Category Archives: General Sales Management

Sales Management, Plumbers, Heating and Cooling Guys

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We built a brand new house about four years ago.

We actually bought an older house, with the idea of adding on to it, making a few remodels and then living in it.

We really loved the house, but realized about half way through our remodel plans that the house needed so many revisions, it would break our budget. We instead decided to tear the whole thing down and start from scratch. Believe it or not, this was the cheaper way to do it.

It was a gut wrenching decision, not only because it was a beautiful house, but also because I really hate paying for things twice.

Oh well.

We figured that this would be the last house we would ever buy, so we may as well do it right.

So we did it right.

The High Pressure Heating and Cooling System

One of the things we decided to include with the new house was a state-of-the-art high pressure heating and cooling system. We live on Cape Cod, Massachusetts so the winters aren’t too cold and the summers aren’t too oppressively hot.

But in the middle of August it’s brutally hot.

Since we had decided to “do it right”, we got the central air conditioning in addition to the regular heating component.

We also decided to get many of the other systems in the house state-of-the-art as well. The fire prevention system, the lighting system, the water heater/plumbing system, the sprinkler system are all basically computer systems that require some technical expertise to make sure they properly function.

All of them require annual maintenance to keep them in top working order.

However, out of all these complex systems we have in the house, only the company that installed the heating and cooling system send us regular reminder to make appointments to do “semi-annual maintenance checks”. The mailer comes every six months with an email.

Now, I’m no HVAC technical genius but all this really amounts to is two guys coming into the house, taking a look at the heating system and replacing the air filters.

Solely because of their letters and emails, I call them, they call me back and then they come by and check things out once or twice a year. Just to see if everything’s alright.

After their visit, they send us a bill for a cool $180 for a mere 30 minutes of work.

Not a bad hourly wage to say the least…

And for a heating and cooling system that would cost many times that amount to replace, I figure its a small price to pay.

Amazingly, they are still the only company that contacts us every year, twice a year to make sure everything is working well.

The Sales Management – Sales Rep Contract

I once took over a ten person sales team, which every member was in the bottom half of the national rankings in the 600 salesperson sales force.

In my first sales meeting with them (after a mere two days on the job), I decided I would take a slightly different approach to my leadership with them.

In an effort to be helpful, I had carefully put together 30 or so snazzy power point slides to dazzle them with all the things I expected from them to achieve sales success. At the last minute though, I tossed that idea and decided to simply use a chalkboard to write down what they expected from me in order to be successful.

After their last sales manager (who was clearly lacking certain key leadership skills), I figured this would be a great way for me to introduce myself as the new guy who actually cared about what they wanted most.

So I asked them the question and wrote their answers on the board.

The list was pretty long, but the top three were:

  • Call us back when we call you
  • Follow up on projects we are working on that need help
  • Let us know where we stand

Simple enough.

I then asked them what I should expect from them. That list was not quite as long, but it was fairly extensive.

We made the agreement that we would both honor both sides of the agreement. I would do what they asked and they would do what I asked of them.

By year’s end, 50% of them were in the top half of the sales force and three won the top sales award for the company…

Don’t Be The Plumber

With all the talk about businesses having a tough go of it right now, I’ve always wondered why the heating and cooling guys are the only ones who faithfully contact us to do follow up.

I mean, that $180 is pretty easy money. Money like that is ripe for the taking with the other systems we have in the house.

For example, the hot water heater we have is notoriously finicky. It needs constant TLC.

Does my plumber email to remind me to service it? I mean, he has my email address after all.

Nope.

I spend the $180 with the heating and cooling guys because they:

  • Call me back when I call them
  • Follow up on periodic maintenance of my heating system
  • Let me know where I stand

Simple.

And it’s good business.

Sales Management Training and Heating and Cooling

In sales management, one of the best ways to differentiate yourself from the rest of the average sales mangers out there and lay your own personal foundation for success is to simply do the same thing the heating and cooling guys do:

  • Call your sales reps back when they call you
  • Follow up on projects we are working on that need help
  • Let them know where we stand

Most plumbers, subcontractors and sales managers miss this critical point to success.

At the very least, basic follow up is essential to sales management success.

Not only do your salespeople want it, but they need it. In fact, they demand it.

So ask yourself:

  • Are you calling back your salespeople when they call you?
  • Do you have a scheduled weekly meeting with each of your salespeople to review your combined actions to help close the sale?
  • Do you actually provide valuable feedback to your sales reps during semi-annual and annual reviews of your salespeople?

If you are doing at least some of these things, then you are more heating and cooling guy than plumber.

If you’re not however….

Sales Management, Salt and Pepper

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I make dinner for the family on most nights. When I’m not traveling, I work from home, so the job of dinner comes down to me.

My youngest son likes to make dinner too.

This is a big help because I can put him to work as my 9 year old sous chef; cutting vegetables, minding the boiling pots and keeping me company in the kitchen.

Oftentimes, he makes suggestions as to what we should cook, which is great because I often have hard time thinking of things to cook.

One night he suggested we have “Greek Night”.

Sounding like a damn good idea, we happily went to the supermarket to get our Greek supplies:

  • Lamb
  • Tomatoes
  • Rice
  • Feta cheese

Grocery list done, we went home, fired up the grill and were on our way.

I then realized I had never cooked Greek before…

Although we have tons of spices in the spice rack, I didnt have any “Greek spices” to spice the lamb. I’m not even sure what Greek spices are…

Pressed for time, I figured I’d keep things simple. Having been to Greece, I knew the Greeks liked to keep things simple when it comes to ingredients.

So I grabbed the salt and pepper, and started to grill the lamb.

Salt and pepper.

When it was all done, it was the best lamb Ive ever had.

The rest of the meal, with the tomatoes with feta cheese, white rice with butter that went along with it were pretty sweet too.

Total ingredients for the entire meal: 6

Simple.

The #1 Key To Great Sales Management

I get asked all the time what the key to great sales management is.

When I answer, I often think of “Greek Night”…especially the lamb.

Why? Because great sales management is all about keeping things simple.

In fact, the more complex you get at times with your “sales management strategies, tactics and tricks” the worse your results.

The key to sales management success is simplicity.

And be helpful.

The New Salesperson

A few years ago I had a new salesperson who was frazzled from her first month or two on the job. She would call me constantly, at all hours, asking about dozens of questions on policies and procedures, afraid that she may do something wrong.

I would always return her call and help her with whatever issue she had. I would also teach her how to solve the issue on her own so she would gain confidence, competence and not call me for every little thing…

One day, I decided I would call her out of the blue.

She picked up the phone (thankfully), and I asked her one of the best questions a sales manager can ask:

“I had a few extra minutes, so I wanted to call you to see if there anything you need help with?”

There was a stunned silence on the other end…

In fact, she may have dropped the phone.

She responded that although she had been in sales for over ten years, she had NEVER had a sales manager call her out of the blue and ask her if she needed help.

We chatted for a while, discussing some of the issues of the day she was having some issues with and hung up.

Be Helpful

A few years later, when I left that company she told me she would never forget that day when I called her. She said that because of that call, she had never worked harder for a boss ever in her life.

Although I think she was exaggerating in her praise, the simple fact remains:

To be a great sales manager, its simple: be helpful.

What’s the key to great sales leadership?

Be helpful.

What’s the key to great sales motivation?

Be helpful.

What’s the key to great sales coaching?

The more you help your salespeople, the more they’ll want to help you…and the more you help your salespeople, the better they become and the better you’ll feel about what you do everyday.

Keep it simple…like salt and pepper

And if ever come over to the house on Greek Night, I’ll have some grilled lamb waiting for you….

What’s your salt and pepper?

Special thanks to Chris Brogan for incredible inspiration for this blog post.

Sales Management Training | How to Interview a Salesperson, Part 4

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Now we get to the good stuff!

Who wants to get drunk like a college frat boy on a beer funnel?

Not to get your hopes up but this sales management training lesson isn’t actually about a beer funnel…

It is all about an interview funnel and its THE essential step in asking the right interview questions when interviewing a salesperson.

In our continuing sales management training series on how to interview a salesperson, we get into interview questions for salespeople.

Today we discuss sales management training step four.

4. “The Funnel”

 
As you may know, a funnel is a large conical structure that is wide at the top and extremely narrow at the bottom. A large volume of liquid is poured into the top of the funnel, the liquid compresses and swirls around the tapered edges, while gravity pulls the substance inexorably towards the narrow hole at the bottom, finally releasing its contents in an unbroken band, streaming out the bottom opening in a tightly concentrated, viscous thread.
 

When you interview sales candidates, think of your interviewing style as a large funnel, but the liquid is the line of questioning you use to uncover the true nature of the candidate. In our funnel analogy, start them off with some large, wide, broad sweeping questions, lulling them into a comfortable rhythm, making them comfortable and at ease.

As the interview progresses, over time, you ask for more and more specifics, narrowing your focus and field of questioning to exact instances and examples until you get a steady strand of tightly worded and specific questions that will ultimately reveal a wormhole into the soul of your candidate.
 

I’m being a bit melodramatic, but the idea is really simple:
 

Start with big broad questions, then using a step-wise approach; ask more and more specific questions, drilling down to get the “answer behind the answer”.
 

It’s really just that simple to explain. It’s harder to actually do, but Ill show you how in the next sections.
 

Get drunk off of “The Funnel”
 

A favorite college pastime is doing “the funnel”, this along with “the kegstand” are two of the more intellectually challenging, yet extremely effective ways in which to consume massive amounts of alcohol in a notably short period of time. By pouring cans of beer inside a plastic funnel, the imbiber of said malted beverage can quickly consume two or three beers inside of ten to fifteen seconds, when under normal circumstances those same beers would be consumed over a longer duration of time.
 

So if you want to get really loaded, really fast…try either one and you’ll immediately know what I mean, (Ill explaining the full benefits of the kegstand in later lessons).
 

Like the college beer funnel, the interview funnel does in essence the same thing. You get a ton of incredibly important information in a very short period of time, loading you up with vital information that you can immediately use to assess the candidates viability for the job at hand. This technique is especially effective if you vigilantly keep them on track as we’ll instruct you to do, even interrupting their rambling if necessary.
 

Make sure you remember to phrase your questions from very broad to very specific. The funnel is a questioning technique you need to use at almost every stage of the interview with the exception of the first pass on The Resume Walk. The Resume Walk is where you get your late lines of questioning, by taking notes and jotting down broad statements that you can then question all the way through the funnel until you reveal a narrow stream of character traits that you can then match to the pre-requisites of the position.
 

So after the candidate has done the resume walk, you are probably now into the half hour mark in the interview. If you’ve done a good job at keeping the candidate on track, as well as shelving most of your questions by writing them in the margin now is the time to refer back to some of these notes.
 

Keep your “Fabulous Five” as well as your hiring criteria in mind; begin asking particulars on some of the initial comments. A good tip is to use their exact words stated back to them. Although they may not say it, the candidate will be impressed with your attention to detail on this. Likewise, this tells them immediately that you’re on the ball and it may be difficult to pull the wool over your eyes. This small detail heightens the intensity of the whole interchange.
 

For example, let’s say that the interviewee divulged that when describing one of their previous jobs he said he “really liked” selling that product. An example of a funnel question would be as follows:
 

“When you were at Moshi’s Oriental Rugs in 2007, you said that you ‘really liked selling oriental rugs’ that year, tell me more about that”
 

When he tells you more, you can then ask even more specific questions around his aptitude at selling rugs in that year. You may ask him:
 

“Tell me about a really huge rug sale that year that you were particularly proud of”
 

Then ask him even more specifics, using names if possible:
 

“What sales strategy did you take with Mr. Magdi to make the sale?”
 

You’ll then want to go even further:
 

“Tell me about that sale to Mr. Magdi and how exactly you did it.”
 

Maybe then layer another related question on top of that by asking:
 

“Out of all the parts of a sales call, which part is most important?”
 

Then ask:
 

“What makes you so good at selling?”
 

You could follow that up with a more introspective question such as:
 

“How does being successful selling rugs make you feel?”
 

This is an extreme example of “funnel” interviewing.
 

Do you see how one single point from the initial interview “Resume Walk” led to six or seven follow up questions?
 

This is purposeful, because the more detail you can get on a single event, tells you not only that it is not “made up” (I cannot imagine!), but it also tells you the specifics you need to assess if the candidate is a good fit for your sale.
 

This is classic “Resume Walk” funneling:
 

  • Focus on one broad statement made in the “resume walk” phase of the interview

 

  • Pick that vague comment apart until you have a very specific instance of the candidate selling in action

 

  • Ask them to comment on their own skills in an introspective manner.

 

And that’s how you funnel.

In our next sales management training step, ee reach you how to “Get to the Why’s” behind your sales interviewees b.s answers.

You gotta cut through the bull and get to the meat.

We teach you how next time.

Sales Management Training | Interviewing a Salesperson Part 3

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Well its been a little while since we continued our series on How To Interview a Salesperson, but this sales management training post is worth the wait!

As outlined in our last sales management training posts, although there are many excellent methods on how to interview a salesperson, in my experience, there are 6 sales management training steps you must follow when interviewing a salesperson.

After conducting hundreds of sales interviews and hiring hundreds of salespeople, these sales management trainng methods have worked wonders for me. So I am more than happy to share them with you here so you can achieve your own high level of sales management successs.

Today we discuss sales management training step three.

3. “The Resume Walk” (First Interview Only)

The goal of the first interview is to do one and only one thing:

Determine if you want them to come back for the next interview!

That is your only goal in interview number one.

The way you do this is get them talking a lot and the best way to do this is get them to take a trip down memory lane…talking about themselves.

So using “The Funnel” interview style as your sales management training guide, it is best to get to the core of who they are by prompting them to first take you through the most basic of interview questioning, namely “The Resume Walk”.

People love talking about themselves – and salespeople are typically a pretty chatty bunch. So in the interest of both “making em comfy” and getting the vital data you need to make an excellent hiring decision, make them extremely comfortable by getting them talking up their (and everyone’s) favorite subject: themselves!

When you actually start the interview questioning, the first question you’ll need to ask the candidate should be use “The Funnel” exactly; start wide and broad and end narrow and specific.

However, you don’t want to have them blindly start telling you “about themselves” – set some ground rules for what you want them to tell you, while using “The Funnel” at the same time.

When you first ask them to talk you through their resume by taking “The Resume Walk”; your question should begin something like this:

“Take me through your resume from college to present, moving from job to job – however, what I am particularly interested in is

Why the “why you made the decisions you made in your career” part?

It’s simple. You’re getting two things here. You get to see them talking (all salespeople need to do this) – where you can measure articulation, persuasiveness and logical flow of information.  But even more importantly, you’ll witness them articulating their desires.

Since actions reveal a whole lot more about a person than just what they say, the “job change” part of the story will tell you within the context of their career, what they truly desire.

Let me explain.

You’ve heard the expression: “show me don’t tell me”? Well, truer words were never spoken when it comes to interviewing. There will be loads of bull flying around during your interview, but the no bull is when they show you and reveal to you what they actually did.

Getting them to tell you about why they made those decisions cuts to the core of their character.

Here’s why. Big decisions require lots and lots of thought and this kind of introspective thought can only come one place: deep inside.

If you really want to uncover what they are all about deep inside, and not just on a surface level, then ask them about the big, heavy decisions they made. Then further drill it down to an even more granular level by asking them why they made those decisions…this always bubbles up to the surface the reason behind their answer.

Take notes here. Their answers to these “big decision” questions will give you plenty of fodder for follow-up questions (as long as you write it in your resume margins) for the second interview…

Let’s take a step back.

If you think about the biggest decisions you’ve made in your life – what would they be? You could maybe list a few (this is not all inclusive):

1.    What college you went to

2.    Who you married

3.    What house you bought

4.    What jobs you took

These are all big, life-altering decisions, and isn’t each and every one of them just loaded with stories of exactly who you really are?

How you chose your spouse is so intertwined with what it is that you were looking for in a partner in life that it speaks volumes about who you are, what you are and maybe even where you’re deficient (don’t worry I won’t ask him or her). If somebody asked you why you married the person you are now married to, wouldn’t that answer be a “mini-narrative” on who you are as a person?

It’s the same thing when understanding salespeople’s career choices.

The biggest decisions they made in their career can also be asked with even more revealing, soul-baring questions attached like this:

1. What career path they chose:

“Why are you in sales?”

2. Why and how did they choose the company they chose to pursue that career path:

“Of all the fabulous metal detector companies to work for, what was it about Metallica Metal Detectors, Inc. that made you want to work for them?”

Layer even more questions on top; probe deep into those decisions they made for both 1 and 2 above. You’ll uncover the candidate’s true nature the more follow up questions you ask.

While the candidate is going through the resume walk, remember to take notes in the margin on anything in particular that stands out.

Remember that you’re looking for any broad generalizations, any “throw away” side comments that may be interesting; just take lots of notes. Like we said before, just jot them down on the resume – and circle them so that you can refer to them later.

Don’t forget to notate broad general statements they make like “I really knew that sales was the job for me” and “I did really well that year” or “I learned the products pretty well”. Make note of these broad statements, you’ll be using them later as you swirl them around the middle of “The Funnel”, when used to formulate follow up questions.

Then once you have completed this step, you are ready to really evaluate their answers more in depth. By getting drunk off the Funnel!

In our next sales management training article, we will discuss that further. Stay tuned.

What do you think? Is there a better way to interview a sales rep? Post your comment below and let me know what YOU thnk.

Sales Management Training | How to Interview a Salesperson, Part 2

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As we discussed in our last sales management training post, there are 6 sales management training steps to follow when you interview a salesperson for hire. In our continuing series on how to interview a salesperson, we will cover each step in detail, in 6 consecutive posts, so here goes.

Sales Management Training Step # 2: The “Pre-Interview”

Most rookie sales interviewers immediately start the first interview with “interrogation-style” questions to the interviewee as soon as he takes a seat.

This is a big mistake.

Whatever you do…DO NOT launch right into questions as soon as they sit down. Instead, let them “ease into the interview” by letting them hear you talk for a minute or two (no longer) on exactly what the position is all about. This invariably lessens the “interview jitters” that occur with most candidates.

Remember that you are trying to get the candidate Continue reading →