Disqus - Latest Comments for markallenroberts

Re: 7 Obstacles to Executing with Excellence

markallenroberts — Thu, 02 Feb 2017 19:02:54 -0000

Great article I will share. The leading reason why I have expereinced sales fails to execute the plan is a dated value proposition. The plan way based on what used to be true 10 years ago but does not understand how buyers buy today and what buyers must have to buy today. What are your thoughts?

Re: How to Set Up New Employees for Success

markallenroberts — Wed, 30 Nov 2016 16:13:47 -0000

Great post,
This speaks to the intrinsic need to feel valued.
Companies often focus on the extrinsic needs : pay vacation.
But when intrinsic needs are not met, they validate the desire to leave with extrinsic factors.
Its about onboarding employees even better than you onboard a new account.
thanks

Re: The Path to Being the Greatest Appears to Be Going Backwards

markallenroberts — Mon, 17 Oct 2016 17:50:12 -0000

Great content I am sharing in all my networks
thank you

Re: How An Egomaniac Cost Me a Five Figure Commission Check and Changed My Sales Career

markallenroberts — Thu, 29 Sep 2016 10:26:56 -0000

Another great post! Thank you!

What you described above happens way too often.... Sales show up and throws up.

They play what I refer to on my blog as "feature and benefit Bingo" just hoping the buyer yells: Bingo! I get how you can help me!

The value proposition must illustrate you know the market, the market problems and how you solve them today.

As I have been sharing in my posts, another common issue that is felt as lost sales you could have won is a dated value proposition.

What I often do with clients is conduct a "value proposition Audit" and insure the value proposition the team is using connects with their buyers today.

If you have never heard the term; Value Proposition Audit you can learn more about how I do it on my blog here: http://www.nosmokeandmirror...

Thanks again, Mark

Re: Yes, We Have No Office

markallenroberts — Thu, 16 Jun 2016 12:47:09 -0000

Great post Michael,
I have worked in offices and remote and have found remote is much more efficient.
If required to be in an office I still do strategy work from home where I can be uninterrupted.
For those 1950's managers who need to SEE their people are working...look around your office. How much time is actually spent working? I think if you are honest the number will disturb you.

I was taught years ago to manage by walking around so I see the random non work conversations, the time on social media, the smoke breaks, and interruptions. When you are working on something and are interrupted the studies show it will take you at least 20 min to get focused again.

The 1950's style folks also say: "what about leadership? you need to be here for your team" I travel 60% at a minimum and have led sales and marketing teams for over 30 years. I share the objectives, create metrics to monitor them w easy to use dashboards and I expect my teams to work. If they need my help they can reach me any time with technology today. If they need to be micro managed I ask them to leave the team.

The foundation of any relationship is trust. If you have a problem with team members working remote you really have a trust issue and I suggest you address the real problem.

Re: 6 Ways to Shorten Your Sales Cycle

markallenroberts — Tue, 03 Nov 2015 10:32:48 -0000

Good advice,

We are entering a time when a number of markets are turning over as I discussed in a recent post https://www.linkedin.com/pu...

One of the signs of a market turning over, shifting, is longer sales cycles.

As you shared in number 3 , now is the time to better understand your customers, their current needs and processes to buy.

Mark

Re: How to Become a Well Known Brand and Increase Sales

markallenroberts — Wed, 14 Oct 2015 10:20:49 -0000

Great Post

Every company and every product and service have a perceived expectation.

As I shared in my first book: Branding Backwards , you can brand with intention and make sure your promise is what you strategically want it to be....or you can do it like most companies and brand by default and let the market decide who you are and what you promise.

Oh, I almost forgot, if you fail to intentionally create your brand expectation, your sales people will! How does that feel? It should worry you because rarely is it accurate and it often sets your company up to have a bad buying experience .

If you want a free download of my first book you can download one here http://www.outbsolutions.co...

Re: 5 Ways to Attract B2B Sales Superstars to Your Team

markallenroberts — Fri, 10 Jul 2015 16:20:50 -0000

God article ,

A sales superstar can help you make your sales goal for the year so this is important.

One you get them on the team you also need to make sure they do not leave. I shared some advice on how to keep sales stars here http://www.nosmokeandmirror...

thanks for the article I shared it in my networks

Mark

Re: How to Update Your Outdated Content

markallenroberts — Fri, 10 Jul 2015 11:44:55 -0000

great post!

Re: What Pricing Authority Should Salespeople Have?

markallenroberts — Thu, 08 Jan 2015 12:25:33 -0000

Great Topic,

Product pricing is actually a marketing role.

Assuming they have done the market work prior to launch they should tell sales the price strategy. If your price is higher they should also provide the value proposition that justifies it.

As we have discussed though, that's a perfect world. As salespeople we are often asked to " just make it happen" and time kills deals.

If marketing does not do the market work you are basically asking your salespeople to "sell naked" http://www.nosmokeandmirror... .

If you lead a sales team and marketing has not provided you current market data and the strategy of price, I do some quick data gathering and provide my feet on the street a range to move if needed based on specific criteria.

Mark Allen Roberts
Expert Panel
www.nosmokeandmirrors.com

Re: Should Salespeople Be Eligible For Annual Salary Increases?

markallenroberts — Mon, 24 Nov 2014 08:13:12 -0000

Borrowing from an old native american proverb:" the wolf you feed is the one that grows."
Compensation requires the same amount of planning and strategy as any other parts of your business.
I believe merit increases and a variable compensation both have a place with salespeople.
The merit component is about performance and "how" you drove your performance, and rewarding long term objectives.
The variable component is hopefully designed to reward the behaviors you want.
I try to design the total comp model to hit and slighting pass the national averages for the role at 100% of goal achievement.

Mark Allen Roberts
Sales Management Expert Pannelist
No Smoke and Mirrors sales
www.nosmokeandmirrors.com

Re: If A Salesperson Made A Pricing Mistake, Would You Honor The Deal?

markallenroberts — Mon, 03 Nov 2014 10:45:23 -0000

Unfortunate but I have seen it happen.

Be honest and authentic and call buyer, share you made a mistake in a haste to serve them quickly.

You will honor opening order but new orders need to be priced at $ ______ .

Follow up conversation in writing.

Develop process to insure this does not happen again.

Mark Allen Roberts
Expert Panel
www.nosmokeandmirrors.com

Re: How Do You Implement a Uniform Sales Compensation Plan?

markallenroberts — Mon, 27 Oct 2014 11:37:33 -0000

Great topic,

This is a common issue with teams I have helped. (This should produce some great content for everyone to share.)

I would first ask for a detail summary of comp by person and compare it to sales goals being achieved. I would also ask for the last three years of sales by person, and the market(s) each person serves and where they are in their life cycle.

As I have shared in other posts compensation is rarely why a sales super star leaves. It is what we hear once their intrinsic needs are not being met and they validate that feeling with an extrinsic indicator like compensation. http://www.nosmokeandmirror... .

This rationalization to a common sales comp model may take time to occur depending upon how much the pay varies.

The sales comp plan that has worked well for my teams over the years looks something like this;

Base - market competitive base, should be 60% of total compensation

Variable component - 40% of targeted comp , based on achieving specific goal . Some companies use sales only, I prefer profit from sales to insure sales grows profitable business.

How to structure variable? A bonus will be paid at 100% of goal. The goal for each person is a product of a sales plan considering; current customers, targeted new customer opportunities, new products launching and any price increases planned.

As sales exceeds goal variable component has a multiplier . So lets say they achieve 115% then they are paid at 120%, and so on. 80% the variable pay o starts but this is a very small % of 100% funds, say 20%. They do not achieve the targeted comp for this position if they do not hit goal.

For the situation described in this challenge I would use different variable comp targets at 100%. If someone lets say has a high base, then their variable at 100% would be less than those with lower base.

After a few years of this model your comp will rationalize. I make it very clear everyone has a variable based on their unique circumstances and difficulty and they are not to be shared. What I do share is how the model reward behaviors we want and I share how everyone is performing as a % to their goal, and how the team is performing.

As for fear of people leaving, the top sales performers love the comp plan I use because they are in control of their total compensation as long as the goal was built from the market up and not the board room down. There is no cap, no claw backs. As I shared in a recent post https://www.linkedin.com/pu... if at all possible I want to keep all current employees since replacements often take much longer to hit the ground running than most people appreciate.

However, if someone on your team hates this performance based model that holds them accountable to specific targets, they are usually along for the ride and are resting on past performance. ( often 5-10 years ago) and I would be inviting them to explore other opportunities in the future .

Compensation is a strategy that has many other components with more than discussed here. It starts with answering the question; what do you want your plan to achieve? ( reward) . The above is a model I have used to drive sales velocity with current and new customers while creating a performance driven culture. If your business , or salesperson is focused on a mature market you are choosing to milk, the comp plan would be much different.

Mark Allen Roberts

Expert Panel

www.nosmokeandmirrors.com

Re: How Do You Manage A Salesperson Who Always Asks For Lower Pricing?

markallenroberts — Tue, 21 Oct 2014 11:28:52 -0000

This answer may rock a few boats, but often it is not a "sales " problem.

If your team has a market driven value proposition for your products, that is true, your people would not lead with price as I discussed here https://www.linkedin.com/pu...

Marketing must clearly understand the problems your customers have, and position strong value propositions, and train sales how and when to use them.

Fail to have a current value proposition that resonates with buyers?...all your salespeople have is price.

Mark Allen Roberts
Expert Panel
www.nosmokeandmirrors.com

Re: Considering A Salesperson For A Sales Manager Role, What Do You Look For?

markallenroberts — Tue, 07 Oct 2014 14:29:49 -0000

I have seen this happen many times and the what used to be valued, high performing veteran salesperson fails as regional managers.

I have a number of thoughts but for the sake of space the first thing I would do is:

Have the experienced salespeople take an assessment to see if they have skill sets and personality, attitudes and values of a manager at this company.

If yes, proceed with interviewing them , if not perform a gap analysis on what traits they have, vs what they will need. Are the gaps quickly filled with training and mentoring? Be honest, do you have time to do this?

Assuming they assessments indicate they can perform the job I would ask;

Tell me about experiences you have with sales training, coaching, driving sales through others...

Lets say 2 of your team are crushing their goals, 2 are running about 98-100% and 3 are below 80% what do you do?

Lets say its November and I just gave you your goal for next year with your team, what do you do?

You have been on our team for 15 years and I know you and Mike are friends outside of work...how would you envision things changing or not changing when he reports to you?

How someone answers the above would help determine if they can be a regional manager.

Mark Allen Roberts

Sales Management Challenge Expert Panelist

www.nosmokeandmirrors.com

Re: As A New Sales Manager, What Is Your Opening Message To The Team?

markallenroberts — Thu, 25 Sep 2014 17:15:16 -0000

Ah,,,you are describing my life until about a year ago :) For 30 years I was brought in to teams just like this to create change. That change was measured by sales increases , profit per sale, number of new customers,repeatable sales process,increase in EVA, entry into new markets and bottom line contribution from sales.

With that said I tried many approaches to win over the teams who are rolling their eyes and checking their cell phones( and placing bets how long the "new guy" will last).

Ideally I will have conducted win loss interviews with the top 10 customers, the most recent customers who left and possibly 3 accounts you should have been selling but have not opened. I will have presented everything to the owners and have their buy off and support.

First step is to lay out the objective, the team's "miracle mile" if you will as clear and concise as possible. Share vision for how to achieve it; example 40% growth from current customers, 40% new customers, and 20% those new products they launched but failed to gain traction with ( yet) .

Share what that means for each team member( goals) , show all team members goals together.

The most important part is Culture, the "how" we will achieve objectives, the rules of this game we are starting to play. As I shared in a recent blog post; Culture comes before strategy ! http://www.nosmokeandmirror... .

I share my DISC profile with each team member and have each member take the DISC so I can better understand how to shape communication for them in the most meaningful way. ( first week)

I ask them what has changed in their market write each comment down.

I share what the accounts said, ideally transcribed.

Share what they are doing well we will build on.

I share my personal rules;

* error in the form of action serving the customer
* we win and lose as a team
* none of us are as smart as all of us
* blame-storming will not be tolerated
* be a part of the solution, do not just bring me problems
* and so on

I present the model of the compensation plan highly rewarding performance. ( go over each person's individual plan one on one privately first week)

Then I leave them with a choice...you up for an exciting ride, you will work hard, play hard, and when you execute your territory playbooks ( that they help write) you will be compensated handsomely.

If you need to be managed; resign. I ask for questions, answer them authentically, and I leave the room.

25% will start looking for work and should they have not added economic value in years
50% will take a wait and see
10% will try to leverage relationship with president or owner to get you fired
15% will be on board

Today I would also hand each team member a copy of David Meerman Scott's new book, soon to be best seller; New rules of Sales and Service, share I expect them to read it and we will be talking about the first 3 chapters next week.

Results? Having done this , below are just some results the process I will teach them achieves;
$38 million company to $72 million in 24 months
$14 million company to $85 million in 6 years
Many more..but you get the idea

Mark Allen Roberts
Expert Panel
www.nosmokeandmirrors.com

Re: What Do You Do When Client Contracts Are Unprofitable?

markallenroberts — Thu, 04 Sep 2014 13:05:54 -0000

Pay your salespeople based on the profit dollars contributed from sales.

Identify the 20% under profit target then help sales present needed changes over 3 months. After three months new sales comp plan kicks in.

Too often we talk about "sales goals" but what really matters is the contribution those sales make to the bottom line.

I have experienced success in changing the targeted KPI to profit dollars contributed.

Re: How Do You Get New Salespeople to Follow the Sales Manager Not the Grizzled Veteran?

markallenroberts — Mon, 18 Aug 2014 16:09:25 -0000

Interesting question ,

For your team to follow you they must trust you and trust the direction you are leading them in will create a win.

I believe all members of your team have value, the trick is to get them all rowing in the same direction.

One way I have done this for many companies is establish a sales culture before your sales strategy. I just wrote a blog post about this and shared some of my common sales culture statements that help to set the playing field and establish our game plan and boundaries of play .

If you would value some sales culture statements feel free to visit my post at http://www.nosmokeandmirror...

Your team will follow you once you have trust.The reason team members follow an in house veteran is ultimately safety and trust. Share your vision and share how you will win and the rules you will play by and they will be following you willingly....don't be surprised if the old dog veteran also comes on board.

Mark Allen Roberts
www.nosmokeandmirrors.com

Re: Would You Hire A Product Salesperson to Sell Services?

markallenroberts — Mon, 11 Aug 2014 16:44:27 -0000

In the interview process I would specifically focus in on his knowledge of buyer problems to be solved. If he clearly understood problems and solved them completely and is coach- able I think there is a good fit.

If he lacks an understanding of the buyers need, process and criteria used to solve their problems I would not hire him to cross over from a product to a service.

I have sold both and services are much more difficult in my opinion. To succeed in service selling you must clearly understand the problem, the pain , and make it go away completely. You will be up against price pressures from other service firms but also buyer and influence-r perceived value of your service. So you must be able to overcome that perceived value of your service connecting it back to the pain and the problem you are solving.

Mark Allen Roberts

Sales Management Challenge - Expert Panelist

www.nosmokeandmirrors.com

Re: Channel Salespeople versus Direct Salespeople, Are There Differences?

markallenroberts — Wed, 06 Aug 2014 13:21:50 -0000

Interesting topic,

I have found this channel sales role is different than a B2B
direct role as in many ways you are a “toothless tiger”.

Your job is to “influence” and win the support of
distribution sales but unlike direct employees you do not “manage “them.

I would use the usual assessment tools like DISC and Sales
MAX and look for traits like having a high D trait and I trait. With a direct
sales team I look more for a D dominant but most traits close in score and a high
utilitarian value and attitude. However a high utilitarian may struggle with
managing distributor sales as they lack a direct correlation between activity
and return in most cases.

The right candidate will quickly reinforce your choice by
their willingness to work alongside distributor sales with customers and help
them close business.

Mark Allen Roberts

Sales Management Challenge – Expert Panelist

www.nosmokeandmirrors.com

Re: Why it’s Hard to Identify Killer Sales People in an Interview and What to Do About It

markallenroberts — Tue, 08 Jul 2014 08:39:10 -0000

Enjoyed your post,
I have found the biggest contributor to a talented salesperson not contributing value is a culture disconnect.
In the screening process I try to determine the types of culture they prefer and then decide if it matches that of the companies' I am recruiting for.

I have heard many times; "culture comes before strategy" and I can assure you not having a cultural fit is a leading cause of new salespeople not adding value.

Re: Are Stacked Rankings A Performance Driver or Morale Killer?

markallenroberts — Wed, 09 Apr 2014 08:29:59 -0000

Don't do it.

It is a lazy managers way to try and drive results.

Back up...what problems are you trying to solve?

Drive performance ? The quickest way to drive performance is to make sure your team has specific action items identified and help them achieve them by practicing clean sales management http://www.nosmokeandmirror...

Create camaraderie? I would post the team's performance every week and trust me, they all know where they are performing and where they are falling short. Implement a formalized team approach with your high performing veterans mentoring those team members under performing.

More often than not though if you have team members not achieving goals the real problems to solve may be;

Do they have and are they using a value proposition that connects with buyers today? or are they saying what they have said for years?

Was the goal built from the market up or from mount high ( board room down)?

Do you have defined sales territories, and sales targets segmented by person or is it first come first serve?

In your culture is it rewarded if one person loses at the expense of someone else?

Sorry, no short answers. But if you need one; Don't Do it. It shows you lack an understanding of how people are truly motivated today, and your team will not bind but build silos of dysfunction.

Mark Allen Roberts
www.nosmokeandmirrors.com

Re: Can Customer Service Move a Company from Good to Great?

markallenroberts — Sat, 01 Mar 2014 08:22:28 -0000

Tim,

I enjoyed this post and it is a great reminder that unless we create distinction, we intentionally share what seperates us from other companies that do what we do, the only distinction is price.

I recently shared a great book on how to do this on my blog at http://www.nosmokeandmirror...

Mark Allen Roberts

Re: The Sales Skills You Thought Were Most Important…Aren’t

markallenroberts — Sun, 09 Feb 2014 20:24:58 -0000

Interesting post as usual,

What may have made a good salesperson 10 years ago is not what is required today.

I advise clients to take two steps; Have sales candidate take the Sales MAX profile and secondly interview past customers looking specifically for the ability to listen and understand buyer pain and serve the buyer...not sell them . I wrote about the dawn of the servant salesperson some time ago at http://www.nosmokeandmirror...

Mark Allen Roberts

Re: Can A Selling, Sales Manager Succeed or Is this Role Flawed?

markallenroberts — Tue, 19 Nov 2013 09:00:19 -0000

Interesting discussion,

When I have encountered this model before is when the company is accounting and finance driven and not market driven. Since they lack the experience of what a true sales leader can provide they assign a goal to the leader and the team to show an ROI. Mistake.

What happens is Jamie is torn between two roles and may do neither well.

When I help companies I make all the sales team's goals Jamie's goals and Jamie would not have a specific account list and goals. She will best serve her team helping and leading them. She will constantly be sensing for shifts in how buyers are buying and quickly modify your team's sales process and everyone wins, including accounts who are better served.

Just as sales has changed as I discuss in my recent blog post about how"street legal salespeople are not good enough and the evolution of the servant sales person" sales managers have evolved too.

I do not for example believe in "managing" people, this might have worked in 1950's, not today. Today you mange "processes" and " lead" people. You can't lead people without a foundation of trust. Build that foundation, serve your people, your market, your customers and you will blow your sales goals out of the water!

Don't believe me? Contact me and I will share over 30 years of examples

Mark Allen Roberts
Expert Pannel
www.nosmokeandmirrors.com