As we approach the end of of Q1 2010 it’s time once again to look at the scoreboard to see how your sales team is tracking toward your revenue goal. How are they doing? And how are you doing holding them accountable to deliver?

Here are some thoughts about improving accountability from Dave Kurlan, thought leader in sales effectiveness and salesforce development, and author of Baseline Selling (www.baselineselling.com).

A priest was sharing his frustration over parishioners who took shortcuts and left church early. At a parish he was assigned to earlier in his career, parishioners received the host and exited via the side door without returning to their seats for the remainder of the service. He wondered how many of them had simply developed a bad habit and challenged them by saying, “The next time you find yourself leaving early, ask yourself, ‘why am I doing this?’” A lady approached him after the service and felt terrible about all of this. She said that she had been leaving early to tend to her sick husband. The Priest said that this didn’t apply to her, she was already making a sacrifice by attending, and she should care for her husband. She paused and finally said, “but he passed away three years ago!”

This story got me wondering about the widespread misuse of the sales process. There are certain steps that must be executed at specific times to assure a successful outcome. However, undisciplined salespeople are often tempted to skip steps when prospects ask for prices, quotes, proposals, demos, references, and presentations much earlier than the process allows for. Once in a while these salespeople get lucky and get the business. And then they start skipping the steps they’ve been trained to follow because, after all, they are more comfortable and confident at presenting, proposing, quoting and demoing, than they are with listening, questioning, probing and identifying compelling reasons to buy. Like the lady with the sick husband, they take steps that aren’t necessary or desirable, simply out of habit.

Sales Management’s number one priority is to assure that salespeople don’t fall into old habits, take shortcuts, get lazy, or avoid steps in the sales process where they aren’t as skilled or comfortable. Once your customized, optimized, integrated sales process is in place and introduced, my top 10 rules for all sales processes, strategies and tactics are:

1. This isn’t voluntary
2. There are no exceptions
3. We live it and breathe it
4. Hold them (and yourself) accountable to it
5. Coach to it daily
6. Reinforce it
7. Point out what happens when they skip steps
8. Show them what happens when they execute
9. Non compliance has consequences
10. Practice daily

What bad habits have taken hold with your salespeople?  Follow Dave’s 10 steps to strengthen your sales leadership, to reinforce the fundamentals, and to bring out the best in your team.

Here are 5 (invisible) reasons why your salespeople will underperform in 2010:

1. They have a need for approval
Many people choose sales after being told they have a perfect personality for selling. While that could be true, many of those same people feel complete only when other people like them. Salespeople who are easily liked have a great advantage, but salespeople who need their prospects to like them often make that a priority over getting the business. Salespeople with need for approval have difficulty asking tough questions, have a fear of rejection, and avoid confrontation.

2. They become emotionally involved
Salespeople who think, analyze, create, strategize or otherwise talk to themselves when prospects catch them by surprise become emotionally involved instead of remaining in the moment. When they are emotionally involved, their listening skills tend to be self-focused rather than prospect focused, causing them to miss important points and lose control of their meetings.

3. They rehearse self-limiting beliefs
Every salesperson has as many as 60 beliefs that either support the selling process (“I have the ability to be effective with company presidents”) or sabotage it (”I don’t like making cold calls”). Ineffective salespeople often have 10 or more of these self-limiting records playing over and over in their heads while more effective salespeople have very few.

4. They have a non-supportive buy cycle
The buy cycle refers to the salesperson’s own personal buying habits and how they make major purchases for themselves. Most ineffective salespeople have non-supportive buy cycles: they think it over before making a decision, they comparison shop, they shop for the lowest price, they perform research or perceive that a relatively small amount of money is a lot. When their prospects engage in this very same behavior, the salesperson unconsciously understands (has empathy), and their techniques for handling stalls and put-offs of this kind are either not used at all or are used ineffectively.

5. They are uncomfortable with issues involving money
Many salespeople are uncomfortable escalating a question about budget or whether a prospect can afford the product or service being offered to the next level. Their discomfort prevents them from helping a prospect figure out how to pay or even (more creatively) where the money could possibly come from. When prospects don’t have the budget, can’t envision increasing the budget or don’t know how they can find the money, the salesperson empathizes as opposed to digging deeper, asking questions, and making suggestions to resolve the monetary shortage.

Of the 21 dimensions we use to assess sales effectiveness and develop salespeople, these 5 are the most common and significant inhibitors to sales success. They are also the most challenging to detect and remedy.

You can stack the deck for 2010 in your favor by proactively developing current sales staff in each of these 5 dimensions and by modifying your sales recruiting process to screen for them before you hire. And by the way, if you don’t, the costs associated with an endless recruiting, training, and turnover cycle for your sales team could hurt you even more than the lost revenue!

Want more sales in 2010 and a stable, productive sales team? Then eliminate the 5 (invisible) reasons why your salespeople underperform!

Choose the best answer from the options to discover your Influence Quotient. Dr Robert Cialdini, the leading expert on Influence and Persuasion presents a simple quiz that can help you (and your team) understand your ability to recognize influence and persuasion techniques.

If you don’t have time to take the quiz, but want to learn about the answers, click here.

1. Upon first entering the office of the purchasing manager of a company with whom you would like to do business, you notice a picture of the team mascot of your alma mater on the wall. You should:

1. Mention that you went to the same university prior to discussing business.
2. Mention that you went to the same university after discussing business.
3. Not mention this personal similarity in a business meeting.
4. Discuss that you went to the same university only if the client brings up the topic.

2. You are attempting to persuade the Board of Directors of your company that it is in your company’s best interest to implement a costly revision to your back-office functions. You know that the Board is very concerned about costs, so you have also formulated two alternate plans that are less costly and less comprehensive. When it comes time for your presentation, which of the following strategies should you use to obtain the optimal results (the greatest degree of change the Board will support)?

1. Describe the least expensive revision first.
2. Describe the mid-range revision first, and then ask the Chair if s/he would like to hear the alternate plans.
3. Describe the most expensive revision first, then the mid-range, and then the least costly plan.
4. Ask the Chair which plan s/he is most interested in and then describe that plan only.

3. Your company is launching a new product and your boss asks you to make a marketing decision. Your boss is considering two options to generate initial interest from the public: offering a price reduction on the product for a “limited-time” or offering a price reduction for a “limited number” of the product. Which approach should you recommend to get the greatest interest from the public?

1. “limited-time”
2. “limited-number”
3. Either option will produce the same positive results.
4. Neither option will produce positive results.

4. You have an important meeting with a prospective client later today. You know from your previous discussions that the prospect is impressed with your proposal, but does not believe that implementing your ideas at this particular time is a top priority. Which of the following approaches to the meeting would provide you with the greatest chance of persuading the prospect to approve your proposal in the shortest period of time?

1. Emphasize what the prospect will lose if he does not implement your ideas at the present time.
2. Emphasize the positive features and benefits of your proposal.
3. Ask the prospect to outline his objections to your proposal.
4. Begin with a request for a commitment and then try to close the sale.

5. Imagine you are the (unlucky) campaign manager of a political candidate who has recently lost the public’s trust. Now imagine that the candidate wants to rebuild his reputation through profiling himself as a touch crime fighter. Even though his opponent has a credible track record in his regard. Of the following choices, which represents the best way for your candidate to start his next ad?

1. “My opponent has not gone far enough in fighting crime…”
2. “Many have supported my ability and willingness to fight crime…”
3. “Although my opponent has a good record of fighting crime…”
4. “Fighting crime is a critical issue…”

6. Imagine you are a financial advisor, and you believe that a young client of yours is invested too conservatively. In order to persuade her to invest in riskier, high-return investments, you should concentrate on describing:

1. How others like her have made similar mistakes. (appeal to consensus)
2. What she stands to gain if she invests in riskier options. (appeal to greed)
3. What she stands to lose if she does not invest in riskier options. (appeal to loss)
4. The importance of the two of you working as a team on this issue.

7. You are attempting to sell your professional services to a medium-sized software company. They have never done business with you before and are uncertain as to whether they should select your company. You will increase your persuasiveness the most by:

1. Providing them with a testimonial from Microsoft, who utilizes your services currently
2. Providing them with a master list of all your clients
3. Talking about other clients’ experiences with your company in general ways, without providing any specific testimonials.
4. Providing them with several testimonials from other medium-sized software companies who are your current clients.

8. If you have a new piece of information, when should you mention that it is new?

1. Before you present the information.
2. In the middle of the presentation of the information.
3. After the presentation of the information.
4. You should not mention that it is new information.

9. You have responsibility for motivating your company’s sales force to increase its annual performance. You were told by your supervisor to set goals for the sales people and hold them accountable. Which of the following strategies would be the most effective?

1. Set a goal for each employee based on his or her prior year’s performance and inform each of the goal.
2. Have each employee set a reasonable private goal for themselves.
3. Have each employee publicly state a reasonable goal for the year.
4. Have each employee set an unrealistically high personal goal, and keep it private.

10. You are having difficulty with employee attrition, so you organize a retreat for your office to energize your employees. You want to give each a gift for attending that will enhance the employee’s commitment to give back to the organization. Which one of the following strategies is likely to produce the best results?

1. Give them all the same, expensive gift with your company’s name engraved on it.
2. Give them no gifts, but thank them for attending.
3. Give each employee a personalized gift that is meaningful, even if it is not expensive
4. Give gifts only to those employees who complete the evaluation forms for the retreat.

Click here for the answers!

Want to learn more?  Dr. Robert Cialdini will be leading his first ever 90 minute LIVE video webcast November 17th from 12:00 — 1:30 pm ET.  As author of one of the Top 100 business books of all time — considered by most critics in the Top 10 — his principles are timeless and continue to drive important decisions around the globe. The webcast is just $199/individual; $495/company license (unlimited computers) — and includes access to the archived program for three months after the live event. Register here.

It’s one of the things we need to be more successful in business – right?  Although I agree in general terms, it is also instructive to consider what you are focused on. Let me cut right to the chase: I believe that most business leaders and sales professionals tend to focus on the wrong thing more often than they should.

Allow me to illustrate this with a few questions for you to answer (and, yes, brutal self-honesty counts):  

•  At the split second in time when you recently met someone new, what (or who) were you actually thinking about?
• When you negotiated the final points of your last business deal, what (or who) were you actually thinking about?
• When you last worked with a dissatisfied customer, what (or who) were you actually thinking about?

For most people who are ok with the brutal self-honesty thing, the answer to all three questions is usually “myself.” 

If this is the case for you, do you think that at those three moments you were really focused in a way that moved you closer to the long-term results you want?  What about all of the other moments in your typical day – is it a stretch to believe that you are focused too much on yourself there too?  And how about others in your organization (hint: if they’re human beings, they’re susceptible too) – where are they focused?

One way to find out what you might be missing is to consciously change your focus during important meetings and interactions away from yourself to the other person.  Then see what happens.  Your thoughts drive your behavior, which in turn drives your results.

Give it a try to see if what you’re focused on needs to change.

When I was a child, one of my father’s favorite sayings was “If it seems too good to be true, then it probably is.” He said this most typically in reference to a free or heavily discounted offer we received in the mail or read about in a magazine.  The core of his point was that, absent exceptional circumstances (like your Uncle in the shoe business scoring you a free pair of Nikes), it is reasonable to expect to have to exchange something of value in order to receive something else of value.

Although we conveniently seem to forget this once in a while (Gevalia coffee maker anyone?), as buyers it is a point we generally accept as true.  This is the “value for value” exchange.

If we consider sales, we can now clarify the #1 task of a salesperson as building a sense of value for their product or service to the point where the prospect’s perception is that it exceeds their cost.  Note that their cost might not be limited to money, also potentially including things like time, effort, opportunity costs, and other trade-offs associated with the purchase decision.  The bottom line is this: if the prospect’s perception of the product or service’s value exceeds their perception of its cost, in almost all cases the sale will be made.

Salespeople can’t force their prospects to buy, however.  In the absence of authority, the buying / selling process reverts to influence. In fact, sales is the art of influence. That is, getting someone to do what you want them to do (i.e. buy) because they see that they will benefit from making that choice (i.e. receive value).

Influence and sales are really one and the same.

Take a moment and think about who you typically need to influence during your business day. Your list might include your boss, your peers, clients, suppliers, business partners, networking partners, internal departments, prospects, and others.  In those relationships, just like in sales, your ability to get what you want depends upon how good you are at building the perception of value – the value you’re prepared to give in exchange for them doing what you want or need them to do.  Like Neil Peart said, “You don’t get something for nothing.”

It’s helpful to have an open mind as you consider the value you have to give in these situations involving influence.  It’s also helpful to have an understanding of what the other person really wants and needs.  How do you get that?  Ask, and then listen very carefully.

What you’ll probably discover is that different people want and need very different things.  A supplier might want a referral to one of your clients.  Your accounting department might need information about the structure of one of your business partnerships.  A networking partner might appreciate an idea or two about how she can be more effective with her “elevator pitch.”  And your boss might need some feedback about how his latest initiative is being received by the staff.

To better appreciate how this works in the real world, let me share an experience of mine with Steve, who I met through networking.

Steve and I were having a 1-on-1 meeting over lunch as he shared some of his frustrations as a relative newcomer to business networking.  He is a partner in a limousine and car service business and believed that because he didn’t have many referrals to give others, they weren’t willing to give him any in return.  In short, Steve was stuck feeling like he didn’t have much value to give others in exchange for influence over referrals.  Our conversation continued as follows:

Mark: “How many cars to you have in service?”
Steve: “About 40.”
Mark: “Approximately how many passengers ride in your cars during any given week?”
Steve: (after some back-of-the-napkin calculations) “More than 2,000.”
Mark: “How long, on average, is each trip?”
Steve: “At least 20 – 30 minutes, if not more.”
Mark: “And are your passengers pretty successful businesspeople or people who are hovering near the poverty line?”
Steve: (beginning to get my point) “Of course, they’re successful people.”
Mark: “So would it be of value for you to be able to offer your networking partners exposure to your passengers – say by posting a flyer in an acrylic panel on the back of the front seat?”
Steve: “You bet!”

Steve probably has more value to offer than many of the people he networks with combined.  He just didn’t see it.  When he did, it gave him both the confidence and the ammunition to be more aggressive in offering value for value exchanges leading to the relationships and referrals he wants.

What value can you offer to those you want to influence?  Probably, like Steve, much more than you think.  If you take the time to understand those you want to influence along with their specific needs, the alignment with what you have to give will become clear and you’ll have more opportunities for “value for value” exchanges.  You’ll have stronger relationships and more influence as a result.