Sales people are naturally driven to take action. They’re more comfortable being busy than being idle. This is generally a good trait but all actions do not lead to more sales. The best sales people have learned through education and experience to choose their best next actions from a narrow set of options that keep them on path to address the reasons customers buy. They don’t pursue wasted actions.
What does it look like when sales people aren’t clear on how to choose their best next actions?
- Meetings to meet – If your sales people have a lot of meetings that don’t have agendas with specific goals this could be a sign that you have a sales person that isn’t clear on best next actions to move the sale forward. Good relationships don’t always mean good sales progress.
- Meetings with the same people – Sales people know they should be spending most of their time with customers, but not all customers are equal. We always find a few people who are easy to get meetings with and these often aren’t decision makers. If we see many meetings with the same non-decision makers, we likely have a sales person who is stuck. Few things are less productive than repeatedly meeting with the same non-decision makers.
- Busy work gets done – Here’s an irony that most sales managers have dealt with. The best sales people are often the worst at keeping up with administrative tasks like expense reports and CRM entries. They procrastinate on administrative tasks and focus their time on moving them and their company closer to a sale. Conversely, the least productive sales people procrastinate on customer actions in lieu of completing administrative tasks. Which kind of procrastinators work for you?
A good sales methodology helps sales people narrow the scope of possible best next actions. By narrowing the focus you are better equipped to target your actions on things that address the reasons customers buy from you. You also eliminate the many possible things to do that aren’t best next actions.
The Five Abilities® is a methodology that helps you focus your actions on the things that cause customers to choose you over your competition. At the end of the day there are really only five things that customers look for when deciding to choose you over your competition.
- VISABILITY – Being seen in the right way, by the right people, at the right time. Handing out business cards at a networking event or trade show does not earn the right visibility without a 30-second offer description and a value proposition.
- CREDABILITY – Having superior knowledge and success. Credibility is more about show and less about tell. Customers expect sales people to present themselves and their company as credible providers of value. Customers will test that credibility through interactions to ensure that their presentation actually represents credible business and personal practices.
- VIABILITY – An offering that addresses both needs and readiness – Business, in general, is a two way street between seller and buyer. This is no less true than in the area of viability. We can produce all the math and examples that shows an offering that delivers a positive ROI for a customer, but it all falls apart if the customer isn’t ready to execute.
- CAPABILITY – Seen as able to deliver what is being sold – This seems to be the most obvious of the things we need to do to convince a customer to purchase from us and yet I still see many companies and sales people try to by-pass this. Past experience is an obvious way to show capability but nothing beats demonstrating to the customer how you’d make your offering work in their environment.
- RELIABILITY – Being accountable “when” the unexpected happens – Unexpected occurrences are often the best sales opportunities we get. There is nothing that shapes the perception of a sales person and a company more than how they respond to troubling unexpected occurrences. Showing up to help explain the problem and find a solution makes you a teammate. High level decision makers want teammates, not sales people.
The best sales people have learned through education and experience, to choose their best next actions from a narrow set of options that keep them on the path to address the reasons customers buy.
©2014 Rick Wong – The Five Abilities, LLC
