Kahle Way B2B Sales Blog

I just rode with two sales people for one of my clients. One of them went off with only the address of the company in his head. He took nothing into the sales call, and took no notes afterward. The other had looked up each call in the company’s CRM system, and had printed the records to take with him. He approached each sales call with a folder in which he had the printed record and some literature. Immediately after the sales call, he made notes on the document, and would enter it into the computer when he was finished for the day.

Guess which one produces more? You know, of course, that the second sales person produces about twice as much as the first.

I am absolutely befuddled by some sales people. Here is a simple, easy-to-implement best practice. Why aren’t you doing it? 

It is as if some sales people strive to be unorganized, slovenly and mediocre. If your company has created tools for you to use, USE THEM!!

The best sales people have briefcases jammed full of the literature and samples that the company has created. Mediocre sales people often go into a sales call with nothing in their hands, or briefcases loaded with next to nothing. In addition to sales literature, “tools” include presentations, forms, and electronic tools like software and computers of every variety.

Superstars view all of this as effective complements to their skills. Their company literature presents their case in a written format that can complement their verbal presentation. DVD and PowerPoint™ presentations portray the product/service in a more compelling way than the sales person can do alone. Forms help organize thoughts and require detailed thinking. Electronic tools like CRM systems help organize the sales call, and provide a way to automate routine tasks.

Mediocre sales people see all these things as encumbrances: More “busy work,” or someone telling them how to do their job, or encroaching accountability. The real issue underneath these excuses is their fear of, and inability to, change in positive ways and become more effective at their jobs. It is just easier to complain and find fault with the latest software tool that the company wants you to use, than it is to actually take the time to learn it.

Taking the time to learn the new thing, to make use of the latest tool, implies that you may not have been doing this the best way possible in the past. That implies that you can, and should, improve. It’s that implication that motivates most mediocre sales people to reject the company-provided tools. To accept them is to give tacit acceptance to the idea that they can and should improve. They would rather hide under the radar screen of accountability.

That’s why making good use of the company-provided sales tools is a best practice of the best sales people.

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For Sales Managers…

Use this rating scale to assess the extent to which each of your sales people evidence this best practice. 

Best Practice #10: Makes good use of the tools provided by the company.

Comments: __________________________________________________

To help your sales people implement this practice…

1. Make an inventory of all the literature, forms, electronics, software, etc. that your company has available as tools for the sales people.
2. At the next sales meeting, review each tool, indicate how it should be used, and the impact it can have.
3. Require the sales staff to begin using them.
4. As you ride with them, audit the contents of their briefcases and files to determine the extent to which they are using the company’s tools.
5. Recommend specific improvements for those who need them.
6. On the next visit, inspect the degree to which they made the improvements you indicated.

by Dave Kahle
Now that the worst of the recession is behind us, it’s time to think about actually growing the business again. And that means investing in the improvement of the sales force. Most astute principals and chief sales officers realize that in this very competitive economic environment, those companies who sell better than the rest will take market share away from their less effective competitors.

Yet budgets are still tight, and nervous CEOs are hesitant to fund broad-based sales initiatives. What to do?

Start with the sales managers.

If you want to do something to improve your sales force, the best application of limited funds is to invest in the sales managers.

It’s the sales managers who have the greatest opportunity to help sales people unleash their potential. Because of their daily high touch interaction with the sales force and the market, sales managers have the levers to ratchet up sales performance in the entire team. If you can educate a sales manager in the best practices of his position, and if he then implements the principles, practices and disciplines of professional sales management, you can see an immediate, measurable and long-lasting improvement in the performance of the sales team.

While most people intuitively understand the link between effective sales management and improved sales results, research in the last few years has confirmed it. For example, a study by Wilson Learning Worldwide, Inc. concluded that sales teams under the oversight of a highly skilled sales manager produced “29% higher revenue, 47% higher employee satisfaction, and 16% higher customer satisfaction.”

Unfortunately, of all the job titles and positions in a typical B2B sales force, the first line sales managers are the least trained for their positions. Most have never been educated in the best practices of effective sales management. As a result they default to the habits and practices they saw when they were sales people. They mimic the models of the sales managers for which they worked. Alas, most of their models were also never educated in effective sales management.

As a result, sales management practices vary from one extreme to another, depending on the individual manager’s vision of himself. There is a continuum from micromanager on one extreme to non-manager at the other. Some see themselves as super sales people – the most competent of all the sales people, and the one who needs to go with the sales people to close big accounts, and smooth flustered relationships. Others become administrators, busying themselves with reports, meetings and a continuous stream of clerical functions.

Some identify with the sales people, and wouldn’t think of impinging on anyone’s style or system of work. Others see themselves as executives who don’t really have time for the nitty gritty of joint sales calls.

Still others, suffering from a lack of a clear vision as to what their role could be, default to a reactive style of management, where their time is directed to the most compelling of the countless number of issues that cry for today’s attention.

The costs to the company can be huge. Morale is not what it could be, and that impacts almost every transaction and relationship for the sales team. Sales people turn over more rapidly, causing a whole series of unnecessary costs. Marginal sales people continue in roles for which they aren’t suited, resulting in lost sales and disgruntled customers. Unfocused sales people default to reactive sales styles, dissipating sales efforts.

Is it any wonder that sales teams under effective sales management are so much more effective?

Sales managers can be proactive leaders who set the standards, identify the vision, and lead the company’s charge into the competitive market. Most have never been exposed to the concept that there is a set of best practices for first line sales managers. They should be leading their teams, creating expectations, holding sales people accountable, coaching, counseling when necessary, and developing the skills and capabilities of the sales force. They should be helping their sales people focus on the most effective customers, products and processes. They should create and impart important standards for sales behavior and performance, and be ready and able to act when those standards are not met and a new sales person needs to be recruited.

A proactive, skilled sales manager can be the best thing that ever hit a group of sales people.

Unfortunately, these kinds of activities do not proceed naturally from the skills that gave them success as sales people. Their time as a sales person has not equipped them with any of the skills and practices necessary to effectively perform as sales leaders.

And, so, most B2B sales companies limp along with untrained sales managers and underachieving sales teams.

An investment in transforming the mind-sets and improving the practices of sales managers can have a positive impact on the entire sales team. If you only have limited funds to improve your sales force, start there.

Quote is from Wilson Learning Worldwide, Inc. Sales Management as a Source of Competitive Advantage, Research Report, p. 4.

Dave Kahle will be hosting a two-day seminar for sales managers  in Countryside, IL, June 10 & 11. 

The most under-trained person in the B2B world is the sales manager. 

According to Kahle, “Our experience tells us that probably fewer than 10% of all sales managers have any education in how to do their job well.”

Kahle says, “That causes all kinds of problems.  Many sales supervisors, since they are unsure of how to go about their jobs, default to laissez-faire management – they abdicate the important decisions to the salespeople.  Or, the company becomes frustrated with the lack of consistency in the sales processes, the absence of accountability in the sales force, and the difficulty in implementing change within the sales force.” Kahle continues, “As a result, sales productivity suffers, as does the company’s net profits and market share.”

The seminar is built on the premise that no one has enough time in today’s challenging economy.  It is focused on the Kahle Way® Sales Management System, which explores the five key processes that enable first-line sales/branch managers to excel at jobs for which they were not trained:

• Hiring new salespeople
• Coaching and counseling
• Setting individual goals
• Monthly conferences
• Managing the training and development of your salespeople

Dave Kahle is a consultant and trainer who helps B2B companies increase sales and develop their people. He speaks from real world experience, having been the number one salesperson in the country for two companies in two distinct industries. Dave has trained thousands of salespeople to be more successful in the Information Age economy. He’s the author of over 500 articles, a weekly Ezine, and 7 books, including Transforming Your Sales Force for the 21^st Century and How to Become an Exceptional Distributor Sales Manager.   

Countryside, IL, June 10 & 11, 2010– will be Kahle’s next appearance with the Kahle Way® Sales Management System.  For more information, contact The DaCo Corporation at 800-331-1287 or info@davekahle.com .

The DaCo Corporation, PO Box 523, Comstock Park, MI 49321