Using ‘risk as a weapon’ helped win a $100M deal

Earlier this year I was retained as external deal coach to help win a huge contract for a global services provider. They knew they were coming second, at best, when I joined the team and I did my usual thing of probing their position with relationships, value creation, process alignment and strategy (political and competitive). The first thing that struck me was the absence of ego in the team and the willingness of everyone to play their role regardless of [senior] titles. We explored our potential win themes from the customer’s perspective and set about creating an executive summary that would also serve to brief the broader team and drive the messages within the massive bid document. It is incredibly difficult to craft a great executive summary but we were very happy with where we landed.

The clarity I helped provide the team was that ‘senior executives care about delivering outcomes and managing risk’, and to ‘use risk as a weapon’, and ‘get them to fall in love with your delivery people’. We were partially incumbent and we knew their networks, people and processes. We could therefore implement quickly and with lowest risk, and it was the insight and domain expertise of our people that provided the confidence in us on the buyer’s side. We won the deal and a few weeks after contract signing the customer provided a debrief. Without having our document in the meeting, they listed everything we had highlighted in the executive summary as the reasons they selected us!

For complex solutions, be smart about what really differentiates you. It is rarely your technology, product, service levels, market presence or brand. Instead it is usually your people, expertise, track record, methodologies and ability to manage their risk that will set you apart. How can you use risk (in the mind of the buyer) as a competitive weapon to improve the likelihood of winning?

If you valued this article, please hit the ‘like' and ‘share’ buttons below. This article was originally published in LinkedIn here where you can comment. Also follow the award winning LinkedIn blog here or visit Tony’s leadership blog at his keynote speaker website: www.TonyHughes.com.au.

Main Image Photo by Flickr: pshutterbug

You Only Have 20 Seconds So Lead With ‘Why’

We're delegated down to those we sound like and we only have 20-40 seconds to create the right impression and hook an individual or audience when we engage. This is especially true in an age of social media, sound bites and executive ADD. The very best sales leaders focus on 'why' and 'when' because these define relevance and urgency. The 'what' and 'how' are mere detail yet most sales people lead with what their company does, how they do it and then dump facts that they think provide credibility… this is a HUGE mistake if you’re seeking to engage at the right senior levels.

By focusing on 'why' and 'when' we overcome the worst of competitors ('do nothing' or client apathy) while assisting in the creation of a strong business case for purchase and implementation. Talk the language of leadership which is 'business outcomes' and 'managing risk’. Here is the most important question to ask yourself to plan for a meeting or in formulating value strategy: What is the business problem we solve for clients and why is it important? Then ask yourself: How do we create compelling business case value and manage their risk better than the competition, including their internal options? Finally, how can I lead with insight to earn the conversation and what questions set me apart in leading to the unique value I offer?

The way we sell is more important than what we sell. Become masterful at opening rather than closing. The way we open a sales call or business relationship, and our ability to set the right agenda, is critically important.

If you valued this article, please hit the ‘like' and ‘share’ buttons below. This article was originally published in LinkedIn here where you can comment. Also follow the award winning LinkedIn blog here or visit Tony’s leadership blog at his keynote speaker website: www.TonyHughes.com.au.

Main Image Photo by Flickr: Paxson Woelber

Why Sales People Must Become Micro Marketers

Segmentation has always been important in business but it's essential when products and services drift toward commoditization. Don't fall into the trap of allowing low margin products to be sold by outdated and expensive direct sales models. Designing customer experience determines how, when and where sales people play a role in client acquisition.

Sales people need to fund themselves from the value they create rather than from the margins that the product or service delivers.

Embrace the reality in the above statement and instead take the low value commodity products and services away from field sales people and give that sales quota to the head of marketing! Then for the complex or high value 'solutions' that remain, equip your sales people and sales managers to 'move to value' in how they engage their markets.

Sales and marketing are competencies, not departments. Marketing therefore needs to sell and sales people must become micro-marketers to attract and engage clients

But for marketing to succeed in creating exceptional customer experience, the CEO needs to become the Chief Customer Experience Officer. This post is not about the marketing department so let's move on to what is important for sales people. 

For any sales person to prosper in their career they need to move beyond being good at building relationships to also embrace the elements sales mastery:

Built on the timeless foundation of business acumen, masterful listening skills andpolitical awareness to develop relationships of trust, these are the three additional elements for today's most effective sales professionals:

• Lead with insight as a domain expert
• Create tangible business [case] value for clients
• Leverage technology to be effective and efficient

Make no mistake, relationships are important but a relationship alone is not enough. Put another way; relationships of trust are an essential prerequisite for sales success but the relationship itself is NOT where the buyer sees value. Buyers today are busy and stressed, and they are not looking for new friends nor do they want to entertain 'professional visitors'. They instead require greater value from fewer relationships. They care about how their suppliers can help them achieve their goals and manage their risks.

The modern sales professional takes ownership of creating their sales pipeline

Marketing initiatives rarely create conversations with senior decision makers. Instead, senior executives and seasoned sales people are best equipped to target and engage the key decision-makers within client organizations. But hammering away on the phone with cold calls is a thoughtless and negative approach because less than 2% of cold calls yield any kind of positive result.

Rather than interrupt and push, the best approach is attract and engage on engagement platforms such as LinkedIn. To attract buyers we must show insight and relevance... salespeople must create content.

When I speak at conferences this is the assertion that sparks the most debate... sales people write content! There is an inconvenient truth today for anyone in sales: If you can't write, you can't sell. This short video John Smibert did with me explains my rationale.

Here are four reasons for sales people to write content with their managers and marketing department supporting them with ideation, proof-reading, editing and publishing tools:

1. Educate yourself and develop domain knowledge and expertise
2. Connect with industry leaders to build your sphere of influence
3. Attract clients and an audience to support your business goals
4. Build your personal brand evidencing credibility, value and insight

In an online world we are known by who we are connected to and what we publish. According to IDC research, 75% of buyers research the seller before engaging. What do they see when they view your profile? We want people to see a credible domain expert worthy of trust and an investment of  time.

In my next post I will provide five topics sales people can  write about but micro-marketing includes more than writing and publishing. We must also create a strong personal brand and here is how to begin. Technology also plays a pivotal role and this is where sales people should be committed to embracing CRM for the marketing team to include their prospects in lead nurturing, drip marketing and event initiatives.

The 'Updates' section of LinkedIn is very powerful, and scheduling tools such as Buffer make the process easy for sharing other people’s articles, blogs, research, infographics and Tweets. Content can easily be sourced with sales people identifying influencers in the market and individual content capture and scheduling is as simple as clicking a button in the web browser.

Sales people must consciously associate themselves with leaders who are respected by their potential clients and transform their LinkedIn profile to be a personal brand micro site instead of an online CV. Connect with leaders admired by your clients and then share their content as a 'content aggregator' who adds your own insights... working with other people's content is the easiest way to begin your content publishing journey.

If you valued this article, please hit the ‘like' and ‘share’ buttons below. This article was originally published in LinkedIn here where you can comment. Also follow the award winning LinkedIn blog here or visit Tony’s leadership blog at his keynote speaker website: www.TonyHughes.com.au.

Main Image Photo by Flickr: Susan Murtaugh Follow Advertising

The Evolution of Selling

Professional selling has evolved yet many operate with methodologies and practices that belong in last century. Understanding history is a way of ensuring that the mistakes of the past are not repeated.

Professional selling has existed for thousands of years and can simply be described as commercial influence. The terms 'hunter' and 'farmer' were coined by the insurance industry in the 1870s to describe 'producers' (those who wrote new business) and 'collectors' (those who collected the weekly premiums). Contrary to stereotypes in enterprise selling, the best farmers are actually hunters within existing complex accounts.

Modern corporate selling began to take shape following World War II and in the 1950s there were two forces that combined to forever change the sales industry; one was psychology and the other was process methodology. These disciplines conjoined to manifest in a five step method that worked when selling simple products or commodity services in short sales cycle environments.

The process was described by Dale Carnegie in the acronym AIDCA and, in the illustration above, shows how the seller works through the five steps to secure a buying commitment. This methodology works best in commodity, retail and direct consumer selling but fails to address complexity and strategy. Amazingly, there are still sales people today that practice this style of selling in complex corporate sales environments and they transparently adhere to the AIDCA steps:

• Attention; through ‘sizzle’
• Interest; aroused through features and benefits
• Desire; by linking the above to needs and wants
• Conviction; from the seller in overcoming objections
• Action; by actively and assertively closing for commitment

This was later abbreviated to AIDC with the C standing for Close. In the 1960s and 1970s psychological techniques became more sophisticated but the approach was still one of manipulating the sale and persuading the prospect. There was much emphasis on personality and charisma and the only substantive new element to be added to sales practice back then was greater analysis of the statistical aspects of success. Problems persisted however in large complex selling and in the 1970s AIDCA was usurped with a focus on Features (and Functions), Advantages and Benefits (FAB). But this new FABemphasis meant that sales people often became trapped below the level of real power due to the bottom-up approach. In this era, discipline in sales process inputs became the hallmark of effective sales management while sales people focused on conveying the message of features as benefits. Vendor ‘benefits’ however rarely translate to tangible business value and the sales person’s audience often consisted of recommenders and influencers within corporations rather than real decision makers.

During the 1970s and 1980s, large corporations made considerable advances in how they managed the procurement process and devised buying techniques designed to foster supplier competition and thwart clever and charismatic sales people. Sales techniques that worked in the past increasingly became barriers to success, especially in more complex environments. Professional buyers became better educated and more sophisticated and did not respond favourably to clumsy or manipulative selling behaviours. Consider how today’s prospective clients view outdated sales practices from last century:

• Assertive or persuasive is usually perceived as aggressive or pushy
• Persistent is often perceived as annoying and not listening
• ‘Positive questions’ are perceived as rhetorical and manipulative
• Positioning features and benefits equates to not understanding or being too expensive

Throughout the 1980s there was greater awareness of the fact that aggression from the sales person created defensiveness with the customer; but that trust and understanding created cooperation. It was in this context that the psychological practice of Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) came to the forefront of the sales training industry. Although not invented by Anthony Robbins, he leveraged and enhanced NLP, applying the principles to the sales profession. This new trend matured in the 1990s and focused on subconsciously building trust and influence with others.

But during this period there was also serious research being done concerning successful sales behaviours measured from the perspective of professional buyers. This research was led by Neil Rackham from Huthwaite who developed SPIN Selling ©, the forerunner of today’s value-based approach to professional sales. Huthwaite documented a methodology that revolutionised professional selling by focusing on problems, the implications and the specific business benefits of resolving them by implementing solutions. Neil Rackham's influence and contribution to professional selling is second to none. But even with his revolutionary approach many sales people continued to operate below the level of real power and the vast majority persisted with their feature, function, advantage, benefit (FAB) mantras. Old habits really do die hard but things were changing.

A number of sales process methodologies emerged in the late 1980s and 1990s as best practice for qualifying, managing and formulating strategy for complex sales opportunities. They remain highly relevant today and promote a top-down approach aligned to the political and economic power in a buying organization.

The most successful sales professionals see themselves as problem solvers with specific domain expertise. They value their time and the time of others, so they don’t waste valuable resources or emotional energy trying to convince people to buy something not genuinely needed. This is because to do so, they would violate their personal values and professional integrity. High achievers carefully invest their time with the right people and ask the right questions. Consider the following summary of today’s values-based approach which is predicated on trust, understanding and integrity expressed through:

• Genuine interest in the customer
• Thorough enquiry concerning their problems and opportunities
• Full understanding of the implications and needs
• Identifying specific benefits and priorities
• Negotiating how to proceed and implement

Values-based selling is in stark contrast to the AIDC and FAB methods from last century and this modern and ethical approach is aligned with the customer. The best professional buyers define their relationship with sales people as the process of reaching progressive agreement concerning the purchase of something they need and can afford.

In this customer-centric model, the sales person’s role is to fully understand the customer’s requirements and conditions for complete satisfaction. They then validate the suitability of what can be supplied to exactly meet the customer’s needs.

Outdated or manipulative sales techniques should have no place in the life of today's sales professional. Values-based selling instead adopts a customer-centric approach to define and deliver genuine value based on understanding, solving problems and helping people make mutually beneficial buying decisions.

Sales 2.0 in a web 3.0 world follows but that is the subject of another post about Social Selling 3.0. You can learn more about SPIN training programs from Huthwaite at this link.

If you valued this article, please hit the ‘like' and ‘share’ buttons below. This article was originally published in LinkedIn here where you can comment. Also follow the award winning LinkedIn blog here or visit Tony’s leadership blog at his keynote speaker website: www.TonyHughes.com.au.

Main Iamge Photo by Flickr: Penelope Else

People Are Motivated By Reasons They Discover

Building trust and creating value is at the heart of professional selling. But no-one is motivated by our promises or pitch. Telling is not selling. Information does not inspire or differentiate. Facts and data do not equate to insight. The art of selling is in helping people have an epiphany that you personally – before your company, product, service or solution – are what they need. People have always bought from those they like and trust, but success for sales people requires one more ingredient today – value through insight.

The very best sales people are not warriors of persuasion, but rather engineers of value. They are naturally curious and obsessively focused on the customer’s world. I used to wrongly believe that the best sales people were the ones selling ‘unique’ solutions… how wrong I was! The best sales people are actually those selling commodities; because the only way they can effectively differentiate is in the way they sell.

Here’s a revelation that will change you sales career – everything is a commodity in the eyes of the buyer; except you and the way you engage your customer. The way we sell is more important than what we sell. You personally are the solution. Think like you’re an extension of your customer’s organization and talk the language of leadership: delivering outcomes and managing risk.

If you valued this article, please hit the ‘like' and ‘share’ buttons below. This article was originally published in LinkedIn here where you can comment. Also follow the award winning LinkedIn blog here or visit Tony’s leadership blog at his keynote speaker website: www.TonyHughes.com.au.

Main Image Photo by Flickr: Arya Ziai

Will Artificial Intelligence Protect Sales Jobs?

I've written about how Artificial Intelligence (AI) is going to create a sales career apocalypse but not everyone agrees with me. I took the time to meet with Matt Michalewicz who is a global leader in applying AI to create opportunities and drive the productivity of sales people. His perspectives are thought provoking and profound.

Although Artificial Intelligence (AI) and automation is going to displace many people in current jobs, including white collar professions,  AI can also make certain jobs more productive. Matt believes that AI can actually make some jobs so much more productive that they will be protected from becoming extinct. I asked Matt to elaborate in the context of business-to-business (B2B) sales roles and here is his response (in italics).

The 'salesperson' job category is predicted to suffer significant job losses in the decade ahead but these predictions are based on a number of factors:

• The growing sophistication of AI technology
• The continuing move by consumers to online, self-service consumption models
• The deteriorating return on investment metrics of many sales jobs (especially “in field” jobs)

Just look at what happened to the salespeople that sold vacuum cleaners, insurance, and encyclopedias on a door-to-door basis. Their demise stemmed from too much cost (salary, travel expenses, commissions, etc.), and not enough yield (too few sales to justify the cost). The same also happened to B2B sales people selling fax machines, radio paging and other technologies that became common-place.

Sales roles in B2B selling are at risk, especially with commoditized products such as liquor, food, carpet, electronics, paint, hardware, among many others (where the average sale size is low, but the costs of keeping reps on the road is high). Unless these companies can increase the yield and sales effectiveness of the in-field reps, they will suffer a similar fate as those that sold vacuum cleaners, insurance, and encyclopaedias. In other words, these sales job types need to become more productive to stay viable from a business (cost/benefit) perspective

But then Matt took the conversation in a surprisingly positive direction.

"Imagine if you had a digital assistant who did your research and created the insights you can take to customers to create value."

All B2B sales people need to lead with insight as their key point of differentiation. I've been following IBM's Watson closely but Matt has founded his own company,  Complexica, focused on the application of Artificial Intelligence to help organizations capture both profit and productivity gains. The application of his technology can change the game for those in B2B selling, especially where there are huge amount of data that can be analyzed. Matt and his team of AI “lifers” have worked in the area of Artificial Intelligence for more than 20 years, written dozens of books on the topic, and Complexica is their 3rd AI company (with their previous being acquired by Schneider Electric in 2012).

Complexica’s core product – an AI-based software robot called “Larry, the Digital Analyst” – has been specifically designed to make sales people more productive. How? By using advanced AI to automatically capture and analyze countless data sets (both internal and external), to determine:

• The most promising customers and prospective customers to visit (where the wallet share potential is the greatest)
• Value-adding insights that can be shared with the specific customer or prospective customer (such as “businesses just like yours are doing/buying/selling xyz at the moment” or “this is what’s selling well in your area” and so on)
• The exact offer to be made to each customer or prospective customer (based on analysis of similar customers and transactions)
• The exact price (again, based on analysis of similar customers and transactions)

Where IBM's Watson is currently focused on medical diagnosis (after winning Jeopardy against the best people on the planet), Complexica began life with a different approach.

Matt explains that Complexica's Larryhas been designed from the very beginning to enhance the value that sales people provide their customers while dramatically improving their efficiency. “We observed that huge productivity gains could be achieved if we could just tell sales reps where the most promising opportunities are, arm them with research and value-adding insights for each visit, and suggest the best combination of products, services, and price for each sales conversation. If we provided this information automatically and simultaneously to hundreds of in-field reps and telesales operators, they would immediately become more productivity and their yield would increase, because they would be targeting better opportunities, with the right products at the right price. From that initial observation, the idea of building an AI-based software robot was born, so we could automate all the complex data analysis to provide right the insight, to the right person, at the right time, without any of the complexity for the end user. That was the moment Larry, the Digital Analyst was conceived.”

Matt Michalewicz is a global leader in AI and the video interview with Sky News makes for fascinating viewing (Click this or the image below to view)

While technology and automation can destroy jobs it can also enhance sales careers and the value being provided to customers. Those sellers who embrace technology to create the necessary value to fund them in their roles will be the ones who prosper.

Matt Michalewicz is co-founder and Managing Director of Complexica.  

If you valued this article, please hit the ‘like' and ‘share’ buttons below. This article was originally published in LinkedIn here where you can comment. Also follow the award winning LinkedIn blog here or visit Tony’s leadership blog at his keynote speaker website: www.TonyHughes.com.au.

Main Image Photo by Flickr: Sean Davis

Leadership: The Power Of Believing In Someone

My dad passed away on Christmas Eve two years ago. He was a committed atheist who taught me the power of belief.

Every word from your lips has the power to build or destroy. Your words can be precious gifts that help change lives because behind their façade of confidence is usually someone secretly feeling that they’re an impostor. Inside the shy or reserved is often someone great who just needs a little encouragement to break-out.

My parents divorced when I was age 9 and Dad moved interstate. He was a workaholic and not around very much so I really only got to know him well in my late teens when I moved to live near him. I then joined him in business and wow, what a ride. Dad was Mensa level genius, bipolar (manic-depressive) and an alcoholic... what a combination. He had a break-down and was hospitalized, and I was thrown in the deep-end to manage the business. My dad was difficult to work with, to say the least, and I was young and judgmental.

But months later, over dinner with just him and me – I asked him to tell me his life story. Judgment gave way to compassion and I started to become aware of the greatest gift we can give to another person... believing in them.

Dad had an unconventional childhood where he lived with various foster parents, estranged relatives, in convents and boarding schools. By the age of 12 he had lived in 16 different places. This was because his fatherwas an Air Force officer during World War II and raised him as a single parent. His mother, Winifred, incredibly beautiful, suffered from postnatal depression and was subjected to electroshock treatment – she descended into severe mental illness and, as was the custom of the day, was institutionalized and never spoken of. Dad only discovered that his real mother existed when he obtained a birth certificate as part of applying for his driver’s license at age 22. He was told that she had died giving birth to him – but this was not true and I was there when he finally met her for the first time, shortly before she died in her eighties.

From birth through to joining the Australian Air Force in 1952, Dad’s childhood was as far removed from normal as one could imagine. He had no real sense of belonging or being loved. To compound his childhood problem of being relentlessly moved from situation to situation, Dad suffered from a severe speech impediment – chronic stuttering. He was always the loner, the outsider, and the target of bullying and sexual abuse.

I asked Dad how in the world he had managed to survive and why he wasn’t a bitter person (Dad was a pacifist and never sought revenge). He answered by telling me about Ms. Beatrice Ternan, a speech therapist, who had the biggest positive impact on him as a child. His stuttering affliction was debilitating and he was sent to Ms. Ternan several times a week for speech therapy exercises. Once she got to know Dad, she let him sit and read, no speech exercises. She would quietly do paperwork and then take him to her home for biscuits and lemonade where he was then collected by his father. She told him that his stuttering was something that would simply pass and she showed him a kindness that he had never experienced. She gave my Dad the gift of believing in him. Beatrice also taught Dad two principles that stayed with him for life:

“To be interesting you must be interested. Give your time generously to others and you will be rewarded many fold.”

As my Dad and I hugged that night he whispered into my ear: “Son, all you need to make it in life is someone who’ll believe in you.” He was that person for me and I became that person for him.

As you embark on your journey in 2016, think also about giving something to others that can change their lives – the gift of believing in them; the gift of encouragement; the gift of speaking positively into their future. There are people in your life that need you to believe in them– your children, your partner, your employees... even your boss.

Bindi Irwin lost her dad when she was young but Steve's belief in her continues to this day beyond the grave. Terri, her Mother, has done an incredible job in raising her children without Steve and keeping them grounded in reality and purpose (environmentalism) rather than destroyed by the lure of narcissistic celebrity. Bindi recently won America's Dancing With The Stars. These two clips say it all.

For those in sales, notice how dancing masterfully is all about telling a story and transferring emotion. Singing, selling, leading in any way requires the same ability and, like Bindi and Derek, with authentic belief in what you're doing.

Here’s the biggest thing I’ve learned about leadership: ‘It all about you but it’s not about you.’ Leadership is an inside job where you believe in others and become the person worthy of serving them.

If you valued this article, please hit the ‘like' and ‘share’ buttons below. This article was originally published in LinkedIn here where you can comment. Also follow the award winning LinkedIn blog here or visit Tony’s leadership blog at his keynote speaker website: www.TonyHughes.com.au.

Main Image Photo by: Getty Images: Steve and Bindi Irwin

Lead and Sell By Getting Out Of The Way!

The Human condition can drive us toward success or failure. As legendary Aussie rocker Crissy Amphlett once said: "There's a fine line between pleasure and pain" and also success and catastrophe. We need ambition and self-confidence to propel us yet our passion must be for the cause and people we serve. We need real belief in the value we offer as we seek to convert others to our view of the world and it needs to be all about creating value for them rather than extracting something for us. But this is an unnatural approach.

We're wired to talk about ourselves, what we do and how we do it. We must instead lead with why a conversation matters by talking about the results can we help them deliver and the risks we can help them manage.

The above statement is what is at the heart of modernizing leadership and professional selling. We must lead with insight rather than a pitch; we must make it about them rather than us. Our approach must be dosed with humility and genuine interest in others if we are to gain traction and make a difference. Why should they invest time in meeting us to reading our material? Are we clear about the insights we provide and the value we create? Don't even think about going to market with your sales and marketing teams until you have compelling answers to these questions.

All great musicians know that 'less is more'. Too much clutter results in the important being lost amidst all the noise. Those who perform masterfully on stage or in the boardroom know that genuine belief in what they do is the foundation of their success. And this sincere passion has a wonderful byproduct... it is how we find purpose and meaning is what we do.

Building trust and creating value is at the heart of professional selling. But no-one is motivated by our promises or pitch and information does not inspire or differentiate. Facts and data do not equate to insight. The art of selling is in helping people have an epiphany that you personally – before your company, product, service or solution – are what they need. People have always bought from those they like and trust, but success for sales people requires one more ingredient today – value through insight.

Telling is not selling. This is because people are best motivated by reasons that they themselves discover

The very best sales people are not warriors of persuasion, but rather engineers of value. They are naturally curious and obsessively focused on the customer’s world. I used to wrongly believe that the best sales people were the ones selling ‘unique’ solutions… how wrong I was! The best sales people are actually those selling commodities; because the only way they can effectively differentiate is in the way they sell.

Here’s a revelation that will change you sales career – everything is a commodity in the eyes of the buyer; except you and the way you engage your customer. The way we sell is more important than what we sell. You personally are the solution and your insights come from being fascinated and consumed by your customer's probems and opportunities . Think like you’re an extension of your customer’s organization and talk the language of leadership: delivering outcomes and managing risk.

If you valued this article, please hit the ‘like' and ‘share’ buttons below. This article was originally published in LinkedIn here where you can comment. Also follow the award winning LinkedIn blog here or visit Tony’s leadership blog at his keynote speaker website: www.TonyHughes.com.au.

Main Image Photo by Flickr: Ricardo Shuck Follow Laundry time

Epic Winner Thinking Instead of Negativity

2016 has been a tumultuous year with one of the worst starts to the stock market in living memory and unprecedented levels of political instability. Brexit and Trumps incredible presidential win aside, commodity prices reached record lows and global economic confidence is tenuous at best... China remains a mystery box economically while fear and greed seems to drive politics and commerce. The values of many leaders seem to be based on expediency with their morality floating on the sludge of self-serving subjectivity. Hang-on!... All this negativity evokes a pessimistic view of the world and our future within it.

Fear is the worst of human traits and paralyses the host. It can turn caustic if not remedied with a positive attitude combined with belief and faith for a better future.

There is a better way to live! We have the power to envisage and then create the future we seek.

Business leaders and sales people can positively influence the world as they encourage investment in a better way for their customers to operate. Every factory worker, back-office employee and service provider owes their livelihood to someone in sales and marketing who convinces customers to purchase the product, service or solution that funds them.

We need positive people in the world committed to making a positive difference to the lives of others. Sales people are a class of these individuals and they must be willing to embrace the difficult, accept rejection and do the hard work required to change people's minds. We should celebrate their successes rather than resent their rewards. We should cheer their efforts as they put themselves on the line to deliver revenue results and create jobs for others.

Here are three videos to inspire you to soar above the negativity... 'epic win' beats 'epic fail' any day of the week! We are what we feed our minds. We attract what we radiate. We receive what we first believe. Choose to be an optimist and then back yourself with disciplined competence in your profession.

Would you jump out of a plane without a parachute, trusting someone to come to you? Teams achieve great things even if it is an individual who leads the effort.

Behind every successful person is someone who believed in them. Belief and competence is the foundation upon which success is built. Thousands of hours of reading, preparing, executing and learning. This is what it takes to master anything in life. Embrace the difficult because scarcity is what creates value... if it was easy, everybody would be successful and it would not pay very much.

Now go find a new customer and make their day. Infect them with your positive attitude and inspire them with your belief in how they can have a better life or transform their business.

If you valued this article, please hit the ‘like' and ‘share’ buttons below. This article was originally published in LinkedIn here where you can comment. Also follow the award winning LinkedIn blog here or visit Tony’s leadership blog at his keynote speaker website: www.TonyHughes.com.au.

Main Image Photo by Flickr: Brittany Randolph Geo Bowl winner

Sales Mastery or Sales Enablement?

I've worked with thousands of sales people in many different industries. Professional selling is changing rapidly with technology-driven automation and commoditization resulting in more than one-third of sellers losing their jobs in the coming years.

Sales people need to fund themselves from the value they create rather than from the margins that the product or service delivers.

For any sales person to prosper in their career they need to move beyond being good at building relationships to also embrace the holy trinity of sales mastery:

• Lead with insight as a domain expert
• Create tangible business value for clients
• Leverage technology to be effective and efficient

Make no mistake, relationships alone are not enough. Buyers today are busy and stressed. They are not looking for new friends. They instead want greater value from fewer relationships. They care about how you can help them achieve their goals and manage their risks.

Lead with insight: Don't wait for your employer to hand you mythical silver bullets... you instead need to self-educate by researching and writing about the disruptive and transformative trends in your customer's world.

If you can't write then you can't sell.

There are four reasons to create and publish content:

1. Educate yourself and develop domain knowledge and expertise
2. Connect with industry leaders to build your sphere of influence
3. Attract clients and an audience to support your business goals
4. Build your personal brand evidencing credibility, value and insight

In an online world we are known by who we associate with (connections) and what we publish (insights). According to IDC research, 75% of buyers research the seller before engaging. What do they see when they view your profile? Do they see a credible domain expert worthy of trust and an investment of their time or do they see a mere salesperson? We must create own own narrative that sets us apart and earns engagement at the most senior levels. It is vitally important to publish thoughtful posts in your LinkedIn profile.

Creating business value: Move away from talking about who you are, what you do and how you do it to instead lead with why a conversation matters. What business outcomes can you deliver for them and what risks can you manage?

The language of business is numbers not words

Lead with why it is important and what it can do for them at a business level. Have evidence to support your claims. Know your best customers and why they decided to implement change within their organization. Understand their business case and the challenges they faced in change management. Bring this wisdom to new prospective clients and set an agenda that sets you apart from the competition.

Leverage technology: The best sales people combine proven old world practices with modern ways of executing. Building relationships and evidencing credentials and value can be done online. Buyers expect the sellers to arrive having done their research. Don't waste the customer's time asking them to educate you about publicly available information. Embrace a social selling framework to modernize the way you sell.

Social Selling Definition: The strategy and process of building quality networks online that attract clients and accelerates the speed of business and efficiency of selling, as achieved with a strong personal brand and human engagement through social listening, social publishing, social research, social engagement, and social collaboration.

Also use your company's CRM system better than anyone else. Work with marketing for lead nurturing with automation tools that keep prospects in your orbit without you annoying them or them wasting your time.

While sales individuals need to focus on 'sales mastery', the sales organization needs to focus on 'sales enablement'.

Sales Enablement

Most businesses do a good job in segmenting their markets, customers and products but what is often missed is the insidious impact of commoditization. Every product or service becomes a commodity over time as features that once differentiated drift back to parity as competitors catch up. According to Corporate Executive Board research, 86% of the time that sellers pitch their ‘compelling value,’ buyers perceive it as neither unique or compelling but merely features also offered by other suppliers. Every business needs to look at itself from the outside – how do customers really view us comparatively? If you sell a commodity, then face the awful truth rather than cling to expensive sales models where customers are unwilling to pay for the low value and high costs associated with a field sales force.

There is no such thing as a high margin commodity and the value they offer must stem from insight and wisdom rather than mere information and service. The first law of selling is that people buy from those they like and trust. They then seek best value and lowest risk. The key for every seller is to understand that ‘value’ and ‘risk’ are all defined by the customer. In selling, we are delegated down to people we sound like and this means that salespeople need to learn the language of leadership if they want to engage at senior levels. They need to be equipped to discuss the business case, delivering outcomes and managing risk.

If a product or service is a commodity then the sales model should be engineered accordingly; make it easy for the customer to obtain information, become convinced and then transact in a way that’s easiest for them including web, phone or channels. For products and services that actually are high value solutions then force the field sales team toward value through insight. Support them in developing domain expertise, genuine insights and business acumen to enable them to operate at a higher level. Product marketing needs to focus on differentiating what is being sold; and sales people need to differentiate by how they sell.

What are the critical elements of sales enablement and how do you create a framework for effective sales execution? There are three essential ingredients plus the catalyst of sales management leadership. The three ingredients are sales methodology, sales process and technology platform.

Few people can articulate the difference between methodologies and process yet these elements are distinctly different in complex B2B selling.

Methodology is the framework for formulating strategy and tactics to win; it’s also how you create your competitive deal strategy, identify risks, cover the political power base within the relationship map, and identify the best way to create compelling value for the buyer. But which methodology should you use? There are a number of well-proven methodologies including TAS, Miller Heiman, RSVPselling, and others. Success with methodology does not depend on which one you select but simply on how well you use it for opportunity coaching with the team.

Process is how you build a sales funnel and execute the sale; it’s how you qualify opportunities and progress through the deal stages with discovery, proposal, demonstration, closing, contracting, on-boarding and then doing win/loss reviews and case studies. Process steps need to be supported by the right tools such as a call planner, qualification tool, discovery questionnaire, proposal templates, win/loss review forms, and territory and account plan templates.

Platform is the technology you use to enable and automate your sales methodology and sales process. It is where you have a single source of truth about customers and opportunities. It must also be your coaching platform where there is transparency concerning pipeline depth and opportunity quality. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software is the ideal platform but CRM needs to be a strategy, not just a technology and reporting tool. To be implemented successfully, it must go beyond the mere functions of accounts, opportunities, pipeline and forecasting; it must instead enable the mapping of relationships and force discipline in deal stage progression with qualification scoring and action tracking. It must also include close plans with customer validation of critical dates. Finally, CRM needs to incorporate tight integration with both marketing, social (such as LinkedIn) and after sales support to provide a single view of the entire customer lifecycle from targeting, marketing, lead nurturing and selling through to account management, support, service, satisfaction and upselling.

This approach uses CRM to place customers at the heart of everything you do and provides the platform for being truly customer-centric. It also delivers transparency with deal quality and revenue predictability. It’s where sales people manage their opportunities and the tool that sales managers use to coach their people. This approach is designed to serve the sales people in improving their efficiency and effectiveness. Because it provides them with value and enables their manager to coach for improved win rates, they actually populate the systems with accurate and useful information.

When CRM is implemented with customers and sales people as the priority, and when it’s the platform for deal coaching and the enabler for sales process; then system success is assured. The synergistic outcome for management is accurate reporting and revenue predictability. The corollary of this is that CRM failure comes from implementing it as a reporting tool with poor alignment to sales methodology and sales processes. Many CRM implementation fail and it has nothing to do with the technology provider; here are the critical success factors for successful CRM:

• Obsessively focus on the system serving sales and customer support staff
• Integrate with social platforms such as LinkedIn and InsideView (for easy sales research and insight into Trigger Events)
• Integrate with marketing for lead nurturing (to build sales pipeline)
• Create a single view of customers and prospects (to be informed)
• Embed methodology and process coaching (qualify, call plan, close plan, etc.)
• Simplify reports and KPIs which can actually be managed (activities)
• Support customer lifecycle post sale (cases, complaints, renewals, etc.)

With accurate data in a CRM the next issue to decide is what metrics provide meaningful reporting. A common mistake made by management at all levels is to seek to manage by results. Jason Jordan writes insightfully on this topic in his book, Cracking The Sales Management Code, highlighting that only 17% of the 300+ possible sales metrics measured are actually manageable. As an example, you cannot manage revenue, but you can manage the activities that create it. Rather than command sales people to bring in more revenue, they need to be guided in which activities are most likely to create the type of revenue you are seeking. Managing activities is the key to delivering the right results and this leads us to the catalyst that brings methodology, process and platform technology together for successful sales enablement – the sales manager.

Sales management is without doubt the most important link in the revenue chain for any organization. The right sales manager creates emotional commitment and belief within their team, they coach and mentor for sales success, they develop the right strategies to focus effort where the team can competitively win and they drive the right conversations with the right roles within the right targeted prospects. They also create organizational alignment with upstream marketing and downstream delivery, support and service to build a business with quality customers.

Sales management leadership is the catalyst that brings it all together: people, process and technology within the right strategy and a culture of excellence in execution. The type of person capable of delivering all this is an engineer rather than a warrior, they have empathy yet hold people to account. But the best sales manager in the world cannot be successful if their boss has them endlessly in internal meetings and reporting up. The sales manager needs to be a coach rather than an administrator. She needs to spend more time in the field than in the office, and more time strategizing and reviewing opportunities with sales people than managing reports. A great coach does not jump in and take over, nor do they do the sales person’s job for them. They don’t feel the need to rescue people and instead understand that people are best motivated by reasons they themselves discover. They focus on planning and debriefing to create constant improvement.

The Holy Grail of sales enablement is the seamless integration of the right methodology, efficient sales process, all enabled by Social Selling and CRM technology used to coach sales people by an effective sales leader focused on strategy, execution and building a positive team culture.

The very best sales operations bring people, process and technology together to be obsessively customer-centric.

If you valued this article, please hit the ‘like' and ‘share’ buttons below. This article was originally published in LinkedIn here where you can comment. Also follow the award winning LinkedIn blog here or visit Tony’s leadership blog at his keynote speaker website: www.TonyHughes.com.au.

Main Image Photo by Flickr: Kreg Steppe Winner

The 3 Pillars Of Modernised Selling

Gartner Research predicts that 85% of business-to-business (B2B) sales transactions will occur without human intervention in 2020. Andy Hoar from Forrester Research predicts that more than 1 million sales roles will be disappear in the USA alone with the same timeframe. This equates to approximately 22% of B2B sales positions being lost to the forces of commoditization or automation.

Up to one-third of B2B sales roles will become extinct within 5 years. But those who modernise the way they sell can protect their careers and prosper

Here is a personal example of where sales people add little value for the buyer. I just purchased a new sports car yesterday from a dealer that I never visited or spoke with... we engaged on the web and then negotiated via email. I did all my research online and from speaking with several car industry insiders I found in my network. With their insights I identified the two best times of the year to purchase and understood dealer margins and manufacturer rebate models. I honored the 'law on disinterest' and was willing to be patient.  

I avoided the dealer's sales process for up-selling by never walking into their showroom. When I finally talked with a sales person it was simply to give him my credit card details for the $1,000 deposit. I achieved a 14% discount on the normal drive away 'deal' which was 5% better than a 'private fleet' wholesale service that also provided me with their best price. 

The above example highlights how sales people (just like accountants, lawyers, engineers and other professions) are being disrupted by technology and uber-empowered buyers who start their journey with trusted relationships in their network and then research and compare value online.

Those sellers and businesses who modernize the way they operate, blending insightful human engagement with technology, will be the ones who prosper in the machine age. Here are the three things for companies and individuals to focus on to remain relevant and succeed.

1. Sellers must be micro marketers with strong personal brands to leverage social platforms and create their own pipelines

People buy from those they like and trust but buyers are redefining the value of relationships. This is because they are time poor and don’t see value in sales relationships that merely provide information. Sellers today instead demand insight and value when investing their time. The best sales people therefore provide insight and innovation to serve as a partner who can help deliver transformation and manage the buyer’s risk.

For this reason, sales people must modify their LinkedIn profiles to become personal brand microsites where they publish insights to differentiate themselves from the competition. The modern approach to selling is to ‘attract and engage’ rather than ‘interrupt and push’. The best are engineers of value rather than warriors of persuasion. They use online platforms such as LinkedIn to evidence the business value they deliver and the personal values by which they operate. According to IDC, 70% of buyers research a seller online and this can be where the process of establishing trust and setting the right agenda occurs, well before the first conversation.

The current catch phrase for this is ‘social selling’, which I define beyond building a strong personal brand to also include: listening for trigger events (people changing roles, etc.), publishing relevant content to evidence credibility and attract clients, researching buyers, connecting and engaging in platforms such as LinkedIn, and then using technology to collaborate conveniently and cost effectively.

Social platforms and strong personal brands also play and important role in delivering outstanding customer experience and that is because, according to Corporate Visions research, buyers prefer to do business with the first to provide value through education and insight.

2. Customer experience is the single biggest factor in achieving competitive differentiation to attract customers who become loyal advocates

The way we sell is just as important as what we sell. Research done with 5,000 buyers by Corporate Executive Board was published in The Challenger Sale in 2012 and it revealed that customer loyalty was 38% derived equally from brand (company and product) and the features and capabilities offered; 9% of positive influence was from price, and a huge 53% of influence was from the ‘sales experience’ the buyer received.

Positive ‘sales experience’ was defined by offering a uniquely valuable perspective on the market, helping to navigate alternatives and avoid potential land mines, and educating on relevant trends and how to best manage risk. The sellers who thrive today understand this and focus on their individual buyer’s journey to provide valuable information and insights early in the buying cycle. They monitor in social media for trigger events and also attract and engage with appropriate content to identify the best time to engage.

Innovation is key in delivering best customer experience as you support multiple channels of social, mobile, websites, phone, field sales and resellers. When potential buyers are positively surprised by excellent service and convenient manner in which they can research, engage and transact; they become customers. Increasingly today however, a great buying experience does not always require a face-to-face sales person. This highlights part of the reason why field sales people must move to value and focus on where they can manage complexity and risk for clients in order to fund their roles.

3. Methodology, process and technology must all be integrated for sales enablement

The holy grail of sales enablement is to use the right methodology to drive repeatable quality processes inside CRM as a transparent coaching platform. Playbook concepts belong inside CRM to intuitively guide sales people in how to ask the right questions and create progression as they align with the buyer.

This is why sales and marketing must finally come together to map buyer’s journey to sales process and tools with a playbook approach to providing guidance and resources for every phase of the sale. This includes qualification, discovery, designing solutions, pricing and proposals, proving capability, negotiating, closing and onboarding clients. Technology can be used to help people easily transact while inside sales cost effectively steps-up where buyers want human interaction. 

Field sales must surrender commodity products and services to focus on high value solutions where there is both complexity and risk for the buyer. The role of field sales is to proactively create opportunities with early engagement that sets the right agenda. 

Every seller must modernise by embracing social to build personal brand and create leverage and reach. Every sales organisation must create exceptional customer experience as their sustainable point of competitive differentiation and also integrate methodology, process and technology to reduce cost while efficiently driving consistent execution of sales process across multiple channels and touch-points.

But it's easy to get it wrong. The 'private fleet' wholesale service I found online, when seeking to buy a new car, had an excellent website with good content and video animations to explain their value. However, their web to lead process was broken. I completed online enquiry forms twice without receiving any contact after receiving the automated email. When I phoned they were defensive about their broken 'web to lead' process. They found my details and then started asking me questions I had already responded to online. The sales person then tried to manoeuvre me into a corner to commit to buying if they ran the 'tender process' with multiple dealers. It was just like talking with a car salesman at a traditional dealer... no thanks.

There are other examples where customer experience is masterfully executed with well designed processes across multiple channels (social listening to Twitter, Facebook and other platform; web to lead nurturing, phone, SMS, e-mail, and face-to-face). What are the best and worst examples you've experienced and where have you seen the holy grail of sales enablement?

Note of thanks to Jonathan Farrington. This post is based upon a magazine article I wrote for Top Sales World Magazine, published in December 2015.

If you valued this article, please hit the ‘like' and ‘share’ buttons below. This article was originally published in LinkedIn here where you can comment. Also follow the award winning LinkedIn blog here or visit Tony’s leadership blog at his keynote speaker website: www.TonyHughes.com.au.

Main Image Photo by Flickr: Pieter Musterd - Follow De Posthoornblazers

Simplification Is The New Sales Sophistication

We live in unprecedented times and if you are a student of history, or perhaps eschatology, the human narrative is accelerating at a mind-boggling rate. We need wisdom as we navigate change and the unintended consequences of embracing technologies and dismantling borders. Every profession, including sales, is subject to disruption and many will lose careers they once thought to be safe.

Design thinking is an essential prerequisite in entrepreneurship and for creating 'Customer eXperience' (CX) that makes the buyer's life easier and the sales person essential. Clarity in the role we play and the value we deliver has never been more important for creating a prosperous future and a better world.

"Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication" Leonardo da Vinci (1492)

The enemy of simplicity is not big data. The Information Age is now being usurped by The Machine Age with Artificial Intelligence (AI) upon us – yes, the scary science fiction kind. The ‘web of things’ is linking cars, appliances, machines, assets and people. Wearable Bluetooth and mobility tracking are combining with beacons to create geo-context and proximity alerts via wireless networks and satellite communications that are ubiquitous. Big data is being leveraged for micro predictive analytics. Social media has already democratized the internet and cloud computing is enabling the most complex of capabilities for the smallest of enterprises. Meta-algorithms are creating their own priorities and financial systems have a level of interdependency that no-one truly understands.

It all seems to be creating an ever-consuming life of it’s own with real human interaction being pushed into the back seat. We have never had more access to information yet we drown in the data and suffer from digital distraction , drinking from the proverbial fire-hose, incapable of digesting all that is overwhelming us. We seek clarity amidst all the voices clamouring for our attention – there are a thousand channels to watch yet nothing is on.

Everyone seeking to influence others, especially those in sales, strives for cut-through. Sadly, many attempts result in cliched sound bites or sensationalist claims that try to play to our fears. But how do we represent the value we offer in way that resonates with our audience?

John Singleton is legend in Australia. He pioneered advertising in this market. Think Crocodile Dundee meets Mad Men. John Singleton knew that the more information you give people, the more they need to think about; and the more benefits you throw at people, the more difficult it is for them to see the one compelling reason to take action.

"My job is to simplify the complex and make the simple compelling" John Singleton (1980)

Every great musician, chef and designer knows a secret... Less is more. Entrepreneurs, marketers and sales people alike all need to adopt this ethos. What are the few compelling reasons to focus on? All the rest is mere support for the real message or conversation. We need to lead with why a conversation matters rather than with who we are, what we do and how we do it. No-one cares enough to take action until they have a compelling reason ('why?').

"Logic makes people think; emotion makes them act." Zig Ziglar (1986)

One-third of sales opportunities are lost to 'Do Nothing' which manifests as the status-quo / current state prevailing, or other projects having higher priority for funds and resources, or an incumbent supplier seeming to be less risk and effort. Change requires motivation yet bombarding people with facts does little. We must avoid confusing 'supporting information' with the primary message. Features and not necessarily benefits and proof of out claims do not equate to reasons to go ahead.

People are best motivated by reasons they themselves discover

We must help our potential customers discover why they should change state and why we represent best value and lowest risk through our insights and expertise.

• How will you simplify your message to achieve cut-through in why a conversation matters?
• How will you simplify buyer experience to differentiate in the way you sell rather with what you sell?
• How will you take the vast array of data and myriad technology and tools to create elegant simplicity for your team, partners and customers?

Those who embrace technology and design thinking to drive simplicity will prosper. Never stop asking why things are currently done the way they are and reimagine engagement and processes to improve your customer's experience, and your own efficiency and market reach through automation and innovation.

If you valued this article, please hit the ‘like' and ‘share’ buttons below. This article was originally published in LinkedIn here where you can comment. Also follow the award winning LinkedIn blog here or visit Tony’s leadership blog at his keynote speaker website: www.TonyHughes.com.au.

Main Image Photo by Flickr: Michael Heiss

The BIG Question Customers Want To Ask

Customer churn does massive damage to any business because a ‘leaky bucket’ of revenue destroys confidence and the ability to invest. Unhappy ex-clients also retard business development activities and undermine marketing efforts. The best businesses instead harness the power of their happy clients for advocacy, and they measure and reward their staff on creating brilliant ‘customer experience’. Measuring customer satisfaction with systems such as Net Promoter Score (NPS) are essential for astute business leaders who drive a customer-centric culture. 

Make no mistake; winning new customers is expensive and often difficult because empowered buyers are armed with research and they seek to commoditize seller ‘solutions’. Savvy buyers are also distrustful of ROI claims and sales messages when there is not an established positive relationship. On top of these factors, consensus-based decision making means that there are more who can say ‘no’ and there are, on average, five decision makers (or decision-making groups) who have to say 'yes'. The biggest competitor in complex enterprise selling is often apathy, the status quo / 'do nothing'.

Retention programs therefore deliver stronger return on investment and leverage the almost magical power of recurring [compound-curve] revenue streams. Selling to existing clients is comparatively easy compared with new account acquisition but how do you make sure customers don't fall prey to competitor? A simplistic approach is to 'stay close to them and sell more' but relationships today are not enough... we also need to create real value. Whether your customers ask you directly or not, here is their question that you need to address.

How can we derive greater value from fewer supplier relationships?

This question is what the smartest people inside your customer organizations are thinking. They understand that every supplier relationship costs time, effort and money to manage. They also know that concentrating their spending power should deliver better 'value' but they easily focus on price as the lever to pull. But sellers should set the agenda on value rather than price.

Get on the front foot, go disrupt yourself before your competitors do it to you. Deliver innovation for clients to reduce their costs and improve their businesses. Trade lower pricing with the requirement for customers to make greater revenue commitments and deliver advocacy (case studies, testimonials, etc.).

If you are an incumbent supplier with a customer that has upside revenue through greater scale or cross-selling other products and solutions. Secure a meeting their CEO and CFO on the basis that you are unhappy with the level of value they are receiving from you.  Tell them that they are missing an opportunity to derive greater value from fewer suppliers, and that you want to move from supplier to partner by investing to deliver for them with ... (supply chain improvements, greater access to IT systems, share executive insights, etc.).

Never take a customer for granted. There is always an opportunity to provide greater value without reducing price.

As proof of the fact that price is not the most important factor in the decision process for enterprise buyers. CEB research published in The Challenger Sale shows what buyers really value when making their buying decisions. Only 9% is price and 53% is the level of 'value-add' provided through education, insights and a partnering approach to delivering the required outcomes and managing risk.

What is your experience is working with clients to be one of the fewer suppliers delivering greater value? How have you used this strategy to out-fox the competition in the best interests of your client?

If you valued this article, please hit the ‘like' and ‘share’ buttons below. This article was originally published in LinkedIn here where you can comment. Also follow the award winning LinkedIn blog here or visit Tony’s leadership blog at his keynote speaker website: www.TonyHughes.com.au.

Main Image Photo by Flickr: Josh Tidsbury Follow Questioning

Lack Of Emotion Kills Sales. Why Facts Paralyse

Anthony Robbins teaches that selling is about changing someone's emotional state. I agree and add that selling is first and foremost about the transference of belief. Another sales legend, Zig Zigar, passed away in 2012 and he taught me that logic and facts makes people think but emotion is what makes them act.

Professional selling can be compared with being a musician... endless personal rejection requiring a deep well of determination and you have to give your all to be successful... no holding back! At the heart of success is an authentic passion for making a positive difference in how we communicate and make a positive difference in the lives of our customers.

Passionate belief is the foundation on which success is built for entrepreneurs, sales people and those in the performing arts

We've all seen it on American Idol or Australia's Got Talent or The Voice – Keith Urban telling the contestant that they "didn't really sell it" or Simon Cowell on X Factor saying: "I didn't believe you." The greatest songs take us somewhere emotionally because they tell a story of love, tragedy, redemption... they reach in and tear our hearts out or lift us to heaven with happiness.

Johnny Cash is an amazing example of being authentic and he learned his lesson about being authentic during his first and only record company audition. He was performing gospel music but didn't really believe in the lyrics he was singing. It was disingenuous and the record company executive challenged him to sing about what he really believed. The darkness that tempered his belief in God was one the reasons that Johnny Cash dressed in black. This scene starring Joaquin Phoenix portrays exactly what happened. Watch the transformation...

We don't need to be all 'sunshine and light' to cause people to act. Numbers and facts are important for supporting a decision and building a business case but too much information simply causes the person say 'let me think about it'. The music video below has had >65,000,000 views and presents important facts in a way that evokes emotion. Watch this and shed a tear... another performance will lift your spirits at the end of this post.

Emotion has far more impact than 'production values' in any performance. Passion takes you further than mere professionalism. Yes, you've got to be able entertain and sing pitch-perfect... but that's just the ticket to the dance concert. It's ability to tell powerful true stories and transfer emotion that creates Grammy winners and sales legends.

You've got to believe in yourself, especially when others don't. Don't let the song inside you go unsung or as Wayne Dyer profoundly puts it: "Don't die with your music still inside of you." Stop telling and start selling what you passionately believe. Show it and dare to wear your heart on your sleeve!

As you put emotion into your message be sure to lead with why your audience should care. Have purpose in what you do by Leading with insight, building relationships of trust and creating real value

We must stop leading with who we are, what we do and how we do it and instead "lead with why". Simon Sinek masterfully communicates the importance of this, even with bad sound equipment. 

Why should someone meet with you? What do you believe and why should it be important to them?  What's the difference you you can make in their life or business?

Pharrell is another performer who gets the concept of building in a unique differentiator and it won him a Grammy in 2015. His productions with N.E.R.D. cemented his prowess as a producer blending rock, funk and hip hop. He didn't sound like anybody else that came before: the hybrid synergy created an 'original' sound. Differentiating your product and service in sales is paramount. You can differentiate your own selling style by pulling from old school and new school approaches.

Pharrell understands the Ogilvy "one-word" brand equity. Just check out his signature hat by Los Angeles hat designer Nick Fouquet. The hat has become an icon as has his sound. Some sales people I know wear a pocket square or rock a theme color for their company. I'm not suggesting a gimmick but if it's an authentic point of flair it may make sense. In no case am I the arbiter of business fashion but I can equate his hat to something that makes you say: 'wow, how cool'! What part of your solution, product or service stands out from the crowd? How can you work to uniquely differentiate yourself in the marketplace?

The last piece that makes Pharrell a master salesperson and performer is his ability to be a super networker. He is one of the most connected men in the entire music industry. His productions were in such hot demand because he helped pioneer a new technology called Reason by PropellerHead software that made tapestries of sound against canvases and mash-ups all digitally emulating analogue capabilities. He pushed the software to the limit and everyone wanted one of his tracks as a backdrop. You need to become a super networker in your industry, test out cutting edge software for B2B lead generation, trigger event tracking, drip campaigns and marketing automation and push the envelope as a B2B content marketer with LinkedIn Publisher. Think to yourself: What would Pharrell do here? How might he innovate?

Now it's your turn: What's your song inside? What metaphorical music is dying to get out? What other parallels do you see between music and selling?  How do you embrace positive emotion to cause others to act?

If you valued this article, please hit the ‘like' and ‘share’ buttons below. This article was originally published in LinkedIn here where you can comment. Also follow the award winning LinkedIn blog here or visit Tony’s leadership blog at his keynote speaker website: www.TonyHughes.com.au.

Main Image Photo by Flickr: Dima Doskoch - Souls reflection (Autoportrait)

The Closing Myth (Sales Pressure Traps)

I often ask senior executives what they think the biggest weakness is within their sales team. A common answer is that their sales people need to get better at closing. But here is the thing I've learned from three decades in the trenches...

The perceived problem is rarely the real problem – inability to close is usually a symptom of deeper issues.

In both complex enterprise selling and simple or transactional selling (with one decision-maker) there is a universal truth that must be embraced if we are to improve results –opening is far more important than closing.

Opening is the most important phase of the sale because the way we initiate the relationship determines the likelihood of success. The two critical issues in opening are 1) selecting the correct role to engage within the customer organisation, and 2) creating a conversation that provides value (through insights) for them.

1) Opening the corporate relationship with the right person

A common mistake in selling is to engage with the people who most easily agree to take a call or meet face-to-face. Inbound leads often come from recommenders and information gatherers who act for others. These people are keen to obtain information but can quickly become blockers who seek to deny us access to the real decision making power-base. We must carefully select the right entry point into every opportunity and by definition this decision-driver will often be difficult to reach.

If you are already engaged at the wrong level and struggling to elevate your conversations in an account, these questions that can earn the right to go higher.

• “What is the business outcome this initiative has to deliver at a business case level?”
• “What are the biggest risks in this project and what is your strategy to manage those risks?”

These questions also set the right agenda when engaging a real decision-maker because leaders care about delivering results and managing risk. The business case and change management issues always figure high in their thinking. But how do you open a conversation when you are proactively reaching out to a senior customer executive? 

2) Setting the right agenda on value through insight

No senior leader worth engaging is interested in us, our company or our products, services and ‘solutions’. They instead care about their own results, stakeholders and career. Although we are wired to talk about ourselves, what we do and how we do it; we must instead lead with why a conversation should matter to the other person.

We can create conversations of insight and value by truly understanding our best customers and the disruptive market trends that are relevant to our new potential clients. Selling strategically also means engaging early and the most senior level possible, setting an agenda that creates a positive bias toward us while engineering the requirements and their process in a way that makes it difficult for the competition.

The best sellers are sponsored down into the buyer’s organisation by the leader to then develop inside knowledge and support where closing becomes a natural next step of partnership rather than a white knuckle adventure filled with misplaced hope and reliance on luck.

Here is a 2 minute interview I did with John Smibert on closing.

The 3 prerequisites for closing

Asking for the customer’s business must be earned and only attempted after the buyer has signalled they are ready to take that next step. The seller should never attempt to close until these three areas are covered, or to use a baseball metaphor, don't run for home plate until these three bases have been covered:

1. Establish trust and rapport (by being authentic and transparent).
2. Agree compelling business value (as defined by them).
3. Understand their timing and priorities (and their process for evaluation, selection and procurement if in complex enterprise environments).

Many sales people make the mistake of pressuring their potential client when the buyer isn't in a position to commit to the purchase. Managers often push their sales people to offer discounts on one hand and threats of a price increase on the other if the buyer fails the meet the seller’s deadline. I’ve seen sales managers instruct sales people to go and sit in the customer’s lobby for days until the purchase order is secured... desperation is the worst way to attempt a close. 

The bottom line in closing

Difficulty in closing is almost always a symptom of not managing the sale properly. Closing must be earned and objections are usually evidence of the fact that the seller has made mistakes by pushing before trust and value has been established and without the necessary understanding of the customer’s timing, priorities and processes.

All managers need to know that they cannot ‘manage by results’ and must instead focus on driving activities and actions while coaching strategy and skills. Ask the right questions of your sales people right at the beginning of the quarter and help them identify and execute the right actions that create progression of the sale. Firing-up the blow-torch with just days to go for hitting sales targets, after neglecting the inputs that create success, is a sure-fire way to damage relationships, undermine credibility and drive-down price and margin.

Special note of thanks to Jonathan Farrington for allowing me to base this blog post on a magazine article I wrote for Top Sales Magazine, published in March 2016. FREE subscription to Top Sales here.

If you valued this article, please hit the ‘like' and ‘share’ buttons below. This article was originally published in LinkedIn here where you can comment. Also follow the award winning LinkedIn blog here or visit Tony’s leadership blog at his keynote speaker website: www.TonyHughes.com.au.

Main Image Photo by: Hugo A. Quintero G. Follow Venus Fly Trap - "King Henry"

The V Myth (Value Traps For Sellers)

The E-Myth by Michael Gerber is one of the most important business books you can read. He masterfully explains the myth of entrepreneurship where competent practitioners fool themselves in believing that their technical knowledge and skills automatically translate into being good business people. Chefs rarely make good restaurant owners, Good pilots rarely run airlines well, being a carpenter does not quality you to run a building business.

In my 35 years in business and professional selling, I've seen many fall into a similar trap with the product, service or solution they seek to sell in their markets...

The V-Myth

The features of what is being sold equate to benefits and value for buyers

Software sales people are often the worst offenders, showing potential buyers endless screens, menus, reports, tabs, or even lines of code; wrongly thinking that the amount of functionality builds perceptions of value. But the reality is that over-emphasis of features and functions can actually create price concerns in the mind of the buyer... "Wow, that looks complicated; how will our people use that without lots of training." Or "Upgrades and administration looks complex; our IT team is already stretched."

Sellers can easily fall into the trap of 'projecting value' on the basis that every aspect of what they offer can create a benefit for the client. "Feature - Function - Advantage - Benefit"... Really? Here is what the legendary Neil Rackham taught me about 'client benefits... "It's only a benefit if it solves a specific problem, acknowledged by the customer as being important."

"Value is in the eye of the buyer, not on the lips of the seller.

Sellers need to develop relationships of trust to be effective in their roles, but buyers are not lonely and looking for new friends. Buyers are instead busy and they need value from every interaction. Providing mere information is not enough; sellers need to provide genuine insights that educate and shape the way in which the buyer views their problems and opportunities. The very best sales people therefore focus on ‘value creation’ rather than ‘value projection’. They lead with insight and then ask well conceived questions designed to help them understand how the buyer defines value and how they assess risk.

The key to creating value is to understand the language of business and the language of leaders.

1. The language of business is numbers, evidenced within a thorough and compelling business case! The basic equation for value is: Business Value = Benefit minus Cost and this is why it’s so important to ensure all ‘benefits’ are expressed in monetized form wherever possible. Yes it’s true that not all benefits save or make money for our customer. As examples; less stress or risk, improved productivity, less risk in non-critical areas… all of these can be difficult to justify in financial terms. But the language of business is nevertheless numbers, not words, so always ask yourself: How does this benefit drop to their bottom line or improve their balance sheet.
2. The language of leaders is 'delivering outcomes and managing risk'. This is the currency of their brand... their ability to make the important things happen within their organization, for their customers and stake-holders.

These two factors above ensure that the customer is committed to purchase and here are some questions worth asking your potential client once you've established trust:

• Where do you see the potential value in working with us?
• What needs to be achieved at a business level with this initiative and where do you see the risks?

Once buyers are committed to change they then usually seek Value For Money (VFM) as they evaluate their options. Beyond Return On Investment (ROI) or Total Cost of Ownership (TCO), they usually have a weighted selection criteria to determine the best supplier.  Here is my formula for defining Value For Money (VFM). Is it Fit For Purpose (FFP) and from the supplier with the Lowest Risk Profile (LRP). Risk is an important factor often missed by sellers when they seek to show value for money. How does all of this compare with Total Cost of Ownership (or perhaps Payback Period)?

Think about this formula as you engage with customers who make comparative decisions, contrasting you with your competition. It is essential that we meet the exact requirements and also be perceived as representing the lowest risk. These two factors are then weighed against the total cost of ownership but take the effort to really understand how they assess this internally; don't make assumptions.

All of your assertions concerning value and risk need to be considered from the customer’s point of view… after all, the market determines the price and only the customer is qualified to call something a solution and determine the value to their business.

Once value is identified, you can then focus on crafting a value proposition which is unique and compelling in the way it delivers and manages risk. The way we sell is more important than what we sell and this is the essence of competitive differentiation.

It is usually best to position as the supplier in the 'Goldilocks Zone'. Big enough to deliver but small enough for them to be an important customer and have influence

Differentiation is essential because customers always have a choice of suppliers who can do the job for them. Whether you are selling soap or semiconductors, widgets or ideas, products or services, bundled value or real solutions – your value proposition must be compelling.

The solution must go beyond mere features of your product or service because the real problem is almost never uniquely solved by one particular product over another. Rather than the product you sell, maybe the customer actually needs a reliable supply-chain, prompt service, effective change management or something else. The product or service you sell is not a solution until it is fully aligned with addressing the real problems and delivering genuine business value.

Every product, service or solution is only worth what the market will pay for it. Your value proposition must therefore be focused on specific and tangible benefits for the customer, and directly linked to the resolution of their specific problems or opportunities – the bigger the better. Features do not necessarily equate to benefits or represent genuine value for the customer. The most powerful differentiated value propositions usually include your people, expertise and methodologies; not just your product and service. Government buyers assess value from a blend of functionality (fit for purpose) and perceived risk; price is then included in the equation to ultimately determine value for money.

Individuals and organizations universally seek best value and lowest risk. The cheapest product or solution can be perceived as higher risk and inferior value. Value is defined by the buyer, not the seller. Comparative perceptions are determinative so when seeking to identify and leverage your unique value, ask yourself the following:

• What do we offer that is of business value to the prospective customer, aligned to their specific needs and delivering tangible benefits?
• Is our product, service or solution part of a strong business case?
• How does the buyer prioritize projects and are we aligned with the required return on investment, payback period or net present value calculation?
• Who and what is the competition, and what are our comparative strengths and weaknesses?

Beyond these things, what combination of the following represents a compelling overall value proposition compared with the competition?

• Product or service features enabling business benefits
  • Service offerings that reduce risk and deliver business value
• Individual and team skills and proven domain expertise, industry knowledge and methodologies that assure successful delivery and cultural fit with the customer
• Business model or geographic presence enabling lower risk or providing better efficiency

The market determines price and only the customer is qualified to assess value for money. Everything we sell must help customers improve revenue and/or margin; or reduce cost, time or effort; or reduce their serious risk.

How can you create value for your customers? What insights do your offer? What business outcomes can you help them deliver? What risks can you help them manage?

If you valued this article, please hit the ‘like' and ‘share’ buttons below. This article was originally published in LinkedIn here where you can comment. Also follow the award winning LinkedIn blog here or visit Tony’s leadership blog at his keynote speaker website: www.TonyHughes.com.au.

Main Image Photo by Flickr: GotCredit - Value

Nine Conversations For Sales Leaders

I first met Bernadette McClelland online as a result of the LinkedIn experiment I was undergoing by posting a blog a day for 90 days. We had a couple of conversations and she followed up by sending me a copy of Seth Godin’s book ‘What To Do When It’s Your Turn’.  That engagement resulted in us being part of a collaborative effort to elevate the profession of selling here in Australia through the formation of the Sales Masterminds Australasia with John Smibert.

Shortly afterwards I read Bernadette’s published book, ’The Art of Commercial Conversations - When It’s Your Turn To Make A Difference’ and what struck me is that it addresses nine (9) commercial conversations that all salespeople, business owners and sales leaders must have, not just with their customers, but also with themselves.

Her book is based on the innovative and trailblazing ‘Conscious Selling Model’ - a model that has been designed based on us now being in the Connection Economy and we know we are all deserving of a new discussion that helps us better adapt and align. 

Her model highlights three areas of leadership needed today for all salespeople - Personal Leadership and the approach to market salespeople need to take, Thought Leadership and the focus of commercial conversations and Sales Leadership which peels back the layers on what a salesperson’s intention must be to become a cutting edge modern day seller.

What I thought was extremely beneficial for my readers was the following ‘Manifesto for Conscious Sellers’ based on her nine commercial conversations.

• CONVICTION - The Art of Rebellion - It’s more than loving what we do. It’s having the courage to be seen, to rebel, to take our turn, to change our rules, to step outside our fears and love what we bring to the table.
• CONNECT - The Art of Mindfulness - It’s more than kumbaya and yogis. It’s the opportunity to centre ourselves in a busy and noisy world so we can stand grounded and confident and be present to our buyer.
• CONTACT - The Art of Social - It’s more than a playground where we go to play. It’s the auditorium where we have the opportunity to team up, play our hearts out and be seen by those who will pay to see us.
• CONTENT - The Art of Story - It’s more than features, advantages and benefits. It’s the ability to tell a story that captivates, and spread that story to the world through messages that create value.
• CONSULT - The Art of Tension - It’s more than asking questions. It’s creating a space to get personal, to be bold, to push the boundaries for all the right reasons and to create change in our clients’ worlds.
• CONTEXT - The Art of Meaning - It’s not about what you think it’s about. Its essence is in interpretation, variation, listening for understanding and being prepared to get it wrong.
• CONTRACT - The Art of The Ask - It’s not about closing the deal. It’s about learning to say yes and learning to say no, and understanding the magic that happens in between.
• CONSPIRE - The Art of Collaboration - It’s not about keeping in touch, customer service or moments of truth. It’s about working together, joint ventures and collaboration.
• CONTRIBUTE - The Art of The Start - It’s not about the money or the profits or shareholders. It’s about the meaning and the purpose and the stakeholders.

To finish up, Bernadette also adds by asking this question: 

'How Relevant Are You?

Just like anything in nature, if something is not growing and contributing, then it is dying. Business is no different. Business is a living organism and anyone who thinks differently will die the death of a thousand extinct sellers. Just like Willy Loman in ‘Death of a Salesman’, if you aren’t making change happen, developing personally, or being self motivated, people won’t believe in you. It’s not as simple as Willy thought, “about being likeable through fakery, looking good, charming people and cracking jokes.” People know when you are faking it. People buy people. If you’re not for real, they won’t buy you. People want the real deal and the human element.'

Today, it’s all about measuring your relevance in the market through ideas you have for your customer’s growth, in addition to the level of connection you have with your buyers. But more than that, it’s about contribution - to your customers and for your customers, and the five word formula found in the intention of one simple question, ‘How Can I Help You?’

Bernadette McClelland leads the conversation around Conscious Selling. She successfully works with SMB’s and sales teams around the world to help them differentiate themselves when they don’t know how or when they’re not making their numbers and they don’t know why. You can visit her website here  orpurchase a copy of her book here.

If you valued this article, please hit the ‘like' and ‘share’ buttons below. This article was originally published in LinkedIn here where you can comment. Also follow the award winning LinkedIn blog here or visit Tony’s leadership blog at his keynote speaker website: www.TonyHughes.com.au.

Main Image Photo by: Bernadette McClelland

Jaw-Dropping Marketing That You Won't Believe

Have you ever wondered if we will look back at this period in time and shake our heads in disbelief... how did we allow technology to make us dumber and create societal disengagement. If you had a career in sales... how did I allow the product to be the message?

Every bad idea seemed good at the time

 Do we now live in the age of digital narcissism? Are we witnessing the destruction of good manners and etiquette? Is written language being butchered by social media shorthand? Is the facade of 'social following' masking the absence of human connection? Is the avalanche of content across our screens driving digital distraction and destroying our ability to ponder and learn?

This short clip from Mad Men is more documentary that entertainment... and the advertisements below it are from the same era. They will make your jaw drop with laughter or anger... yet they are all 100% real. The appalling thing is that these types of ads are still happening today in many third world countries! 

How anyone can look themselves in the mirror while they sell a product that kills their customers is beyond me. Advertising reflects the values of society and wow we have changed. I never knew that my dad wore his business shirt and tie to bed so my mother knew who deserved breakfast in bed the next morning!

But at least wives had Pep to get them ready for the evening after a day of house work... I think I am digging a hole I may never escape from...

And for the children in the home who were not satisfied with second-hand cigarette smoke, there was always cocaine gum to stop the whining and get them off to sleep...

Or maybe beer flavoured breast milk to help them sleep through the night... not to mention the nutritional benefits of hops and malt. Who would have ever known that beer is an appetizing and stimulating tonic?

And to get them going in the morning, nothing works better than a massive sugar hit... adding caffein is all the better.

No-one in marketing or sales should push anything they don't believe in. Here is a brilliant example of how marketing and sales can make products attractive to consumers. It highlights how the talent of those who know how to influence can be used for good.

Make sure you believe in what your product, service or solution does for your clients. Be a force for good in world and be clear about the positive difference you make for all stakeholders. Then transfer emotion rather than information.

Click here to see why the power of belief is truly amazing

Join the conversation here. How do you make sure your sales and marketing efforts are completely ethical and that they will remain so after the passage of time?

If you valued this article, please hit the ‘like' and ‘share’ buttons below. This article was originally published in LinkedIn here where you can comment. Also follow the award winning LinkedIn blog here or visit Tony’s leadership blog at his keynote speaker website: www.TonyHughes.com.au.

Is LinkedIn The World's #1 Blog Platform?

Top Sales World is the world's leading magazine and online community for those in professional sales. Once a year they publish their list of the top 50 sales and marketing bloggers globally. Last year when I reviewed the list I was struck by the fact that not one awarded author was primarily publishing on LinkedIn – the biggest blogging platform in the world.

"But if the world's #1 Blogging platform is LinkedIn, why has no-one who publishes exclusively on their platform been recognised as a leading blogger?"

That's exactly what I thought and last year I set the goal of being the first author to be be independently recognised as one of the world's best bloggers while publishing exclusively on the LinkedIn platform. Today that goal was achieved when Top Sales World recognised me in the 2016 global Top 50 bloggers in the field of sales and marketing. Click on the image below to see the full list.

I asked Jonathan Farrington at Top Sales World if anyone else in the Top 50 blogged exclusively in LinkedIn and he responded by telling me I was the only one. But why is this the case when LinkedIn boasts well over 400 million members with more that 1 million who actively publish more than 150,000 posts a week. Beyond these staggering numbers, consider these reasons for why authors should embrace the platform:

• It can reach an audience based on context and relevance with their powerful Pulse Channels and intelligent mobile apps to enhance content readership and interactive engagement. Below are the free subscription channels along with the audience numbers.

• It has unrivalled reach within the more than 400 million members. The average post is viewed by professionals in 21 industries and 9 countries.
• It maps the business social graph with deep analytics and reporting
• It engages a community in discussion while providing incredible detail about those who like, share, comment and engage in collaborative conversation.
• It is simple to use and elegantly designed for PC, laptop, tablet and mobile devices
• About 45% of readers are in the upper ranks of their industries and this includes managers, directors, vice presidents and CEOs.

These are the factors that convinced me 24 months ago to stop blogging on my own website and go all-in on LinkedIn. I decided that I needed to go and be where my clients are [LinkedIn] and surrendered the desire to capture contact details for a mailing list or newsletter... I had an epiphany:

"I must stop seeking to 'interrupt and push' with sales and marketing and instead 'attract and engage' through relevant insights and high value content."

This meant that I chose to allow my potential clients to be in complete control. I allowed them to choose whether to contact me based of the value I provided in advance of me ever charging them a fee or attempting to pitch my value or services.  So, what were the results and do 'social selling' strategies actually work? Hell yeah!!!!!

I have attracted 85,000 followers of my LinkedIn blog and incredible connections in just 24 months. I have more clients than I can cope with. I've been recognised as the #1 influencer on professional selling in Asia-Pacific. I have been paid to speak at numerous events as a direct result of my LinkedIn publishing and activity.

I have also been recognised as a Top 50 blogger globally using LinkedIn exclusively and I am in negotiation for new book publishing contracts. When I took a white paper I wrote and re-purposed it to be LinkedIn blog post,it received in excess of 235,000 reads. Click on the image below to see the power of moving away from a website where this content received less than 100 reads as a white paper and onto LinkedIn where the audience and customers are.

I've adopted an altruistic approach where I freely provide my insights and intellectual property and avoided any form of 'click-bait'. I am well on my way to one million reads of my content and 100,000 followers in LinkedIn. But publishing content is not just important for authors. Here are four reasons for sales people to write content with their managers and marketing department supporting them with ideation, proof-reading, editing and publishing tools:

1. Educate yourself and develop domain knowledge and expertise
2. Connect with industry leaders to build your sphere of influence
3. Attract clients and an audience to support your business goals
4. Build your personal brand evidencing credibility, value and insight

In an online world we are known by who we are connected to and what we publish. According to IDC research, 75% of buyers research the seller before engaging. What do they see when they view your profile? We want people to see a credible domain expert worthy of trust and an investment of  time. We must also create a strong personal brand and here is how to begin.

The 'Updates' section of LinkedIn is also very powerful, and scheduling tools such as Buffer make the process easy for sharing other people’s articles, blogs, research, infographics and Tweets. Content can easily be sourced by identifying influencers in the market and individual content capture and scheduling is as simple as clicking a button in the web browser.

Sales people must consciously associate themselves with leaders who are respected by their potential clients and transform their LinkedIn profile to be a personal brand micro site instead of an online CV. Connect with leaders admired by your clients and then share their content as a 'content aggregator' who adds your own insights... working with other people's content is the easiest way to begin your content publishing journey.

If you valued this article, please hit the ‘like' and ‘share’ buttons below. This article was originally published in LinkedIn here where you can comment. Also follow the award winning LinkedIn blog here or visit Tony’s leadership blog at his keynote speaker website: www.TonyHughes.com.au.

Warrior of Persuasion or Engineer of Value?

The world of sales is tough and seems to be getting tougher.  I recently had a conversation with John Smibert, the most influential person in professional selling in Australia, concerning the emerging challenges facing B2B sellers in 2016 and I provide recommendations on how we need to respond in order to succeed.

The global economy will continue to be flat for years to come and the lack of economic confidence, combined with significant changes in the way buyers execute their procurement research and vendor engagement, means that sellers must continually adapt the way they sell. 

Warriors of Persuasion must learn to become Engineers of Value.

The challenges we face in 2016 and beyond include the fact that the customer are becoming more risk adverse - they are applying committee based decision-making to achieve consensus. Average deal sizes are also getting smaller which means sellers must figure out how drive greater efficiency to achieve sales quota. Other factors include the need for sales and marketing to come together to create superb 'buyer experience' mapped against the buyer's journey with fewer sales people and better uses of technology.

Watch or read the full interview below. This will be of value to the CEO, CFO, CSO, CMO, sales leaders and their teams in order to build and execute their sales and revenue strategy.

Interview Transcript

John: Tony, it’s early in the year of 2016 - you've talked a lot about challenges through 2015, and how the B2B sales world is changing and there’s more and more challenges. What do you see as the key challenges we’re going to face in the next 12 months?

Tony: Well, I think economically the economy, the Western world economy is going to be pretty tough for the next few years, maybe as long as five to seven years. I don’t think there’s going to be a big recession or anything, but I just think every purchasing decision inside an organisation is going to get scrutinised.

John: It’s just limping along, the economy, isn’t it?

Tony: It is. When you combine that with some other trends that are just remaining with us, buyers tend to be very risk-averse and sceptical of the claims made by sellers. Increasingly inside organisations they’re also looking for consensus, and the reality is there’s more than five people or five buying groups in big organisations involved in every decision.

John: Well, The Challenger Sale research indicates 5.4 is the average, right, in medium to large corporates.

Tony: Yes, it’s true. And it’s not 5.4 people, it’s 5.4 committees or bunches of people with competing agendas. And increasingly what happens is that the old model of selling, where you track down those individual buyer personas and craft and tailor your message to them, so that when they all sit around that boardroom table at a later date, they go “Yes, we know this supplier, we’re comfortable – let’s go ahead.” That’s not the case today. They may know us, but they can’t reach agreement internally, they can’t achieve consensus internally, they don’t want to cross-fund each other’s initiatives with who’s deriving the greatest benefits.

John: That’s the key message coming out of The Challenger Customer book that I’ve just read.

Tony: Exactly, which actually is a really brilliant book. Consensus based decision-making, distrust of ROI, all of those things are making it incredibly difficult to sell. The thing we need to do is we need to modernise our whole approach and get focused on leading with insight and value. People have known this for ages, but we need to make it a reality for salespeople so that they can help customers focus on outcomes and managing risk as the way of differentiating in how they sell.

John:  And from my understanding, we need to get very good at helping organisations make a decision by working with them in a collaborative way and understanding how those decisions are made inside organisations.

Tony:  Yes, it’s true.

John: Dealing with the right people that are going to make it happen internally.

Tony:  Correct. Well - in Corporate Executive Board Challenger speak - it’s look for the mobiliser, look for the change agent inside the buyer organisation, but help them build a compelling business case that can achieve consensus within the group internally. It’s not so much about being a warrior of persuasion in selling, we need to be engineers of value and do the engineering and partnership with the customer.

John: So, you see that as a key change in the way we approach the B2B business of selling in the next 12 months.

Tony: Yes. And in many, many instances we’re just going to have to get over the fact that average deal sizes are going to be smaller, and that we need to invest in longer-term relationships with our customers, that those revenues will come over the medium and long term; we’re not going to get huge revenue hits upfront with people anymore. That’s part of how the delivery of cloud software is changing things as well.

John: Yes, I understand that, and I think that’s going to apply not just in software but in lots of different industries.

Tony: Yes. And the last thing is we need to get good at creating customer experience that supports buyer journey, so sales and marketing need to finally, finally come together and start to think about that. I think there’ll be fewer field salespeople, but there’ll be lots of different sales roles inside organisations, as we make sure that we map how the buyer is evaluating and going to market and looking.

John: So, the alliance or collaboration or whatever you call it between sales and marketing is going to become more and more critical is what you’re saying, around that buyer journey.

Tony: Very much so, yes.

John:  Okay. Good advice. It’s going to be interesting for a lot of people out there, to work out how they change their strategy and adapt to be able to work in that environment. I look forward to learning more from you as we all go through that process.

Tony: Thanks, John!

John:  Thanks, Tony!

This article appears here within one of the planet's top 50 blogs on sales and marketing and the only top 50 blog within LinkedIn. Thanks John Smibert for the video interview and transcript which can also be found on on the Strategic Selling Group website where he interviews sales thought leaders from around the world. 

If you valued this article, please hit the ‘like' and ‘share’ buttons below. This article was originally published in LinkedIn here where you can comment. Also follow the award winning LinkedIn blog here or visit Tony’s leadership blog at his keynote speaker website: www.TonyHughes.com.au.

Main Image Photo by Flickr: Hans Splinter - Viking