Brent Adamson's Blog, page 4

3 Surefire Ways to Lose Top Sales Talent

Leaders are perennially concerned with attracting and retaining top talent. Almost every company lists talent as a priority and makes it a part of its values, but often fails in execution. Attrition rates continue to stay high and employee engagement levels low.

Of course, sales organizations are no exception. Frequent employee exits limit sales organizations’ efforts to build next-level skills and capabilities in their sales force, which is a bigger problem now than ever before as customers are getting smarter, more informed, and more demanding. More importantly, now that you are likely investing more and more resources in training sellers on Challenger skills to compete in an increasingly complex environment, losing talent hurts even more.

So where do most of us go wrong? Despite investing time, money, and resources in hiring, training, and coaching sellers, why doesn’t talent stick? While there might be several reasons driving that, below are the most common talent retention errors and what you can do to avoid them:

Ineffective managers. No surprises here. We recently blogged about the worst kinds of managers—managers who are crooked politicians, bullies, micromanagers, workaholics, or BFFs. Of course, not everyone falls into one of these categories, but let’s accept it, people do indeed leave managers, not companies. Our research finds that high performing managers demonstrate three skills above all else: they coach, innovate, and enable seller judgment.
Rigid, inflexible processes. While most processes are well-intentioned, there are many that stifle more than they support. A sales environment focused on process compliance fails to empower sellers and stifles innovation, leading to disengaged and unsatisfied sales people. However, CEB Sales research has found that reps who are able to exercise judgement when selling report a 15% greater intent to stay than reps in more compliance-oriented environments. To learn more, check out our full study on empowering reps to sell to empowered customers.
Lack of future career opportunities. According to research by our sister program, CEB Corporate Leadership Council, 42% of departing employees cite lack of future career opportunity as one of the top five reasons for leaving their current employer. To retain star talent, you must regularly provide sellers with learning and advancement opportunities. For example, Philip Morris creates a fast-track promotion process for promising sellers. Its sales leaders mentor high potential reps and encourage them to rotate among Philip Morris’s different business units to gain cross-functional experience.

What other reasons would you include to this list? Use the comments sections below.

CEB Sales members, listen to our most recent webinar on The Voice of the Sales Force: Engagement and Retention Trends. Also, visit our topic centers on Talent Acquisition and Talent Development.

3 Sure Ways to Lose Top Sales Talent

Leaders are perennially concerned with attracting and retaining top talent. Almost every company lists talent as a priority and makes it a part of its values, but often fails in execution. Attrition rates continue to stay high and employee engagement levels low.

Of course, sales organizations are no exception. Frequent employee exits limit sales organizations’ efforts to build next-level skills and capabilities in their sales force, which is a bigger problem now than ever before as customers are getting smarter, more informed, and more demanding. More importantly, now that you are likely investing more and more resources in training sellers on Challenger skills to compete in an increasingly complex environment, losing talent hurts even more.

So where do most of us go wrong? Despite investing time, money, and resources in hiring, training, and coaching sellers, why doesn’t talent stick? While there might be several reasons driving that, below are the most common talent retention errors and what you can do to avoid them:

Ineffective managers. No surprises here. We recently blogged about the worst kinds of managers—managers who are crooked politicians, bullies, micromanagers, workaholics, or BFFs. Of course, not everyone falls into one of these categories, but let’s accept it, people do indeed leave managers, not companies. Our research finds that high performing managers demonstrate three skills above all else: they coach, innovate, and enable seller judgment.
Rigid, inflexible processes. While most processes are well-intentioned, there are many that stifle more than they support. A sales environment focused on process compliance fails to empower sellers and stifles innovation, leading to disengaged and unsatisfied sales people. However, CEB Sales research has found that reps who are able to exercise judgement when selling report a 15% greater intent to stay than reps in more compliance-oriented environments. To learn more, check out our full study on empowering reps to sell to empowered customers.
Lack of future career opportunities. According to research by our sister program, CEB Corporate Leadership Council, 42% of departing employees cite lack of future career opportunity as one of the top five reasons for leaving their current employer. To retain star talent, you must regularly provide sellers with learning and advancement opportunities. For example, Philip Morris creates a fast-track promotion process for promising sellers. Its sales leaders mentor high potential reps and encourage them to rotate among Philip Morris’s different business units to gain cross-functional experience.

What other reasons would you include to this list? Use the comments sections below.

CEB Sales members, listen to our most recent webinar on The Voice of the Sales Force: Engagement and Retention Trends. Also, visit our topic centers on Talent Acquisition and Talent Development.

Pssst! Statistics Are Not Insight.

This is a guest post by Kevin Starner, VP of Sales Enablement at Iron Mountain.

In my household, it’s a well-known fact: 84% of statistics are made up on the spot. I know this is a fact because I made up the statistic. But instead of focusing on the 84 percent, I’d like you to think about the other side of that statistic. What’s in the 16% that you are not considering? What’s hiding in there that can have an unexpected consequence? Is being able to develop insight something you should be able to do on your own, or expect Marketing to develop it for you?

Let me give you an example:

The average American adult spends 35% of their time searching for stuff they only find half the time. Now, most people would focus on the amount of time spent actually searching and the opportunity cost if you could reduce that time. Why not focus on what happens the other half of the time they don’t find what they need? You can guess what people, including you, do. You recreate it, buy something new, or go without. Think of all the problems and challenges that causes that you may not have otherwise considered.

Too many reps in today’s insight-led selling environment try to pass off an opening statistic as insight, with little regard to what that stat truly means to their buyers. They get excited when their buyer says something like, “I can see that,” or “Yes, I totally agree.” They use it as an icebreaker, a conversation starter. Unfortunately, at the end of the conversation, the rep typically leaves feeling like they’ve established great credibility, not knowing that they’ve missed the mark completely. 

True insight isn’t simply making the buyer aware of the statistic you led with. Anyone can find the stat or article. Your job as a seller is to help the buyer see the other side of that statistic. Change the buyer’s perception by showing them that what they are not thinking about is opening up their organization to risk or significant near- and long-term challenges.

So the big question is: do you teach your sales reps how to develop their own insight or do you have Marketing build it for them? Part of this depends on how talented your sales force is, but most of it depends on how diverse your buyers’ needs are. Transactional selling environments can benefit from a consistent shortened perspective or point of view that is much more scalable. Meanwhile, complex opportunities require a much deeper knowledge of your prospect, their industry, and the individual. In these types of opportunities, a Marketing-built insight straight out of the box will not connect as often. The best messaging requires customization.

So, whether it’s the rep or your Marketing department who is on the hook for developing these perspectives, there is one thing I can tell you for certain: statistics alone do not an insight make. It doesn’t matter if the statistic is made up or legitimately researched. That’s not where you catalyze action or unbalance the buyer’s status quo. It’s your rep’s ability to see the other side of any statistic and relate it back directly to their buyer and their organization. Having said that, be prepared to name your statistical source. 84% of you will remember this article.

CEB Sales Members, register for one of our upcoming workshops on Challenger Messaging. Also, visit the Commercial Teaching topic center and learn more about the Components of World-Class Insight.

Get Your National Sales Meeting Messages to Stick

Now that the first quarter has come and gone, most of our members have wrapped up this year’s national sales meeting and are beginning to look ahead to next year’s events. Before the planning for next year’s meetings progresses too far, though, we thought we would share some of the lessons we’ve learned in our conversations with members about national sales meetings; specifically, how they select and integrate relevant themes into their national sales meetings to get messages to stick.

Choosing a theme: Among the members we spoke with, the sales organization’s top strategic priorities are a popular source of inspiration when selecting a theme. By picking a theme that fits with larger strategic priorities, national sales meetings can help to communicate and reinforce an important message for the sales organization, according to one member.
Communicating the theme: Most members we spoke with reveal the meeting theme to sales reps prior to the event. At the meeting, companies use visual elements to remind attendees of the theme and create a brand around it. Three of the member companies we spoke with design logos and color schemes to better deliver the theme at their national sales meetings.
Reinforcing the theme: Several of the members we spoke with strive to continue using the theme from their national sales meeting throughout the year. One executive went as far to describe the theme from the national sales meeting as the sales organization’s theme for the entire year. Other member companies continue to use the theme’s logo and language in communications with the sales force, in order to quickly reference the key takeaways and learnings from the national sales meeting.

CEB Sales members, review our latest brief on Selecting Themes for National Sales Meetings to learn more about companies’ processes for selecting and incorporating themes into their national sales meetings. Also, read our blog post on The Do’s and Don’ts of National Sales Meetings.

5 Steps to Problem-Solving: The Toyota Way

The level of discipline that Toyota brought to their manufacturing plants was one of the things that propelled them into being a dominant player in the automotive industry. What’s less known is that they’ve since brought that same level of precision to virtually every function across their organization.  Today, we’ll look at one of the tools that helped them to create that precision company-wide.

To identify and help address business partners’ goals, Toyota uses a standardized problem-solving process to ensure high-quality issue diagnosis and solution development. Before setting out to solve a problem they thoroughly check to ensure that they’re even solving the right thing in the first place. Toyota does this by using a 5-stage problem-solving process:

Step 1 – Clarify Stated Problem: Systematically clarify the actual problem that the requester is trying to solve. This isn’t about needs, it’s about outcomes. Once they figure out what outcomes they’re trying to achieve, they compare that to their current state to identify exactly which gaps need to be closed.

Step 2 – Identify Primary Root Cause:  Identify the root causes of that problem and determine which one is most pressing and addressable.

Step 3 – Set Target Metrics: Identify the specific behaviors Toyota needs to modify in order to address the root cause, and then determine the specific metrics they’ll use to gauge the progress of their change efforts. Toyota then sets the target they’re ultimately trying to achieve.

Step 4 – Analyze Key Obstacles:  Analyze the key obstacles preventing them from modifying their target behaviors.

Step 5 – Develop Solutions: Evaluate a range of solutions that will allow them to remove those obstacles, and then ultimately determine which of those solutions they’re going to pursue.

You’ll notice that Toyota spends 80% of their problem-solving time on diagnosis and only 20% of their time on solution development. Why? Because they want to ensure that everyone spends sufficient time diagnosing business problems prior to considering or pursuing any solutions.

When using this tool, Toyota spends the majority of the time in face-to-face meetings between the support function (Sales Ops, for example) and the requesting partners (Marketing, Finance, Product Development, Sales, etc.) This is a highly collaborative exercise where ideas are white-boarded, root causes are vetted, metrics are examined, and so on. Now, of course, they also work individually – collecting data or thinking independently – before sharing with the group.

This process might take a couple of hours, a couple of weeks, or a couple of months depending on the scope of the project, but the result of all of this effort is an agreed-upon path from problem to solution for any given project.

 

CEB Sales Members, review the best practice to learn more about Toyota’s Problem Reframing Process. Also, download the “A3 Planning Worksheet” Toyota uses to help guide problem-solving.

Annoying Corporate Buzzwords: Revisited

One of our most popular posts remains the one about corporate buzzwords to avoid – you all know them, they make you cringe, you hear others say them and you promise yourself that you will never be one of those people who say things like “reach out” and “leverage” and “double down”….but, to the best of your intentions, you find yourself slip sooner or later.

We’re revisiting this topic based on an interesting recent article in the Wall Street Journal with a new list of culprits to ban in 2014. This article polled business executives and CEOs on the words they would ban from boardroom and office conversations, and here are some of their picks:

“Push the envelope” – Did you know that this phrase originated from test pilots whose job during World War II was to push the limits of speed and altitude?

“De-layering” – Banned for its negative connotation as a euphemism for layoffs.

“Dynamic resilience” – Huh? Yeah, I’m lost too. I guess we can blame the sluggish global economy for this one.

“Passionate” – Raise your hand if you have this on your resume/CV… Now might be a good time to remove it. To quote Peter Cappelli (director of Wharton School’s Center for Human Resources) from the article, “do you want passion in a typical workplace? Isn’t that a lot like drama?”

“Out-of-the-box thinking” – Lisa Goldenberg, president of Delaware Steel Co. of Pennsylvania, makes a great point here: if you see the box, then you’re not really innovating or thinking creatively.

“Viral” – The proliferation of social media outlets has made viral part of our everyday vocabulary, no matter what the viral thing is.

“Associates and Team Members” – Two fancier ways of saying ‘employees’.

What other words and phrases are on your ban list? Please share in the comments!

Here are a few more that got honourable mention in the Wall Street Journal article:

Big data
Going forward
Low-hanging fruit
Disrupt
Epic
Ideate
Incentivize
Learnings
Game change
Reach out (uh-oh…guilty of this myself)

Note: This post was originally written by Arlinda Mezini for our sister program, the CEB Communications Leadership Council. You can read the original here.

The (Slowly) Changing Face of Procurement

It probably does not come as a surprise to readers of this blog that, as a profession, Sales has a slight image problem.  As Dan Pink pointed out in To Sell is Human, when people think of “sales,” the first word that comes to mind is something like “pushy,” “yuck,” “difficult,” or “annoying.”

What’s probably more surprising is the fact that Procurement, the function that Sales is so often pitted against, has an image problem of its own.  Consider how these Dilbert cartoons portray Procurement.  In one, a new Procurement officer is advised to “Give employees low-cost substitutes and claim the savings on your accomplishments”; in another, a Procurement officer announces a new system that “divides products into two categories:  things you don’t want, and things you’re not allowed to buy.”  The upshot is clear:  people view Procurement as a function that makes it harder, not easier, to do their jobs well.

In the past, Sales and Procurement were able to perform well despite their negative images.  Customers had to rely on salespeople to learn about the products they might buy, and they were beholden to Procurement’s approval process to obtain the products they wanted.  We frequently talk about how the rise of informed customers is changing this dynamic for Sales, how empowered customers will refuse to buy from anyone pushy or annoying, favoring Challengers that can helpfully show them a new way forward.  Interesting, the same force—the rise of informed customers—is starting to change Procurement.

To be sure, Procurement still cares about the total cost of ownership.  But as informed customers have started to effectively lobby for highest-value, not lowest-cost, offerings, Procurement departments have started taking a closer look at the total value of ownership.  Category managers—that is, procurement officers assigned to a narrow subset of products—have been particularly affected by this dynamic, as they are particularly attuned to the preferences of the very informed internal business partners they frequently interact with.

On the surface, Sales and Procurement’s goals appear to be at complete odds:  Sales’ job is to make money by selling products at a high cost, while Procurement’s job is to save money by buying products at a low cost.  This adversarial dynamic used to be completely true, but it’s only somewhat true in a world of informed customers.  Both Sales and Procurement are now beholden to customers that care more about a product’s overall value and feature set than they do its price.

For possibly the first time in the history of their functions, this creates an opportunity for Sales and Procurement to partner together in a way that helps out both parties.  If salespeople can help procurement officers understand the total value their products provide, they can sell more while helping procurement improve its status with their internal business partners.  It will likely take years for this practice to become widespread—Sales and Procurement have been adversaries for decades, and combative habits are deeply engrained in both functions—but informed, empowered customers will eventually prompt Sales and Procurement to partner together to bring the highest value offerings from suppliers to the people demanding them.

CEB Sales Members, listen to a webinar replay on Partnering with Procurement (Part I and Part II) featuring a panel of senior procurement executives.

4 iPad Apps Reps Must Have

iPads have created quite a buzz in the sales world, with 75% of CEB Sales members surveyed (who deploy tablets) using iPads to increase sales force productivity. There is no denying that iPads have greatly benefited reps by helping manage operations more efficiently – updating and managing customer data, keeping a tab on travel details and expenses, creating and sharing sales presentations and collateral, etc. That said, sales reps have hundreds of apps to choose from, and with tens of apps releasing each month, they struggle with staying current on the apps they use.

To find out which are the most popular iPad apps, CEB Sales recently did a refresh of its compilation of peer recommended apps. Based on our research, we observed that while most sales teams continue to use popular apps such as Dropbox for remote file sharing, WebEx for virtual conferencing, and SFDC for sales enablement, they have also started using newer apps for document editing and sharing, managing work flow, and communicating remotely with internal stakeholders and customers.

Here are four peer-recommended apps for reps that made it to our list this year:

Lync: For reps mostly on-the-go or working from remote locations, instant messaging and information sharing with team members are a daily challenge. With Lync, reps can send instant messages, share screens, and connect with internal stakeholders using audio/video capabilities. What reps like most is its real-time use without setting up a third party platform.
Good Reader: This app enables reps to view, edit, store, and share files across multiple formats, reducing the need for multiple document editors. Reps love the ease with which they can add textboxes, and place sticky notes and comments on sales collateral while on the move. 
IBM Enterprise: IBM’s content management app provides reps with access to a wide-array of industry-related information, reports, and articles. Reps can use it to access data from thought leaders and subject-matter experts to generate better business insights.
Cardmunch: LinkedIn is increasingly becoming important for reps to build and maintain relationships with professional contacts. Cardmunch updates customers’ business card details with reps’ address book contacts and adds them to LinkedIn. Reps love the ease with which they can upload business cards images and add new business connections to LinkedIn.

CEB Sales Members, check out the entire list of top iPad app recommendations. Also, read our recent research brief on how companies are deploying and using iPads as a sales tool.

Do you have any favorite apps? Feel free to comment and help add to our list!

Dummy-Proof Your Social Selling Strategy

Social media can be a scary place. Between all the InstaWhats? and SnapWhos?, keeping up with the latest trends can seem an insurmountable task, or at least one better suited to a nimble-texting teen. But despite these challenges, we know that social media has a place in the world of sales. That doesn’t mean, though, that the thought of turning sales reps loose on Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, Vine, et al. won’t make you reconsider. So how should a sales organization prepare its reps to begin using social selling?

We recently spoke with four member companies about their social selling programs, specifically focusing on how they train sales reps to use social media for selling. The members we spoke with all use LinkedIn for their social selling initiatives, while two also use Twitter to expand their social media reach.

All of the companies we spoke with created training sessions or virtual learning modules to teach their reps about social selling, but a few of these companies go the extra mile to ease the burden of work on their reps while also ensuring that a consistent message is being shared. Three of the member companies created a system (e.g., a database, weekly e-mail, or LinkedIn group) to deliver content to sales reps, which they then share with customers via social media. Providing reps with ready-made content saves them valuable time and also ensures the messages reps share align with company priorities and standards, according to one member executive.

It may take some time before everyone becomes comfortable with the thought of turning sales reps loose in the social media world, but providing training and other assistance can go a long way to ensure your social selling initiative is successful.

CEB Sales Members, learn more about the member companies’ social selling initiatives and training programs. For more information on social selling, check out our Social Selling FAQs and the full study: Getting in Early: Shaping Customer Demand Through Pre-Funnel Engagement.

Dummy Proof Your Social Selling Strategy

Social media can be a scary place. Between all the InstaWhats? and SnapWhos?, keeping up with the latest trends can seem an insurmountable task, or at least one better suited to a nimble-texting teen. But despite these challenges, we know that social media has a place in the world of sales. That doesn’t mean, though, that the thought of turning sales reps loose on Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, Vine, et al. won’t make you reconsider. So how should a sales organization prepare its reps to begin using social selling?

We recently spoke with four member companies about their social selling programs, specifically focusing on how they train sales reps to use social media for selling. The members we spoke with all use LinkedIn for their social selling initiatives, while two also use Twitter to expand their social media reach.

All of the companies we spoke with created training sessions or virtual learning modules to teach their reps about social selling, but a few of these companies go the extra mile to ease the burden of work on their reps while also ensuring that a consistent message is being shared. Three of the member companies created a system (e.g., a database, weekly e-mail, or LinkedIn group) to deliver content to sales reps, which they then share with customers via social media. Providing reps with ready-made content saves them valuable time and also ensures the messages reps share align with company priorities and standards, according to one member executive.

It may take some time before everyone becomes comfortable with the thought of turning sales reps loose in the social media world, but providing training and other assistance can go a long way to ensure your social selling initiative is successful.

CEB Sales Members, learn more about the member companies’ social selling initiatives and training programs. For more information on social selling, check out our Social Selling FAQs and the full study: Getting in Early: Shaping Customer Demand Through Pre-Funnel Engagement.