The Scrambled Egg - a blog every sales professional should wake up to.

Liking these tips? Follow @KADScrambledEgg on Twitter for wisdom on #sales and #salesmanagement.

Open ended questions are the crux of a successful sale. So why aren’t questions such as these enough? Open ended questions are dangerous when you don’t know what you’re looking for. Reps that are taught to ask questions, but not shown what they are looking for will lose creditability with prospects and miss crucial pieces of information.  This is like giving reps a bat and not telling them where or what the piñata is. It is the manager’s responsibility to teach the other pieces of the puzzle. 

I’ve found success to first show reps what they are looking for before teaching them how to ask. In other words, tell them what and where the target is. Are we looking to find out if a prospect has internal power, do they have budget, is there desire and/or motivation to change, etc. If the manager can explain what information a rep is looking for, reps are pretty good at figuring out how to get it. As a manager, we can make the mistake of teaching reps endless amounts of questions. Mostly, reps will do what we ask and they’ll continue to ask unless questions to the prospects. Even after the answer has long since been given, passed and missed by the rep. The risk is the crucial information is squandered and the prospect will grow tired and feel as if they are in an interrogation.  In the prospect’s defense, they probably aren’t too far off!

There is another issue with only teaching open ended questions. Even if the rep understands what they are looking for, they don’t know how to reuse the information. They are great at asking questions and quickly obtaining the answer, but that information never resurfaces again when in fact the answers from the prospect should become the reps vernacular for every conversation thereafter. 

When coaching my reps I use what I call the 3Rs:

Recognize:

First teach reps what is it you want the rep to get. Be specific. For example, if you want the rep to find out if the company has urgency. Does the prospect already have a line item on their budget for such a service/product? If not, are there compelling events they should look for which can be used to build a case (I’ll discuss that under the “reuse” section).  Exactly what type of events do you want them to find, give the rep specific examples. Maybe you want them to find all of the above applicable.

Request:

Give the reps suggested open ended questions they can use to get what you want them to get. I’ve found reps are great at getting what they need once they know where the target is.

Reuse:

What do they do with the information once they have it? Teach them take the buying process customized to the prospect. Show reps how they weave the prospect’s terminology into the solution. If you’ve taught the rep to look for the prospect’s top priority, how do they then reuse this information to drive urgency. Prior to a closing call, ask your rep what the priority for the prospect is. Role play why the deal might delay or what objections they can anticipate. Show them how to use the prospect’s top priority to build urgency or to overcome the objections. This way when the rep is the phone they have all the ammunition and they’re prepared. Bullseye!

While open ended questions are an essential part of sales, they are dangerous on their own. Reps are most efficient when they can see the entire picture and they can sell more when they re-use the information and make the buying process about their prospects.  Give the reps the bat, point them in the right direction of the piñata and let them swing. When they are showered with candy show them how to open it and enjoy the fruits of their labor. 

Liking these tips? Follow @KADScrambledEgg on Twitter for wisdom on #sales and #salesmanagement.

“When’s the deal coming in?” We’ve all had the manager who has asked the question. This question is ok, not great, and dangerous when this is the only inquiry a manager is asking. A sales manager’s job is to keep the reps accountable for their pipeline, but the other role responsibilities are to be a coach for the players on the team. 

A sales manager should be on the frontlines, meaning they should be on the phone or on face to face meetings with their reps 50% of the time. Working in tandem with your reps gives a sales manager more bang for the buck, essentially 1+1=3. 

1) Freshness – being on the phone or going to face to face meetings with my reps keeps me, as the manager, up-to-date as to what’s current in the market place.

2) Scalability – understanding what’s current in the market helps me guide the rest of the reps with the most up-to-date techniques and sound bites.

3) Trust – if my suggestions and coaching are fresh and can help my reps with current challenges, they trust me and my guidance. If I were to give them advice on outdated information they wouldn’t trust me to steer them away from obstacles. Working in tandem and seeing my direction first hand they will trust I’m working for their best interest.

4) More Is Better – two sets of ears are better than one. Having a rep paired with a manager tends to pick up more details that might have otherwise been missed.

5) Accountability – when I’m participating with my reps they are accountable to implement my suggestions. As their manager, I’m accountable for helping them avoid obstacles and closing deals.

6) Real time coaching – there are many techniques for coaching reps, including call recordings or pipeline reviews, however nothing is more impactful than immediate feedback. If a rep is given feedback or advice a week or even several days after the incident, the momentum can be lost.

7) Pipeline – by participating with my reps on the frontline, I have a better sense of the teams’ pipeline. I’m in the deals with them and know the intricate details of each one. This is much more effective than asking “when is the deal coming in?”

8) Close More Deals – working with my reps on their deals, simply closes more business. I have more experience than most of my reps and can teach them how to bring a deal across the finish line.

9) Share Best Practices– I’ve hired smart reps and they come up with savvy things on a daily basis. Anytime I hear a new technique or sound bite (which happens frequently), I can be assured it’s shared amongst the team as I’ll be the one sharing.

10) Recognition – many reps enjoy the spot light hence using charts and metrics to motivate them. They also enjoy being recognized amongst their team for coming up with new ideas. In addition, this fosters others to want to be recognized for their new ideas as well.

11) Multitasking – read the list above. As a manager, I don’t have a lot of time, but look at all the things I can do while on the frontlines. If I tried to do all these things separately it would take way too long. Why not kill two birds with one stone?

Being on the phones or in face to face meetings with my reps foster many positives, let me warn 50% is a well calculated percentage. If you spend too much time with your reps, you can inadvertently squash their independence and make them paralyzed. Any more than 50% of my time on the frontlines and there wouldn’t be time for the other parts of the job role. Remember it can be intimidating for a rep to get their boss on a call. Be very cognoscente of this and ask the rep to guide you as to what role they want you to play. A sales manager should perceive themself as “the coach” and not “the boss”. Happy coaching….

Liking these tips? Follow @KADScrambledEgg on Twitter for wisdom on #sales and #salesmanagement.

After interviewing countless numbers of sales people I’ve heard some answers and seen behaviors I now consider pet peeves. I call them this because I’ve heard and seen them so many times they’ve become generic and annoying. Repetition can make anyone cringe; I believe this is the entire premise of Chinese water torture.

If you want to stand out in an interview please avoid these bland answers and basic mistakes below. If you’re currently doing any of the below realize you are fading into the crowd or actually standing out only because you’ve been the 10^th person that day to do or say the same thing.

1) Claiming You’re Number 1. Every rep talks about how they are the top rep at their current company. Please don’t tell me this, show me. I want to see awards, achievers trips etc. Only if you are the actually the Number 1 rep. If you are not the top rep, it’s ok to be 2^nd, 3^rd, 4^th, etc. I prefer honesty (see number 6). It will also help to clarify if your rank in relation to how many other reps.  If you’re 3^rd among 100 reps this is just as impressive as the Number 1 rep of 10 people.

2) “Building Relationships”. Please don’t say this in an interview as every rep feels as though this is part of their special sauce. You should have good people skills; this is a perquisite for the career. That’s like saying you have typing skills. Instead, tell me what you’ve done differently than all the other people interviewing for the job.  Think of examples when you did something really creative to get into an account or close a deal. “Developing Relationships” will also make my eyes roll.

3) No Notebook. If a rep shows up without a note book, it’s a clear indication of how detail orientated they are. It also shows me you fly by the seat of your pants. While this might work at your current position, any new job will require training and a learning curve. The interview is the first part of that process. If you’re not taking notes now, you probably won’t take training seriously and you’ll be a heavy tax to ramp up and train.

4) Generic Questions. Candidates who ask basic questions and aren’t really inquisitive indicates you’re looking for any old position. It could also indicate you’re desperate because if you had a lot of job options you’d really be trying to figure out which of them is best for you. Instead of the generic questions, get really curious about the job and ask those questions. Not in regards to compensation or culture, but more so about who is their top rep, what are they doing differently, etc.

5) Close-ended Questions: I’m paying attention to the content of your questions but I’m also paying attention to the format. If you ask close ended questions in your interview, this is a habit and you’ll do this during the sale. Open ended questions are Sales 101. The interview is no different.

6) BS. I purposely question a rep relentlessly until I get to the raw unscripted answers, the area where there is no way you could prepare for. I want to make sure you don’t feed me BS. I like if you’re quick on your feet and I also like a rep that will answer “I don’t know”. If I sense BS, then it’s not a fit. As a manager I won’t have time to clean up the messes you make in a sale.

7) Motor Mouth. If you talk the entire interview and you’re so long winded I can’t get my questions in, your prospects will feel the same way. Stop talking.

An interview can be nerve racking, but remember this is also your opportunity to find out if the company is a good fit for you as well. Think of you interviewing the company. This will help take the nerves away and allow you to be quick on your feet and get curious. 

Liking these tips? Follow @KADScrambledEgg on Twitter for wisdom on #sales and #salesmanagement.

As a manager of one of the fastest growing companies in Boston, I’ve hired and trained many new employees. Hyper growth can create unique challenges and one of them is ramping new sale reps to quick independence. This is extremely important as I have new hires coming in faster than I can train the ones hired the month previous. While this technique is efficient for a fast growing company, it's also helpful for managers at any company.

One of the techniques I’ve found effective is giving new reps a quota of mistakes. Yes, they actually get a quota of mistakes they need to make and I keep track on a white board close to their desk.  The first month they start the quota is high and each subsequent month the quota gets lower and lower. 

Here is why:

Faster Independence: We all make mistakes when we’re new; this is part of the learning curve. If mistakes are not encouraged to be made a new hire can feel they should hide them or cover them up. Embrace mistakes as they are great learning opportunity. By giving a new rep a quota of mistakes which starts higher, it encourages them to make blunders and to make them soon. This is important as most companies have a ramp up revenue quota that starts low. If a rep can make a lot of mistakes early, it’s more efficient as they learn it while their actual dollar quota is lower. The sooner they learn from these, the faster they’ll be independent.

Trust: Acknowledging the rep is new and allowing them to make mistakes builds trust between the new rep and their manager. The new rep will not feel the need to hide mistakes or cover them up. 

Shameless Transparency: The quota of mistakes is not shameful, it’s a given. Keeping track on a whiteboard and making it an expectation allows the new hire to feel a burden and stress lifted and they can embrace the learning curve.

Team Effort: Each rep hired and trained have all had a quota of mistakes. The existing reps want to help the new hire make their quota. They will point out where the new hire made a hiccup and add it to the white board. The existing hires will also tell the new hire how to avoid the pot hole next time.  

Scale: There is only one of me and more new hires than I can train on my own. Making errors public, encouraged and expected enables my team to coach the new hire. 

Coach: The new hire is now trusts the manager and is more likely to disclose the mistakes they’ve made. Now you’ll be aware of the error and this is the opportunity to coach them on how to better handle a situation going forward.

Perpetuity: A quota of mistakes is the gift that keeps on giving. It allows a coaching relationship to grow from the very beginning between a manager and rep. This information allows the manager to know how the rep learns, how they react and how they want to be coached. A manager can now utilize this information for the entire relationship and to continue fostering the reps success even when they have tenure.

Embrace failure in your professional career as it’s one of your greatest assets. Knowledge is power and it can only be gained by learning from your past. Then use it to continue to growing. So go out there and make a hell of a lot of mistakes. Write them down, ask your colleagues and manager how they’ve handled the situation and don’t make them again. Improve just a little bit each day. 

Liking these tips? Follow @KADScrambledEgg on Twitter for wisdom on #sales and #salesmanagement.

First things first, this is not an objection handling exercise. This is not a technique to bring a deal back from the dead. Nor is this a suggestion to ask a lost deal for referrals. If a sales person has lost a deal they should accept the news and handle it with grace and dignity by thanking the prospect for their consideration.

While the deal might be dead in terms of revenue there is a massive value a lost prospect can bring to the table. A sales person should ask every lost deal for feedback. By the time a deal is lost a sales rep has put a considerable amount of time into the prospect. Why not at least get something in return? A lost prospect is a wealth of knowledge which can be the secret to success. One can learn why the prospect didn’t go with the product or service and now the rep can learn how to avoid those obstacles going forward. Statistically, one losses more deals than they win. There is actually more feedback and knowledge in lost deals simply because there are more them.

Dead deals can push up daisies. Here are some examples:

1) Over Sold: A sales person may learn from the prospect they were too pushy and aggressive which made the prospect uncomfortable.  

2) Out Sold: A sales person may learn the rep at the competitor out sold them. Ask the prospect what the other rep did and ask for specifics.

3) No Desire: One may learn the prospect doesn’t want the product or service. It’s key to find out why the product or service didn’t make the prospect’s priority list. The rep can use the information going forward to help build desire and urgency.  

4) Competition: If the prospect decided to go with a competitor, this is a fabulous opportunity for a rep to learn what the competitor is saying about their product or service. Going forward a rep can use this to their advantage. If the rep finds out their next deal is looking at the same competitor, tell the prospect what that competition is going to say before they can. This discredits the competition and allows one to give accurate info.

5) Reputation: The prospect might have heard not-so-great reviews about the product or service. The prospect might have found the product or service had no reputation which can also be scary. Street cred is important to prospects. The rep can start incorporating more case studies and offer references going forward.

So how is it done? While a lost prospect has the keys to a reps future success, it can be difficult to access the information. First the conversation should never happen over email. There are too many reasons to list why this shouldn’t be done over email, however mainly because one is not likely to get a reply. Once the a rep has the contact on the phone, the contact is likely to feel this will be an attempt to handle objections. The rep should disarm the prospect by acknowledging they understand the deal is dead. It’s also important to be transparent with the prospect and set proper expectations. This is a phone call a rep should chase just as hard as the rest of their pipeline as it holds the secret to their impending attainment.  Here is a script that can be used:

“Bob, thank you for considering _______ (insert company name). I appreciate you’ve decided to go in a different direction. Since I’ve spent a great deal of time with you I’d like to learn from the experience. I’m going to ask for feedback as I find this is a great opportunity for me to improve. I will not be using this as an excuse to talk you out of your decision or handle objections. Would you be open to giving me feedback?”

Once the prospect has agreed, the rep’s questions can start from there. Do not punish the prospect for being honest. In other words, keep emotions out of it. Do not become defensive, combative or angry. One should also remember this is not a time to handle objections. The prospect agreed to provide feedback because they were told the rep would not try to handle their objections. The rep should not go back on their word.

If you don’t look for feedback, you’ll never improve. Keep doing the same thing you’ve been doing over and over. Maybe someday you’ll get a different result. In the meantime, the reps who embrace failure and seek feedback will send postcards from the achievers trip. 

There seems to be an unspoken law not to discuss if territory affects the performance of one rep or team versus another. The express goes “there is no such thing as a bad territory”. I’ll be the first to say it.  Unequivocally yes, territory matters.  As a sales leaders, you are doing your teams and reps a disservice by not acknowledging this fact.

While not all territories are created equal, I should clarify on the heels of my previous statement, a bad territory is not an excuse. In fact, I’d argue a rep with a good territory are at a disadvantage. They will not have to work as hard or be as strategic as the rep with the bad territory. They’re missing out on skills and techniques they will later need if territories change or they move companies. A rep with a bad territory has the opportunity and motivation to improve their skills and development. Opposed to the rep with NYC who might have less motivation to make improvements because they’re more easily producing numbers. A successful sales career is a long term game with short term wins that are not always dollars. 

As a sales leader, by denying all territories are not created equal, you are missing the opportunity to develop your team and teach your reps how to yield more revenue from an underperforming area.

Here are the steps a rep can take to successfully work a bad territory:

1) Reverse engineer wins by running a report in your CRM over the last year of all deals closed and look for patterns. You will usually find there are certain industries in that area doing well. Some databases have this by SIC code. If you don’t have access to match SIC code with industry, you can Google the codes.

2) Call the customers who have purchased over the last year.

a. Explain you’re trying to understand their industry better and you’re not trying to sell additional services. People love to talk about themselves.

b. Ask why they purchased.

c. What pain does your product/service solve?

d. How has the current economy affected their industry?

e. Where do they see opportunities to grow?

f. If they are growing it means they have customers purchasing. Ask who their local (or whatever your territory is) customers are and if there is a particular industry they see the most success with. 

g. Ask for the most popular blogs, publications or thought leaders in their space.

h. Ask for a referral and do not call, yet.

i. Tell them you’ll be in the area sometime soon (even if this is not true) and ask their favorite lunch place that deliveries. Ask what’s good on the menu. Call and have that item delivered to the contact that day. Do not ask if they want it, just do it. Also send a handwritten thank you note. Do not email, take the time to write the note on nice stationary. A little goes a long way and the contact might be an additional resource of referrals for you.

3) Top 5 - figure out the top 5 industries between the list of customers who’ve purchased in addition to who’s buying from them.

4) Become a subject matter expert of the top 5. You should become a subscriber to those blogs, publications and follow the thought leaders on Twitter or if they have their own blogs. You should also understand what pain you solve for these companies and what opportunities there is to grow. This positions you as a trusted advisor and will yield more sales.

5) Start Calling. 

a. Call the referrals the current customers gave you.

b. Run another report in your CRM of companies in the top 5 industries who haven’t yet purchased. Provide them with up to date industry topics and offer free advice and strategy.

c. Pay attention for companies mentioned as you read articles and publications and add them to your call list.

While no one is excited to be handed a bad territory, there is only one NYC or LA to go around. Don’t let a territory be an excuse. Take the opportunity to work smart, it’s much more rewarding. Remember this is a long term career and the landscape of sales changes many times. At some point it will be your turn to have a good territory and you can apply the skills you’ve learned to be an unstoppable powerhouse.

Next Article:

4 Critical Techniques To Win The "Internal" Sale