Selling Out - Muppets ,Hunting Elephants, and the loss of the Secret Sauce

What motivates top salespeople to sell?

It clearly is not just the money. Perhaps we can learn from the open letter of recent resignation.

It is a sad thing to witness a successful salesperson resigning due to the fact that they feel the working environment of their company has become ‘toxic and destructive’.

It is particularly so if it is out of concern for the interests of  clients continuing to be side lined in the way the firm operates and thinks about making money.

The PR experts for Goldman Sachs must limit the damage to reputation in the short term when such feelings are vented in public through an open letter in a newspaper like the New York Times. March 14^th 2012 leading to the letter going 'viral' on the web.

It is also  clearly worrying for some of Goldman’s  clients.

Yet that is what Greg Smith of Goldman Sachs chose to do.

Whether Goldman Sachs carry out the best practise of exit interviews with their departing Salespeople I know not, but in one sense we have what might have come out at such an interview through his open letter .

  It reveals values that this Salesman has which because he felt the firm no longer shared has led to his resignation.

It is obviously only his truth, his side of the story but it does give us an insight to what a salesman at the top of the earning ladder believes is what selling is about.

Over the course of his career with Goldman Sachs, Mr. Smith  states he had the privilege of advising two of the largest hedge funds on the planet, five of the largest asset managers in the United States, and three of the most prominent sovereign wealth funds in the Middle East and Asia. His clients have a total asset base of more than a trillion dollars.

To state that you have lost pride and belief in the firm which formerly   ‘revolved around teamwork, integrity, a spirit of humility, and always doing right by our clients? The culture was the secret sauce that made this place great and allowed us to earn our clients’ trust for 143 years.’

To then continue to accuse the CEO and president to have ‘ lost hold of the firm’s culture on their watch… a decline in the firm’s moral fibre represents the single most serious threat to its long-run survival. ‘ has probably meant he will be struck off their Christmas card list this year.

Of course both parties will move on and draw a line under the sorry situation.

According to Mr Smith, the firm changed the way it thought about leadership.

"Leadership used to be about ideas, setting an example and doing the right thing. Today, if you make enough money for the firm (and are not currently an axe murderer) you will be promoted into a position of influence."

What are three quick ways to become a leader? Mr Smith goes on

 "a) Execute on the firm’s “axes,” which is Goldman-speak for persuading your clients to invest in the stocks or other products that we are trying to get rid of because they are not seen as having a lot of potential profit.

 b) “Hunt Elephants.” In English: get your clients — some of whom are sophisticated, and some of whom aren’t — to trade whatever will bring the biggest profit to Goldman. Call me old-fashioned, but I don’t like selling my clients a product that is wrong for them.

c) Find yourself sitting in a seat where your job is to trade any illiquid, opaque product with a three-letter acronym."

“It makes me ill how callously people talk about ripping their clients off. Over the last 12 months I have seen five different managing directors refer to their own clients as “muppets,” sometimes over internal e-mail”

Mr Smith doesn’t know of any illegal behaviour, but  asks “..will people push the envelope and pitch lucrative and complicated products to clients even if they are not the simplest investments or the ones most directly aligned with the client’s goals? “

"Make the client the focal point of your business again. Without clients you will not make money. In fact, you will not exist. Weed out the morally bankrupt people, no matter how much money they make for the firm. And get the culture right again, so people want to work here for the right reasons. People who care only about making money will not sustain this firm — or the trust of its clients — for very much longer. "

From this angry letter I guess we have learnt a little more about what has demotivated a top salesperson.

Links:
New York Times Article
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/15/business/a-public-exit-from-goldman-sachs-hits-a-wounded-wall-street.html

Tack Sales Leadership study

BBC Audio Link Simon Jack on BBC Radio 4 Today programme

http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_9705000/9705399.stm?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

Selling to the Choosy in their choosing

More and more people in work are consciously aware of their role contributing to Sales.

They may not be in direct two way communication with their customer- yet they are aware or say that they are aware that the decision maker or influencer has a choice. In service industries in particular they are aware we have a choice.

For example I may buy my airfare for business and so act as a true decision maker or have someone buy it for me in which case I am an influencer.

BA have reintroduced their “We fly to serve “slogan.  On landing the plane ,their pilots whom we may never see, yet alone speak to, thank us for choosing their airline.

The burger from Burger King is offered as a choice “have it your way”

One’s coffee from Starbucks is expressed as“ happiness” is in ( my) choice.

Selling has been described as asking for a decision whilst buying is about taking and making a decision. 

There is a discipline becoming increasingly popular called psycho economics – behavioural economics.  For salespeople this is of interest because it often helps to explain behaviour which they encounter in buyer behaviour which helps to explain the mix of rational and emotional motivations at paly in the buying journey.

Many choices for Buyers in Business are between things that are not that much different. The value of choice depends on your buyer’s ability to perceive differences between the options

Psycho-economist Sheena Iyengar   from Columbia University in a TED talk studies this area of science see link below.

Her studies have shown that the average number of choices made in the day is 70 decisions in a typical day.

A similar study on CEO’s  time in decision for their task  that in a week  a CEO will work on  139 tasks each of which has many sub choices but  the study revealed  50%  of the decision  were made within 9 minutes or less,  only 12%  were  in an hour category.

Many buyers are overloaded with choice. One tap on the pc and they are hit with overload.

So  the work of Sheena Iyengar on what is going on in the methods we use to choose is of interest to us.

 Sheena did a study on choice at a food store to measure how shoppers react to range of choices.

Jam tasting booth experiment

When 6 flavours of jam were offered   40% stopped at the stall.     30 % buy

When 64 flavours were offered 60% stopped at the stall.       3% buy

So that might show us that the more choice you offer the better. But  what percentage of those who stopped by bought?

For the 64% flavours stall 3% bought

For the 6 flavours of jam stall 30% bought

What this suggests to Sheena is that even if we choose to participate if the range of choices is very broad we are more likely to avoid choice. Her studies also show that even if it is in our best interests , the very broad choice puts us off choosing.

Sheena suggest 4 ways to make better choices

1.    Cut   less is more   Apparently the average supermarket has 45,000 items. Wall mart 100,000 items. Yet the 9^th biggest supermarket however is  ALDI  who narrow their choice offering to 1,400 products.  

2.    Concretization   This is an important technique for those in intangible services that it is vital to make the consequences of the choices in a vivid way.  Alternatively get the buyer to envisage the positive consequences of their choice.

3.    Categorisation   Sheena’s studies show we can handle more categories than choices. In an experiment with categories of a magazine rack in a shop her research showed that   400 magazine (choices) split into  20  sold more than  600 magazines split into  10 categories.

4.    Condition for Complexity – gradually increase the complexity  Start off  with easy  choices in your presentation .

Sheena’s  studies  showed that the sequence in choice a car choice worked better if the sequence started with say choosing out of four gear shifts and steadily build to choosing say from the 56 colour choices keeps buyers more engaged than starting with the vast colour range of 56 colours  and then onto the choice of gear shifts.

Links related

 7 Effective ways to close

http://fruitsofsuccesswithhugh.blogspot.com/2011/02/7-effective-sales-closes-and-ways-of.html

Pat Brenner’s Behavioural Economics site

http://www.scoop.it/t/behavioral-economics

TED talks on Behavioural economics on Choice and Choosing you might find interesting

Sheena Iyengar

http://www.ted.com/talks/sheena_iyengar_choosing_what_to_choose.html

Dan Ariely asks, Are we in control of our decisions? - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9X68dm92HVI

Barry Schwartz: The paradox of choice - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VO6XEQIsCoM

4 key points to make your Selling emails compelling

Buyers receive dozens of emails each day offering goods and services promising untold advantages.  You  and I are probably responsible for one or two of them dear reader.

Yet many of theses emails don’t get past the spam filter. Of those that do, many are deleted by the buyer before being opened.

Of those that are read, few receive a positive response if any at all.

Quite often a sales email  just warns the Buyer in advance that someone is likely to cal. It actually worsens the salesperson’s position as the target can prepare their gatekeepers to repel all boarders or block any further approach.

On the other hand, researched properly and well written an email can actually WIN you an appointment of not a piece of business.

1.       DOES THE ENTRY IN THE SUBJECT BOX COMPEL THE READER TO OPEN OR DELETE I?

Is the email about them just a mass mail out ?  Have you included a specific reference to a situation or circumstance relevant only to someone who understands them or their market ? Would they care about opening it?

2.       DOES THE CONTENT OF THE EMAIL GRAB THE ATTENTION OR CONTAIN SOME KIND OF HOOK?

Is the content engaging and properly researched? Does the email require thought? Are there any facts , figures, weights, dimensions, percentages or statistics that put into the context of the buyer’s role and/or the needs of their organisation?

Are there any attachments or links  included that enrich  your email in terms of  of the Buyer understanding of potential value? If there is an existing relationships or referral  that can be used to create trust in you, has it been used?

(AIDA -The History bit 1890s? 1904? Or 1921? according to Wikipedia

E St Elmo Lewis in 1890s  came up principals for an effective advertisement.

The general concept of four steps, however, was in an article by Frank Hutchinson Dukesmith in 1904. Dukesmith's four steps were attention, interest, desire, and conviction.

The first instance of the AIDA acronym was in an article by C.P. Russell in 1921 where he wrote:

An easy way to remember this formula is to call in the “law of association,” which is the old reliable among memory aids. It is to be noted that, reading downward, the first letters of these words spell the opera “Aida.”

"..When you start a letter, then, say “Aida”to yourself and you won’t go far wrong, at least as far as the form of your letter is concerned.."

(the principles still apply to electronic mail)

3.       IS THE LANGUAGE AND STYLE OF THE EMAIL BUSINESS LIKE OR ‘ TOO SALESY’?

C -SUITE level decision makers don’t like to be pitched at. Hey are looking for potential business partners and vendors who help them achieve their desired outcomes. Is the email talking about great products and asking for an opportunity to demonstrate or is it suggesting a consultative approach?

4.      ARE YOU AFTER COMMITMENT OR IS THIS MERELY AN INFORMATION EXERCISE?

Is your email suggesting  specific actions and timings? Have you maintained control or are you just waiting and hoping for a response?

Related links

Leveraging emails for better sales  10 ideas

http://fruitsofsuccesswithhugh.blogspot.com/2012/03/leveraging-email-for-better-selling-10.html

The death of email?

http://fruitsofsuccesswithhugh.blogspot.com/2011/01/death-of-email-hullabaloo-caused-by.html

Microsoft Outlook Business News Letter Template

http://office.microsoft.com/en-gb/templates/business-newsletter-e-mail-TC102625998.aspx?AxInstalled=1&c=0

Microsoft Outlook Event Flyer

http://office.microsoft.com/en-gb/templates/business-flyer-e-mail-TC102625995.aspx

Selling Sentiment in b2c and b2b -Trust, Service and Integrity

There are of course, both tactical and strategic differences between business to business (b2b) and business to consumer selling (b2c).

Yet it’s important to keep in mind that, in the end, people buy from people.

Whether it’s in-store, on line or in an office, salespeople connecting with their clients make the difference – things like trust, service and integrity are universal and transcend every marketing sector.

Yet in business if you want to manage - you need to measure. The easiest way to measure is to analyse numbers- these can range revenue figures to various activities leading to the sale.


Despite the current emphasis for Sales Processes, Sales Metrics and colourful 'Dashboards' there is still that inconvenient and time honoured truth that not all can be under our control.

 The reason for this is clients buy for not only logical /rational reasons but also for personal and emotional reasons.

Good selling will always be the mix of relationship building and getting commitment.

The Brand Enrichment report commissioned by Creston Unlimited was published this week in Marketing Week highlights all this.

Although primarily focused at consumer marketers it has interesting interesting findings to b2b as well.

Marketers tend not to talk about products but brands nowadays. In the study the researchers have found that there are 8 dimensions of brand enrichment that most often determine consumer’s reason for choosing a brand.choice. There is also a hierarchy in these influences.

These measures have been defined using qualitative research.

The 8 dimensions according to Creston Unlimited represent 83% of buying decisions

The research has then been used by ICM to form a 22 question  quantitative study

3,500 people were interviewed on a nationally representative Omnibus panel

The 8 dimensions were :

1. Pleasure

2. Confidence

3. Status

4. Responsibility

5. Effectiveness

6. Individuality

7. Saving

8. Belonging

“When indexing men and women against the total sample, the emotional value with which brands enrich women’s lives was greater across every dimension compared to men. This suggests that a brand targeted at men has to work harder to enrich men’s lives than a female orientated one,” the report discloses

  Pleasure Confidence Status Responsibility Effectiveness Individuality Saving  Belonging

Men          26%          11%       16%           15%           10%                 9%             6%           6%

Women     19%           22%       13%           13%           12%                 9%            8%           4%

Marketing Week 1st March 2012 Creston Unimited

Key points from the Creston Unlimited data.:-

• Pleasure drives 23% of all brand choices
• The emotional value with which brands enrich women’s lives was greater across every dimension compared to men
• For men, Pleasure was also the greatest brand choice driver at 26%, followed by Status and Responsibility
• For women, Confidence was the greatest brand choice driver at 22%, followed by Pleasure , Responsibility and Status
• The level of brand enrichment varies significantly according to income, with individuals earning £15,000 or less gaining significantly more emotional value from buying brands than the better of

•  Savings remains one of the lowest drivers for the less well off, despite their low income

• 89% of women earning below £15,000 are are 89% more likely than average to get pleasure from a brand.

• Well off men earning £50,000 feel much less enriched than the average person,as do men of 45-64

• Younger women get more from brands. Those aged 18-24 are more likely to feel that brands improve their lives than any other age group on every aspect except responsibility

• Men aged 45-65 care very little about status but it is a prime motivator for men aged 18-24. They are 115% more likely than average to believe owning a brand can elevate their status.



So it looks like the old adage still holds that :-

"There may be not much emotion in business but there is a hell of a lot of business in emotion !"

Related Links

Value Selling evolution


http://fruitsofsuccesswithhugh.blogspot.com/2011/10/value-selling-evolution-at-successful.html 


Buyer Motivation


http://fruitsofsuccesswithhugh.blogspot.com/2011/01/it-is-not-only-about-price-12-key-buyer.html



Differentiated Value Proposition


http://fruitsofsuccesswithhugh.blogspot.com/2011/01/3-key-parts-to-dvp-tuning-into-buyers.html

Komatsu - Down to earth Selling

In their construction and mining equipment business, Komatsu is not only engaged in the manufacture and sale of new equipment around the world, but also promoting various types of business that contribute to productivity enhancements and problem solutions on the part of its customers.

The spares side of the business is key to the overall business.

I returned to the Vilvoorde European HQ just outside Brussels to run a sales skills refresher for their parts and service sales specialists.

I guess it is every boy's dream to get  close up to  the real machines rather than a Tonka toy! These machines have to work in  the testing environments of the Quarrying and mining industries.

A 480 unit in for maintenance. The tyres makes a car tyre look puny !

The business needs a special sort of sales professional with both good technical knowledge and commercial saviness.

So the course covered the Komatsu Sales process ,Customer Segmentation, the Commodity Sales Tool, Territory Management, Territory Cash Map, Identifying the relevant decision makers and Key Influencers ,Preparing the meeting, Making the visit / purpose etc, Vehicle Inspection, Product presentations , the Offer, Closing the sale and call reporting

Selling Situations Exercise - The group - Poirot-like  "stretch their
 little grey cells"  in the Komatsu  training room in Bruxelles

Napoleon Bonaparte said an ' army marches on its stomach'
 Tahe, Maciesc Lorenzo Dimitar fuel up at lunch for the afternoon session.

As well as conventional engineeering maintenance the machines are monitored by satellite.

KOMTRAX (Komatsu Machine Tracking System) for their construction equipment

KOMTRAX is a  tracking system  for  Komatus machines whose terminals are installed on construction equipment to transmit information such as their  location, cumulative hours of operation and operating condition of the  vehicles.

 By proactively using information gained from KOMTRAX-equipped machines, Komatsu is able to provide dealers with after-sale support activities for customers' machines throughout their lifetime, resulting in enhanced availability and lowered maintenance cost.

The Komatsu KOMTRAX Sytsem.

Delegates who attended  the course in Vilvoorde came from Belgium  Bulgaria, Norway, Sweden, Germany, Poland, Italy,  and Ethiopia . It was like a United Nations of Sales professionals.

As well as working hard with the team, there was time for leisure and good company . We stayed at the Novotel in the centre of the  historic Flemish town of  Mechelen with its  icturesque Town Hall, St Rumbold' s Cathedral  and Town Hall .

I  can also recommend the  Goudon Carolus beer !!

Related Links

Komatsu

http://fruitsofsuccesswithhugh.blogspot.com/2011/04/from-small-pine-tree-to-global.html

Leveraging email for better selling -10 ideas to email better

I have just completed another PRO -Payback Selling in Action Programme for TACK  in London in the great facilities of  De Vere West One opposite  the BBC's Broadcasting House.

Delegates who come on  this programme are the courageous ones - because they know they have to role play a client meeting and their role play is videoed.

Of course coaching on this type of programme requires a gentle touch. For sure it is helpful to suggest development points to delegates selling skills but equally ( or perhaps more so) their strengths and talents -  and it is important to encourage them to further build on these strengths.

In the post course feedback one delegate even remarked of the sessions that were most of use to him was " Role play - the part I feared the most but gained more than I expected" another wrote " Role play- feedback on how I am portrayed".

As well as practical face to face skills, we also worked on  a session on the practical application of email in Selling.

As an exercise after the delegates had completed their simulated sales meeting which we had video recorded for them, I asked them to send a follow up email  to me as if I was their client.

It's an interesting exercise since they had a chance to not only practise their email writing skills but also to see the results from the Buyer's point of view because I projected their emails on the screen.


The first thing one gains from this exercise is to realise that our email is of course amongst a mass of others in the Buyer's  in box- so it is important to consider what to put in the Subject box.

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What should we as Salespeople put in the subject box  for our Buyer's email in box?

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Hugh Alford,(TACK International) Mark O'Driscoll ( Sauer Danfoss), Darren Hack ( Phoenix Contact) Mike Farrell ( Sauer Danfoss) James Sainsbury (Latchways PLC) Sonny Moore  and Tim Davies ( David Harber) held at De Vere's West One Conference Venue  -  TACK's PRO_PAYBACK_Selling_In_Action

The group worked on  how to make best use of emails before, during and after the sale.

We drew up some guidelines, and considered aspects such as content, style and design of sales emails.

Firstly we discussed the dangers of emails !

It is worth remembering that a sales e-mail is an uncontrollable and indestructible record.

 Computer experts can retrieve even after someone has seemingly deleted it. Even if you’ve marked a sales email ‘private and confidential’ apparently it can be used in evidence in court proceedings. With the machinations of the Leverson Enquiry into phone hacking by the British press, investigation into the electronic paper trail has been key in the evidence submitted to the enquiry.

Here are common ideas on designing and writing better emails for Sales

1.      Be professional - Avoid colloquial and chatty style that you may use in your personal emails for business emails.

2.      Be accurate, be factual .

3.      Avoid acronyms , jargon and ‘text speak'.

4. Do not give (unsolicited) opinions or take positions about desirable actions which could be construed as best advice by your client ( or their lawyers!) if they are not offered as best practise .

Some thoughts on how to use email
 in client meeting follow ups

    5. Spell check  and Read before sending.

     6. Put a disclaimer at bottom of page.

       7. Don’t send a thread  of emails unless the trail is useful to the client. For a long email warn ahead “Big one coming!”. Maybe consider sending the body of the information in an attachment.

       8. Confirm a telephone appointment immediately with Outlook diary acceptance protocol.

Some thoughts on how to use email
for sales prospecting

9.  Put something meaningful and specific in Subject box for convenience of you and your client and their team colleagues ( PAs )   finding and filing e.g. Project specific, Contact and Company Name, Date.

10.  Give yourself additional time to read back what you have written one more time and consider its possible future implications before hitting the “send” button. Don’t send an email in anger.

Some further suggestions on content and style of sales emails - Some dos and don'ts:-

Some thoughts in using email for
 'keeping in touch' and e marketing

· If you would not say it in a letter or memo, do not say it in an e-mail.

· If you would not like to be asked about it in a court of law, do not say it in an e-mail.

· If you would not want your boss to be asked about it in a court of law, do not say it in an e-mail.

· Do not “reply to all” unless absolutely necessary

· Do not forward an e-mail unless you want the recipient to see all the correspondence in that particular chain of emails.

· Do not forward legal or commercial advice without the consent of the person that provided that advice.


Like rehearsing the craft of face to face selling skills, it's worth examining and practicing our email writing skills to clients also.

Related Links
TACK International's  PRO_PAYBACK_Selling_In_Action

Selling Expertise The Top Line meets The Bottom Line

Early St Peter's Leeks
( Daffodils National Flower of Wales)
Photo of All Saints Church Fulham ,
 West London last Sunday of February 2012

Happy St David's Day

'Brothers be ye constant. The yoke which with single mind ye have taken, bear ye to the end; and whatsoever ye have seen with me and heard, keep and fulfill' - last words of the Patron Saint of Wales St David d. 1st March 588 to his monks

BBC Radio 4’s The Bottom Line hosted by business shock jock and  Evan Davis E.D..is worth listening to. Although Mr Davis was born and raised in England he bears a Welsh name - Evan.

His BBC programme  "The Bottom Line" claims that it “ cuts through confusion, statistics and spin to present a clearer view of the business world, through discussion with people running leading and emerging companies.”

That seems accurate from the programmes I have listened to. ( You can now watch it also) 

The Bottom Line is produced in association with The Open University.

The programme is broadcast first on BBC Radio 4 and later on BBC World Service Radio, BBC World News TV and BBC News Channel TV.

The episode on February 25th was SELLING EXPERTISE

 This episode that readers to this blog will find interesting since our readership plays a part in the Top line of the Profit and Loss account namely  - SALES. ( warning: don't be put off by the hackneyed intro about selling and inevitable action with E.D. walking through the revolving doors of Broadcasting House, Portland Place - the programme  proper was a quality job)

 Selling  expertise and knowledge the customer doesn't have is a challenging business.

 If consumers are in a state of relative ignorance, how can they shop around?

  Heather McGregor, managing director executive search firm Taylor Bennett; Rupert Soames, chief executive of mobile energy provider Aggreko; Gavin Oldham, chief executive of retail stockbroker The Share Centre joined Evan Davis in discussion.

The panel also swapped  interesting thoughts on religion, morals, ethics in the workplace

Link to TV version

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01czdrg/The_Bottom_Line_Series_10_Episode_5/

Link to  podcast audio version

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01c7srg

May your St David's Day be a good selling day where you "...hear , keep and fulfill"

Related Links:-

Selling Services

http://fruitsofsuccesswithhugh.blogspot.com/2011/07/selling-services-and-intangibles.html

3 Parts to your Differentiated Value Propositions

http://fruitsofsuccesswithhugh.blogspot.com/2011/01/3-key-parts-to-dvp-tuning-into-buyers.html