I’ve just come across a new One-Stop-Shop Online Business Management Solution that enables small and new start-up companies to grow their businesses without large upfront hardware server charges. It also enables companies to operate in virtual environments and move to larger premises without having to set-up a computer network.

It consists of over twenty applications including Email, Customer Relationship Management (including lead generation), Human Resource Management, Invoicing, Stock Control, Sales Force Management and a Content Managed Website.
Check it out at: – http://www.pjb.co.uk/bussol.htm

What are the benefits of eradicating fear in sales? The sales professional will gain higher access to decision makers, shorten the sales cycle, prospect more, and develop a richer sales funnel.

“Sales Career Transformations” is not another blog focused on how to sell in fact. You will not find tips about the “how to” of selling. Instead this is a blog that helps the starving corporate sales representative develop the psychological strength to perform consistently at high levels…stress free! This blog is for sales reps that are close to reaching goal but need that extra boost to execute fearlessly, the sales reps that feel overwhelmed by the pressures from their company, and want to take their sales to the next level. The secret is learning how to find limiting beliefs, sabotaging thoughts, and the subtle negative attitudes that hold you back from excellent sales results.

Sales people, by nature, love people. That means they love interacting with people, sometimes see themselves as servants and are, essentially, paid influencers. Thus, there are two main pressures that affect the performance of a professional sales representative, the pressure to consistently hit revenue goals (or profitable revenue goals) and the pressure to please and be appreciated by others. Higher levels of performance means that the professional sales consultant must overcome the fear of rejection, fear of success, fear of failure, fear of losing a sale, fear of asking for the close, and fear of prospecting, on a daily basis. These fears can lead to the necessity to go into overdrive. Overdrive can lead to the need to either “be perfect” or “appear perfect” in front of clients and internal operations. In response to fear, a sales executive may overpromise services to the client, promises that require unplanned extra work. This means erosion of profits, stretching operational functions, potential failure to deliver and client complaints in the market place. The long-term effect of fear is the increase of tensions between operations and the sales team and loss of market share. The overall performance of the organization suffers.

This blog we find effective ways to eradicate fear in selling!

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Sales management

Everyone with a pulse has heard the analogy about the glass being half empty or half full. The point of the analogy is a good one, because it is about positive focus versus negative focus. Technically, of course, both are true; the glass is simultaneously half full and half empty.  People seem naturally inclined to see it one way or the other.  In today’s business climate, many of us may struggle to see the opportunity that resides in the half full glass on a consistent basis.

There is another axiom that coincides with the glass analogy — the concept of the self-fulfilling prophecy, which states that you get what you think about and focus on in terms of positive or negative results.  In short, positive thoughts yield positive results and negative thoughts will eventually manifest negative results.  I have found that both concepts hold true more often than not.  If you have doubts, one way to prove it to yourself is to get behind the wheel of a race car.  One of the absolute rules of racing is to focus on where you want the car to go and not the wall.  Take it from me, if you focus on the wall, you WILL hit the wall!

As a friend of mine often says, “So what? Now what?”  I believe the “so what” is that the current economic downturn in our country has presented us with the classic case of determining if the glass is half empty or half full. If you are among the 10% of America that is unemployed, it may look half empty.  If you’re among the 90% that is still employed, it is easier to see it half full. If you are considering investing in the stock market, you could make the case (and many are!) that this is the worst time you could possibly have your money in the market.  You could just as easily see the half full perspective and determine that this is EXACTLY the time to move money into the market because every dollar buys more than it did just twelve months ago.  Is this the worst time to invest in your business or the best time?  Is this the best time to start a new company or the worst time?  I could go on and on, but I think you get the point.

The “now what” is to focus on and work toward the future we desire for ourselves, our families, our business and even our country.  The economy will actually BECOME what we collectively choose to focus on.  If enough of us see opportunity in the stock market, guess what will happen to our investment?  The self fulfilling prophecy will be that the large number of people in “buy” mode will send the market skyward and we will all look pretty smart.  The same momentum is possible within individual businesses and industries.  

 Of course, good things in life are the result of more than just positive thinking.  Bringing to fruition the glass being half full requires a leap of faith, a little luck, wise investment, and a lot of hard work.  All things being equal, better to have the power of positive energy propelling you forward — it’s much more productive than the alternative!

Chuck Terry is the Executive Vice President and CSO of Carew International and is regular contributor to Carew’s blog – Executive Insights

Carew International is a leader in sales training and leadership development; specializing in comprehensive, proven training programs for sales, sales management and customer service excellence. For over 30 years, Carew has earned its reputation of delivering increased productivity and profitability to our valued clients world wide.

I am a huge fan of music. I’m an avid listener, concert attendee, and also play the guitar myself. It was with great interest that I read the WSJ article about venerable high end guitar maker C.F. Martin beginning production of a lower priced, no frills, guitar in response to the economic pressures created by the latest downturn in consumer spending. Is nothing sacred? Apparently, in the real world business of music, decreased discretionary spending is also having an impact on high end instrument purchases. Recording artists and their labels have been feeling the pinch for a while now, as the proliferation of music downloading sites has created downward pressure on the price point of purchased music as well as nightmares associated with royalty collection. When there are fewer discretionary dollars to spread around, no industry is immune from the effect.

The point is simple, really… the fewer discretionary dollars consumers or businesses have to spend, the tougher it gets when you are, or can be viewed as, a discretionary expenditure. So the challenge becomes how to cut through the competition to earn what little discretionary money remains. How can you position your product or service as an INVESTMENT versus a COST?  Here are a few ideas:

1)      Know Your Clientele:  I am not talking about their buying preferences or habits, but about understanding how they create value for THEIR customers. If you can understand their “value chain” or the points within your client’s company where they create the value for THEIR customers, you can align your products and services in a way that aids in their value creation process. When you are helping them add incremental value, you become an investment rather than a cost.

2)      Identify the Perfect Prospects: When times are tough, there are also fewer dollars to spread around for advertising and marketing. Laser alignment and a dogged focus on prospecting to a narrow band width can be invaluable. Don’t waste time and effort targeting prospects that don’t meet rigid criteria of the parameters of a “perfect” potential customer. If someone wants to buy something, by all means, sell it to them; but don’t divert time and energy chasing prospects outside your ideal customer definition.

3)      Good, Better, Best: An additional approach used by many companies is to adopt the C.F. Martin strategy. The strategy involves developing products at a lower price point to compete in an additional (lower) price range, while keeping your premium priced lines positioned where they have always competed successfully. As with any strategy, there is risk, such as diminishing the marquee value of the overall brand. BMW, Mercedes, and Porsche are good examples of companies who have adopted this strategy successfully without diluting the perceived “high end reputation” of their brands.

These are just a few ideas of how you can cut through the “noise” of intense competition to create some “beautiful music” for your company in a tough, competitive marketplace.

Chuck Terry is the Executive Vice President and CSO of Carew International and is regular contributor to Carew’s blog – Executive Insights

Carew International is a leader in sales training and leadership development; specializing in comprehensive, proven training programs for sales, sales management and customer service excellence. For over 30 years, Carew has earned its reputation of delivering increased productivity and profitability to our valued clients world wide.

Who among us doesn’t engage in a little complaining about our jobs around the proverbial water cooler? A recent Wall Street Journal article entitled Misery Poker got me thinking about the act of complaining about our jobs to others and the fact that when times are tough, the act of complaining can actually be a little therapeutic.

It is a painful fact that the economy is not great.  Those of us still working are either stressed that soon we may not be, or because the scope of our job has changed dramatically.  “Downsizing,” or “rightsizing,” or whatever term you want to use to describe fewer people doing more work, has caused many of us to experience stress at an all new level.  I have friends who are currently doing jobs originally done by a staff of three people 15 years ago! Sure, the advancement of technology has enabled a certain portion of the work consolidation over the past 20 years; but for the most part, in the private sector, we are just flat out working longer and harder than we did in the past. Let’s see… still getting paid the wages of one person, but doing the work of three.  What’s there to complain about?

While things like downsizing can be a necessary act of survival in business, so can a little old fashioned whining about the boss. I have several friends who also manage companies.  They have spoken to me about their concerns over company morale due to some of the inner-office complaining they have heard about. Keeping morale high in your organization is always critical; but during tough times, letting people blow off a little complaint steam can actually be good for morale.   Just don’t let it go too far… people still need to get their work done.

Understanding that a little therapeutic job complaining is okay, but too much can become counter-productive, here are some ways for bosses to keep things at an acceptable level:

1)      Over Communicate- In these tough times, if you don’t go to great lengths to explain your actions as a manager, people will interpret them on their own. One thing is for sure; no matter how bad something is, they will imagine something even worse if you don’t clearly communicate your actions and your plan.

2)      Have Regular “State of the Business” Meetings- Give people a chance to ask questions about the company, the economy, and the financial health of your organization.

3)      Be Honest- There is nothing worse than lying to your people under any circumstances; but it is especially true when times are tough. People deserve to know the truth and they are more likely to support any required change if you are forthright about it.

4)      Set a Positive Example- Your team will take their cues from you, their leader. Try to stay positive and upbeat in the office and don’t let things drag you down. If you stay positive, it is much more likely your employees will too.

5)      Keep Your Office Door Open- Your employees always start imagining terrible things when the boss has his door shut. Make a real effort to keep yours open unless you absolutely need privacy for a specific reason.

6)      Don’t Overreact - There is a lot more tension in our lives these days.  Understand that complaining is a healthy and necessary means of relieving tension in the workplace.  If you keep a healthy perspective on the whining and maintain focus on your goals and opportunities, your team will follow suit.

Chuck Terry is the Executive Vice President and CSO of Carew International and is regular contributor to Carew’s blog – Executive Insights

Carew International is a leader in sales training and leadership development; specializing in comprehensive, proven training programs for sales, sales management and customer service excellence. For over 30 years, Carew has earned its reputation of delivering increased productivity and profitability to our valued clients world wide.

In a previous blog, I shared five tips for building your business in tough economic times. Since that proved to be a popular posting, I thought I would revisit the subject with five more suggestions:

1. Read Every Day- Read your local papers, the Wall Street Journal, and sign up for news postings on the internet. Look for articles about your prospects or that may be of interest to your prospects. Then share these articles with your prospects to let them know you are thinking about them and their business. Even if they are not actively in the spending mode, your continued interest in helping them will pay dividends down the road. This is also a great way to maintain frequency of contact, while adding value.
2. Meet Two New People Per Week- Set a goal for yourself of meeting and adding to your business network at least two new people each week. Ask your current contacts to introduce you to people they know, attend networking meetings, talk to other parents at your kids’ sports events; but find a way to meet AT LEAST TWO people a week that you can network with professionally for MUTUAL benefit. Although quality is more important than quantity, the more people you meet each week, the better. Make two new quality contacts per week your minimum discipline.
3. Get Creative- When times are tough, you need to be flexible and also more creative in how you approach your business. These are great times to find ways to stand out from the crowd. It might be creative pricing strategies. It might be creative marketing strategies. It might be creative selling tactics.  Or it may be all of those and more. Challenge yourself to “get out of the box” and try some new approaches. A colleague of mine often recant the story of “The Watermelon Man,” a business owner who got creative in order to engage his top prospect, who had been avoiding him. He began personally delivering a watermelon a day to his prospect until finally; unable to control his curiosity any longer, the prospect told his assistant he wanted to meet “The Watermelon Man.” They had a good laugh and “The Watermelon Man” got the business. Get creative and have some fun with it!
4. Use Online Networks to Reconnect- Online social networks make it easier than ever to re-establish lost business connections.  Go back through your old client files and look for all the people you know, but have lost contact with because they are no longer with your client organization.  On a site like LinkedIn, finding these individuals is quick and easy.  I recently invested a couple of hours to find past contacts from one particular client organization.  As a result, I reconnected with ten people who had moved on to new companies. I did not reach out so that I could immediately ask them for business, but because these are people I admire and respect. Maybe I can help them, or perhaps they might help me someday.  The only thing I know for sure is that nothing will happen if I don’t stay connected!
5. Set Activity Goals in Addition to Financial Goals- When times are tough and you aren’t having as much success closing business, it is critical to celebrate the success you are having in moving closer to getting business. It is tough to stay motivated in a sales slump and the last six months could put ANYONE into a bit of a slump. Set goals that you can reach daily; goals you know will eventually result in closing business, and then celebrate attaining those goals. It will help you stay positive, not to mention keep your sales cycle momentum moving in the right direction. I am not talking about rationalizing missing sales targets; rather, adding new ones that help you stay focused on the right activities during tough times.

There you have it, five more ways to keep growing during tough times. I will leave you with this quote from Henry Ford, “Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal.”

 Chuck Terry is the Executive Vice President and CSO of Carew International and is regular contributor to Carew’s blog – Executive Insights

Carew International is a leader in sales training and leadership development; specializing in comprehensive, proven training programs for sales, sales management and customer service excellence. For over 30 years, Carew has earned its reputation of delivering increased productivity and profitability to our valued clients world wide.

Although a challenging task for a technology company, building a successful distribution sales force can produce high growth while managing cost.  There are a number strategies required and consistent execution of your plan is needed. But for many companies the benefits of a leveraged sales force is often the best way to generate high growth.  One of the key strategies to employ is building effective partnerships.  Or put another way – if you have to have it, and you can’t afford it, you need a partner.

 For small companies it can be the only way to add necessary resources, but even the biggest take advantage of it.  For instance, when Microsoft wanted to enter the media world they chose to partner with NBC.  By partnering they brought much needed expertise to the project but they also defrayed the cost.  Even for a startup, partnerships can deliver resources otherwise unobtainable and lend your organization credibility.  At a startup, founded by a Georgia Tech professor, that developed, marketed, and sold machine vision systems we partnered with the institutes Material Handling Research Center.  Our systems were low cost computerized cameras employed on manufacturing lines, for ensuring the quality of manufactured parts.  The economics of the manufacturing line make it a very unforgiving place and essential that the company looked up to the challenge.  To meet that challenge, whenever our customers visited for training a tour of Georgia Tech’s Material Handling Research Center was always included.  The center displayed a number of projects and technologies far beyond the reach of our infant company. But our customers would see cutting edge technology and leave bolstered with the understanding that our small company had resources available that would ensure their success. 

 At a more mature stage the same company sold a hardware/software product that could require up to three additional partners: the distributor, an integrator, and 3^rd party products such as reporting software or robotics companies. It was crucial that the customer and each partner knew their role and purpose.  To facilitate this, a customer support plan or project lifecycle plan can be a helpful tool.  I’ve done this in the past as a PowerPoint presentation, describing each partner’s role in the project.  For a team composed of several partners this can be an effective way of answering the customers need to know where responsibility lies.  For distributor sales teams, customer support plans or project life cycle plans aren’t things that you develop and present in the abstract, with only the vendor presenting it to customers while the rest of the sales team heads to the phones. Make it a requirement that every distributor salesperson can make the presentation.  Make the presentation often, at sales demos, workshops, trainings and rotate responsibility for presenting it to each salesperson.  With partners, familiarity breeds belief.

 For a technology company the question of a direct vs. indirect sales force is often evaluated in terms of effectiveness vs. cost.  A direct sales force is thought of as more effective yet expensive.  A well planned and executed distributor sales plan that harnesses as much as 50% of sales time (mindshare) from the distributor sales team can be equally effective at a much lower cost.  It will require spending a lot of time training, mentoring, and hand holding your new teams, replacing ineffective teams, and consistently expanding partnerships, but properly managed it can expand your sales force much quicker than direct hires.

The language of sales has always been rich with metaphors in terms of how we describe the process of selling. Terms such as driving sales and winning the deal conjure up visions of a high stakes game where fame and fortune is only a good roll of the dice away.  However not all of the metaphoric language we sales professionals use conjures up such exciting visions. It is high time we take a good look at some words we need to STOP using to describe our selling process.

Mark Twain had a great quote, “The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and the lightning bug.” With that in mind, here are the top five commonly used words which should be stricken from the vocabulary of sales professionals.

1. PROBE – In sales parlance it is generally used to describe the process of uncovering a potential customer’s needs.  Webster’s dictionary defines a probe as “a slender surgical instrument used for exploring the depth and direction of a wound.”  I don’t know about you, but that doesn’t sound like much fun to me! How about substituting something like needs analysis or exploring?  Just about any word would be preferable to describe something we do to our customers.

2. COLD CALL – (OK, technically this is a phrase, not a word) In the world of sales, we generally use this phrase to indicate the process of making calls to prospects we haven’t met. But I have to wonder if the term describes the process so much as our feeling about performing this task.  And if that is the case, perhaps we are inflicting a self-fulfilling prophecy. Try using any sentence that contains the word cold to describe a positive sales outcome! Finding new sources of business is the most important function of many sales jobs, so let’s call this something else. How about introductory calls, marketing calls, prospecting, or something else more engaging and less frigid. Cold calling sounds like something The Terminator might do!

3. OBJECTION – This is one of my personal favorites. Usually followed by a phrase such as objection handling, it couldn’t sound more clinical or impersonal.  Webster’s defines objections as “a feeling of dislike, disapproval, or disagreement.”  Numerous studies on sales effectiveness have found that a sales presentation with one or more objections is much more likely to result in success than one where none are raised. Most successful sales professionals agree that an objection can also be a buying signal (don’t get me started on that phrase), so why not refer to it as something more hopeful than objection? How about unanswered opportunity, point of clarification, or request for additional information?

4. PITCH – Most commonly used in a sales reference as the act of presenting a proposal to a potential customer, it is better used to describe the act of erecting a tent. Not just any tent, but a carnival tent; because pitching something is what I would expect from a carnival barker, not a sales professional.  The literal definition of the word is “to throw, hurl, fling, or toss.” The last time I hurled a sales proposal, it rightfully ended up in the trash can! How about something more professional like solution presentation or solution proposal?

5. CLOSE – Here is a very common term typically used in a sales reference as the act of asking for, and getting, the business after a solution presentation. The dictionary describes close as follows:  “to put (something) in a position to obstruct an entrance, opening, etc.” I don’t know about you, but I am not too comfortable using a word with a technical definition like that to define the act of asking a potential business partner to enter into a relationship. We aren’t closing anything. In fact, we are opening a mutually beneficial business relationship! How about some terminology that reflects the reality of securing new business?

There you have it.  My “Five Least Wanted List” of sales terminology.   I could go on and on, but I think you get the point. Selling is hard. It isn’t made any easier when the words we commonly associate with the process create conflicting or negative messages. Try some of my suggestions or come up with alternative sales language of your own. The key is to rethink the words you use to describe the selling process; particularly those that have incongruent or negative definitions. A positive attitude, supported by positive language, will generate more positive outcomes in your selling process.

Chuck Terry is the Executive Vice President and CSO of Carew International and is regular contributor to Carew’s blog – Executive Insights

Carew International is a leader in sales training and leadership development; specializing in comprehensive, proven training programs for sales, sales management and customer service excellence. For over 30 years, Carew has earned its reputation of delivering increased productivity and profitability to our valued clients world wide.

In Part One of this blog series, I shared five key attributes typically found in top performing sales people. To recap, the 5 P’s of Successful Selling are:

Passion
Purpose
Position
Persuasion
Persistence

I also provided a few hints on how to spot the first attribute, Passion, in sales applicants as well as the importance of this characteristic.  This week I will be tackling two more of the 5P’s — Purpose and Position.

Let’s get going again with Purpose. What I define as “purpose” may also be viewed as a form of personal drive. It is a combination of an inner compass and alarm clock that all top sales performers possess. It is the reason that top performers don’t need to fill out activity reports to insure they are making the prescribed number of calls each week. Their purpose is to be successful sales people and they push themselves to do the things required to achieve top results without much direction from managers. The possessors of this trait don’t need to be told when to start and stop their days, as they prefer to be judged on what they achieve versus how they achieve it. Purpose is also a common trait found in successful entrepreneurs. It keeps them focused on what needs to be done to consistently win.

Sounds great, but how do you know if someone you are considering hiring has this characteristic?

To assess a candidate’s sense of purpose, ask questions in the interview process regarding how they set daily and weekly goals. Do they answer with activity based goals or outcome based goals? Did they set them or were the goals completely defined by their previous employers? Ask them about their three year, five year, and ten year objectives and how they see this job as an avenue to obtain them. If they have purpose, they should answer that question concisely without much hesitation. Another good question would inquire about creative selling approaches they’ve employed in previous sales positions. I have found the best performers usually answer this question with some pretty humorous examples of methods they’ve used to get to decision makers, get appointments, etc.

Another good way to determine purpose is to ask previous employers about the work habits of the applicant. Someone with this trait needs only to be provided the parameters within which to work and the financial expectations of the job. The manager’s time is spent in more of a collaborative role or removing obstacles from their path.

The next” P” we will explore this week is Position. Position is the ability of a sales professional to leverage strong interpersonal skills with strong consultative skills to serve their clients as a preferred advisor. The ability to consistently cultivate professional relationships in which they are viewed by customers as trusted advisors to their businesses separates these reps from the pack. Sales professionals with this trait are very comfortable developing relationships higher in the client organization, with people holding more senior “positions.”

To determine if an applicant possesses the position trait, ask questions about previous clients and who they know within those accounts. What kind of value do they think they personally added with customers? You are obviously looking for consultative activities with higher level people. Ask for additional professional references to see how many senior level customers are on the list. I would also advise actually calling them to further ascertain the positional attributes of the applicant.

We have covered three of the 5 P’s of Successful Selling. In the next edition of the series, we will cover the final two: Persuasion and Persistence. We are well on our way to hiring “Robo-Rep” to help take your company to the next level!

Chuck Terry is the Executive Vice President and CSO of Carew International and is regular contributor to Carew’s blog – Executive Insights

Carew International is a leader in sales training and leadership development; specializing in comprehensive, proven training programs for sales, sales management and customer service excellence. For over 30 years, Carew has earned its reputation of delivering increased productivity and profitability to our valued clients world wide.

“Flat is the new double digit growth.” I first heard this term spoken jokingly by a friend of mine describing his company’s performance during the turbulent, uncertain first quarter of 2009. Described by many CEOs and financial pundits as the worst economic downturn in 80 years, my friend had found a way to put a positive spin on things. Although said with a sense of humor, the very real point was that his company had outperformed what market analysts felt was going to be a horrible quarter. News of what turned out to be only a slightly down performance was greeted with enthusiasm usually reserved for exciting growth numbers. It really got me thinking.

How many firms that are experiencing economic slowdowns are treating their financial performance with the same sort of relativity described above? Most the firms I know are being sucked into the pits of despair because business is off 20%, 30%, or more in some cases. I know of several companies that have pushed the panic button and laid people off while they actually stayed flat or grew a bit! The saying “desperate times call for desperate measures” may indeed be true in many cases, but are they really that desperate?

A recent Wall Street Journal article about the GDP declining also revealed that consumer spending had actually INCREASED during the first quarter of 09. That was a revelation to me; it certainly didn’t feel that way in my neck of the woods! Once again, it got me thinking.

The conclusion I came to was that things are usually not as bad as the media leads us to believe. When we take drastic actions and over react to the economy, we are only adding to the problem. Life is 10% what happens and 90% how we handle it.

These are tough times to be sure, but there are some great signs of recovery all around us. As business leaders, it is up to us to look at our company’s performance in the relative terms of the current economy. How are we performing against our competitors in these times? Find the good news and communicate it to your team! Everyone is hoping to hear some positive news that helps them to stay focused on winning in tough times. Make sure you find it… then share it!

Try my new approach the next time someone complains about how tough things are. Just smile and say, “Flat is the new double digit growth.” It might just get them thinking.

Chuck Terry is the Executive Vice President and CSO of Carew International and is regular contributor to Carew’s blog – Executive Insights

Carew International is a leader in sales training and leadership development; specializing in comprehensive, proven training programs for sales, sales management and customer service excellence. For over 30 years, Carew has earned its reputation of delivering increased productivity and profitability to our valued clients world wide.

Today, I am going to do my best to dispel the myth that sales training is a magic elixir. Because that is the manner in which too many companies view sales training… a popular box on the management checklist that, once checked off, will transform sales performance and boost sales output. Then when sales training DOESN’T work, they quit doing it, change training companies, or dismiss the internal sales training department. The “magic” simply doesn’t materialize for some organizations. If we were to do a post mortem on the instances of failed sales training initiatives, what would we identify as the fatal flaw? Why do some companies achieve amazing results from sales training while many others fail miserably? 

The most common culprit isn’t what many people might think. The real reason for success or failure DOES NOT generally rest upon the quality of the content or the training process itself. In most cases of failed sales training initiatives, the culprit was something very simple: the sales force didn’t use what they learned after they left the class. In some cases, the process they were taught might have been too complicated; but most of the time, it is as simple as a lack of true implementation. The company invested in a great EVENT. The EVENT got rave reviews on the post training evaluation forms. The sales professionals left the program with a temporary inspirational boost… and then went back into the field and sold pretty much the same way they did before the class. Six months later, those companies may as well have spent the money to send the sales team to the circus, because the results are about the same.

When it comes to sales training, the difference between success and failure is simply a matter of focus. Companies that focus on the EVENT of the sales training class usually fail, while companies that focus on sales training as an ongoing change initiative usually succeed. In choosing a sales training partner, understanding where they focus their efforts is critical to a successful mission. What happens AFTER your people leave the classroom is where the focus needs to lie. How are you going to institutionalize the new behavior? How are you going to create and enforce the expectations of that different behavior by the sales team? How will you support sales management in leading and coaching to those expectations? How will you evaluate and monitor the ROI? How will you provide a blended reinforcement solution that supports the training? Sales training partners that support their clients in providing ongoing solutions to these questions are the ones that succeed.

The good news is that sales training does indeed work. Certainly, there are differences between programs, and some are better than others to be sure. But none of them are magic. Success comes when people use the new process in the field. And most people will only use the new process if they are required to do so and receive ongoing training and reinforcement to assist in the transition. With that being said, it is what happens AFTER the training box has been checked off that separates the winners from losers!

Chuck Terry is the Executive Vice President and CSO of Carew International and is regular contributor to Carew’s blog – Executive Insights

Carew International is a leader in sales training and leadership development; specializing in comprehensive, proven training programs for sales, sales management and customer service excellence. For over 30 years, Carew has earned its reputation of delivering increased productivity and profitability to our valued clients world wide.

One of my all time favorite books on leadership is The Leadership Engine by Noel Tichy, a professor at Michigan and former consultant to Jack Welch. Although I read the book in 1998, I recently re-read it while doing research for a project.

Noel made the point that a key value of successful leaders was the ability to tell compelling stories that engage their followers emotionally and rationally. Not just random stories, but stories that weave together the ideas, values, and modes of behavior embraced by their organization. These are also stories that allow their employees to clearly see the future envisioned by the leader and how that future is a better future for them.

As I look around, I see many leaders of companies becoming more withdrawn. But the place to lead the battle is not from the rear, especially in difficult times. General George S. Patton, the flamboyant yet highly successful leader from World War Two, said, “A piece of spaghetti or a military unit can only be led from the front end.” Many of us in the ranks of leadership are being forced to make gut wrenching decisions that may have negative impacts on the lives of our employees, but are necessary for the good of the business. It is an unfortunate reality that sometimes comes with the role of leadership. Now more than ever we MUST lead from the front, not the rear.

While there is no escaping the reality of what sometimes must be done for the good of our companies in turbulent economic times, we need to remember that all whom are being impacted by our decisions are also looking to us for inspiration. Communicating our vision of what we are doing, why we are doing it, and where we going in the future is more critical now than ever. Story telling can be a medium for how we illustrate the future for our team and inspire them in process.

One of the training technologies regularly employed by Carew International is the practice of using “Hooks and Punches” to leverage stories and bring key points of learning to life in the class room. A “hook” is a story that sets up the next learning point, while a “punch” is a story that illustrates how the learning point is valid and then links it to a real situation. This same tactic can be applied to telling inspirational stories as leaders of our companies. According to Mr. Tichy, our stories should contain three essential elements: the case for change, where we are going, and how we will get there.

What I am talking about here is not blogging or “tweeting” or any other popular social communication vehicle that encourages stream-of-consciousness musing. What I am talking about is one on one, personalized story telling… leading from the front. Look into your own experiences or the experiences of others to find the source for your inspiring stories.

Here is an example of how one might be crafted in the form of a “hook”:

Many companies are being forced to lay people off in an effort to reduce overhead. The remaining employees are being asked to “do more with less” while trying to cope with the harsh reality that some of their former team mates are no longer with the organization. A leader’s story that might precede announcing the layoffs (the hook) would be based upon a situation where fewer people banded together and overcame the odds to achieve great results. It would clearly focus on the fact that in doing more with less, greater opportunity will be available for each team member to try new things. These new opportunities will help them add more value and grow as individuals. Center the story on what good will come out of this for THEM. This story could be built from events in your own past or from a story you found doing research on the subject. It should be as compelling as possible, while weaving in the three elements of making the case for change, illustrating where your organization is going and painting the picture of how you will get there.

In these uncertain times, the art of executive story telling can be a great source of inspiration in seeing the glass half full versus half empty. We are living in a country with 7.6% unemployment; but also a country where 92.4% of the citizens ARE employed. It is up to us to help our people see the hope, opportunity, and prosperity that lie just around the next bend. Sounds like the makings of a pretty great story to me!

Chuck Terry is the Executive Vice President and CSO of Carew International and is regular contributor to Carew’s blog – Executive Insights

Carew International is a leader in sales training and leadership development; specializing in comprehensive, proven training programs for sales, sales management and customer service excellence. For over 30 years, Carew has earned its reputation of delivering increased productivity and profitability to our valued clients world wide.

By Robert Estupinian

One thing that is very true in just about every situation in life is that, “one size does not fit everyone”. This axiom is very true when it comes to companies and their sales force. Understanding the existing culture of the company and subsequently the management style is important before you begin to add any new personnel to an existing organization. 

While consulting with various companies, Robert Estupinian, has often been approached by companies interested in developing a compensation package in order to attract the superstar salespeople in their industry. Although on the surface this is an ideal concept for increasing sales, it can back fire if done incorrectly.  One thing to note is the personality trait of a true superstar.  A true superstar does not see themselves as a rank and file employee. In fact, many posses the mindset of an entrepreneur and value their independence to create and get the job in the way they see best.  In many ways they will represent a value partner rather than an employee.

So the problem arises when there is a disconnect between the values of the company and those of the superstar.  A company that is rooted in rules and procedures and has a very structured management style will have a very difficult time keeping a true superstar. Yes, they will be able to recruit these high producing individuals, but often they will lose them just as quickly. The most common mistake made is that companies take these superstars and then ask them to sell and perform according to their set of rules and procedures. The costs in recruiting, loss productivity, and loss opportunity, not to mention damage to customers is enormous.

Robert Estupinian is not suggesting that one management structure is better or worse than another.  Rather what Robert Estupinian is saying is that in order to fully realize the benefit of hiring a superstar make sure that they fit within the existing structure first.  Furthermore, take a moment to understand fully how they sell and how they conduct business to see if this is the way that works for your organization. Lastly, do not leave this to chance. I work with many organizations in helping them select salespeople and use many tools in determining best fit including psychographical evaluations.

Should you want more information on this subject please contact Sales Consultant, Robert Estupinian at 408-879-7280

Today we continue our talk on product management. If your answer to this question was something like the word ‘satisfaction’ or ‘benefits’, then you are on the right track.

Please remember that the customer is not interested in your goods. He is interested in himself and what ‘benefits’ he will get, and not in you or your organization. Thus a product is the bundle of benefits or satisfactions offered to a customer. This is the meaning which must be accepted in a marketing sense, so that you become ‘consumer-oriented’. Now you can modify your answers about what they were selling in connection with soaps, bulbs and drills as given above.

Let us take the example of soaps. Is a salesman selling some chemicals put together in the form of a rectangle or any other shape called soap? Why not think of some of the advertisements that you have come across in connection with soaps. Take Hindustan Lever’s LUX soap. What are they selling? You must have noticed the film actress in the advertisement for LUX. Are they selling the film actress? Obviously not! They are selling a “good beautiful complexion” or a “lovely skin”.

More formally, formulating the research design involves the following steps: 

1. Secondary data analysis
2. Qualitative research
3. Methods of collecting quantitative data (survey, observation, and experimentation)
4. Definition of the information needed
5. Measurement and scaling procedures
6. Questionnaire design
7. Sampling process and sample size
8. Plan of data analysis

Step 4: Field Work or Data Collection 

Data collection involves a field force or staff that operates either in the field, as in the case of personal interviewing (in-home, mall intercept, or computer-assisted personal interviewing), from an office by telephone (telephone or computer-assisted telephone interviewing), or through mail (traditional mail and mail panel surveys with persecuted households). Proper selection, training, supervision, and evaluation of the field force help minimize data-collection errors.

Step 5: Data Preparation and Analysis 

Data preparation includes the editing, coding, transcription, and verification of data. Each questionnaire or observation form is inspected, or edited, and, if necessary, corrected. Number or letter codes are assigned to represent each response to each question in the questionnaire. The data from the questionnaires are transcribed or key-punched on to magnetic tape, or disks or input directly into the computer. Verification ensures that the data from the original questionnaires have been accurately transcribed, while data analysis, guided by the plan of data analysis, gives meaning to the data that have been collected.

Step 2: Development of an Approach to the Problem

Development of an approach to the problem includes formulating an objective or theoretical framework, analytical models, research questions, hypotheses, and identifying characteristics or factors that can influence the research design. This process is guided by discussions with management and industry experts, case studies and simulations, analysis of secondary data, qualitative research and pragmatic considerations.

Step 3: Research Design Formulation

A research design is a framework or blueprint for conducting the marketing research project. It details the procedures necessary for obtaining the required information, and its purpose is to design a study that will test the hypotheses of interest, determine possible answers to the research questions, and provide the information needed for decision making.  Market research helps interior designing company who make woven wood blinds or roller shades blinds to design new and customize design for their products. Market research helps them to know what customer test and new trend in the market. Conducting exploratory research, precisely defining the variables, and designing appropriate scales to measure them are also a part of the research design. The issue of how the data should be obtained from the respondents (for example, by conducting a survey or an experiment) must be addressed. It is also necessary to design a questionnaire and a sampling plan to select respondents for the study.

We will discuss some important point for formulating research design and other stages for marketing research process in next post.

By Robert Estupinian

During these challenging times it is easy to see why many organizations would simply result to demanding their sales force increase their production.  Many times the prevailing wisdom believes that if sales are down then the sales force just needs to try harder and do more.  Trying harder often translates to simply performing more tasks and unfortunately this does not always result in more sales.  In other words increasing the number of calls, the number of presentations, and the number of proposals is akin to busy work.

The result is that CRM’s and weekly reports are generated that show more activity but the forecast from these activities is still lousy and the bottom line is even worse.

Another common solution to fixing dismal sales is to  launch a contest in hopes that this will motivate the sales force into trying more. More than not it is a combination of the carrot and the stick approach and ends up looking like the famous scene from the movie, “The Boiler Room”. In the movie the sales people are told that first price is a new car, second price is a set of steak knives, and there is no third price (since you are then fired).  In one organization that I consulted with I arrived as the company was both laying off salespeople and at the same time announcing a “new” incentive program.

The problem with most of these techniques is that organizations that use these procedures assume that these activities will indeed increase sales and the bottom line.  Many times this assumption has not been properly analyzed to see if the increase in cost and resources really does impact the bottom line.  In most cases the activities do not lead to more revenue. What happens is equivalent to a golfer incorrectly practicing his swing over and over. At the end of all that practice all he/she has done is perfected a bad swing.

A second serious miscalculation is the assumption that the sales people already know what the right activities  are and how to properly implement them for bottom line results. Truth be told there is more ignorance in sales strategies and procedures now than ever before.  This is due in part to the booming economy that all of us have been experiencing for the last several years. Many sales organizations have people who have not had any sales training at all.  Some of these sales people do have product training and know the features and benefits of their products and can explain them. However, just being able to explain the features and benefits will not result in more sales. The result is that we have more sales people who are nothing more than order takers than a professional and skillful consultative salesperson.

The best way to avoid these common misconceptions and frustrations is to invest now in a sales training program that will not only give your sales people the necessary skills to be effective, it will also determine what procedures are essential to increase your bottom line. Waiting for the economy to get better or for the sales force to take the initiative and obtain the necessary training is wishful thinking and could put your organization on a course to financial ruin.  Organizations that make the investment now will not only survive but actually thrive during these times.  I can assure you that most organizations will not do anything and throw caution to the wind.

The good news is that many sales training and sales performance programs are cost effective and can provide you with a verifiable return on your investment in a short period of time. Call my office at 408-879-7280 for a free no cost consultation to see how your organization can benefit from a comprehensive sales approach.

First, marketing research is systematic. Thus systematic planning is required at all the stages of the marketing research process. The procedures followed at each stage are methodologically sound, well documented, and, as much as possible, planned in advance. Marketing research uses the scientific method in that data are collected and analyzed to test prior notions or hypotheses.

Marketing research is objective. It attempts to provide accurate information that reflects a true state of affairs. It should be conducted impartially. While research is always influenced by the researcher’s research philosophy, it should be free from the personal or political biases of the researcher or the management. Research which is motivated by personal or political gain involves a breach of professional standards. Such research is deliberately biased so as to result in predetermined findings. The motto of every researcher should be, “Find it and tell it like it is.” The objective nature of marketing research underscores the importance of ethical considerations, which are discussed later in the chapter.

Marketing research involves the identification, collection, analysis, and dissemination of information. Each phase of this process is important. We identify or define the marketing research problem or opportunity and then determine what information is needed to investigate it., and inferences are drawn.

Today, we continue our discussion on marketing activities and functions. Depending on the industry, the regulatory context may also be important to examine in detail. In Competitor analysis, marketers build detailed profiles of each competitor in the market, focusing especially on their relative competitive strengths and weaknesses using SWOT analysis. Marketing managers will examine each competitor’s cost structure, sources of profits, resources and competencies, competitive positioning and product differentiation, degree of vertical integration, historical responses to industry developments, and other factors.

Marketing management often finds it necessary to invest in research to collect the data required to perform accurate marketing analysis. As such, they often conduct market research (alternately marketing research) to obtain this information. Marketers employ a variety of techniques to conduct market research, but some of the more common include:

1. Qualitative marketing research, such as focus groups
2. Quantitative marketing research, such as statistical surveys
3. Experimental techniques such as test markets
4. Observational techniques such as ethnographic (on-site) observation

Marketing managers may also design and oversee various environmental scanning and competitive intelligence processes to help identify trends and inform the company’s marketing analysis.

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This view is also consistent with the perspective of management guru Peter Drucker, who wrote: “Because the purpose of business is to create a customer, the business enterprise has two–and only these two–basic functions: marketing and innovation. Marketing and innovation produce results; all the rest are costs. Marketing is the distinguishing, unique function of the business.”

But because many businesses operate with a much more limited definition of marketing, such statements can appear controversial or even ludicrous to some business executives. This is especially true in those companies where the marketing department is responsible for little more than developing sales brochures and executing advertising campaigns. The broader, more sophisticated definitions of marketing management from Drucker, Kotler and other scholars are therefore juxtaposed against the narrower operating reality of many businesses. The source of confusion here is often that inside any given firm, the term marketing management may be interpreted to mean whatever the marketing department happens to do, rather than a term that encompasses all marketing activities — even those marketing activities that are actually performed by other departments, such as the sales, finance, or operations departments. If, for example, the finance department of a given company makes pricing decisions (for deals, proposals, contracts, etc.), that finance department has responsibility for an important component of marketing management – pricing.

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While I was in high school, the school administration invited a professor to present a course on ‘How to Study in College’. Having coasted through high school, but realizing that college was going to be at a whole new level, I decided to attend. I left the course with two of the most important ideas I would ever come across for being successful in college. The first idea was ‘there is no substitute for daily preparation’ while the second was the concept of periodic review. Periodic review teaches you to review new material 3-5 times over several days to improve retention. Preparing daily for what assignments and tests lay ahead would allow you to manage your time, review the material periodically,  and deliver good grades. I am sure these two rules added a whole point to my GPA.

Several years latter when I was transitioning from an engineering role to a sales role, my boss introduced me to the sales equivalent of these two rules. It was January, and over lunch he looked me square in the eye and said “there are twelve windows of financial opportunity in a year and soon 1/12th of those windows will be gone. What have you done today to meet your obligations for the first window.”  My subconscious reaction was to stop breathing, and knowing his statement would have that effect, it was my boss who reminded me to breathe. After stammering about a phone call to a client, or a follow up letter I had written, he explained to me that to meet that first window I would have to have a daily plan that was creative, detailed and executed meticulously. I didn’t know at the time that the ‘windows of financial opportunity’ theme would be one that he would visit repeatedly as he mentored me; but it was one of the pillars of building a professional sales organization and taking a small startup from $30K a month in sales to $3Million a month.  Quota was to be met every month. You didn’t borrow from previous months or sandbag for the next.  Once the window closed that was it for that 1/12 of the year.

The second lesson that day was on the idea that a salesperson has to repeat… repeat… repeat his message. Their are many benefits to the sales process from repeating your message, but on the most basic level it’s necessary because people are busy, especially those that make purchasing decisions. Just because someone subscribes to your newsletter don’t assume that they read it. The marketing department is getting paid to produce those soft pieces, and it’s the salespersons job to make sure these pieces are engaging his key prospects. Make sure you prepare by noting the key points for that prospect. It could be the new training program or free service updates. If you call the prospect and find out he had read the piece, it’s a good bet that what you are offering is important to him. If he hasn’t read it, ask him if training or free upgrades are important factors, if not what is most important. You are in essence reading it to him. 

Of course these aren’t the only tools necessary to be a top performer in a sales organization, but like adding to your GPA they will certainly add dollars to your current window of financial opportunity.