The Center for Sales Strategy Blog

Today is the first day of a new year. Time to put the successes and disappointments of last year behind you and focus on the year ahead. If you want to be sure you have a happy new year, challenge yourself to improve your performance in at least one area. But which area?

We were at a sales conference a few years back. I remember so vividly seeing Chuck ask three different people if they’d race him to the top of the hotel escalator. When none of them showed interest in taking him on, Chuck wilted. At that moment, he just had this enormous need to take someone on (and beat them to the top), but no one would bite.

Is it just me, or did anyone else notice that Movember seemed to really become a “thing” this year? In case you live in a cave, Movember is the movement that draws attention to men’s health issues by encouraging the growth of facial hair. We seemed to have reached a tipping point in 2014 and I believe this is likely to get even bigger in the years to come. 

I think I’m starting to understand the value of Twitter. For the week ending November 8^th, I had 56 total views, picked up 21 new followers, and five of my tweets were favorited by people in my network. It’s a big increase, from even just one month prior. The week ending October 5^th, I had 11 total views and 12 new followers (no favorites).

Would you rather play on a championship team or be with a team of sales champions?

As we head toward the end of the year, it’s natural to start looking to 2015. Where will you find new prospects next year?

They could be on social media right now without you realizing it. Get your team to increase their use of social media (for more than just cat videos) this quarter by implementing a Twitter Drive, in order to increase business next year.

How to Start a Twitter Drive

• Have a meeting on Monday where everyone notes the number of Twitter followers they have. Some may have 100, some may have 5,000. Some, umm, may not have any.
• Set a follow-up meeting for four weeks from Monday to see what progress everyone made.
• Brainstorm ways to find the right kind of new people to connect with.

What are You Tracking?

For as long as I can remember, clients of The Center for Sales Strategy have been saying that one of the great benefits they derive from working with us is a sales culture, a culture that provides the foundation for success in their organization. We love hearing that compliment, but just what does it mean? What is a company culture, anyway? And why is it important?

According to Wikipedia, “Organizational culture is the behavior of humans within an organization and the meaning that people attach to those behaviors.” Author F. John Reh says it in fewer words: “Company culture is the shared values and practices of the company's employees.” It’s not complex or difficult to understand. The culture of a company or a department is simply what most employees do most of the time. While the people help form the culture by their behavior, it’s equally true—and ultimately, more important—that the culture communicates values and sets expectations that determine how people behave.

You’ve seen those pill-box organizers right? When I was visiting my parents this summer, I noticed my dad was using one of these organizers so he wouldn’t forget which medicine to take when. We are all thankful for advanced medicine and the quality of life it affords, but it won't do you any good if you forget to take it.

Imagine if salespeople had a sales-box organizer to help them remember to serve their customers well every day. You can immediately think of the potential in this idea. One of the toughest parts of being in sales is making daily decisions about how to spend your time. You could spend 100% of your time each day handling transactional details and service requests on current accounts, along with moving your best prospects through the sales funnel.

This past summer, my family was taking a drive on the Blue Ridge Parkway near Asheville, NC ,and we came upon a restroom near an area called Graveyard Fields. Perfect. A few of us needed to use the restroom. From the outside the facility looked quite impressive (considering we were out in the middle of nowhere). My wife went first. When she came out, she warned me that what was waiting inside didn’t quite match the attractive outside appearance.

I took my turn and returned to the car. When my wife asked my opinion of what I found on the inside, here’s how I responded:

“Well, that was either one of the worst public restrooms I have ever been in or one of the most attractive looking outhouses I have had the pleasure to use.”

There is a pattern I have seen repeated over the nearly 20 years I have been involved in trying to help sales organizations improve their performance. A new product or service is launched, lots of product training is created to support the launch, and sales people are given incentives to sell the new offering. In most cases, sales start to happen, but after several months, overall sales are not reaching the lofty goals that have been set. This is often where I get involved and what I typically see is that a lot of sales have been made (often as many as the organization had projected), but the average sale is much smaller than they had hoped.

At this point, I look at the proposals behind the sales that were made. In nearly 100% of these proposals, the seller has done a good job of pitching the new product or service (good enough that they made the sale). But rarely is the proposal tailored to a need. Even great needs-based sellers tend to forget about this proven approach when they’re asked to sell the hot, shiny, new product.