Think About It… the e-book version

by Todd Youngblood

A recent study conducted by CSO Insights indicated that poor sales knowledge management is hitting the top and bottom lines of companies in extremely negative ways. These included high sales rep turn over, longer sell cycles and lower win rates.

What a paradox. On the one hand we’re absolutely drowning in information. On the other hand key information that sales reps need to sell effectively is still routinely hard to acquire. I hear this all the time from sales reps and executives, and the complaint is supported by the CSO Insights study.

Without a doubt, information on almost any topic imaginable is available virtually instantaneously. It’s useful, therefore, to think about the kinds of information that are not readily available even with today’s technology. Perhaps not surprisingly, much of it is directly related to sales issues.

Consider Wikipedia with its more than 2.8 million articles. Does even one of them address how one of the solutions your company provides could help a customer in industry X? Is there one that explains how to differentiate your offerings from those of competitors? How about one that provides responses to common objections heard from consumers of your products and services?

These are pretty basic questions, and the largest single collection of knowledge in the history of the world doesn’t touch on any of them! How can this be? Is wiki technology one that simply does not apply to sales? Or is there something else going on?

Well, as Pogo would say, “We have met the enemy and he is us.” It’s not Wikipedia, and it’s not the wiki technology that supports it. It’s the source of the information. It is totally unreasonable to expect that some anonymous web surfer could have even an inkling about the highly specialized, often unique situations faced by our prospects and customers. The knowledge, experience, insight and information needed by a sales rep cannot possibly be provided by an outsider. It has to come from an individual or group intimately involved with and knowledgeable about not only your specific target markets, but also your specific products and services and how they can be applied.

In other words, you! (…along with your entire sales and sales support team)

What if your organization had a Wikipedia-like thing where sales, technical support, … actually everybody in your organization could record bits of information they deem potentially useful? Maybe some folks from vendors and customers could be invited to participate. It would be interesting to see how much could actually get collected and how quickly. It would be even more interesting to see the impact on sales results. (The CSO Insights study shows a turnover rate 25.4% less for companies with good sales knowledge management and similar differences for sell cycle and win rate.)

Too expensive and difficult to implement you say? Guess again. I personally set up a wiki platform for The YPS Group. The cost of the technology platform is $71.40 annually. The cost of the software is $0. (We using TikiWiki.) I e-mailed a request to our web hosting provider and within 15 minutes everything was up and running. It took me about two hours to customize the system, set up security etc. It takes less than five minutes to teach someone how to create a new page, edit one, upload and download files, search the content and become generally adept at using the system.

It’s too early for us to fully assess the impact and value of what we call our “Sales Knowledge Mine.” I can tell you though, that it’s already loaded up with information and that I add and refer to it on a daily basis. We’ve just started enabling more people to use it. The quantity, quality and value of the content is increasing dramatically.

It’s going to become – maybe already has become- an indispensable sales tool for us. But then, how could it not? Those of us out there selling, closest to the customer; are feeding our observations, insights and ideas into a common pool that is being used and continuously updated and improved by all of us. Shouldn’t you be facilitating the same kind of knowledge exchange?

by Todd Youngblood

We are all conditioned to always remembering that the customer is always right. That’s a good thing in general, but do we take it too far?

Like most bits of wisdom that stand the test of time, “the customer is always right” applies most of the time. Most – not all – of the time. That mind set can easily blind us to four critical facts.

1) Customer personnel do not have the time and/or wherewithal to address all of their known significant problems and opportunities.

Have you ever heard of a decision-maker that complained about having too much time at his or her disposal? That there just wasn’t enough to do to fill the hours of the working day? You almost certainly have heard something along the lines of, “my people have the best knowledge and skills in the business,” though. Even if that’s true, which I doubt, it is virtually impossible for anybody to keep up with the incredibly fast advances of the modern business world. My point is, every customer always needs every bit of time savings and/or knowledge you, your company, your products and your services can provide.

2) Customers have unknown problems and opportunities.

I don’t care how smart they are, all customers are oblivious to something. And they know it too. Anyone who truly believes their area of responsibility is totally under control and immune to circumstances lurking in the background or just around the corner, is either the most arrogant human in history or insane. My point is, every customer always needs every bit of relevant insight and perspective you, your company, your products and your services can provide.

3) Customer decision processes are not robust enough to deal with the complexity of their problems and opportunities.

The best business process in the world continuously becomes less able to deal with the changes thrown at it. Every day, it becomes just a bit more obsolete. That’s the best business process in the world. How many customers can even tell you what their decision process is? How many businesses have ever even thought through what their decision process should be? My point is, every customer always needs your spin on what to consider when evaluating the types of products and services you provide.

4) Few individuals consider their entire business when making a decision.

The functional “silo” has become a cliché for reason. It’s true! Most people don’t know about, much less care about or consider, people and processes outside of their direct responsibility. (Can you believe there’s an actual purchasing agent I know of who cares only about price? Who refuses to consider quality, durability, warranty, integration, service or support? I know, shocking!) The CEO, however, does consider and worries endlessly about how all the pieces of his or her organization integrate with one another as well as with pieces of supplier and customer organizations. You don’t get to be a CEO unless you’re really, really good at perceiving, understanding and managing all those connections over long time horizons. My point is, every customer always needs your ability and insight into how your products and services integrate with and help harmonize those connections. In fact, the better you get at “orchestrating” business processes, the more time you’ll be “forced” to spend meeting with top customer executives.

Notice how these four facts have little to do with your products and services. They have little to do with traditional sales skills. They have far more to do with your knowledge and skill as a creative business executive. Success in selling depends upon your prospects’ realization of how you can save them time; provide some of the knowledge and skills required to solve their problems and address their opportunities; point out the hidden problems and opportunities; constantly improve their decision process; and help them think big, broadly and long term. The customer is not always right. They know it. And they will embrace the sales rep who helps them get better with these four aspects of running a business.

by Todd Youngblood

The cold, hard fact is that for most of us, this economy has jacked up the challenge of selling more faster BIG TIME. I’ll give 5 to 1 odds there are two things you wish you had already gotten done.

I know, I know, you were really, really busy last year. Big opportunities were everywhere and the competition was tougher than ever. There was flat-out no time to finally get organized and consistently using a first-rate sales process/time management system. Even though formally reviewing the value, quality and above-and-beyond service you and your team provided to those top customers has been a priority forever, you simply never got around to it. AGHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!

The time is now! Not that we wanted a break in the action, but the economy has just forced one down our throats. Use this business slowdown to solidify the future.

Clearly define and document your organization’s sales process, map it into a CRM system and consistently use it to manage your time and sales activities.

Not to sound harsh, but… if you’re one of those sales reps or managers who does not yet embrace the three core principles of sales process engineering, you might want to think about getting on the bus.

1. Continuous improvement of the sales process is fundamentally essential (…unless, of course, your customers will accept whatever you give them without question and your competitors are dedicated to mediocrity.)
2. Hard measurements – lots of them – are required to validate the amount and pace of your improvement. (Without hard numbers, you’re guessing about the quality of your performance and blowing smoke at yourself.)
3. A well-defined sales process is a prerequisite but for determining meaningful metrics (If you can’t describe what you’re measuring it’s by definition impossible to measure it!)

Implement a Sales Excellence Council using The YPS Group’s Methodical Sales Process as a starting point for defining your process. Map that process into a robust CRM system, train everybody on its use and then actually use it on a daily basis. (Just do it, for crying out loud!) Start measuring number of opportunities, dollar value of opportunities, percentage of opportunities that move to the next funnel stage and the cycle time for that movement. Generate reports to compare and contrast the performance of all reps on a monthly basis. Get started!

Prepare and deliver a high quality Key Account Performance Summary for every one of your key accounts.

Go back and look at the “Build Loyalty” section of the Methodical Sales Process. Repeat business from good customers is the key to long-term sales success. (Like you needed me to tell you that…) You went through a lot of trouble to deliver superior value to them over the past year, go through a little more to write it all down and review it. They won’t remember unless you remind them. They won’t appreciate your competitive differentiation unless you explain it to them – repeatedly.

Yes, this economic slowdown is painful, but it too shall pass. When things turn up, wouldn’t it be nice to have a world-class sales process management system in place and humming? Along with a pack of loyal customers who appreciate how you hung in there with them?

by Todd Youngblood

It’s January. It’s time to make (and stick to) another one of those “I know it makes sense and it’s good for me and I really need to make time for it” resolutions.

Have you ever had what seemed like a great idea pop into your head while taking a shower or driving into the office or doing “whatever” when you’re alone? Have you ever excitedly shared that insight with the first colleague, customer or co-worker you came across? Have you ever gotten that “I don’t know how you could possibly think this makes any sense” look?

For all of us, the answers are yes, yes and yes. It’s the third “yes” that’s humbling. But does the third “yes” mean it was a dumb idea? Not necessarily. In fact, probably not. More likely the key concepts were not well stated and/or some important facts were left out and/or extraneous information was included.

Next time this happens to you, drop everything and invest 15 minutes in writing it down.

Think and write in terms of who, what, when, where, why and how. Who will perceive value in this idea? In one sentence, what exactly is the essence of this idea? When will it be relevant? Where will it be relevant? Why will it be valuable? How will it deliver value?

Getting through that much will clarify your thinking and strengthen your ability to articulate the idea to an extent that will at least surprise, and maybe even amaze you. I’d also suggest that you take it one step further and develop a bulleted list. Jot down the 3 to 5 key points – in a logical sequence – that best illustrate the power and value of your thinking.

Around 10% or so of your ideas will deserve even more of the “writing treatment.” These elite, really good ones deserve to be laid out in prose. Think in terms of writing a compelling e-mail, blog post or online comment (…and then, of course, send the e-mail, make the blog posting or enter the comment.)

For anything that’s “going public,” apply the three golden rules of writing:

• Revise and rewrite
• Revise and rewrite
• Revise and rewrite

A few other tips I find helpful include:

• Omit needless words
• Use everyday words, short sentences and personal pronouns
• Always spell check (duh…)
• Write the way you speak
• Read – LOTS – and critique (Learn from the styles, strengths and mistakes of others.)

Writing things down improves your ability to think. It clarifies. It condenses. It reinforces your message. It spreads your message farther and wider. It enables others to articulate your message. It makes your verbal statements more compelling.

Albert Einstein was a pretty smart guy. He said, “If you can’t write it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.” I agree.

by Todd Youngblood

The US lost 2.5 million manufacturing jobs from 1994-2004. Does that mean I should jump out the window? Or is it a cause for celebration?

I really love to throw that job-loss statistic out on the table when talking to folks who sell for or into the manufacturing industry. Virtually every time the response focuses on the negative. Woe is me!!! Our manufacturing base is eroding!!! Cheap Chinese labor is wiping out America’s economy!!!

Makes me want to scream… A negative reaction reflects a fundamental lack of understanding about what drives an economy, any economy. The good news is, it also reflects an opportunity to re-focus attention on THE core concept in crafting a value proposition.

Two and a half million jobs just gone is a bad thing, right? Well, actually, no. China, our alleged nemesis, lost 25 million manufacturing jobs over the same time period. That’s 10 times more! Have you read anything about Chinese manufacturing going into the tank? There’s a critical fact missing here. When did inflation-adjusted U.S. manufacturing output peak? The – perhaps surprising – answer is 2007. That means we’re producing more with less! That’s a tremendously good thing.

Let’s add some context. In 1776, roughly 96% of the jobs in the US were agricultural jobs. In 1870 it was 50%. In 2008 it’s less than 1%. The % of our total GDP from agriculture followed a similar path from 90%+ in colonial days to less than 1% today. At the same time, the total amount of food produced has steadily grown. Over the last 50 years it’s gone up over 3% every year. Did we really want to hang on to those back-breaking, end-your-life-by-40 farming jobs? Or did it make more sense to use intellectual and technological advances to free up human labor and still maintain steady growth in total food output? In other words, did it make sense to produce more with less in agriculture?

Of course it made sense. That’s why we did it. The massive increases in agricultural productivity enabled huge numbers of people to move into better, higher-paying manufacturing jobs. Next, history repeated itself. At the end of World War II, 30% of U.S. jobs were in manufacturing. Today it’s less than 10%. At the same time, total output has risen at a steady 6% annually. Did we really want to hang on to those mind-numbing jobs depicted by Charlie Chaplin’s Little Tramp in the movie Modern Times? Or did we want to produce more with less?

Guess what’s happening in services? It’s an industry in a fairly early stage of its life-cycle, so the total number of jobs is still increasing. However… Job growth is just over 3% per year, while output is growing at an 8.5% annual rate. History is repeating itself again. The number of services job will inevitably plummet. That’s a good thing. It means that we are still figuring out ways to produce more with less.

What industry will overtake services? I don’t know, but I do know this: Productivity caused the hunter-gatherer jobs to give way to agriculture. Productivity caused the agricultural jobs to give way to manufacturing. Productivity caused the manufacturing jobs to give way to services. Productivity will cause the services jobs to give way to something.

It’s always been about productivity. It always will be about producing more with less. Every sales call, letter, e-mail, plan, thought and value proposition needs to reflect our quest to demonstrate how we can increase our customer’s productivity. Otherwise we’ll just be in the way of progress.

by Todd Youngblood

Take a few minutes and read through all the statements of value on your web site and in your recent proposals. Think about the value propositions you have articulated during customer calls over the last few months. Do they strike you as static statements? Or do they communicate a sense of a living, dynamic, ongoing, integrated, valuable experience?

In articulating value, many of us are hobbled by a limited perception regarding possible sources of value, and focused on me, my product and my company. Even those with a well-developed customer focus usually ignore a wide array of differentiating firepower that is readily available.

It’s high time we started to use a more robust, three dimensional, “living” perspective.

As an example, let’s start with a guy that owns a grove of spruce trees. He needs to make some money, so he goes into the firewood business. Cut down a tree, sell the commodity, compete mainly on price, differentiate based on BTUs produced by burning spruce vs. maple or whatever. Tough, low margin business.

Differentiating wood-for-fuel “A” from wood-for-fuel “B” – or in terms of the diagram below – moving up and to the right is really, really tough. So how about moving in front and/or in back of the page? Partnering with a coal vendor and a kerosene vendor (other commodity providers) enables our entrepreneur to add value by offering a broader line to a wider set of customers.

He can take things a step further when he learns that spruce is the perfect wood for making violins. Suddenly, he can get into the product selling business by adding a boat-load of differentiation to spruce – turning it into a violin – which provides higher margins.

He can repeat the in-front/in-back strategy by partnering with fife and drum makers. AND… He can also partner with new and different commodity vendors. How about a cardboard box maker to protect the instruments during shipping?

Jumping up yet another level, the guy can perform the service of renting an auditorium, promoting a concert and selling tickets. That entails partnering with other service providers, from musicians to clean-up crews; other product suppliers, from providers of additional instruments to providers of commemorative T-shirts; and other commodity vendors, from parking lots to rest room facilities.

Then we have the “Experience” economy. The industrial revolution in the late 18th century launched us beyond the “Commodity” to the product “Manufacturing” economy. The explosion of productivity starting in the 1970s propelled us into the “Service” economy. I’m convinced that a lot of sales professionals still don’t “get” the implications of services and cannot articulate their value. That leaves a lot of wide open space for those who can make the next leap to the experience economy.

Back to our guy, who by the way, gets it… During one of his performances, he realizes that his concert management services are only part of the picture. What he’s really selling is a concert experience. That includes not just the music, but also what each audience member does and senses (i.e., experiences) before, during and after. He decides to partner with a restaurateur who provides fine dining experiences so they can jointly provide a richer, higher margin “gastronomic/musical” experience. That opens the door to more partnerships with cooking and music lesson services, products like songbooks and commodities like foodstuffs.

So, how can a sales rep actually use the “Dynamics of Value” model on a daily basis?

• Establish where you are now – Commodity, Product, Service or Experience
• Establish where your customer is now – Commodity, Product, Service or Experience
• From there, explore front/back, up/down, left/right with your customer and start connecting the dots and realizing the value available by aggressively enabling the packaging of unique experiences in all three dimensions
• Recognize that competition (yours and your customer’s) is relentlessly pushing you both down and left
• Commit – jointly commit - to continuous improvement, to providing ever-better experiences for your mutual customers

Value is created by organizing and making sense out of complexity. Use this model to help your customers navigate through the ever-changing possibilities to discover the combination of factors that produces the most valuable experience today. Then come back and do it again tomorrow… next week …next month…

by Todd Youngblood

Every now and then I come across a book that really nails its topic. Made To Stick by brothers Chip and Dan Heath is one of them. Their insights into consistently creating memorable messages is must reading for anyone in sales.

Have you seen that video floating around the internet where the guy pops popcorn with three cell phones? Have you heard about the business traveler who was having a drink at his hotel, and then suddenly wakes up in bathtub filled with ice next to a cell phone instructing him to call 911 who informs him that he’s the most recent victim of a kidney theft ring? Do you remember or have you read about JFK’s “landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth” speech?

Two of the stories are total baloney, but all three sure are “sticky.” Wouldn’t it be great if our sales messages and value propositions had that much punch and staying power? Well, the brothers Heath have, in my opinion, done some terrific research and put together one heck of a set of guidelines. A quick summary of their “Six Principles of Sticky Ideas” follows:

• Simplicity – Simple, but not simplistic. Ruthlessly cut the details and fluff down to the core. Think about the Golden Rule. It’s simultaneously simple and profound.

• Unexpectedness – This is more about creating curiosity than surprise. Create gaps in knowledge. Gee, I have drinks in airports & hotels all the time – how do I make sure nobody’s slipping me a mickey so they can swipe a kidney?

• Concreteness – Think in terms of action and sensory information. Land on the moon and safely return; razor blades in Halloween apples. (Sorry, maybe that last one is too concrete!)

• Credibility – Proof with hard data can be a big help here as long as it’s simple. Strong references and endorsements too.

• Emotions – First pick the right emotion to tap. Example: Want a teenager to quit smoking? Tap into fear of bad health two or three decades from now? Or tap into resentment against how Big Tobacco exploits the public with misleading info and outright lies just to preserve their profits?

• Stories – Think about what is consistently rated as the best, most useful portion of a sales meeting or conference. It’s always the interaction with other attendees. That’s when all the stories get swapped!

That gives you a flavor for what’s in book. It’s also loaded with examples, hints and tips. Here’s a thought; buy a copy, read it, implement some of its ideas and regularly…

by Todd Youngblood

Read any trade publication. Surf the net for a sales trainer or consultant. Listen to the radio or TV. We are surrounded by experts. The gurus are everywhere!

According to the 1,100 page compendium of scholarly research The Cambridge Handbook of Expertise and Expert Performance, it takes at least one and up to five hours of intense, daily, dedicated, deliberate practice and training sustained for 10 years to become an expert.

Read that again; s-l-o-w-l-y this time. Get your brain wrapped around that level of commitment.

And that’s not all they say… Intense practice means – well – intense. Daily practice means every day. That includes weekends. Dedicated practice means exclusive. That includes foregoing all kinds of interesting distractions. Deliberate practice means concentrated on improvement. That means measuring, tracking and dogged pursuit of progress.

That’s still not all they say… It’s not just practice. It’s practice AND training. As the Handbook authors note, “… to improve performance it is necessary to seek out practice activities that allow individuals to work on improving specific aspects, with the help of a teacher and in a protected environment, with opportunities for reflection, exploration of alternatives, and problem solving, as well as repetition with informative feedback.” In other words, not a single one of us is capable of attaining expertise all alone. We need to recruit bosses, mentors and colleagues willing to actively, intelligently, aggressively participate in our quest.

That’s STILL not all they say… Doing your job does NOT count. Experience does NOT equal expertise. Got it? We all know lots and lots of people – athletes, musicians and business people – who have been doing what they do for years, maybe decades, and have yet to achieve “above average” expertise.

This is all hard-numbers-based research. No empty rhetoric. No unsubstantiated claims. No fluffy BS. The “10-year rule,” the practice, the support, the gigantic volume of extra effort are all for real prerequisites.

Keep all of the above in mind the next time some alleged “expert” starts spouting his or her alleged wisdom. Keep all of the above in mind then next time you start spouting your alleged wisdom! I need to get back to work… Need more practice… Need more training…

by Todd Youngblood

None of us can ever invest enough time in increasing the punching power of our Value Propositions. Ever think in terms of their ubiquity and staying power?

First off, a reminder regarding three critical facts about all of your customers:

• They don’t care about you
• They don’t care about your company
• They don’t care about your products or services

OK, actually five reminders…

• Regardless of their SIC or NAICS code, 100% of your customers are in the money-making business
• It’s therefore critical to always strive to state the value you deliver in terms of $$$Dollars and ¢¢¢Cents because that’s all they really care about

Another aspect of your value depends on how many people and functions in the customer’s business are improved by your products and services and how long that improvement lasts. Think in terms of the diagram below. At the bottom of the vertical axis, value is delivered to an individual; at the top, value is delivered across the entire customer organization. At the left value is delivered once; toward the right the value hangs in there for a while.

Now consider the four quadrants. A one-time shot of value to one person could be considered Personal Value. It’s great, but not as good as a one-time shot that delivers Pervasive Value across many customer business functions and/or geographic locations. Even if your value is perceived by only one individual, it has much more power if it’s a gift that keeps on giving. (Remember, give a man a fish and feed him for a day, teach a man to fish and feed him for a lifetime???) That’s Permanent Value.

The best among us, though, live in the Persistent Value quadrant. Wouldn’t any customer prefer to receive value personally as well as being enabled to persistently share with lots and lots of others? And who wouldn’t prefer value today that persists into the future – into tomorrow, next month and next year?

Take a look at what you’ve sold so far this year. How many deals fall into each quadrant? What dollar amount of sales falls into each quadrant? For the rest of the year how many deals and what dollar amount should fall into each quadrant? How will you change your selling approach to make that happen?

Allowing customer value to just fall out of your proposals is nuts! Drive it up and drive it to the right!

by Todd Youngblood

Manufacturing executives said it didn’t apply to them. (They were dead wrong.) Software development executives said it didn’t apply to them. (They were dead wrong.) Business & technology services executives said it didn’t apply to them. (They were dead wrong.) Sales executives, managers and professionals KNOW FOR SURE it doesn’t apply to them. And of course they are right. Right?

Right off the top… If you already know that “Lean” management concepts don’t apply to sales, STOP reading right now and go do something else.

If you’re still with me, you have at least a vague inkling that a visceral understanding and application of Lean principles can have a dramatic effect on sales effectiveness. (…and, oh baby, can it!!!) Think about your sales process in terms of the 5 Lean basics:

• Value – Answer two questions about each activity you perform. What value does it provide to the customer? What value does it provide to your company? If your answer to both is something like, “not much,” stop wasting time on that activity.

• Value Stream – Write down the key milestones that must be reached to win a deal. Take it from identifying a potential opportunity through verifying that the customer is satisfied with what you delivered. Put them in the proper sequence. (In other words, write down the stages in your sales process.) Consistently follow the steps in sequence.

• Flow – Identify the major factors that keep an opportunity from flowing smoothly and continuously through your sales process. Work with your colleagues to figure out ways to reduce the impact of those factors.

• Pull – Identify a few situations where it was the customer that drove your sales process. Why did that happen? What caused it? What can you and your company do to re-create those circumstances? Does this thought process suggest any changes that should be made to your value stream?

• Perfection – Repeat the above four steps until your sales process is perfect. (Obviously you will never attain perfection, but you just might achieve excellence if you do it well and keep at it long enough.)

As soon as you get comfortable with “Lean” thinking applied to your sales process, start applying it to the customer business processes affected by your products and services. Your customers already familiar with Lean will be impressed. You’ll be one of the few sales reps with that kind of knowledge. Those not already familiar with Lean will see in you a whole new source of value. They will see a sales rep that genuinely adopts a customer perspective and is dedicated to making them more efficient and effective.

Pick up a copy of Lean Thinking by Womack and Jones. Read it. Apply its principles. Become more valuable to your customers.