Sales and Marketing Forum: Social Selling, 26th June
The Times_Raconteur_Sales Performance report 2014
1. Selling is centre stage in the
drive for business growth
Content marketing is merging
with sales as selling changes
Super sales practice will help
plug the ‘value gap’P03 P06 P11
17/09/14
#0274
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4. P04
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heard by the vendor, instead of be-
ing perceived as a means to an end
to hit a number,” he says.
“Most partners will be working
with as many as ten to twenty ven-
dorsatanygiventime,sothebrands
that differentiate their offering will
grab the attention of those partners,
while the others risk falling down
the pecking order.”
Mr Ellis adds: “From the start, it
will be key for the vendor channel
manager to focus on helping the
partner deliver some initial sales.
This will ensure that the partner
sees some early return on invest-
ment, and will make a relationship
much more ‘sticky’ and viable for
both parties.”
SALES PACKAGE
After the honeymoon period, it’s
important to keep up the momen-
tum. Brands should construct a
package of measures that inspires
resellers to do just that – resell. The
ingredients of this bundle should
include hands-on care, fluid com-
municationsandmarketingsupport
as well as regular contact underpin-
ning everything.
AppRiver is a global software-as-
a-serviceproviderofe-mailandweb
security solutions. For its channel,
thebusinesshascreatedtheconcept
of“phenomenalcare”,whichbasical-
ly means doing everything it can to
makelifeeasierforitsretailnetwork.
“Thatcouldmeanaskingourpart-
ners questions and doing discovery
during the on-boarding process so
they are equipped with the knowl-
edge and right tools and products
for their customers,” says Jim Tyer,
Europe, Middle East and Africa
channel director of Appriver. “All of
it translates to us doing the heavy
lifting so that our partners can focus
on creating healthy profit margins.”
Channel managers should re-
member that partners are busi-
nesses too and not just conduits
for products. They are often cash
strapped and time poor, so brands
areadvisedtomaketherelationship
straightforward and demonstrate
Pro-active management of retail channels by product
producers requires blood,sweat and tears,as well as
imagination.Dan Matthews reports
thevalueineveryrequestforaction.
“Make programmes simple and
effective,”saysOlivierChoron,chief
executive of purechannelapps, a
software company that provides
channel marketing and sales tools.
“Often brands forget to consider
their partners have limited time,
resources and knowledge to deliver
marketing programmes.
“They also forget that these re-
tailers cannot focus on just one
brand and one product. Ask your-
self how you can improve partner
relationships. Is it all about margin
or complimentary services and sup-
port? Look at the relationship prop-
osition from the partner’s point of
view, not just your own.”
The channel is an extension of
your sales floor and, just like in-
house salespeople, resellers need
support, motivation and rewards, as
well as a clear path ahead of them.
By putting these elements togeth-
er in perfect harmony, brands can
build a relationship that adds zeros
to the bottom line.
Channel managers should remember
that partners are businesses too and not
just conduits for products
Channel Management
SALES PERFORMANCE
17/09/14
EDITION #0274
GETTING THE MOST
FROM RETAIL PARTNERS
Image: Getty
Using agents, distribu-
tors and resellers to help
shift product and boost
revenue is a sales strategy used to
great effect by big brands for dec-
ades. But the relationship between
brands and their retail channels is
becoming increasingly complex.
Vendors have to compete for
attention within their network
of retailers and, increasingly, the
business-to-business-to-consumer
(B2B2C) model of selling relies on
an intricate partnership approach
where a good amount of the power
rests in the reseller’s hands, not
the vendor’s.
If they want to shift stock – and
of course they do – vendors must
cuddle up to channel partners. They
must equip them with the tools to
sell, provide brand collateral pro-
moting their own products ahead
ofothersandcreateasupport struc-
ture that helps partners and makes
them feel important.
This will not come as news to
brands, but what might do is the
sheer blood, sweat and tears that
some vendors are devoting to their
reseller network. In 2014, best prac-
tice is a relationship that is formal,
prepared for, well resourced and,
critically, two way.
For David Ellis, director of strat-
egy at Arrow ECS, UK and Ireland,
this means starting at the beginning
with an individually tailored busi-
ness plan outlining mutual goals
that are agreed upon by both parties
in the deal.
“Successful channel managers
are the ones who really get to know
what motivates their channel part-
ner and their staff, and who under-
stand that this may vary greatly,
even among partners that on the
face of it appear to be very similar,”
he says.
“The key to effective channel
management is gaining executive
‘buy-in’ from both parties at the
outset. To achieve this, both vendor
and channel partners need to be
very clear on their mutual goals.
“With a formal business plan cre-
atedattheoutset,shouldtherebeany
areasofunderperformance,theycan
thenbereviewedandfocusappliedto
addressissuesasappropriate.”
Creating a plan gives both sides
the opportunity to set out what they
expect from the relationship and
what represents success as well as,
perhaps more importantly, failure.
Once the relationship is defined,
the vendor needs to start a charm
offensive.
Andy Grant, managing director
of Bowan Arrow, says brands must
work hard to rise above others.
“Partners like to feel valued and
5. P05
SELLING WITH POSTS,
TWEETS AND PINS
Social Media
Facebook,Twitter,Pinterest and Instagram are powerful selling tools.
Charles Orton-Jones knows how to get the most from them
Here’s a cracking lesson in
how to sell via Facebook.
Sally’sCottagesisaholiday
lettings agency with 300 cottages in
the Lake District and Cumbria. Last
September, the business had 6,000
“likes”. This has rocketed to 58,000
in a year. The customer reaction has
to be seen to be believed. A single
prize giveaway of a free cottage for a
weekendgot6,558comments,3,255
sharesandwasseenby425,000peo-
ple. Facebook is the biggest referrer
ofbusiness.Referralsforthefirstsix
months of 2014 were 39,853 com-
pared with 6,049 in the previous 12
months, a rise of 559 per cent.
Who said Facebook can’t be used
for selling? Founder Sally Fielding
reports: “When we ran the competi-
tion, we maxed out bookings for the
cottage we were promoting for the
rest of this year. That demonstrates
the power of social media.”
Her method? She says: “We do
Facebook advertising which helps
us to gain page ‘likes’, but it is
through posting interesting stories
which invite our Facebook fans to
tell us about themselves which get
the best response. The images that
we use on Facebook are crucial and
whicheverimageweputuponFace-
book has to tell a story – we find this
really dictates the level of interac-
tion we get. For example, people
love pictures of water and moun-
tains, but aren't as responsive to
a festival or a localised event.” Ms
Fielding does all the commenting
herself because, as the owner and
boss, she wants to have a personal
connection to users – and it works.
This anecdote shows just how
powerful social media channels
can be for selling. Yes, it’s easy to
laugh at Twitter when Harry Styles
of One Direction gets half a million
retweets for uttering drivel like
“Love everybody”, but channels
such as Pinterest, LinkedIn, Insta-
gram, Vine and Google+ all have big
commercial potential.
Snapchat is the social media phe-
nomenon which baffles businesses.
The messages self-destruct in sec-
onds, leaving no trace. So how can it
be used to sell?
A recent Co-operative Electrical
campaign gives a valuable pointer.
The goal was to target students.
Vouchers for £30 off a laptop were
pinged out as picture messag-
es on Snapchat. James Kirkham,
co-founderoftheagencybehindthe
campaign Holler, says: “If the brand
has a product they want to create
an event around, then a tease and
reveal promotion through Snap-
chat is a viable marketing oppor-
tunity. This might be a snap of the
forthcoming new product range, a
fleeting glimpse of the limited edi-
tion canned drink before it goes on
sale, a moment of an exclusively
designed dress before anyone else.”
POWER OF IMAGES
Pinterest is probably the most
overlooked social media site for
business. Interaction is lower than
on Facebook; users simply pin or
add a single line of comment under
a picture. Not much room for crea-
tivity. No matter, says Phillip Smith,
the UK manager of Trusted Shops,
which helps 17,000 retailers sell
online. “Pinterest is definitely the
unsung hero in product selling,” he
says. “While customers don’t have
direct access to buy, the demo-
graphic is right for customers who
have time to kill and money to burn.
If you showcase your best products
andspendtimedesigningboardsfor
different product types, customers
with specific interests will be en-
gaged, driving high-quality traffic
to your site.”
The cost of putting images on
Pinterest is negligible. In August,
Pinterest launched a business an-
alytics platform, offering audience
insights, advice for increasing im-
pressions, clicks and repins, and
traffic and engagement metrics.
Makingthemostofdatawillbeat
the heart of all successful business
campaigns. In addition to monitor-
ing activity, via Facebook’s in-house
charting set, Google Analytics and
other standard traffic-monitoring
tools, you may need to track what
people are saying about you online.
Sentiment analysis programmes
read Twitter and Facebook to gauge
the mood around events, people
and firms. Since it requires ma-
chine-reading of the English lan-
guage there are sceptics. Air France
uses Spotter to monitor Twitter;
Viralheat,SemantriaandSASSenti-
ment Analysis are also names worth
researching.
But selling via social networks
remains a Wild West – you are
free to experiment to your heart’s
content. Airline KLM certainly is.
A new scheme called Meet & Seat
allows passengers to link to reveal
their Google+ and LinkedIn pro-
files when they book a ticket. Other
passengers can see this information
and then request to talk to them or
sit by them. KLM says the idea will
“build a sense of community among
its customer base, while encourag-
ing brand loyalty among its most
frequent users.”
It might. It might not. But the
beauty of social media is that the
cost of participation is so low and
the potential gains sky high. So why
not plunge in?
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SALES PERFORMANCE ONLINE:
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Selling via social
networks remains
a Wild West – you are
free to experiment to
your heart’s content
Image: Getty
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SALES PERFORMANCE
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EDITION #0274P06
Marketing and Sales
TheSales
Profession
Page08
group dynamics on real-world buy-
ing decisions is crucial for the suc-
cess of both sales and marketing. He
says: “Heretofore, marketers’ entire
MO has been to ask: ‘How do we get
individual stakeholders to connect
with us as a supplier; to like us and
favourus,readourwhitepapersand
so on?’”
In reality, Mr Spenner says, it’s
more powerful to connect individ-
ual employees within a company
to one another. He uses the phrase
“consensusmarketing”,butstresses
that, in itself, this isn’t a new idea –
just the way that consensus is creat-
edinthecontextofthemodernbuy-
ing journey, where suppliers tend to
bepartoftheprocessmuchlateron.
“Now we don’t have sales guys in
their trying to knit this consensus
together,” Mr Spenner says. “We
have to start priming for consensus
before the sales team gets in and
that means marketing has to really
start thinking about how they can
create a consensus before sales
reps are on the ground talking to
that company.”
CREATING PERSONAS
He points to qualitative research
by CEB that revealed the practice of
creating inter-personal personas.
These are models that marketers
can use to understand the motiva-
tions and fears of different people
working together within the same
organisation. Using this method,
marketing automation company
Marketo has gone as far as to create
guidelines for chief marketing of-
ficers who are minded to convince
their colleagues from different
departments that their business
should invest in marketing auto-
mation software.
Mr Spenner says there are even
differently worded scripts, with
specificlanguageandphrases,which
address the key concerns of people
from different departments. And,
he adds, the consequences of this
for the sales-marketing relationship
should not be underestimated.
“Inthebestcommercialorganisa-
tions, it will draw sales and market-
ing closer together. Because if this
consensus-knitting happens before
sales gets in, when sales does come
in, they’re going to pick up that ex-
act same thread,” he says.
While this is an important shift,
it’s no longer new – and the debate
is moving on apace. Technology, sys-
tems,individualsandentirebusiness
modelsaredevelopingtogettogrips
with the new relationships between
buyers, marketers and sales. And, as
you’d expect, some businesses are
even driving the change themselves.
“In our company, the marketing
and sales teams work almost as a
single, well-oiled machine,” says
Shafqat Islam, co-founder and chief
executive of Newscred. “Marketing
generates leads through content,
then nurtures those leads by send-
ing more content – white papers,
blog posts, e-mail marketing, native
ads. [According to their interaction
with that content] those prospects
are scored and, once they reach a
high enough score, they enter into
the sales team’s purview. A lot of
times, if the prospect isn’t ready,
the sales guy will send them back to
marketing to nurture them further.
This happens seamlessly and it’s a
constant cycle.”
Mr Islam adds that the company
also operates with a small five-per-
son team of “sales development
reps”whositbetweenthe12-person
marketing team and a 20-strong
sales team.
LEADING WITH CONTENT
The NewsCred model is instruc-
tive,notjustbecausethestartuphas
grown quickly – from 120 to around
200 employees since receiving $25
million of series-C funding in Janu-
ary–butalsosinceitdescribesitself
as an “end-to-end content market-
ing platform”. From planning to ap-
provals, to analytics, it helps clients,
such as Procter & Gamble, Xerox,
Visa and AIG, find and create con-
tent for their own customers. So the
company has a direct line of sight to
the changing relationship between
marketing and sales, but also to the
forces driving that change.
The way that NewsCred inter-
nally scores prospective customers
relies heavily on data about those
prospects’ demographics and how
they interact with content. But Mr
Islam says an important part of the
company’s approach has been to ac-
knowledge that the old paradigm of
thebuyingprocessnolongerapplies.
“The purchase path is more com-
plex. It’s no longer a funnel with
‘awareness’ at the top, ‘purchase’
at the bottom and ‘consideration’
along the way. I think that’s a limit-
ed, old-school view of it. We actual-
ly think it’s more like a pretzel than
anythingelse–withdifferentpeople
coming in and out of the funnel at
different stages. You can’t be too
prescriptive about the way pros-
pects progress,” he says.
This sentiment chimes with the
thinking of Pat Spenner, managing
director of CEB, who believes that
understanding the influence of
The marketing and sales
teams work almost as a single,
well-oiled machine
Marketing and sales teams are becoming
increasingly inter-dependent as the nature
of selling changes,writes Edwin Smith
IS MERGING
WITH SALES
CONTENTMARKETING
Theshiftingrelationshipbe-
tween marketing and sales
has been well documented
of late. And there is no shortage of
analysis to explain just what’s been
going on.
ArecentCEBstudyshowsthatthe
typical business-to-business buyer’s
decision is 57 per cent complete be-
foretheymakedirectcontactwiththe
suppliercompanyforthefirsttime.
This, as the well-worn explana-
tiongoes,isbecausetheinternethas
changed everything. Buyers have an
almost infinite amount of informa-
tion at their disposal, so can do a
hugeamountofresearchbeforetak-
ing the step of making contact with
a supplier and initiating something
that more closely resembles the tra-
ditional “sales” process.
Realising this, many suppliers
have turned to content marketing
in order to join and influence the
conversation before they’re active-
ly invited to be part of it. Now, 30
per cent – one in three – of busi-
ness-to-business companies’ entire
marketing budgets are set aside for
content marketing, according to a
report this year by the US-based
Content Marketing Institute. Busi-
ness-to-consumercompaniesaren’t
far behind with 24 per cent of mar-
keting spending going exclusively
on content marketing.
This doesn’t mean sales depart-
mentsaren’tstillimportant,ofcourse.
Just that their role now begins later
oninthe“buyingjourney”and,ifthey
are to be successful, that they must
work more closely than ever with
theircolleaguesinmarketing.
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P07
Opinion Commercial Feature
INCREASED COMPLEXITY
OF CUSTOMER JOURNEY
Over the last few years, the
role of the salesperson has
changed through the in-
creased use of digital channels and
social media interactions. These
technologies have essentially
changedtheroleofthebuyer; throw
intherecentrecessionandthepres-
sures that it has bought, and we are
essentially looking at a completely
different and new type of buyer.
There has been a raft of informa-
tion and theory describing this new
way of working with buyers. Trigger
Selling from Avention, for example,
seeks to understand the best time
to be speaking to buyers by looking
at external environmental factors
to help influence buyers at the right
time. Challenger from SEC begins
to understand the necessary role of
a sales professional to be more of an
expert than the buyer, adding expe-
rience and knowledge that exists
beyond the value proposition itself.
Research and understanding
of procurement professionals, by
BlueSky Performance Improve-
ment, further helps to understand
the relationship between buyer and
seller, and the new theories on how
to interact with them. This has en-
abled sales professionals to under-
stand the challenges and objectives
of procurement professionals, and
suggests encouraging interaction
rather than resistance.
Then there is the reality that we
are not selling to one person – we
are selling to multiples, with dif-
ferent personalities, thoughts and
agendas. The new buyer explores
the market; they are part of net-
works, have peers and use them for
decision-makingpurposes.Theirin-
ternal decision-making has grown;
buyersareeducatedandhaveaccess
to information – they do not need a
walking brochure.
So where does this leave the sales
professional? Grant Leboff, author
of Sticky Marketing, asks the ques-
tion, what value do you add as a
salesperson, not what value do your
products or services add, but what
do you add? This, built upon by the
Sales Executive Council’s Challeng-
er Model, is turning the role of the
salesperson into a different animal.
The new sales professional is not
there to “bang down doors”, but to
act as a conduit to the buying organ-
isation, understanding the needs of
each individual, putting the correct
parties in a room to help facilitate
the decision. This new buyer has
meant the new sales professional
is more of a broker, a collaborator,
a diplomat, a mediator or an inter-
mediary– theirrole is no longerone
dimensional.
With this brings excitement,
interaction and complexity. Gone
are the days of the salesman with a
Filofax, annual target and gift of the
gab. We’re now in an age when or-
ganisation, intelligence and under-
standing are what make a true sales
professional. Perhaps there cannot
beamoreexcitingtimetobeone.
We’re now
in an age
when organisation,
intelligence and
understanding are
what make a true
sales professional
SALES PERFORMANCE ONLINE:
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Ben Turner,sales
director at the Institute
of Sales & Marketing
Management,explores
the new reality of selling
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SALES PERFORMANCE
17/09/14
EDITION #0000 P0
identify other opportunities, which may
exist elsewhere in a group.”
PERFECT TIMING
The ability to keep track of a compa-
ny’s news can help salespeople make
contact at the best time, as Mint can
alert them to when certain events, such
as new management taking charge or
successful acquisitions, have taken
place. “If you find a business that has
been bought by a private equity compa-
ny, you know they’re going to be backed
to grow, so that’s a really good opportu-
nity,” says Ms Green.
Bureau van Dijk’s expertise as an in-
formation provider helps to set it apart
from other players and this is reflected in
the Mint product. “We offer a wide range
of search, analysis and integration op-
tions because we really understand data,
and how companies can benefit from it,”
Ms Green says.
Now could be a good time to invest in
such capabilities as the economy starts
to pick up and new opportunities emerge.
“If there are more opportunities available,
it would be sensible to have a system
that helps you find them more efficiently,”
she concludes.
For more information on how Mint
could help your business, visit
www.bvdinfo.com
or call 020 7549 5000
If salespeople have access to the right
intelligence in the right tools, they can
work more efficiently and have more
time to focus on sales.
Bureau van Dijk’s Mint package pro-
vides professionals with the latest infor-
mation on their current and potential
customers, including key decision-mak-
ers for millions of companies in the UK.
This avoids the issue of sales teams re-
lying on their own records, which can be
out of date, or spending time sourcing
data themselves.
Using Mint sales teams can draw on
constantly updated details from a central
database, which pulls information from
120 providers around the world, including
regulatory and proprietary sources. This
information can also be integrated with
organisations’ own customer relationship
management (CRM) systems.
“If Mint content is integrated into a
CRM, then salespeople can see fresher
and richer company records with a level of
detail they’d never be able to collect and
maintain themselves,” says Louise Green,
Bureau van Dijk group marketing director.
“The package can link up with any CRM
system,” she says, “including in-house
packages, with simple-to-implement apps
for popular CRMs, such as Salesforce and
MS Dynamics.”
WIN NEW BUSINESS
Mint allows users to analyse groups of
companies, which can help identify typical
customer profiles. “You can very quickly
work out what most of your customers
look like and from there you can find
other companies in the UK which also
look like that,” says Ms Green. “This can
help to discount particular businesses,
so sales teams focus their efforts on the
strongest leads,” she adds.
Once a list of target organisations has
been drawn up, sales teams can further
break these down by geographic location,
size or sector as required. This kind of
information can help organisations with
sales planning and give them access to
far more relevant prospects than would
otherwise be the case.
Businesses are also able to use the
system to find out more about organisa-
tions, including accessing news stories,
and understand their corporate structure.
“An awareness of structure can help iden-
tify where the decisions are made in a
company,” says Ms Green. “You don’t
want to spend a lot of time selling to a
subsidiary if all the decisions are made
higher up the tree. And it can also help
If Mint content
is integrated
into a CRM,
then salespeople can
see fresher and richer
company records with
a level of detail they’d
never be able to collect
and maintain themselves
Commercial Feature
Work with information
at your fingertips
Sales professionals could save significant amounts
of time and increase the revenue they bring in by
making better use of intelligence,according to
information experts Bureau van Dijk
Plan more
effectively
Analyse
Source more
strategically
Create more
targeted
campaigns
Integrate
Sell
Develop your
accounts
GET IMPROVED EFFICIENCY ACROSS
ALL PHASES OF THE SALES AND
MARKETING PROCESS
1.
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2.
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EDITION #0274P08
Professionalism
LEARNINGTOBE
PROFESSIONAL
Demand for high-level professional
development in sales is growing as selling
improves its reputation.Nick de Cent reports
Despite obvious pockets of
excellence, buyers’ tradi-
tional view of salespeople
is that “they’d sell their grandmoth-
er to get the deal” and “they prom-
ise the Earth and deliver very little”,
according to David Noble, chief ex-
ecutive of the Chartered Institute of
Purchasing and Supply (CIPS).
Recent mis-selling scandals, mar-
ketriggingandallegationsofbribery
can’t have helped the salesperson’s
cause, of course. Selling as a profes-
sion has taken “quite a hit”, Mr No-
ble says and, perhaps surprisingly,
one of selling’s cheerleaders agrees.
Ben Turner, director of sales at the
professionalsalesbody,theInstitute
of Sales Marketing Management
(ISMM), concedes: “The reputation
of salespeople is at rock bottom.”
Salespeople also come out poorly
in a study among boardroom exec-
utives. Work undertaken by Phil
Squire, as part of a doctoral thesis,
found that, in general, fewer than
one in ten salespeople met board-
room expectations in terms of what
they bring to the table.
Nowchiefexecutiveofconsultan-
cy Consalia, Dr Squire has contin-
uedthisresearchonaqualitativeba-
sis as part of a series of “voice of the
customer” interviews with senior
executives. Opinions in Britain are
even stronger than internationally.
“In the UK, 80 per cent of people in-
terviewed felt that less than 10 per
cent of salespeople met their expec-
tations; this compares with 73 per
cent in the rest of world,” he says.
Allofwhichareverygoodreasons
for sales as a function to become
more professional, Mr Turner ar-
gues. Indeed, there have been signs
of a new professionalism emerging
as selling reinvents itself in the con-
text of a globalised, online world.
“We are the place to go for the eth-
ical salesperson,” he says, pointing
out that every ISSM course has an
ethical dimension.
ETHICS AND EDUCATION
Ethical behaviour and standards
of education are two cornerstones
of a true profession and we are
witnessing a transformation in the
way selling is “taught”. One trend
is a move away from the traditional
short-term training “fix” towards
in-companysalesacademiesoperat-
ed by organisations that “want to be
seen as operating in a certain way”,
according to Tony Hughes, chief
executive of trainers Huthwaite
International.
In a conscious move to further
professionalism, Matthew Lang,
global vice-president for marketing
andsalesoperationsatSonyMobile,
is currently setting up an academy
for the company’s 400-strong glob-
al sales force, which has revenue
responsibility for tens of billions
of dollars. The aim of this informa-
tion-sharing portal is not simply
to provide development, but also
to act as a means of incentivising
salespeople and building a commu-
nity. A whole variety of learning op-
portunities will be offered, but the
pinnacle will be a Master’s degree
programme developed in conjunc-
tion with Consalia, which is seen as
“something to be aspired to” by the
salespeople.
The proliferating number of de-
gree-levelsalescoursesisasuresign
thatsellingisbecomingmoreprofes-
sional. “In 2010 there were 40 insti-
tutions of higher education offering
a sales course in the United States;
there are 160 today. That’s a quadru-
plingoftheinstitutesthatteachsales
at university level,” says Professor
Neil Rackham, author and pioneer
of research into complex selling.
There is also a burgeoning sales
education infrastructure develop-
ing in the UK with an expanding
number of Master’s courses from
the likes of Consalia in conjunc-
tion with Middlesex University,
Huthwaite working with Sheffield
Business School, and Portsmouth
Business School.
According to Professor Rackham,
the essentials for a true profession
are a systematic body of knowledge
– “until recently, sales didn’t have
that” – and “some kind of quality
assurance”, while certification is
the key to providing the quality as-
surance that salespeople have the
necessary knowledge.
BUSINESS COMPLEXITY
Professionalism is increasingly
significant as salespeople’s roles
continue to evolve with transac-
tional sales disappearing online.
“What’s left is much more complex
than ever before,” Professor Rack-
ham says. The relationship between
buyers and sellers is now more of an
arrangement between two business
equals about how to create value.
“The limiting factor is how creative
you are as a business person. The
marketplace is demanding pro-
fessionalism due to the increasing
complexity of the job,” he says.
Buyers, too, are conscious that
their professional reputation needs
improving, both in terms of eradi-
cating unethical practices from the
supply chain and by boosting the
quality of procurement personnel.
CIPS is promoting the concept of li-
censing professional buyers, similar
to the way doctors and accountants
have a licence to practice. Mr Noble
claims there is “huge interest” in
this concept and calls for a similar
scheme for sales.
Currently there is little appetite
for this among salespeople, accord-
ing to ISMM’s Mr Turner. He sees
licensing as a voluntary, opt-in ar-
rangement and says: “We’re a long
way off it.”
Buying and selling are two sides
of the same coin, distinct but sim-
ilar, Mr Noble concludes. Both are
positioning themselves to improve
their professionalism to meet the
demands of today’s boardrooms.
The proliferating
number of
degree-level sales
courses is a sure sign
thatsellingisbecoming
more professional
UKSALES
PERFORMANCE
Key strengths of
UK sales force
Which skills? Source: CEB Sales Training and
Development Benchmarks
Source:
SalesAssessment.com,
UK Sales Skills Audit
PROBINGAND
QUESTIONING
NEGOTIATIONANDOBJECTION
HANDLING/ASSERTINGCONTROL
ADVISORYAND
CONSULTATIVESKILLS
RELATIONSHIP
BUILDING
BUSINESSACUMEN
DECISION-MAKING
OTHER
PROBLEM-SOLVING
PROSPECTING
TEACHINGCUSTOMERSAND
COMMERCIALCONVERSATIONS
LEADERSHIPANDMANAGEMENT
STRATEGICTHINKING
PLANNING/TIME
MANAGEMENT
POSITIONING
AND TAILORING
-Business skills
-Problem-solving
-Self-management and
professionalism
GOOD
-Achieving goals
-Communication
-Information management
AVERAGE
-Engaging the customer
-Understanding customer needs
-Awareness of competitors
-Keeping abreast of new products
and services
POOR
15%
14%
11%
10%
9%
8%
7%
5% 5%
4% 4% 4%
2%
1%
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SALES SUCCESS
FOR WOMEN
The changing role of sales
is well suited to women
who offer valuable skills
to complement those of
their male colleagues,says
Professor Lynette Ryals, pro-
vice-chancellor of education
at Cranfield University
Until recently, sales has
been characterised by the
language of “hunters and
farmers”. Aggressive, testoster-
one-fuelled sales “hunters” tracked
down their customer prey and
browbeat them until they surren-
dered and made a purchase, while
“farmers” toiled away in marketing
and customer services at planting
the seeds that would grow future
relationships.
This rather unattractive view of
selling has contributed to its rep-
utation as a male-dominated pro-
fession. While 63 per cent of people
working in sales and customer ser-
vicearewomen,accordingtotheOf-
fice for National Statistics in 2013,
it is thought women are far more
likely to choose customer service
roles and less than 30 per cent of
salespeople are women.
It’s time to recognise that this
view of sales is outdated and to re-
visit the role of women in sales. In
fact, as evidence has accumulated
that it is much better for business
to retain an existing customer than
to win a new one, there has been a
dramatic change in the sales role.
Technology has accelerated this
process, largely replacing the sales-
person’s traditional function of pro-
viding information about products
and services. Today, customers can
access online sources to find most
oftheinformationtheyneed.So,the
salesperson’s role is evolving into
relationship management, commu-
nicationandproblem-solving.Skills
such as managing people, building
teams and generating trust with the
customer are increasingly prized.
While earlier research into what
makes salespeople successful fo-
cused on masculine characteristics,
such as drive and the will to win,
recent research into sales success
has identified two vital characteris-
tics – enjoying problem-solving and
being responsive to social cues from
others.Sowoulditpaycompaniesto
increase the proportion of women
in their sales teams?
Certainly, there are grounds to
believe that women are generally
better at social skills than men. This
in turn may translate into sales suc-
cess – a recent study of competing
teamsinanundergraduatebusiness
game found that mixed teams pro-
duced better sales and profits re-
sults than male-dominated teams.
A gender-mixed team has access to
a greater diversity of skills, which
may contribute to higher perfor-
mance. Other research has suggest-
ed that mixed teams have higher so-
cial sensitivity, which may increase
responsiveness to cues from others
and hence link to sales success.
At the moment there are rela-
tively few saleswomen at the very
top. According to the Female FTSE
Board Report 2014, produced by the
Cranfield International Centre for
Women Leaders, just 15.6 per cent
of executive directors of FTSE 100
companies are female. Of those 160
women directors, only eight are in
selling or commercial roles.
But there are some examples of
women being outstandingly suc-
cessfulthroughacareerinsales.The
National Association of Professional
Women’s Professional Woman of
the Year 2014 is a saleswoman, Terri
Brady. And Ginni Rometty, the first
womantoleadIBM,theworld’slarg-
est IT and consulting services com-
pany, was global sales leader before
takingoveraschiefexecutivein2012.
The message is – don’t rule out a ca-
reer in sales if you are a woman.
Professor Ryals was previously
professor of strategic sales
and account management at
Cranfield University, an exclusively
postgraduate university.
UK sales skills audit
High levels of skill Below global average
Source: SalesAssessment.com,
UK Sales Skills Audit
48% 6% 46%
Influencing customer
expectations
Objection handling
Negotiating
45%5%50%43%
50%
2%
10%
55%
40%
NEGOTIATING
AND CLOSING
SUMMARY
46% 10% 44%
Spotting
opportunities
44%12%44%
Using probing
questions
54%5%41%38%8%54%
Communicating
Advising customers
41%13%46%
CUSTOMER
CONTACT
SUMMARY
60% 4% 36%
Matching customer
needs to products
and services
41%13%46%
Awareness
of competitors
13%46%
Testing and
challenging
assumptions
44%
Understanding
customer needs
44%12%44%
12%44%
ENGAGING THE
CUSTOMER
SUMMARY
30% 4% 66%
Self-management
and professionalism
Problem-solving
Resilience
65%35% 74%4%22%
52%13%35%
BUSINESS
SKILLS
SUMMARY
Above global average
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EDITION #0274
Commercial Feature
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EDITION #0274
HP is a huge global organisation with
30,000 people on its sales plan across
178 countries. Setting sales targets
and ensuring the sales design is op-
timised before somebody presses go
at the start of a new year is a pretty
big challenge.
Sue Barsamian, senior vice president
of indirect sales at HP, recalls: “We were
always looking at what actually got de-
ployed in a rear-view mirror that was
usually 90 to 120 days later. And that’s
because it was completely manual. This
was a spreadsheet-run exercise and by
the time that all got rolled back up, and
people corrected minor errors along the
way, we were usually at the beginning of
the second quarter.”
The solution was to move the entire
sales planning and management process
over to Anaplan’s cloud-based platform.
Ms Barsamian’s verdict? “We have
deployed our first year in Anaplan and it
went great. I have been at HP eight years
and I have never started a year like we
did this year, thanks to Anaplan.” She
cites a long list of benefits, such as the
ability to change the plan at any moment,
analytics functions which allow her team
to create projects in a moment and the
speed. “It was incredibly exciting, but also
a real big deal to be able to step into
what we consider to be the best-in-class
quota and territory management applica-
tion out there.”
The problems experienced by HP are
common. A survey by SiriusDecisions re-
veals half of firms use between five and
ten iterations of the sales plan, with only
one in five firms capable of resolving the
re-evaluation process with a month. Al-
most a fifth take three months. This is
much too slow.
So what is Anaplan and why do so
many firms use it?
Anaplan is a platform that delivers
cloud-based, in-memory business plan-
ning and execution for sales, operations
and finance. The platform was built from
the ground up to empower companies to
plan, collaborate and act – in real time.
Unlike legacy planning tools, Anaplan de-
livers what companies have always need-
ed in a planning solution – powerful mod-
elling, adaptability on the fly, engaged
users, and real-time performance no
matter the data volume and complexity.
It replaces Excel spreadsheets and other
generic tools. For financial projects and
“what ifs”, it is the most advanced, quick-
est and versatile application available.
Suitable for firms of all sizes, from am-
bitious startups to FTSE 100 enterprises
such as Aviva and Taylor Wimpey, Anaplan
boasts a long list of benefits over legacy
systems. Anaplan enables business users
across your organisation to turn the com-
plexity of your business operations into
powerful, easy-to-use models.
The first advantage you’ll notice is the
way Anaplan is purpose built for modelling
complex business scenarios for finance,
sales and operations teams, from sales
forecasting to financial consolidation to
trade promotion planning and more. Data
is sucked into the platform smoothly, with
all your complex business rules stored
and managed. You can make charts, com-
pile reports and analyse data using a vast
library of functions, including more than
100 applications and templates. There
is version control, time and hierarchy
management, auditability and workflow
management as standard.
The second major difference is the
way Anaplan is built. Traditional spread-
sheets struggle with large volumes of
data. Anaplan works smoothly no matter
what the data volume. This is due to two
technologies: in-memory computing and
HyperBlock™ Architecture. This means
users can alter data without over-stress-
ing the model. Update a cell and the
change is implemented instantly, even if
it affects a trillion cells. Excel and other
systems cannot do this. Anaplan is im-
mune to the stalling and crashing caused
by complexity overload.
As a cloud-based service, Anaplan
requires zero maintenance by the user.
Support and platform upgrades are han-
dled by the provider. For the user there
is no IT support needed and no hardware
upgrades required. New services can be
added by Anaplan on an ongoing basis.
And cloud services ensure access to users
anytime, anywhere. Just log in and start
working no matter where you are based.
This approach means an Anaplan imple-
mentation takes a tenth of the time of a
traditional planning software deployment.
Commercial Feature
Anaplan is fully supported from any
mobile device (iOS, Android, Windows) so
you never have to be disconnected from
your data. Users can access plans any-
where, anytime.
The firm itself is a privately-owned
company based in San Francisco,
founded in 2006 by British technolo-
gy pioneer Michael Gould. Currently
Anaplan’s chief technical officer, he
realised that existing planning software
on the market could not support the
growing demands of business, and set
out to transform the industry by using
in-memory computing, 64-bit multi-core
processing and software-as-a-service
delivery, combined with HyperBlock™
Architecture to manage data.
In May 2014 Anaplan announced it
has completed its series-D round of $100
million in financing, bringing total invest-
ment in the company to $150 million.
Named by Gartner as “Cool Vendor” in
2012, Anaplan now lists HP, Prudential
and McAfee as just some of its growing
list of blue-chip customers.
To get started with Anaplan, begin with
an area of the business that is current-
ly being managed by a complex set of
spreadsheets and book an initial meeting
with Anaplan. Then Anaplan will work with
you to build a proof of concept on the
Anaplan platform. Alternatively, go to the
Anaplan website and watch a demo video
and see how to build an Anaplan app in
15 minutes. You’ll see how easy it is.
For more information please visit
www.anaplan.com
Anaplan enables
business users to
turn the complexity of your
business operations into
powerful, easy-to-use models
Anaplan commissioned a new
study which questioned C-level
and senior decision-makers in
the sales function in the UK,
and found...
98%
of UK businesses are
deliveringcompensation
packages to sales reps
after the financial year
has already begun
of businesses claim to
start the sales planning
process two months
before the end of the
financial year
76%
IN
FACT
of companies admit
to delivering plans at
least a month late
54%
of organisations believe
the average cost to
replace a sales rep could
be as much as £24,000
68%
Is your enterprise sales plan
making or breaking
your sales team?
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Value Proposition
Organisations and their sales teams must
understand customer needs to create and
sell products that deliver real value if they
want to boost revenue,writes Dan Matthews
Thebiggestproblemfacing
salesteamsisnoteducation,
skills,reticenceonthepart
ofcustomers,technologyor
budgets,butanendemicinabilityonthepart
ofsalesmenandwomentodescribethe
valueofaproducttoacustomer
Sales 101 basic guide to sell-
ing went something like
this: get a sales job, find
out about the product, ring a load of
people, say it’s great, get a bundle of
yeses, go to lunch. Repeat forever.
Sales 2.0 is a very different picture.
Buyers, from the consumer on the
street to multinational conglomer-
atesandeverythingin-between,will
slam the metaphorical (or not) door
in your face if you can’t explain, not
only why what your selling is good,
but how it fits into their lives.
The “value gap”, as it has become
known, is a term referencing the
apparent chasm between the abili-
ty of salespeople to pitch a product
and their ability to demonstrate its
value on a case-by-case basis. The
charge is that salespeople look out-
wards from their product instead
of looking inwards from a buyer’s
perspective.
The same charge could be lev-
elled at organisations more widely,
particularly those that obsess about
upgrades and add-ons to product
lines while forgetting the things
their customers like most about
what they sell.
This wouldn’t be a problem if it
weren’t for the fact that the people
who pay for things are choosier and
have more choice than ever before.
Since the global economic crunch of
2008/9, people in charge of budgets
are scrutinised much harder on
their investments. They need to
knownotjustthatsomethingisbril-
liant, but in what way its brilliance
will make their world a better place.
During the summer, at a sales
conference in Orlando, consultan-
cySiruisDecisionsreleasedresearch
showing that the biggest problem
facing sales teams was not educa-
tion, skills, reticence on the part of
customers, technology or budgets,
but an endemic inability on the part
of salesmen and women to describe
the value of a product to a customer.
Results contained within this
research revealed what was by no
means a close call; a huge 71 per
cent said it was their biggest busi-
ness hurdle in 2014. Meanwhile,
just 10 per cent of buyers said sales
repswerevaluefocusedintheirpat-
ter. This was the fourth consecutive
year that the value gap was identi-
fiedasthe“biggestissue”insales.So
what on Earth is going on?
BUSINESS VALUE
Tony Hughes, chief executive of
Huthwaite International, says: “Es-
pecially among people with techni-
cal backgrounds, close involvement
withthefunctionalityoftheproduct
or service gets in the way of under-
standing real business value – what
it can actually do to help the cus-
tomer solve a problem.
“We see this every time we meet
delegates on our sales training for
the first time. Typically, less skilled
salespeople talk too much, and try
and present a generic solution to an
insufficiently understood problem
far too early.”
So what should they be doing?
“They should instead probe and an-
alyse what the true pay-offs would
be that would really make a custom-
er see the need to make a change,
and for which they would pay full
value to do so. To do that accurate-
ly, persuasively and consistently is a
highly learnable skill,” he adds.
According to research conducted
by Huthwaite last year, 57 per cent
of sales propositions were resolute-
ly product focused, yet the more ef-
fective propositions – that is those
from companies who reported big
bucks flowing in – were customer
targeted and quantifiable.
On the company’s own “scale of
excellence” in value propositions,
86 per cent of the highest-scoring
organisations were those showing
increased profit. Conversely, the
majority of those registering a low
scoreshowedaloss.Coincidence?It
seems unlikely.
PAIN POINTS
Butwhatdoesavalueproposition
look like? Wayne Gratton, business
development director at Avnet, a
global distributor of IT solutions,
says that for his business showing
value is about identifying the pain
points in each sector it sells to.
“It’s important for sales teams
to understand there are different
drivers in vertical sectors. Security
features in healthcare, for example,
are focused around data protection
for digital health records over and
abovesupportingtrendslikeremote
working. That’s where the value of
tech lies in this example,” he says.
How do you get sales teams on
board? Explaining the value of a
product to each new potential cus-
tomer doesn’t sound like a hard
thing to do, but the SiruisDecisions
research suggests it is harder than it
sounds.Abarriertojumpoveristhat
salespeople often think in a piece-
meal way – sell ten things and I get a
bonus – when they should be shown
how to take a more strategic path.
Xactly managing director, Eu-
rope, Middle East and Africa, Tom
Castley, uses a restaurant metaphor
to describe the solution. “Just as a
restaurant must design a menu that
reflectsthechef’sskillsetandappeal
to diners, it is up to management to
encourage reps to develop combi-
nations of value propositions that
will never fail to capture customer
interest,” he says.
“Without the incentive to follow
a clear plan when cooking up deals,
management can’t expect to see
consistency and progress. If a res-
taurant failed to support its chefs in
such a way, it’s unlikely they’d see
any Michelin stars.”
ForHuthwaite’sMrHughes,clos-
ing the value gap is not just about
instructing your sales team to ask
questions, it’s about asking the
right questions, at the right time
in the sales process and – critically,
because this is the really rare bit –
listening carefully to the response.
“That requires planning the line
of questioning in a flexible way,” he
says,“settingclearobjectivesforany
customer conversations; honestly
appraising whether they were met;
andusingthedevelopinginsightinto
thecustomer’sproblemsandaspira-
tions to build a persuasive, specific,
resonant value proposition.”
Companies that ignore the value
gap – and there are plenty of them
still out there – risk staking their
commercial future on a strategy
akin to howling at the moon. If
teams don’t understand implicitly
why customers should want what
they are pitching, they risk a mara-
thon of cold shoulders and endless
dialling tones.
of untrained salespeople
naturally discuss “value”
of business-to-business
customers will listen to
solutions that claim to
improve business results
of sales managers think
the value gap is the
most important problem
facing the discipline
71%
55%
5%
Source: BTS Sales Practice Partners
Source: Huthwaite International
Source: SiruisDecisions
Image: Getty
SHOW VALUE
TO MAKE A SALE
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EDITION #0274
Raymond Snoddy resumes his series
of Raconteur interviews with an
insight into the career and passions
of David Court,head of McKinsey’s
advanced analytics practice (pictured)
MASTERING BIG DATA
TO DRIVE SALES
those of their peers. The compa-
nies that succeed aren’t the ones
with the most data, but the ones
that use it best,” he argues.
For a salesman, he believes, de-
cisions never change – how do you
identify your best prospects, what’s
the most effective pitch and how to
handlepricing?It’sjustthatbigdata,
which makes a lot more data avail-
able in real time, gives you an edge.
“It’s the same decisions, but the
fact that you have all this data in
realtimeallowsforbetterandbetter
decisions,” says the consultant who
has also run McKinsey’s worldwide
functional, as opposed to geograph-
ical or industry, practice from its
Dallas office.
He reckons he can predict which
corporate approach is likely to ben-
efit more from big data.
BUSINESS ISSUES FIRST
A company that says we have lots
of data, now let’s find opportunities
to use it, is unlikely to have long-
term success. Instead you start
with the business issues and decide
how data can drive the business and
make more money.
To start assemble external and
internaldata,makingsuredatafrom
different internal systems, which of-
tendonottalktoeachother,isprop-
erly integrated.
You then build a predictive mod-
eloralgorithm.IttookAmazonages
to be able to say if you bought that
book, you will like this one. Now
building the software can take as
little as three weeks.
“You build the individual soft-
ware and then you tailor it to cli-
ents. The really tricky thing is get-
ting the front line to use it. This is
where most companies fail. They
have a sophisticated model, but
nobody uses it,” explains Mr Court,
whose long McKinsey career in-
cluded leading the sales and mar-
keting practice.
To get sales staff to use the data
predictions they must be offered
options rather than being told what
to do by “a black box”.
Training is also vital. Many com-
panies spend 95 per cent of the cost
of moving into big data building a
great model and the rest on train-
ing, when the split should be 50-50.
“You are keeping empowerment;
youarejustmakingbetterdecisions,
that’s what data analytics does,”
claims Mr Court, who argues that
big data has opened up opportuni-
ties in every industry McKinsey has
looked at, although advantages can
come from different areas.
In business-to-business, the key
is getting the pricing of goods and
services right, while for large re-
tailers the importance of getting
the right match between sales and
inventory is huge.
But where should the big data
function be located in a company?
Fewer companies are choosing the
IT department, while small pockets
of isolated analytics workers leads
to poor staff retention of these high-
ly desirable professionals.
McKinsey has concluded the an-
swer is “a hub and spoke” approach,
a smart model-building group at the
centre working with analytic spe-
cialists in corporate divisions, who
are close to the business issues.
PERSONALISED MESSAGING
When he talks to marketers, Mr
Court reflects the new reality that
marketing is shifting towards more
personalisedmessaging.Advertising
is far from dead, but the Holy Grail
iscustomerengagement,something
likely to be achieved by giving con-
sumers useful and relevant infor-
mation, when they want it and how
they want it.
“Analytics is how you make this
happenwithoutblowingyourbrains
outfromacostperspective,”saysthe
executive,whohasworkedforMcK-
insey in London, Chicago and Syd-
ney, as well as Toronto and Dallas.
The move to more personalised
data increasingly raises problems
over privacy, a trend that led the
European Parliament in March to
vote overwhelmingly for stricter
data protection rules.
Mr Court is optimistic the solu-
tion can be found within industry
through a form of “depersonalised”
personalisation and a reliance on
consumer segments.
“I have to reassure the regulators
and the public that I am not giving
out information I do not need. I do
not need to go out and analyse what
David Court specifically wants and
send David Court a specific mes-
sage,” he explains.
Models are so sophisticated that
there is little commercial difference
between marketing directly to indi-
viduals and targeting depersonal-
ised segments.
“What companies need to do is
avoid violating people’s concerns
by dealing with it through segmen-
tation.Thebettercompaniesunder-
stand the concerns and are moving
in that direction,” he says.
This 54 year old is, however,
happy to reveal that, as a member
of National Geographic’s Advisory
Council, his private passion is trav-
el and in August he went to Zambia
on holiday with Alice. Put that in
your database.
The companies that succeed
aren’t the ones with the most
data, but the ones that use it best
Interview
David Court is passionate
about marketing and data,
and believes together they
can create game-changing business
tools to drive revenue.
His feel for numbers came from
statistics during a business degree
at Queen’s University, Ontario.
Marketingexpertisewasacquiredat
Procter Gamble, handling brands
such as Joy and Cascade detergent.
“I know more about cleaning
dishes than any man should know,”
jokes Mr Court, who also met his
wife Alice at PG.
“Understanding the basics of
marketing and getting a wife is as
good as you can get for a first job,”
says the Canadian, whose 32-year
career at management consultants
McKinsey Company began after
a Harvard MBA.
The combination of being cus-
tomer driven while understanding
statistics informs his most recent
passion – helping large corporations
embracetheopportunitiesofbigdata
while avoiding the many pitfalls.
The statistics are impressive.
“Companies that use big data and
analytics effectively show produc-
tivity rates and profitability that
are 5 to 6 per cent higher than
Outsourcing
forGrowth
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Commercial Feature
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EDITION #0274
Revenuegeneration
inyear1equals...
While the cost of a new salesperson
starts to affect a company’s bottom
line as soon as they are hired, busi-
ness-to-business salespeople may not
start generating significant revenue
until the following financial year. This
significantly limits how fast organisa-
tions can grow their sales teams and
still preserve profitability.
Research by Imparta suggests the true
cost of hiring a new salesperson can be
two-and-a-half times greater than their
first year’s salary, once recruitment fees,
induction costs and the impact of failed
hires have been taken into account.
This creates a substantial hurdle – of-
ten more than £170,000 per person in
the first year, according to the research –
that new hires must overcome before they
cover their costs and the organisation can
make a further hire.
Imparta’s research identified four
types of salespeople: sprinters, middle
and distance runners, and non-runners
who do not last the course. Only sprint-
ers and middle runners have a chance of
breaking even in their first year.
The key to unlocking growth, therefore,
is to hire or develop more sprinters. So
here are the key tools that companies
can use to reduce the time it takes for
new salespeople to hit revenue.
INCREASE QUALITY OF HIRES
Salespeople are notoriously good at
selling themselves, which makes it a
challenge to determine their real capabil-
ities. Most companies use hypothetical
interview questions – “what would you do
if…” – and psychometric tests. The best
companies use in-depth evidence-based
interviews, simulations and role plays to
reveal what people will do, rather than
what they say they will do.
They also consider a candidate’s
“locus of control”. Broadly speaking,
people with an external locus of control
tend to believe things happen to them,
whereas those with a primarily internal
locus of control believe they influence
the outcomes themselves. Most sprint-
ers tend to the internal end of the scale,
which drives them to overcome any bar-
riers they encounter.
SPEED UP RAMP-UP
The first few weeks after joining offer
a great opportunity to turn distance run-
ners into sprinters. Organisations need to
transfer knowledge about their products
and services as soon as possible, edu-
cating new salespeople not just in what
those products are, but also in how to sell
them. Good product training covers the
Research
by Imparta
suggests the true
cost of hiring a new
salesperson can be
two-and-a-half times
greater than their first
year’s salary
Commercial Feature
On your marks, get set, hire…
With the economy recovering,many organisations are
once again thinking about growth and headcount,but the
time it takes for new salespeople to break even is a major
hurdle,says leading sales training company Imparta
Richard Barkey
Chief executive and founder
Imparta
Quality of hires
Number of leads
Conversion rate
typical customer stakeholders, their ob-
jectives, the common barriers to achiev-
ing those objectives, the impact of your
solution, and the likely decision criteria
and risks that customers will consider.
This knowledge transfer should go
hand in hand with skills training in your
sales methodology, using “learning by do-
ing” rather than lectures, and be followed
immediately by manager coaching to rein-
force the new skills. A sales academy can
help to provide a structure for this training
and coaching, while building cohorts of
new hires for mutual support.
Another important step is to inject new
hires into receptive client situations early
on. Imparta’s research shows that sales-
people often develop into sprinters when
they are introduced to an existing client or
a receptive contact very early in their ten-
ure. This helps to build confidence and grow
informal networks early, before attempting
to penetrate the hard shell of a cold target.
Businesses also need to understand
that younger recruits, the so-called mil-
lennials, may resist integration into a
more traditional sales environment. This
generation uses different tools, especial-
ly social media, has different needs, and
often values interest, fulfilment and fast
career progression over immediate mon-
etary reward. Sales managers need to un-
derstand how millennials expect to inter-
act and learn, and what motivates them.
INCREASE NUMBER OF LEADS
If existing salespeople are busy enough
to justify hiring new staff, they are prob-
ably also sitting on dormant or low-prob-
ability opportunities that would benefit
from the attention of eager new eyes.
Take an especially close look at accounts
that have been a customer of just one
part of your business for a long time and
try using the new salespeople to cross-
sell to them.
More generally, stronger lead genera-
tion at the company level will translate
directly into more sprinters, so investment
in salespeople should be matched by in-
vestment in lead generation. This lead
generation should be focused on cus-
tomer needs rather than your products;
sprinters tend to bring insight to the is-
sues their prospects are facing, rather
simply to offer products and services.
INCREASE AVERAGE DEAL SIZE
Increasing average deal size can also
accelerate the break-even for a new sales-
person. The best companies target new
hires at the most attractive markets and
use a systematic methodology to expand
opportunities into adjacent areas.
Sprinters also tend to have access to
the right level of sales support. Technical
specialists, service delivery managers and
so on broaden the base of contacts in
the customer organisation, uncovering
new needs and making sure that the
deals salespeople do win are big enough
to carry them over the line.
IMPROVE CONVERSION RATE
Organisations can further accelerate
break-even by improving the percentage
of deals won against the competition and
against the outcome of “do nothing”.
Sprinters tend to gain early experience
of working with an “A” pitch team, where
they learn how to uncover the client’s de-
cision criteria and to develop a powerful
pitch strategy.
This can also be achieved using “deal
clinics”, group sessions facilitated by an
expert coach to improve the conversion
rate while building skills and confidence.
Imparta is a global training
company that creates lasting
improvements in sales, marketing
and service.
For more information and a free
spreadsheet to help you reduce the
time for new salespeople to break
even, visit www.imparta.com/times
or e-mail info@imparta.com
Percentage of
year up to speed
Average deal size
10
30
10
70
50
90
40
20
80
60
100
5 93 7 112
%
6
MONTHS AFTER JOINING
104 8 12
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EDITION #0274
Ethics
Ethical behavior is essential to build and maintain
trust with customers,which in turn brings repeat
business and increased profits,writes Peter CrushRIGHTTHING
DOINGTHE
ust as negotiations were nearly
completion, John Michael, chief
executive at data storage firm iS-
torage, threw out a bombshell. “Our
softwarewouldneedaccrediting,”he
said. “We knew it would meet it, but
onlybyrewritingsomecoding,which
would cause delays,” he recalls.
“To bag the deal we could have
easily glossed over this, but this just
isn’t us. The client was so pleased
with our honesty, they decided to
appoint us anyway. The result – in
the last four months our business
has grown in that country by 400
per cent.”
If there was ever an example of
how sound, ethical selling can go
hand in hand with profit, then this
must surely be it. Contrast this with
the experience Mr Michael says he
recently had as a customer looking
at kitchens: “The salesman quoted
£35,000. I thought this was steep
and I was right as I got another for
£16,000. When I went back to the
first one, he said he’d match it. It left
a very bad taste.”
At a time when sales is still mired
with mis-selling scandals, only the
slimmest of suspicions that sales
professionals are behaving unethi-
cally is all that’s needed to reinforce
old stereotypes. “In choosing one
brand over another, consumers
are already worried they’ve made
the wrong choice,” says Eve Poole,
author of Ethical Leadership in a
Global World. “It’s never been more
vital for salespeople to show spot-
less ethical standards.”
She says protecting professional
reputation should be easy. “Selling
is about trust and trustworthiness
has been expressed in the following
equation: credibility plus reliability
plusintimacyoverself-reliance.The
top part is what salespeople have to
max-out on,” she adds.
MANAGEMENT PRESSURE
But Thomas Beschorner, a re-
searcher at the Institute of Busi-
ness Ethics, University of St.Gal-
len, in Switzerland, believes it’s
often the context of the organisa-
tion, its management or reward
and target structure that causes
corners can be cut. “The system
salespeople are in can force per-
sonal ethics aside and then staff
have to face the question of who
they are loyal to – their employer
or the customer,” he says.
This dilemma explains why sales
staff may adopt a patter that is sub-
versive to their employer – “I’m not
supposedtosaythis,butthischeaper
productisjustasgood.”Headdsthat
even if the advice is genuinely given,
itcanstillsoundunethical,ifcustom-
ers suspect it is trained behaviour,
designed to manipulate them.
“This is why no one salesperson
can shoulder the reputation of a
whole industry,” says Simon Culver,
head of Avaya UK. “What they can
do,however,isbeashonestandpro-
fessional astheycan.Whatwemake
sure we do is back this up, with top-
to-bottom processes ensuring we
don’t pressurise staff to sell-in be-
fore quarter-end periods, or cause
undue urgency to meet targets.
“Clients fill in quarterly surveys
on how the sales process was, so
this is another check to ensure our
sales staff protect our values. Rep-
utation is really all about transfer-
ring brand values.”
TRAINING
Large firms like Avaya and Vir-
gin specifically train their staff on
ethics. “Training lasts three to six
months, with specific modules on
this,” says Mario Di’Mascio, execu-
tive director for sales at Virgin Me-
dia Business. “Sales is all about trust
and good sales is about repeat busi-
ness, not quick wins. We believe the
relationship between good practice
and profit is crystal clear.”
Thebiggestpurchasemostpeople
make is a place to live and Which?
recently found 51 per cent of Brit-
ons don’t trust estate agents. Peter
Buckingham,headofsalesatLeices-
tershireestateagentAndrewGrang-
er Co, says: “Our sector does suf-
fer a trust issue, especially recently
because of sealed bids. People think
the sales process is not honest and
that we push up prices. To coun-
ter this we insist on using genuine
sealed envelopes opened in front of
clients. It means we genuinely have
no idea what the offers are.”
At a broad level, ethics awareness
is increasing. “We accept that if a
culture of management encourages
bad behaviour, then quickly sales-
people don’t think to question it,”
says Andy Hough of the Sales Lead-
ership Alliance. “That’s why we’re
striving to promote good ethics
as being about business longevity.
People in sales have to be ‘influenc-
ers’–that’sOK–butrightnowwe’re
researching what good ethics looks
like, with a view to developing a kite
mark on sales training processes, so
customers can feel confident they
have been treated correctly.”
With customers increasingly
aware of good ethics, and prepared
to buy from those who offer service
and value, it’s clear maintaining
good reputation builds brands and
businesses. “We have our own code
of ethics, and badge and certify that
our staff are doing the right thing,”
says Andrew Lawson, managing
director of salesforce.com. “In IT
reputation follows you; it’s a small
worldandcustomersmovewithyou
as we develop new products. Being
known to provide what they want is
vital. We know there is absolutely a
correlationbetweenprofitsandeth-
ics.Whatwe’resayingthoughisthat
without ethics nowadays, you don’t
have a business – full stop.”
The relationship
between good
practice and profit is
crystal clear
think British businesses are
not very or not at all ethical
think British businesses
operate less ethically
than ten years ago
of buying experiences are
based on how the customer
feels they are being treated
Source: Institute of Business Ethics 2013 Source: McKinsey
35% 70%38%
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Outsourcing
It is a challenging decision to make,but
outsourcing sales can open up new possibilities
for growth,as Beth Rogers reports
Financedirectorshavebeen
complaining for decades
about the increasing cost
of making a sale and government
statistics persistently show a sig-
nificant skills gap in sales. Markets
are more volatile, customers are
increasing powerful and new com-
petitors are constantly emerging.
The challenges of designing an ef-
fective sales function have never
been more complex.
When functions become cost-
ly, difficult to resource or slow to
change, organisations usually turn
to outsourcing. The deployment of
information and communications
technology is an important aspect
of organisational success, but the
majority of companies outsource it.
Meanwhile, according to a Deloitte
global outsourcing report in 2012,
only 11 per cent of companies are
outsourcing sales and marketing.
The outsourcing of sales has been
described as a dormant market.
Some sales activities are com-
monly outsourced. For example,
Kraft used CPM, a leading contract
sales organisation, for the launch of
Tassimo coffee machines and Reck-
itt Benckiser used CPM for a sales
promotion campaign for Finish
dishwasher tablets.
In business-to-business sectors,
there is a focus on lead generation
and qualification, such as O2 using
the telemarketing agency Great
Guns. The Telemarketing Company
(TTMC) claim that the leads they
have generated for American Ex-
press since 2010 have delivered £83
million in new business. Notably,
companies are using third parties
to access new geographical markets.
Some parts of a customer portfo-
lio might be outsourced. For exam-
ple, Tennyson is a service provider
with a focus on managing smaller
customers for big brands, and cites
one case of drastically reducing cus-
tomer churn and generating new
business of £12 million.
If there are specialist sales agen-
ciesdeliveringgreatresults,whynot
go further and outsource the whole
sales function? In 2004, Japan’s
largest pharmaceutical company
Takeda announced that it would
outsource its UK sales function to
marketleadingcontractsalesorgan-
isation AshfieldIn2Focus, adopting
a new model which would more
closely align its sales organisation
with the way the NHS was buying.
They decided to deploy a limited
numberofregionalaccountdirectors
withcross-functionalteams,focused
on building partnerships with NHS
decision-making units. These posts
were designed for the cream of the
sales profession in the sector, strate-
gicthinkerswithacommandofphar-
maco-economics,whocouldconnect
with administrative as well as clini-
cal decision-makers. This model has
beensustainedfortenyears,suggest-
ing that both brand owner and sales
serviceproviderhavegeneratedstra-
tegic benefit from it.
Despite the volatility of busi-
ness activity in the past five years,
the occurrence of sales outsourc-
ing is still very low compared with
other business processes. When
talking to sales directors about
this phenomenon, many perceive
considerable risk in losing control
of the customer experience. Con-
tract sales organisations would
argue they can reduce risks for
their clients because their quality
management is as robust as their
performance management.
A company can differentiate it-
self by the way it sells. Brand values
are important, but they do not pre-
clude using a variety of resourcing
options from employed staff, inter-
im staff, agents, resellers, contract
sales organisations and even recip-
rocal selling with other companies.
Use of telephone, the internet
and apps within the sales process
are also part of this mix. Some
sales service providers are very so-
phisticated in their understanding
of the how customers buy, and help
their clients to innovate with use
of technology and accessing skills
in a way that improves the predict-
ability of costs and flexibility to ac-
cess new opportunities.
The number of sales outsourcing
consultancies registered on freein-
dex.co.ukincreasedfrom187inFeb-
ruary 2010 to 517 in July 2014 and
the biggest brand in sales outsourc-
ing reported delivering $2.2 billion
salesforclientsin2013.It’snotsuna-
mi, but the tide is turning. UK com-
panies are starting to realise there
are some excellent service providers
and to explore their potential.
When functions
become costly,
difficult to resource
or slow to change,
organisations usually
turn to outsourcing
HELP AND EXPERTISE
FROM OUTSIDE
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