keep in mind this was not a list of his opinions, but the result of dedicated and methodical research on some of the most successful companies and organizations of all time.  He has identified very human traits like denial, passion, arrogance, and humility, and identified how they affect the organization through its growth and decline.

The core values of an organization, and the dedication of the leadership to those values, is one of the keys to long-term success.  The most successful organizations have, at their core, an ideal that is bigger than they are - In other words, a reason to endure the struggle.  They do not measure their success in financial terms, but rather are driven by a purpose beyond money and success.  They have identified what would be missed if they were to disappear.  Has anyone ever asked you, "What's your why?"  Do not underestimate the power of being totally clear about why you get up each morning and do what you do.  That clarity is what will carry you through tough times.

Jim wrapped up his discussion with a list of to do's that I feel bears repeating (somewhat modified for a broader audience).

Do your diagnostics. Inventory your physical and mental resources and honestly assess what is the truth about where you are, what you have, and what you need to get where you want to go.
Count your blessings. Put them on a spreadsheet and account for every good thing you have that you did not cause or create on your own.
Examine your question to statement ratio, and increase it by 50%.
Determine the key roles needed to be filled on your team (the roles you cannot, or do not do well), and fill them with fantastic people of like mind.
Keep a notebook of continued diagnostics of you and your team's performance (see #1).
Inventory the brutal facts. Find ways to measure and evaluate what you are doing and how it is working. You can not manage what you do not measure. Part of this process is continuing to learn and grow. Wisdom literature is one of the best tools at your disposal to expand on the ways you evaluate your efforts and results.
Make a stop doing list.
Define your results, and recognize your milestones. In my article "How Wise Leaders Inspire" I discussed the importance of celebrating those milestones. You are, in essence, taking your team "from here to there".
Double your reach to young people.
Set a Big Hairy Audacious Goal

In "How the Mighty Fall", Jim states, "The signature of the truly great versus the merely successful is not the absence of difficulty, but the ability to come back from setbacks, even cataclysmic catastrophes, stronger than before.  Great nations can decline and recover.  Great companies can fall and recover.  Great social institutions can decline and recover.  And great individuals can fall and recover.  As long as you never get entirely knocked out of the game, there always remains hope." 

Jim left us with two final thoughts.  Never give up on your core values, and never give up on disciplining yourself to create your own future.

Lynn "lynnibug" Rios has seen the internet as a fertile mission field. She shares her take on the words most recognized wisdom literature in a study based on the Book of Proverbs at http://onemonthofwisdom.com and its companion Wisdom Blog, and invites all to join her on a journey to improved physical, financial, and spiritual health.

Connect on Skype: lynnibug

If you found this article useful in any way, please consider linking to it or sharing it with others, complete and in tact with proper credit to the author. Your comments are welcome as well!

© 2010 Lynn Rios - All Rights Reserved Worldwide.

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