Sales in all its forms and guises – is as challenging as ever. To compete in business today you need to not only have a loud and strong voice, but it must be loud enough to be heard above every other player in your market.

The only way your business is going to be heard (by anyone) is to communicate in a way that only you can. This is not achieved by following the hoarse voices of others, who are only imitating the herd that went before them. It’s created by having the courage to stand-up and shout about something you truly believe in.

Most businesses are running within the herd and for that reason they never get heard. And the key people that are doing all the yelling aren’t believable. They don’t possess the passion that transcends merely words – and cuts-through to peoples emotions. It’s easy to say something – more difficult is to ‘be’ something. Something special!

Don’t worry about yelling louder than the herd, lead you own pack, innovate and break convention.

Go to a place (first) that is still and silent and make a noise, a big noise! And when they hear you, they will follow you.

Inspire,

Trent Leyshan                   Sales Blog   ▪  Sales Training  ▪  Sales Book

You better believe it! Does it really matter if you’re right? Yes it does, but not at the expense of making your customer wrong.

If I had to choose between being right and losing my customer – and being wrong and helping them see my wrong as their opportunity – I would be wrong every time.

Some people will defend being right to the death, even if they are wrong. Others will alienate and push-away customers out of principle just to prove they are right. And this is ok, but be careful not to bit off your nose to spite your face in the process.

There is such power in admitting to being wrong, it demonstrates you have substance and real character – certainly enough, not to indulge in the great delusion of being perfect. Let’s face it, we all make mistakes, some small and some enormous, and others more often than they care to admit. But we all make them, yes, even customers.

If you make your customer wrong, make no mistake – everyone loses. You lose their patronage (yes, they will leave in the pursuit of being right) and they lose your ability to fulfil their needs and aspirations. Understand the power of being wrong, and use it as leverage to build relationships with righteous customers.

When you’re right and your customer is blatantly wrong, don’t use this opportunity to highlight their humility, instead choose to take the higher ground (empathy) and transcend their wrong into a right that benefits both parties.

Two wrongs can indeed make a right, but it takes empathy and a willingness to see others from a different perspective.

Inspire,

Trent Leyshan                ▪ Sales Training  ▪ Sales Book

The biggest challenge that I observe for salespeople – is a ‘lack of control’ over their own sales-process.

Salespeople that spend large chunks of valuable time and energy attending multiple pre-sales meetings, conducting ‘needless’ needs analysis’s and writing proposals at the customer’s request, are more often than not left scratching their heads in a state of ambiguity and confusion.

Common dialogue between sales manager and sales person:

Sales Manager: How did you go with the ABC Company lead? (SM)

Sales person: Good, they liked what I had to say and seem interested. I will email them a proposal by COB Friday. (SP)

SM: Good work. When are we likely to get the order?

SP: Hard to say, I will get back-in to see them again next week

SM: How is ABC Company coming along?

SP: I emailed them a proposal on Monday and have not heard back. I will give them a follow up call tomorrow.

SM: Did you speak with ABC Company yet? (One week later)

SP: No, they are hard to get a hold of…. they must be busy

SM: Ok, stay on it and keep me posted

SP: Will do.

SM: Anything back from ABC Company yet?

SP: Sort of, the MD’s PA said someone would get back to me in the next week or so

SM: Can we do anything else to get them over the line?

SP: Maybe offer a discount

SM: Ok knock of 10% and see how that goes.

SP: Did ABC Company take the discount?

SP: No, still no word back. If I don’t hear back I will follow them up again in the next few days

SM: Hmmmm

SP: Hmmmm

Outcome: The sales is never made and the sales person never really knows why

The above scenario portrays the frustrations of far too many sales people and managers, whom purely as a consequence of an ineffective sales-process are left disempowered by their customer’s actions, or better – lack thereof.

Salespeople, in the above scenario, have no consistent and effective process that engages the customer through each stage of the buying-process. This means the customer is dictating the sales-process based on their explicit wants, irrespective of identification of the motives that are really driving those needs or of any implicit emotional desires. (Research shows that 80% of buying decisions are driven by emotions rather than logic.)

Your job as a salesperson is to facilitate a process that supports your customers to feel comfortable enough to identify and reveal their true desires and to bring any implicit and emotional drivers into the foreground. Your role in facilitating this process is what sets apart a ‘yes’ from a ‘no’ as you genuinely connect with the customer and become a trusted partner to help them uncover and fulfil their real needs.

In reality, most salespeople never hear the word ‘no’, instead they spend their time chasing false hopes, in the anticipation the customer will magically appear from nowhere after months of no-contact and yell the word ‘yes!’ If you lose control of your sales-process – you also lose your ability to facilitate the outcome. So know your sales-process and make sure it’s an effective one and one that you follow on every occasion. Consistency is the key.

And if you don’t have a successful customer-centric sales-process, it’s best you create one immediately.

Inspire,

Trent Leyshan    Sales Training  ∙  Sales Book ∙  Sales Coach

If your sales director is adding significant value and is enthusiastic, committed and proactive, I would be disappointed if they didn’t request some form of ownership.

The best sales directors that I know are entrepreneurial by nature. They thrive on risk and strive to create a substantial upside. Personally, I would never take on a sales director role without the potential for ownership, but that’s just me. I know the value I am capable of creating and I habitually work towards a long-term plan – I believe this far outweighs most salary and bonus only roles. But in saying that, the arrangement needs to be right and the key people involved must all align by the same values – otherwise it’s just a matter of time before cracks appear.

Equity can be tricky to distribute successfully, particularly for SME’s. I am usually inclined to advise against bringing in equity partners unless there is an established and proven working relationship and the fit is a resounding win-win. There should always be, (but often is not) a well thought-out and structured legal shareholder agreement that protects all parties in the event of challenging times, dispute, exit and even over-achieving. This requires both sides obtaining professional council and the right legal advice.

If the sales director is buying-in with their own money, there needs to be an independent valuation conducted that both parties deem to be fair and reasonable. I’ve seen numerous equity negotiations fall over at this point. So if you’re selling equity and don’t really need too, chances are you’re selling at a premium, which may make it prohibitive for your sales director to buy-in to the business.

Be mindful this partnership should bring you and your business greater value in the end, so perhaps pricing equity at too high a premium, rather than carving out a win-win for this particular buyer, is not the most effective strategy.

 If the equity is allocated on a performance basis over time, which is common, the equity should execute as per an official share agreement document, not a handshake. In some businesses, equity is dangled as a carrot to motivate key people as a consequence of the company not being able to pay market value, or above, for staff remuneration. This does work in some cases, but be careful as the owner, not to sell the farm too early – as you may just get what you wish for. And as a buyer or new partner, ensure the limited funds in the business aren’t also a reflection of the quality of the agreement.

Giving equity to an employee does boost their motivation but it also adds pressures and increases risk to both parties. However, when you get this type of partnership right it can pay enormous dividends. Most dangers can be avoided by getting professional advice and thorough planning, collaboration and spending time (not rushing) to establish and align values before making an agreement. A good first step, if you see a long-term future with your sales director – is to make a counter-offer of ‘equity with profit share only’, which means they get a small percentage of company profit for a positive and predetermined performance over and above their salary and bonus. If they cease employment the agreement terminates.

This type of arrangement is far less risky for both parties, yet is a positive forward step – particularly if you see great potential in your sales director. If you can successfully move through this phase together this demonstrates a solid working relationship, and from here – you can structure a more long-term equity plan built on a solid foundation of trust and performance.

Equity arrangements based on greed and making money alone are worth about as much as the paper they are written on.

Inspire,

Trent Leyshan            Sales Training  ∙  Sales Book ∙  Sales Coach

The short answer is – go back to basics. Treat your company like a start-up business by getting hungry and enthusiastic and don’t think yesterdays successes always guarantee today’s.

Over the past eighteen months, from what I have observed, the companies that resisted temptation to adjust their sales strategy drastically are the ones that remained most buoyant through these tough times.  The business leaders who hit the panic button and shed resources (and valuable IP) during this time are now the companies needing to adjust yet again.

Reactive by nature, these companies are frantically rethinking their strategy – in doing so rehiring people for the same positions, in some instances at triple that of what it would have cost to have retained them in creative ways. Suffice to say, their recovery will take some time, but at least they’re still trading right? Well, I guess that depends on your end game and at what cost.

Let’s be honest business is tough in any market. The companies I see succeed over the long term invariably have a way of being that enables them to maintain their entrepreneurial spirit through thick and thin times. Not just hungry for new business, but an appetite for knowledge, learning and growing, always. In tough times you need to work smarter and harder, but you also have to do more of what works, not less of it.

The companies that look for easy, quick-wins with no risk are often left ‘reacting’ and ‘reinventing the wheel’ periodically based on market and external forces. There is a distinction between being adaptive and reactive I should note: To be reactive is to be guided by external forces, whilst being adaptive is using external forces as part of your strategy. In sales, you can never control the outcome – all you can effectively control is the process to help facilitate the outcome. Lose control of your process and you lose the ability to facilitate the outcome.

Your sales strategy should not need to change that much, particularly if it works. The strategy you develop should be adaptive and yet set on a foundation of planning for what is foreseen on the horizon. We could all see the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) coming. The dark clouds were imminent for some time, and the media were not short of making sure we saw the potential for the storm, if not adding to its ferocity.  

There will always be dark moments in business, particularly following overly optimistic sentiment and business decisions being made as such. History suggest every ten years we see a correction take place in some way, so don’t be too shocked when it happens next. My advice is, as a sales leader, take responsibility and be proactive by constructing a more adaptive strategy that allows for peaks and troughs and plan for corrections rather than waiting until it’s too late.

Having the ability to stay the course in tough times is a sure sign of confidence. It also sets a positive tone with team members and sends a message to customers that you believe in what you are selling and how you sell it. In turn this will make your customers more confident in choosing you.   And guess what? 

With confident team members and customers you will ride the recovery much quicker by being able to maintain momentum rather than attempting to move the bolder (once again) from a standing start.

Inspire,

Trent Leyshan     Sales Training  ∙   Sales Book ∙  Sales Coach