Every project needs an internal champion. The projects that succeeded had one. I’m not talking about a Microsoft-Trained-Dungeons-and-Dragons-IT-Propeller-Head either. They’re good only for backups and security. I’m talking about a really good administrative person. Someone who has a brain and isn’t afraid to use it – or a baseball bat, if necessary. The champion is not afraid to make mistakes. Or yell and scream, if necessary. The champion is authorized by management to get the job done…and is evaluated on its success. The champion should know everything about the system. He/she should get all the advanced training needed. The champion is responsible for the accuracy of the CRM database. The outside consultants are used to back up the champion. If you don’t have someone like this in place, then you will fail, fail, fail!

2. There were black and white deliverables.

Don’t try to “get more sales” or “service our customers better.” That’s a joke. You buy a piece of equipment to cut metal. You purchase a truck to deliver your product. What’s the specific thing that your CRM system should be doing? How about 2-3 needed reports that you’re not getting? How about replacing 2 databases with one combined system? Come up with an exact deliverable and have your CRM consultant tell you just how much it will cost to deliver it. Justify this investment by how much more sales or fewer expenses will result. Pay them when you see it and it’s working. My best clients go into their implementations with a clear, measurable goal in mind.

3. Management was not “girly-men.”

Schwarzenegger doesn’t like them, and neither do I. This is not a “win-win” situation. You’re not trying to make people happy. You’re putting in a system to help you generate more sales from existing and new customers. Your competitors are doing it. Don’t listen to those whining salespeople who don’t want to use this system – CRM applications are standard stuff nowadays. The strongest managers I know look at CRM as just a tool to use to get the information they need so they can manage their sales and service groups effectively. People don’t like change. Everyone’s got his or her own system. Well, it’s not about them, is it? It’s about the company. If you’re a girly-man with your direct reports, then avoid putting in a CRM system. Take your people to the opera instead.

4. They took small steps at a reasonable pace.

No one turned the place upside down. Our successful clients took the attitude that their CRM implementation would take place over a long period of time and broke the project down into chunks. Many figured out early that a “test group” of users (especially users with the right attitude) is the right place to start. This way, they could get their feet wet and work out the kinks. And assuming success, the test group of users could help spread the gospel – train other employees and help with issues. Each phase would be about 30 days or so. And of course these phases were part of an overall plan. By doing it this way, management could make sure things were going according to plan and give themselves the opportunity to cut their losses if things weren’t really happening they way they hoped.

5. They weren’t afraid to fail.

Look, some really great and successful companies just don’t embrace CRM. Their culture isn’t right for it. They’ve succeeded without it. Some of our clients’ CRM failures really weren’t failures at all. Management knew that CRM was a new concept for their company and were willing to take a chance (remember about taking those small steps) on it. CRM systems fail all the time and for many reasons beyond management’s control. Don’t be afraid to walk away from something that’s just not a good fit. If it was an affordable learning exercise, then it really wasn’t a failure at all.

Source: Gene Marks is the owner of The Marks Group PC (www.marksgroup.net), a 10-person CRM consulting firm based outside of Philadelphia, PA. Gene has written five books and speaks frequently on small business topics. He also writes biweekly online columns for Forbes, Business Week and The American City Business Journals.

I think that it is common for people to think of a thought leader as someone who must be very highly educated, has won awards, or is a published author – perhaps a scientist or a famous writer. This might be true to a certain extent, but here is the rub: We are all capable of being thought leaders in our own right. Owning the title of thought leader means nothing more than making sure you are educated and passionate about something and being able to articulate that experience or expertise to a client or prospect. If you have expertise in selling your product and/or service, you can claim thought leader status.

As sales professionals, we must always be thinking about how to raise our profession and our sales community as a whole to new and unprecedented levels of respect. We can do that in many ways. For this article, I am talking about being known as someone who can speak with authority and intelligence about the field in which you sell. For example, if you are selling knowledge management systems to catalyze education, you need to know what is happening in the space, trends, and developments, the current thinking of the experts, the state of technology, and so on. You must be able to express an opinion and converse intelligently and authoritatively on your services beyond the clicks, bits, and bytes of the actual product. If you cannot have a discussion on theory and be able to hold your own with the experts, you are not a thought leader. You run the risk of being “just the salesperson” in the client’s eyes. Being a thought leader increases your value to the client. You get the appointments and the client’s time. That is money in the bank.

What Does It Take Be a Thought Leader?

Becoming a thought leader is not difficult. In fact, it is easy, and if you like to learn, it’s fun! Make it your business to educate yourself by reading, attending industry meetings, and networking! Know everything you can about your space. When I was selling online education, I made it my business to learn and understand how people learn and to know what the adult learning theory means. I talked to everyone I could and was able to really converse with the experts. My clients knew I took the time to learn and respected me for doing it. They trusted me to make sure I knew what was happening. The results were better relationships, fun sales calls, effective networking, and bigger deals.

Everything you absorb will help you know your space better; this empowers you to educate your clients and prospects. Elevate your sales calls to discussions on concepts, developments in the market, and futures. Take a dive into the cerebral pool with your clients. You will earn more respect, and this creates a more natural bridge to being a better sales professional. Being a thought leader shows you care about what you do and about your clients’ business and their passions! Being a thought leader in your own right means you can connect at a new and more exciting level.

So, go climb the knowledge mountain and claim your thought leader status.

What Is a Value Proposition?

A value proposition is a clear, concise statement that quickly describes what customers will get by using your organization’s products or services. Strong value propositions communicate how an organization’s products or services deliver measurable results, such as by boosting revenue, reducing employee turnover, increasing market share, and decreasing costs.

The value proposition must speak directly to your customers’ needs. In addition to solving their needs, you should also be crystal clear about what your organization does that’s unique compared to your competitors. It should also present the most compelling reason for customers to do business with you. For example, my company’s value proposition is: “We build sales culture to help organizations drive revenue.”

Value Proposition – Baseline Sales Tool

The value proposition is a baseline sales tool and the common thread of sales success in an organization. If all members of your organization truly understand the value proposition, they’ll become a valuable part of the virtual sales team. Their focus will center on fulfilling the value proposition and providing strong support to the sales team.  By establishing a unique value proposition and making sure everyone in your organization understands it, you’ll find your sales culture will come alive and deliver powerful results!

As a sales professionals, we are all accountable to drive the correct activities that produce results. We all know this. When you are thinking about your pipeline or are in a discussion about your pipeline, do you find yourself saying “Well, I feel really good about my pipeline,” or “I have been having some great meetings,” or perhaps “I am pretty sure I have enough to make my numbers,” or “I think I can hit the targets”?  Do you find yourself saying these things?

STOP. Step away from the fuzzy cliches.

Part of being a great sales professional is the ability to move beyond the “feel good” and demonstrate ability to translate the right activities into closeable business! I am glad you feel good. That’s important, but do you feel good enough about what you are doing to put commissions in your pocket?

Here are “Todd’s Tips” on Getting Tactical:

1. Close every “great call” with a list of follow-up items, and complete them within 24 hours.
2. If you find yourself wondering what to do next to make business happen, consult your virtual team.
3. Seek coaching.
4. Review your pipeline daily, and if you don’t have follow-up items, then get in touch with your prospect and ASK what is next.
5. Create a plan of action for your clients. They are waiting for you to educate and show them the solution.

Good Selling!

-Todd

A successful sales culture clearly lives and breathes on the expectation of and accountability for virtual team members’ behaviors. It is critical that all members demonstrate behaviors that support the campaign and ultimately serve the client.

A sales professional who demonstrates effective behaviors with clients can, in turn, set the expectation that the virtual team will adopt those behaviors.

Thinking in terms of a behavior as an expectation may be a new concept for a sales professional. Often, expectations in a sales career are expressed in terms of numbers. Sales professionals are often rewarded for selling a certain number of units or adding a dollar amount to the company’s bottom line. It’s critical that we never forget that making the numbers and building the sales culture is formed and determined by the behaviors that we seek and display!

Why IC Is Especially Important for Today’s Sales Professionals

Companies today are offering more solutions to become more differentiated. In other words, sales organizations must be able to do more sales discovery across product lines, as well as across their entire enterprises. Companies won’t be successful if they think that selling is a linear process or that one sales force can’t sell multiple products and services.

A hallmark of great sales professionals is that they’re confident and capable of managing multiple conversations about various product lines with multiple constituencies. Being able to do this greatly enhances your sales culture and your virtual team. And having the professional sales skill of IC is an essential part of being able to successfully sell multiple products and services to a broad spectrum of clients.

Do You Have IC?

To determine whether you possess the sales professional skill of IC, think about your relationships with prospects and clients. Do you usually have the urge or gut instinct to ask questions and seek more knowledge about their companies’ issues and problems? Are you curious about their businesses, and do you ask more questions because of that curiosity?

The following are what I consider to be the seven basic traits of sales professionals who have IC:

1. You don’t start and end a sales campaign without uncovering some new area of need somewhere else in the organization.
2. You ask questions that uncover needs because you are genuinely curious, not because it’s in the training manual.
3. Your IC is natural and not formulaic.
4. You feel something is vaguely missing when you leave your client – as if something is left unsaid or uncovered.
5. You just want to know more, and you just know that there is more!
6. When you have IC, you will notice a different level of respect from your clients because you’re showing an authentic level of interest – and clients like that!
7. Your IC is like a tickle that never quite goes away.

I think I’ve read just about everything there is about what it takes to make great sales professionals – and I find much of it’s true. I want to add to that conversation, however, by making sure that we don’t forget about the intangibles and always personally strive to have a high degree of intuitive curiosity.

Seriously – regardless of what job you do – you must be able to be able to specifically and absolutely trace what you do to the client saying “yes” and signing a deal.  This is the true essence of building a Sales Culture and creating amazing virtual teams.

In other words, you must have a “line of sight” to the deal!

I have said and written many times that the most basic element of a sales culture is that “everyone is in sales.” It’s true – everything we do and every interaction is a selling situation. You have the amazing and exciting opportunity to make what you do a vital part of the sales campaign – or not.

In the organization, we all have a job to do, and ultimately it all has an eventual and downstream effect on the client making a purchase and revenue being delivered to your company! No one can or should sit in a silo and profess any lack of interest or understanding of how the role that he or she plays in the creation of business and profits. If you embrace this, then it is easy to see what you do can actually accelerate the sales campaign in many ways.

For example, if you are in finance, you have the chance to work with the sales team and the client to create terms that are acceptable to both parties and close the deal.  If you are in marketing, you are in an exquisite position to see and listen to the clients and produce products and services that they will buy!

So, take a breath, and ask yourself – “can I see the revenue”?

What is your RPi? Try this exercise. Make a list of all of your business relationships. Then rate them on this handy PDF worksheet.

1. Reliable and Available. They will always refer you, and they believe in you as a selling professional. They will make it a priority to introduce you to people in their organization without question. They are consistently available to you and are strong advocates for you as a sales professional and as a business professional.
2. Available but not Reliable. They are available and will take your call and refer you, but not without some concern. Not consistently reliable to be a part of your virtual team. Personal trust may be an issue.
3. Neither Reliable nor Available. They see you as just a part of their business and not at all extendable.
4. Nonexistent. These are people you know – maybe from a community organization or your social group – that you have never thought of as a possible business associate. These are RP possibilities waiting to happen.

A sales culture is powered by the virtual team and, by extension, your RPi. The virtual team is powered by your RPi. Make no mistake – if you can transport and leverage your business relationships with you throughout your professional career, you have a high degree of RP and the potential to be more successful is obvious. If not, you will become stuck as you change and grow and find yourself starting over often.

The real question is this: Do you have RP – Relationship Portability?

RP is a key differentiating factor that separates sales reps from great sales professionals. A strong sales culture is made of sales professionals who have the ability to cultivate long-term relationships and continually build on them. A sales professional with great relationship portability knows that those relationships will stay with him or her as careers and jobs change over time.

In any business climate, good or bad, change is inevitable. Products evolve, become obsolete, are replaced by newer, better products. Sometimes companies go out of business, are bought out or merge. You may be offered new opportunities. When all these changes happen, the strongest asset you have is your RP.

Here is an example of a sales professional who understood RP. Jim sold paper to companies in a large metropolitan area. Even though we keep hearing promises of becoming a paperless society, it hasn’t happened yet. So someone has to fill the need for all the paper that cranks through printers and gets turned into business letters, direct marketing mailers, and award certificates. That was Jim – until a friend offered him the position of Vice President of Sales for his specialized software-development company.

Jim had a great relationship portability index (RPi). His relationships went far beyond just filling his customers’ need for paper. He had become part of his customers’ virtual teams. He anticipated their needs. He talked with them about the evolution of their businesses. He was an honest sounding board about the changes in the marketplace. He referred business to them and introduced them to other professionals in his network.

When Jim needed to start making connections to learn about companies’ software needs, he didn’t have to make cold calls. With his high RPi, Jim could call the people who had bought paper from him.

If you have a decent business relationship with a paper buyer, he or she can probably give you the name of a colleague who is in a position to buy customized software. Because Jim had a great RPi, his customers were willing to go far beyond that. They would call a buddy in the right department and introduce Jim. They would say, “If you need anything, just call Jim. He’ll take good care of you.”

They would tell Jim about someone from their Rotary or Lions club who might need software. They kept in touch with Jim as their careers changed as well.

I see examples of effective virtual teams and sales cultures everywhere I go. I see a lot of examples, but still not enough to think that the sales culture practices are commonplace and clearly understood by sales organizations. When the sales professionals thoroughly understand what they have to do and know how to engage people, the organizational managers say, “Yes, go to work and be on the team.” No distractions on competing priorities are presented by different levels of functional bosses.

The virtual team members’ biggest challenge might be time management. Balancing functional responsibilities and virtual- team responsibilities to the customer can be tricky. One way to bring clarity to this challenge is to think of the customer and his needs first. What will help satisfy the customer? How urgent is the customer’s need for my service? What works best for the customer? How can I help to move the sales campaign to a successful close?

Functional managers and sales professionals who are leading the virtual teams can help team members prioritize their work in ways that contribute to customer satisfaction and company success. Whatever affects a customer comes first.

Organizational managers can look at activities in two categories: customer issues and internal issues. If the environment or culture of the company is one that prioritizes the customer before all else, then everyone knows how to manage his or her time according to these guidelines. The internal issues need to be managed to best respond to the customer issues.

A sales professional should see every situation as a unique opportunity to reinforce a sales culture. The sales professional needs to recognize the different needs in each sales opportunity to build his sales culture and success. Money in the emotional bank account comes first. This account is built by developing relationships with customers and virtual team members, who can help with the customer relationships.