Attrition is good for sales people!!!!

This example was contributed by a participant who is an AVP sales (west) in an IT company.

"Some of our easiest sales have come through a IT Manager who used to work in a company in Delhi and then moved to Mumbai. This guy happened to be very well networked in the IT community in Mumbai and he referred us to a BPO, a large retail client, a bank and a manufacturing company, all of which were his good friends. Besides this, he has also given us business from his own company.

This taught us one thing. The best support that a sales team can get is from their own happy customers who shift due to career reasons. Too often we salespeople lose touch with our customers, but attrition is the best thing that could happen to us. If we have developed multiple relationships with our accounts, then attrition results in no loss in the existing account which continues as before and if we follow the employee to the new account, the sales increase!!!.

Problem is - too many salespeople believe using references is a sign of weakness, they want to do it alone, be independent.

Institutional sales is however not a one man "cowboy" routine, it requires building relationships at multiple levels, a greater team game.

............example contributed by Amit Patil, AVP & Sales Head at an IT company headquartered in Mumbai.

They don't understand schemes at all?

One of the Northern region managers of an fmcg company recently was complaining about the poor execution excellence of his team, especially in the are of implementing schemes.

What was the problem?

During every MRM (monthly review meeting), the marketing team would send info on new schemes that would need to be run in the markets. The Area Manager would explain the schemes to the Sales Officers who would then move into their markets and implement them.

The quality of implementation, the less said the better.

Why does this happen, he asked?

We suggested, lets look at the way you explain the schemes.

How do we explain the schemes? The area manager who is an MBA from a premier institute explains the schemes verbally explaining each and every point. He is a superb communicator.

That's the problem!!!.

We absorb only 5% of what we hear, 30% of what we see, 50% of what we do and 80% when we practice or teach others.

So?

So, instead of running a ppt and talking about it, a better method would be to design exercises like mathematical problems. eg if a retailer asked for 3 cases of XYZ soap and 1 dozen of shampoo, what would be the price to retailer under the regular margin and the new scheme.

Make every Sales Officer do the problems, design at least 20 of them. Then make them solve the problems in front of the whole group and explain them to others.

That will automatically ensure 80% retention and understanding (learning by doing, teaching others)

................a training discussion in response to a question asked by Kushal Kumar, Zonal Head - North of a large fmcg company

Do CEOs really want to meet salespeople?

This is a story told in one of our trainings by the Location Head Rajasthan of a large tile company. "We had a service complaint from the account, it was a large construction company. The order value was over Rs 40 Lakhs and we did not know the Evaluator, nor had we bothered to meet the User Buyers. This account, through sheer lethargy, was being handled by the distributor only, no company sales person had bothered to map the account, research its needs, etc. We did not even know the King here.

After going through the sales training where the concept of "Capturing a High position" was discussed, we thought - instead of our traditional method of meeting the Evaluator (purchase department), why not we meet the King straightaway?

We did that. And you know what was the first comment by the King? "You guys always come too late"

Too late, he said. we thought - we don't come at all, do we.

"Sir, why are we late?", we asked. He said "we not only need to discuss this shipment but there is a large project that I am starting in the next month which is ten times larger than this one, that is what I wanted to discuss with you."

I almost had a heart attack!!!!. Ten times!!!

Here was living proof that CEOs want to meet salespeople. Not all salespeople of course. Only the knowledgeable, matured ones. The ones who research the customer, identify needs, are knowledgeable about their own products and practice consultative selling.

.............discussion contributed by Dinesh Vyas, Location head, (Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Gujarat and Chattisgarh) for a large tile, kitchen and bath manufacturer.

Who implements learnings from Sales Training programs?

In the final stages of a recent sales training program for a large manufacturer of forklifts, the Business Head did a very interesting series of dialogues with each of the frontline sales people. He asked each - what are you going to implement - the research orientation, the sales tactics, the negotiation techniques, the closing skills, try and meet the senior leadership of the client, etc. Pat came the answers - I will do this, do that.........

Next question - complete googly to most of the team - how will you measure the outcome of the activity?

It was clearly not enough to measure "results" (target achievement), nor is it enough to measure "sales activities" (no of calls made, clients contacted, etc). Both are important and need to be connected with each other.

What happened next was one of the most specific discussions we have had at the end of a training program. Each sales person was given info on his "average sales value" - the average Rs value at which he was selling each unit of forklift in his territory. eg last quarter you sold 7 forklifts at an average of Rs 100 (for eg), next quarter target to take this figure to Rs 107.

That's the idea. You want to measure the effectiveness of Sales training. Measure pre and post training sales productivity. Average sales Value per sale is an example.

.......................contributed by Johnson, Business Head of a large forklift manufacturer