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

Yes I do, in fact – Don’t cold call! Not unless you are selling in a way that is radically different or fundamentally better than everyone else.

Then maybe you stand a chance, but the odds are stacked heavily against you. I couldn’t tell you the last time a cold caller cut-through and engaged me emotionally over the phone. In fact, I dare say I have never purchased something from a cold caller.

Why most cold calling is a waste of time

Many companies are selling the same thing in the same way – which means they get the same result – “I’m not interested” – Clunk!With the proliferation of the internet and the information explosion, your customers are savvier, more connected and they have less available time than ever. That means cold callers are finding it more challenging, (if not impossible) to cut-through successfully and engage people that are whiling to share their time and hopefully eventually buy.

Align your Values

If you value your time and don’t like being intruded upon – then perhaps cold calling is not the best strategy, because there is a good chance that your best customers feel the same way. Put your customer hat on for a second: When was the last time you were stimulated to buy from a cold call? How do cold callers make you feel? Perhaps manipulated and encroached on. Why would ‘your’ customers feel any different? What’s important to your customers should be important to you. If it’s not – you need to find ways to make it so.

Before you make your next cold call, go and ask your best customers how they feel about being contacted in this manner. If their response is positive, then at least you know your strategy has potential and you can refine accordingly. Your customer may be able to give you insights into what works or definitely won’t work. If their responses are mostly negative then perhaps you need to rethink your approach.

What works?

It’s not all bad. There is always room for innovation if you dare to look for areas of improvement and explore gaps that allow you to develop a unique selling point. If cold calling is a part of your sales role – then have fun with it. Don’t blatantly sell things in laconic and predictable ways. Cold calling is tough enough as it is, so if you don’t enjoy it – you won’t stick at it long enough to develop best practices. I can also guarantee you that if you don’t enjoy cold calling – neither will the people you are contacting. Come-up with new and exciting ways to play whilst you work, like cold calling in teams and creating a theme with a structured approach. Also give your customers an opportunity to buy-in and share your enthusiasm for what you are selling, quickly. This takes some passion for what you’re selling and how you sell it.

And remember, always; communicate with the customer in benefit terms. There must be a strong, if not resounding, WIFM! (What’s In It For Me?)

If there’s ‘nothing’ this makes your call, like so many other cold calls, not only a waste of your customer’s time but your own.

Inspire,

Trent Leyshan       Sales Training  ∙  Sales Coaching  ∙   Sales Seminars ∙  Sales Book

Assembling a ‘dream team’ sales force is not as difficult as you may first think. I’ve known of businesses reaching great heights through the salesmanship of only a few sales-guns!

Before creating a ‘dream team’ you need to have at least one exceptional salesperson you can model. Someone has to go there first!  Whether this person is the company founder, (if sales savvy,) or a senior leader, there must be a working best-practice sales-process you can model and replicate.

Once you have a high performing salesperson to model; their core characteristics, behaviours, and activities, then form the blueprint (DNA) of your ‘dream team’. Keeping in-mind, that it’s ok to have varying personalities in the same team, this enables your team to demonstrate versatility and engage a diverse customer base. You don’t need to ‘literally’ clone sales team members to replicate successfully, but they must all have at the very least, what I call:

The C-FACTOR:

Charisma & Confidence: Personality is paramount in sales! The energy and enthusiasm you demonstrate towards your customers is very important. Equally so, is your ability to positively connect with and engage people and make them feel important.  There is a lot to be said for confidence in any area of life. In sales, if you’re not confident you will struggle to manifest the most important element in sales: Trust! Customers will sense (and fear) your lack of confidence in either your own selling ability or in what you are selling. When your customers feel fear this makes it almost impossible to build their trust and lead them successfully through your sales-process.

Commonality & Cohesion: We naturally sell to and buy from people we like or share a likeness with. The old cliché: “People buy from friends – not salespeople”, is so true. We naturally trust people that validate who we are, i.e. our beliefs, values and opinions. And we go to great lengths to surround ourselves with liked-minded people, this also includes salespeople. The most successful sales teams I’ve been involved with share their ideas and opinions constructively and work towards common goals.

Competence & Commitment: You have to know your stuff! Invariably, competence derives from taking a genuine interest in what you are doing and a commitment to stick with it long enough until you’re good at it, more so, great at it! You can look the part and talk it up with the best of them, but if you consistently let people down and drop the ball, it’s only a matter of time before your incompetence catches-up with you. 

Successful sales teams can have different personalities and opinions and even contrasting communication styles – but they all must have The C-FACTOR! Each salesperson should also align with and live by a core set of values.

 This makes setting-up and developing the right sales culture critical, particularly when creating a ‘dream team’ sales force.

Inspire,

Trent Leyshan                        Sales Training  ∙   Sales Book ∙  Sales Coach

The short answer to this question is a resounding NO! Not unless you enjoy paying your lawyers to dispute unfair dismissal cases.

 A sales manager, or more appropriately, ‘sales leader’ is a key leadership role in any sales driven organisation. That means sacking your sales leader, more often than not, also means bleeding intellectual property (IP) to your key competitors. Moreover, an emotionally charged ex-sales leader may even take some of your sales team and clients with them. Ouch!

 Chopping and changing leadership always creates instability and uncertainly amongst the rest of the team. You will also find developing forward momentum difficult to achieve when you are rehiring for the same position, periodically. The cost associated with doing so is also prohibitive for most businesses. So rather than hiring and firing on an ad-hoc basis – your precious money, time, and energy is far better spent put towards developing the right sales leader and creating a foundation of support to enable them to grow with the business over the long-term.

New sales leader:

This person will need at least six to twelve months to fit into the culture and develop the change required to create and sustain their success. Don’t expect miracles overnight. Seldom is real change made swiftly, nor do results come easily when you really need them. Take your time finding a proven sales leader and once hired, give them the opportunity to adapt and build confidence in their role. This may require some lower sales months in the initial phase that you will need to budget for in advance.

Existing sales leader:

A proven method to stimulate an underperforming sales leader (you see potential in) is to provide them with as much support as possible. Not just a pat on the back and the odd bit of encouragement. I mean, planning and collaborating regularly and making sure the communication lines are always open. In the end, it’s always about the team, and if the sales leader is struggling, usually so too is the business. Wiping your hands of your sales leader and leaving them to their own devices when times are tough is ill advised.

Some may respond: “Well that’s what I pay them to do! If she doesn’t make the numbers, I will find someone who can!” That’s the old school carrot and stick leadership approach, it doesn’t work anymore, and neither does yelling and screaming at staff members to inspire them to action.

Some of the most powerful relationships I know of in business, are when the CEO and sales leader are totally aligned and working towards the same goals. When this type of synergy and confidence is formed – one or two poor sales months then forms part of a grander plan.

In the end prevention is always better than cure, so before you hire a sales leader ensure you follow a thorough recruitment process.

Don’t rush it. Listen to your gut and makes sure you engage a proven leader that fits the culture and adds value to your long-term strategy.

Inspire,

Trent Leyshan                  Sales Training  ∙  Sales Book ∙  Sales Coach

Spotting time wasters is a critical initial step in your sales-process. It’s in the knowing how to weed out and manage non-relevant customers, that frees up your time to focus on real customers!

I refer to “time wasters” as “crazy customers!” That’s a little bit tongue in cheek I know, but after 15 years of professional selling, I’ve seen more than my fair share of “crazy customers”.

So what is a “crazy customer”? It’s a customer that appears to be in the market for your product or service. They may have even gone to the trouble of seeking you out and contacting you – but in the end, they will never buy from you. What’s even crazier is they may even buy a similar, (if not identical) offering to yours, and do so at a more expensive price. Why? Because they’re crazy of course! At least that’s what the salesperson believes.

So how do you spot the “crazies”? Sadly, for too many businesses their sales pipelines are full of prospects and customers that seemingly demonstrate strange, mysterious and unpredictable behaviours. This type of customer conduct perplexes salespeople no-end, and is also one of the contributing forces behind the ever present 80/20 principle, that suggests 80% of your business derives from 20% of your customers.

This magical ratio also applies to salespeople, particularly the ones that end-up spending most of their time with customers that never buy. This reduces the time and energy available to invest in customers that are ready, willing and able to buy now! As a result, this limits the amount of value the salesperson is able to create per customer and their capacity to develop meaningful relationships with real customers.

Here are three tips to help you quickly spot and manage those “crazy customers”:

1. Know exactly who your customer is.
If your business doesn’t have a clearly defined ‘customer definition’ – create one today! If your salespeople are vague on whom your customer really is this makes spotting them a costly challenge.Most sales-messages are too diluted pointed at perceived target markets that are too broad. I like to simplify things and ask the key people in the business: “Where does 80% of the profit derive from?” or: “Who are your best customers and why?” The answers will tell me exactly who the customer really is. I’m not interested in ideal customers in three years from now (that conversation can come later), I want to know what’s happening in the business right now. This piece of insight is your best starting point.

 2. Understand what really motivates your customers.
Why should a customer buy from you today, as opposed to tomorrow, or never? What’s important to you may not be important to your best customers. Take your best customers out for a coffee and ask them what’s important to them. You should find their responses similar. Once you know what’s important, have the courage to make your business, the way you communicate, and sell – all about them!

 3. Have a front-end qualification process.
Once you know who your customers are and what’s important to them – this makes finding more of them a lot easier. I always encourage salespeople to lead the right customers through an established sales-process. This starts with a qualification technique to help you cut-through to your ‘real’ customers.

A simple conversation is all that’s required to help determine whether or not the prospect qualifies and has the potential to be a best customer: 

Q: What problem do you need solved?
Q: What is the ultimate outcome you would like me to help you create?
Q: Do you have X budget allocated?
Q: When would you like to take order?

The answers should then be cues that trigger the salesperson to lead the prospect in the right direction; either to the next step in the sales process or to the door if they are indeed “crazy”?

 The quickest and surest way to get a salesperson to identify genuine opportunities is to provide them with as much focussed information on the ‘real’ customer as possible, including: a customer-centric USP and the customers buying fears, frustrations and aspirations. Your salespeople are then empowered with the information they need to determine if they are speaking with the right customer, or not. This makes weeding out your time wasters an intuitive and efficient task.

Inspire,

Trent Leyshan                       Sales Training  ∙   Sales Book ∙  Sales Coach

Over the years, I have personally hired and developed many talented salespeople across multiple industries, and for me, it’s always about finding and developing salespeople who possess the “Six P’s for Sales Success”:

1. Presentation  2. Preparation  3. People Skills  4. Passion  5. Persuasiveness  6. Persistence

1. Presentation: Looking the part if so important. If you don’t look professional it says to me a lot about who you are. In my opinion, if you struggle to even look the part, you’re more than likely ill-equipped to deal with the stresses and demands of a high performance sales role. Looking professional is the easy part, yet it’s the first thing we see and judge when we meet someone for the first time. This is an opportunity for a salesperson to set a positive tone before even a single word is spoken.

2. Preparation: Chance favours the prepared! Preparation is paramount. If I interview someone for a sales role and they can’t tell me anything valuable about my business, then that demonstrates this person will do the same when dealing with customers. You have to take an interest in your customer’s business and their best interests. Preparation demonstrates you are committed to the cause and creating the right outcomes.

3. People Skills: We naturally ‘buy from’ and ‘sell to’ people we like or share a likeness with. This makes a salesperson’s personality and people skills fundamental to capturing the hearts and minds of their customers. A salesperson’s ability to connect with other people and develop ‘business friendships’ will determine their long-term success.

4. Passion: Unless you have passion for what you are doing, you will not be willing to push through the (inevitable) set-backs and tough-times to get to a place where transformation and elite skill development is formed. I want salespeople that are aligned with my company’s values, are passionate, prepared to go the extra mile, and are completely focussed on the task. My experience has taught me that with this attitude, if they stick with it long enough, their success is just a matter of time.

5. Persuasiveness: A salesperson must have the ability to influence and most importantly lead their customers with confidence. Without this ability, a salesperson is merely presenting ideas and hoping for the best. Persuasion should not be mistaken for manipulation. Manipulation is a destructive skill when used in the wrong ways. Persuasion however, demonstrated by bold and virtuous salespeople, is something to behold.

6. Persistence: The ability to stay the course, through thick and thin, to achieve a goal is critical. Having the resilience to bounce back, overcome, transform, adapt, change course or regroup is essentially married to persistence – in achieving positive outcomes in a competitive market. I have seen many sales and business people with good ideas and the preceding “Five P’s”, yet lacking Persistence: their failure is always inevitable. And often their success was just past the point where they were prepared to go – if only they had taken one more step.

Salespeople that are naturally endowed with and/or committed to developing their “Six P’s” are far more likely to succeed in their sales roles than anyone else. When hiring and developing salespeople, I recommend looking for those that already possess these six attributes and/or those that you believe may have the potential to develop them.

I also believe it is critical to create a program and a support structure that’s provides salespeople an opportunity to further develop the “Six P’s” on a regular basis, ideally in collaboration with their leader and aligned with the organisation’s culture.

When your team members can confidently demonstrate the “Six P’s”, you will be amazed at where they can take your customers and your business.

Inspire,

Trent Leyshan                     Sales Training ∙ Sales Coaching  ∙ Sales Book

I conducted my sales-apprenticeship with arguably Australia’s most flamboyant and successful TV salesman – Big Kev!

I started working for Kev as a spruiker selling products on stage with a microphone at shopping centres and trade-shows all over Australia. The trick to spruiking is getting just one person to stop! Not hundreds or thousands, just one. I remember, standing on stage twirling my mop and politely saying, “hello” to the passers-by, most people would just rush by and continue on their merry way.  This was of course unless until ‘one’ person stopped!  Just ‘one’ is all you needed, and by virtue of human curiosity and heard-mentality, slowly one by one, more people would stop to see what was going on.

Before you knew it, you had a crowd in front of you, which would then allow you to wind into your sales-spiel and create a show for the audience. And when you got to the end of your spiel, if one person buys – they all buy. Why? The Law of being left behind.

This law suggests that if someone else buys a products or service, it must be valuable enough to buy for ourselves. This belief transforms into a subconscious need to acquire the product or service, simply because someone else has it. And when you get a group of likeminded people together in a buying environment, all it ever takes is one person to buy to set ‘The Law of being left behind’ in motion. The converse is also true, if not one person puts their hand up to buy – no one else in the group will buy. Why? There is no leader, the pack isn’t moving in any particular direction, therefore there is no need to move – the safest move is no move at all.

Think about how ‘The Law of being left behind’ works with your business? How do you get ‘one’ person to stop? Is there a compelling reason to buy from you today as opposed to tomorrow, or never? Can you think of a way you can cluster like-minded customers together to enable them to compete for your product or service? By choosing your value-offering do your customers receive a sense of confidence they are moving in the right direction? By not choosing your value-offering are they being left behind in some way? If not, I’m sorry to say ― they wont buy.

 Always remember : No one likes to be left behind, ever!

Inspire,

Trent Leyshan                             Sales Training ∙  Sales Coach  ∙ Sales Book

How do you cut-through the mass of competition, clutter and confusion in your market and get to your truly great customers?

By truly great, I mean the customers who aren’t price driven. The ones that buy again and again and refer their friends. The customers you love helping and will go to great lengths to ensure they are happy and fulfilled with your product or service, always.

These customers seem more like friends, because you like and share a likeness with them. You don’t mind going the extra mile because it’s about helping them! And guess what? Your customers loves that about you! They will always reciprocate anyway they can, they never question price… why the heck should they, they’re happy.

And more than happy to chat, twitter and blog and tell all their like-minded friends, or anyone that will listen, whilst they boast about how good their business friend (you) is at what you do.

Now that, my sharp-minded friends is what creates: Razor cut-through!

Inspire,

Trent Leyshan     Sales Training ∙ Sales Coaching ∙ Sales Seminars ∙ Sales Book