Networking or Putting yourself in the way of your targets

I was recently asked by a trainer, who had just decided to start his own company, how I use networking to find business. In answer, I told him that it was about putting yourself in the way of your targets. He got it immediately.

Just in case it is not, I’ll try to make it more obvious with some examples. There are many occasions when you could be invited to an event or gathering that might turn up some good prospects. I recall one instance when I was looking to be employed by a company but wanted to impress upon the CEO that I would be able to take a different angle to most others. I started subscribing to an email specific to his industry. Very soon, I noticed a conference that was being run by a government body responsible for that industry and that he was listed as a speaker. As it was a government conference, anyone with an interest could register to attend. By the first break we had “run into each other” and he was offering me the role. He had not expected me to be there and the fact that I was showing interest beyond others proved to him that I was the right selection.

This is an especially good way to learn about an industry that you may be targeting and can give you great exposure to who is the decision maker.

Why is hiring sales people such a risky and expensive business, when it doesn’t need to be.

I interviewed a candidate for a sales manager role this week. When I asked her to describe an experience of having to sack a sales person for non performance she gave me the following story….

The CEO wanted to establish an operation in Sydney. The organisation provides professional training to engineering staff. The decision was made by the CEO to establish an office, hire 3 trainers, and hired a sales person that had a good resume and interviewed well.

Five months later, after giving the sales person extensive induction training and then additional hands on support they let him go. He was just not performing, and yet during the hiring process, which was rigorous, our candidate seemed perfect for the role.

Total direct cost of this exercise was $750,000. This included the cost of the office lease, the salaries of the three trainers and the salary of the sale person; other additional costs that could have been included are the cost of recruitment or the cost of lost opportunities. This was a very expensive exercise as a result of failing to hire a top performer in just one role.

If you want to know if the sales person can do the job, I can help you from making the same very expensive mistake.

Visit this site to find out more and organise for more information that explains the challenges of hiring.

Do you know your Sales Cycle? Has it changed?

I was prompted to write about this by the news, today, that more than seven in 10 CEO Institute
members are expecting their revenue to increase in the first six months of 2010. One task stands out above all others for the CEOs surveyed — maintaining sales (46 per cent).

So if you are just getting back into the swing of positive action on sales, bear in mind that decision criteria will have changed, approval processes may be different and attitudes are different than they were a year ago.

More than ever, showing value is paramount, but bear in mind that your customers are also hinging their hopes on an increased revenue stream that may not yet have materialised. I'm seeing more customers who are interested in a phased implementation, limited commitment approach. In other words, they want to taste it before they buy.

So be prepared for a changed sales cycle.

The Art of Sales and when to use it.

Anyone in sales will know what it is like to have to put up with the all of the forms and systems that your company insists that you complete. I recall a sales person in a successful Telco telling me that he had to enter the same data in seven different forms each week and couldn't understand why. I admit that it doesn't make sense to me. This was a bureaucracy that had to produce reports and they didn't care that they were taking time away from revenue generation to obtain the data. At worst you should only have to enter the data once.

It will become obvious to anyone who cares to examine the sales process that it is better to spend money on a system than reduce sales time. So you still need to collect the data but make sure that any system is helping sales and is not designed to penalise the sales person for not wanting to spend time entering data into a system that will not help the sales process.

So where does the Art of Sales come into play? I've realised that the Art in a sale is the part of me that enjoys winning a deal. The Art of me in a sales process only needs to be engaged once I have a qualified opportunity. It is the sales process, or sales production system, that delivers the opportunity to me. And don't confuse an opportunity with a lead.

If you want to find out more about creating a sales process then visit www.intermizzi.com.au

Five Rules for Keeping Your Sales Job in this Recession

Early this morning I sat in on a Webinar presented by Jeb Blount from SalesGravy and hosted by Landslide, a Sales CRM company.

The focus was on sales people, mostly in the US, who are worried about keeping their jobs. The five rules given are:

• Activity is Everything
• Don't Complain
• Become Indispensable
• Make No Enemies
• Have a Backup Plan

Most of the advice is the same as the advice that you would hear for advancement in more prosperous times. The significant difference is that recession brings fear to those who thought they were on a comfortable ride, and the ride is always relative.

Whilst Australia is fearing unemployment rates of 7%, the US is predicting 10 to 12%. A recent survey in the US found that 50% are worried that they would lose their job. Clearly a large portion of them are focussing on worrying rather than doing their job.

Then I found an article "The Upside of a Down Market: 10 Reasons Why a Recession is Good for Selling" written by Victor Antonio in which he relates his time as VP of Sales in Argentina when Argentina's unemployment rate was somewhere between 20% and 25%.

So it is obvious that whilst there might be 5 rules for keeping your job in a recession, there are at least 10 reasons why a recession is good for selling.

Go to http://www.intermizzi.com.au/ to find out more.

The Karma Deal (not to be confused with a bluebird)

I'm not sure if I coined the term Karma Deal or not. The first time I used it was in 1994.

A colleague and I had started the Melbourne office of a distributor and we were having trouble getting the orders flowing. After a few months of desperation I went to a former senior sales executive that we had both worked with a few years prior and asked him, what was his secret?

He gave us a simple format that provided regular activity and contact with companies that should be interested in what we had to sell. It worked! And every time sales slowed down we would dust off the same routine and it never failed to work. The funny thing was that, often, the sales came from a different direction than we expected.

The lesson we learned was that the sales never came if we sat pondering the universe. Eventually, it became obvious that we created our own Karma.

Bluebirds are those opportunities that fly in the window with the salesperson not having to lift a finger. They have nothing to do with Karma!

Go to http://www.intermizzi.com.au/ to find out more.

Making More Of It Obvious

Most of the people I know make sure that they read and listen to new ideas because it is obvious that the quickest way to gain knowledge is to learn from those who are already successful at it.

So when there are thousands of books, audio streams, courses, websites and blogs out there, how do you know which ones to follow up? I do know some people who seem to be trying to read everything that comes along. I prefer to follow the path of the advice above and take recommendations from those who have already read the book.

A recent great read is the book Made To Stick by Dan & Chip Heath. It is about making ideas stickier. They have some great free resources at their website www.madetostick.com

Go to http://www.intermizzi.com.au/ to find out more.

How to develop a corporate partnership?

I was recently asked how to establish a partnership relationship instead of being known as a product supplier. The answer is in the questions that you ask.
A partnership is a strategic relationship. If you get to be in front of a decision maker and start pushing your product then you will be relegated to the position of product supplier. On the other hand, if you start asking questions about their business then you will immediately differentiate yourself from the rest of the field.
What questions should you ask? Take some time to research the company and you will find suitable questions. If you really want to impress then make sure you read their annual report and press releases and organise your questions to seek clarification. This also happens to be the best way to figure out where your product or solution will best assist the company in reaching their goals.

Go to http://www.intermizzi.com.au/ to find out more.