Revenue Journal®

No matter what you're selling, but especially if you're selling something technical or complex you can't assume that "the way we've always done it" will work for you now. "The way we've always done it" usually means that the salespeople have minimal training, and are set loose on customers.

Big Mistake. It was a smaller mistake back when salespeople could be "order takers," (I think that phrase was last heard sometime last year), but it's a catastrophic mistake now. Why? Because buyers have changed their behavior. Companies that adapted to those changes are doing OK. Those who haven't are slipping, fast.

The most significant change I see in buyer behavior is an increase in impatience. They have no patience for websites and salespeople that don't answer their most pressing questions. That's the first big hurdle you must overcome. Then, if you manage to answer their important questions, and meet their "Critical Criteria," they are impatient to make the purchase. They want your product or service NOW.

Let's look at these two dynamics separately. We'll do it using a fairly simple real-life example, but one that can be applied to even the most complex type of sale.

People buy when they're comfortable that they're making the right decision. If they're uncomfortable, they don't buy. This is especially true when money is tight or people are fearful. Their comfort zone - and how well you stay within it - will determine if you make a sale, or not.

Let's look at what will kick you out of their comfort zone - and how you can stay inside.

Some time ago, I wrote an article about how software buyers were mired in the "skepticism swamp." It's even worse now.

If you're selling software, you have to be able to overcome the massive amount of disbelief that has built up in buyers' minds, thanks to all the promises that have been made to them - and broken. Everyone promised higher productivity, increased efficiency, and plug-and-play. HA.

What everyone delivered was installation headaches, integration nightmares, missing-in-action service, and navigation that required that you know the program intimately before you could do anything useful with it.

Today, software buyers and users consider each purchase an investment - of time and grief, as well as the money.

In the beginning, the entrepreneur starts a company, and does all the selling himself. Then, as the business grows, he hires a salesperson, then a few more salespeople. This goes on for a couple of years, then he hires even more salespeople and a sales manager.

As this progression occurs, this entrepreneur, now the CEO, makes selling mistakes. All CEOs make these mistakes, even if their background was in sales before they started their company, or before they joined the corporation. There aren't many companies run by salespeople; in my experience, CEOs usually come from engineering, finance, or operations. But even the sales-background guys and gals make these same mistakes. Avoiding these seven mistakes can save you a lot of grief.

Here they are. I'll be stating each mistake as a belief, because it is the belief that gets the CEO in trouble. These beliefs are actually dangerous myths, myths that cost companies millions or billions of dollars every year.

A depression is one of the worst things that can happen to the economy - it affects just about everyone, in every industry, in every country. Recessions, on the other hand, tend to hit a particular group of industries the hardest, with lesser "ripple effects" on others.

What's happening now, as everyone knows, is that lending institutions have stopped lending with wild abandon. The first people to be effected by this are those in the real estate business - real estate agents, lawyers, title companies, and all the others who gain income from real estate activity. Their income - and their spending - decreases. Many decide to leave the business. There is a personnel shift from the real estate industry to other industries, where the money is still flowing. Until they are securely ensconced in their new positions, and have recovered financially, they are still cautious about their spending.

Recessions affect other industries, too, because of the recessionary drumbeat. The news media is always prowling around looking for the latest disaster. As you know, right now they're writing stories about the "subprime lending crisis," profiling people who have been affected. This steady diet of bad economic news affects everyone. Anyone who views their house as their main economic security will be more cautious about their spending. They will take longer to make decisions. They will want more information before making a commitment. They will more carefully compare one option against another, and will be more likely to postpone major spending decisions.

Consumer spending will slow, and so will business-to-business spending. People who run businesses are consumers themselves, and they follow economic news closely. They become more cautious about their spending, too. Their employees see the boss pulling back, and they tell their families, "Things are getting tight at work. Better wait on buying that new car."

This classic, recessionary mass psychology will affect your own outlook, the outlook of your employees, and your revenue stream.

So why am I saying that recessions can be good for you? Because they provide a unique opportunity for improvement.

I really enjoy making sales departments more productive. It's one of the most rewarding aspects of what I do, because there's always so much to improve, and because even a few changes can make a huge difference in a company's revenues. As we slip further into group-recession-think, it's time to look at what an economic slowdown really means and what you can do to make sure your business continues to grow - in spite of the persistent recession drumbeat. There are a number of things you can do to improve your sales levels in this economic environment.

1) Ignore the recession drumbeat. It's easy to be spooked by the latest news on the economy. Even if you are in an industry that is directly affected by a slowdown, being distracted from your normal revenue-producing tasks - and lowering your sights - will only make matters worse. Make a personal, definite decision that your business will be an exception to the overall trend.

It is possible to be going "up" when everyone else is going "down" - I've done it myself several times in my career, so I speak from personal experience. Your two biggest enemies are always distraction and fear.

It doesn't matter what type of business you run. It doesn't matter how small or large your business is. It doesn't matter what you used to do, before you became the leader of your company. What matters - the only thing that really matters, day after day, year after year - is how well you manage yourself.

Why is it so important? Because true leaders - the kind that other people actually want to follow - have mastered self-management. They instill confidence. They are calm, reasonable, and wise. They can consistently be depended upon to do the right thing. They don't fly off the handle at the smallest thing - or anything, for that matter. They don't obsess about one aspect of their business at the expense of other, just-as-important aspects.

Imagine that you are going to have a house constructed, and while it is under construction, you want to insure the construction site. Your contractor refers you to an insurance salesperson he knows. You meet with the person, you like him, and you proceed to give him the information he needs to proceed with a quote.

As the weeks go by, however, you decide that you aren't going to do business with that insurance broker. Why? Because he just wasn't working hard for the sale. He was friendly, but not professional. It takes too long for him to respond to requests. The information he provides doesn't match your situation nor answer your specific questions.

You end up finding another broker, who responds quickly, thoroughly, professionally to every question you ask him. You end up telling the contractor that you appreciate the referral to his insurance buddy, but that you will be using a different insurance broker.

There are two kinds of salespeople in the world. One knows that the customer is just trying to get some questions answered, and does what he can to answer those questions. The other sees the customer's questions as "objections" to be overcome - obstacles to his making the sale and getting a commission.

In other words, in the first case, the customer is right - right to be making sure the product will meet his needs. Right to ask questions. Rightfully entitled to getting honest answers to those questions until he has enough information to make a good decision.

In the second case, the salesperson behaves as if the customer is just plain wrong. During the conversation with the customer he is, by turns, evasive, dismissive, and downright rude as he spits out answers. He is combative during the question-asking process. He interrupts the customer, argues with the customer, and treats the customer like an idiot.

A recent experience with such a salesperson convinced me that these salespeople end up in sales because they love to argue but they're not smart enough (or industrious enough) to get through law school. They are wanna-be lawyers.

The problem with marketing and sales is that they are the functions inside companies most likely to be driven more by emotions and anecdotal "evidence" than they are by facts. The result is never as profitable as it could be.

If salespeople dominate decisions, without the benefit of qualitative customer research and buying process analysis, the atmosphere is always dominated by fear of losing the next sale, and activity is always frantic.

The salesperson will send an email to the marketing person: "I just closed this sale. I sent this fax to them, and they read it while we were talking to each other, and the person loved this fax. We need an email and landing page that uses this copy!!!" The marketing person will comply. The salesperson will then talk to another customer, who will react positively to something else, and the salesperson will send another email to the marketing person, demanding another email and landing page.

Every business starts with a dream. Every buyer starts the buying process with a dream.

Every business can turn into a nightmare. And, every buying process - especially those involving large, expensive, important purchases - can turn into a nightmare.

These dreams - and fears of nightmares - drive the decisions and actions of both business owners and buyers.

We've all seen this at work in extreme cases, where an individual will let their own fantasy world overwhelm reality to the point where they lose their job or their business, and the people who supported them along the way.

But these situations are rare. The more usual, day-to-day situation is one where the seller and buyer are trying to find common ground, to negotiate a realistic solution where everyone can be happy.

Let's say you're a vendor in a developing country selling some kind of product or service to customers in more developed countries. You know you can provide what the customers there need, but you're not sure how get the attention of the right kinds of buyers, and when you do get a lead, you find it too difficult to close the sale. Something is standing in your way. That something is the negative reputation that your country or industry might have in the mind of the buyer.

This article will address both of these challenges while looking at the process from the buyer's perspective. The advice in this article will help anyone selling any type of high-risk product or service - even in well-established markets - as the dynamics are similar.

If you own or run a company, you're passionate. Certain things matter to you. Every day, in every interaction, your passion determines how you manage yourself and those who work for you - employees and vendors.

Your passion is a powerful force. If you manage it correctly, you will:

• Make the right decisions about what is important and what is not
  
• Allocate the right amount of energy to the important things
  
• Convey the right messages to employees and vendors about what matters
  
• Create and run a balanced company
  

What do I mean by a "balanced company"?

Last week we discussed two of the traits of the perfect sales manager: loyalty (first to the customer, then the company, then the sales force), and consistency. This week we will look at the remaining key characteristics. The perfect sales manager is also empathetic and process-oriented.

• Empathetic

  Note that I said empathetic, not sympathetic. When you empathize with someone, you listen carefully and understand their problem, but you retain your ability to make decisions that are not driven by their emotions.

The perfect sales manager is rare. One person seldom has all of the right traits, and seldom behaves consistently in the most effective manner. My goal here is to describe the ideal. If you are recruiting, you'll want to get as close to this ideal as you can, then work with the individual to improve their deficiencies. If you are still managing your own sales force yourself, you will be well-served if you develop and exercise these characteristics.

Before we get into the details, we should note that most salespeople make terrible managers, unless they are so mature that they have overcome their tendencies toward attention-deficit disorder and shifting loyalties. Most salespeople skim through life, from one conversation to the next, and have no patience for the deep thinking that is required of a perfect sales manager.

The most common mistake made by company owners and managers is to promote a salesperson to management - and expect them to shine.