https://youtu.be/E_OXFYnUYWg

3 Keys to making sales force accept new ways of working

We all know that majority of new initiatives will not get adopted.  There will be a lot of fan-fare initially and even the head office may support but the chance is that it will fizzle out. How can we avoid this from happening ?

You can have the best of the ideas but without someone to implement them, they are wasted. You need a right leader at the helm to get it implemented consistently in the field. 

After you have concluded that you have the right sales leaders, your next focus needs to be the process behind the initiatives. How does a sales leader ensure the initiatives get fully implemented? 

Keep It Simple  

Fill only the major gaps. Avoid the temptation of plugging as many holes as possible. Dont over-engineer it and keep it simple.  Reps are busy and probably already bogged down with too much administration.  Maximize their selling time. .
 
Bottom  Up, Not Top Down 

Involve the field when designing a new process and seek their input and validation. Oftentimes, a passive resistance dooms the new initiative.  Why?  Because you built it with a top-down approach.  It is best to take an iterative approach to design and roll out.  First assemble an ‘expert panel’ of reps that help design a field prototype.  This expert panel becomes a pilot team to battle test the new initiative.  The process is refined and iterated based on actual feedback. After the reps give their stamp of approval, the sales managers are involved.  They have to drive adoption and coach to the new process.  Therefore, you want their stamp of approval as well.  Assemble a pilot group of managers to field test the new initiative as well.  Refine and iterate based on their feedback.  You are now ready to roll out to the entire sales organization.This criteria goes back to the first item I mentioned in this blog – your sales leaders. They must be willing and able to attack these problems in an effective manner.
Hold Their Feet to The Fire 

Hold your sales managers accountable for the training and adoption. Whatever the new initiative, make your sales managers responsible for training the field on it.  This will ensure your managers own the new initiative.  It will also add credibility to it.  If the managers champion the new process, the reps will follow suit.

Do not let your roll out be a one-time event.  Develop a robust adoption plan.  Think months, not weeks. Your adoption plan should include:  Weekly ‘chatter’ posts to broadcast wins, challenges, and changes. Weekly deal review calls to assess current opportunities as they move through a new sales process. Weekly win-loss reviews to continue refining the new process. Bi-weekly managers calls to discuss findings, wins, challenges and changes. Biweekly review of key metrics and leading indicators
Adoption still not happening?  

Look for the FAIL Point. Most leaders misdiagnose the true problem.  Sometimes front-line sales leaders aren’t driving the initiative. But more commonly it’s not having the right leaders. Have you accessed them?  Do you know if your front-line sales leaders have the right core competencies? 
 

10 tactical measures for increasing sales

1. Increase sales from existing accounts
2. Improve ability to communicate value
3. Improve customer retention, repeat business, renewals
4. Improve sales opportunity approach and planning
5. Win new accounts
6. Increase average size of sales
7. Increase effectiveness of lead generation
8. Optimize sales process
9. Penetrate and build relationship with the executive suite
10. Speed up the sales cycle

Template for creating a "Buyer Persona"

Buyer personas should be research-based models of who buyers are, what they are trying to accomplish, what goals drive their behavior, how they think, how they buy, and why they make buying decisions, and where they buy as well as when they decide to buy.To be useful, the template should include 

• Position (CEO, CFO, VP of ABC, Director of XYZ)
• Decision-making role (decision-maker, influencer)
• Buyer type (user, technical, economic)
• Goals /Needs/Wants/Desired Outcomes : Achieve, Avoid, Fix
• Main sources of information:  Where your persona does his or her research
• Challenges/pain points:  challenges and the accompanying emotions 
• Preferred content medium:  How your persona likes to absorb content
• Quotes:  Bring your personas to life with actual quotes 
• Objections:  anticipated from your persona during the sales process
• Role in purchase process:  his influence in the decision making process
• Marketing message:  The messaging that speaks directly to this persona

20 Qs in a Persona Interview

Role

1) What is your job role? Your title?

2) How is your job measured?

3) What does a typical day look like?

4) What skills are required to do your job?

5) What knowledge and tools do you use in your job?

6) Who do you report to? Who reports to you?

Company

7) In which industry or industries does your company work?

8) What is the size of your company (revenue, employees)?

Goals

9) What are you responsible for?

10) What does it mean to be successful in your role?

Challenges

11) What are your biggest challenges?

Watering Holes

12) How do you learn about new information for your job?

13) What publications or blogs do you read?

14) What associations and social networks do you belong to?

Personal Background

15) Describe your personal demographics (age, married, children).

16) Educational background : level, schools, subjects 

17) Describe your career path. How did you end up where you are today?

Buying Journeys

18) How do you prefer to interact with vendors (email, phone, in person)?

19) Do you use the internet to research vendors or products? How do you search ?

20) Describe a recent purchase. Why did you consider a purchase, what was the evaluation process, and how did you decide to purchase that product or service?

Regarding how to use the buyer persona thus prepared, click here

Buyer Persona - Putting traction into your segmentation and targeting

You created this entire business keeping in mind a certain type of customer . Why, then, do you want this fact to be known only to a few in a specialized language?  Why not paint a vivid picture of your target customer and display it everywhere so that everyone knows exactly what kind of customer you are after.  

Who is your target customer is a very important decision in your marketing strategy. Therefore do not take this decision casually. Bookish Product Managers define it in classic text book terms in terms of

• age group (these shoes are meant for school going children) 
• income group (these garments are for premium customers)
• function (this machinery is for crushing stones for construction industry). 

But such superficially definitions do not allow you to take practical decisions like 

• what should be the specifications of the product that the customers expect
• what kind of people will be needed to convince such customers effectively 
• what delivery mechanisms the customer will prefer 

That is why I recommend you go deeper and beyond such traditional segmentation tools actually create Buyer Personas ! If you see different types of customers for you, create different personals. And then let it be widely known what type of customers you are doing business for.  Let your research, manufacturing, supply chain, sales and advertising know clearly who they are really working for and how can they satisfy the customer. Do not let the "Target Audience Definitions" be defined by Product Managers alone and to be used only in the conference rooms. Let your technicians, telephone operators, salesmen and workers know them too. 

Here is a fictitious example of who the target customer is - at the Buyer Persona level - for a software company. You will see how, knowing the customer in such detail, will automatically improve your decision making. 

For a database software company

Buyer Persona of Mrs Suchitra Shetty

Typical of who our target customers are

BACKGROUND:

• Head of Human Resources
• Worked at the same company for 10 years
• Worked her way up from HR Associate
• Married with 2 children (10 and 8)

DEMOGRAPHICS:

• Age 30-45
• Dual HH Income:  Rs 50 Lakhs
• Suburban

IDENTIFIERS:

• Calm demeanor
• Probably has an assistant screening calls
• Asks to receive collateral mailed/printed

ROLE AND GOALS

• keep employees happy and turnover low
• Support legal and finance teams

CHALLENGES:

• Getting everything done with a small staff
• Rolling out changes to the entire company

HOW WE HELP:

•       Make it easy to manage all employee data in one place
•       Integrate with legal and finance teams’ systems  

      REAL QUOTES:

•      “It’s been difficult getting company-wide adoption of new technologies in the past.”
•      “Don’t have time to train new employees on many different databases and platforms.”
•       “It was painful integrating  with other departments’ databases and software.”

     COMMON OBJECTIONS:

•        I’m worried I’ll lose data transitioning to a new system.
•        I don’t want to have to train the entire company on how to use a new system.    

      MARKETING MESSAGING:  Integrated HR Database Management      

     
ELEVATOR PITCH : We give you an intuitive database that integrates with your existing software and platforms, and lifetime training to help new employees get up to speed quickly.

FOR CREATING BUYER PERSONA IN YOUR OWN BUSINESS YOU MAY FIND THIS ARTICLE USEFUL. CLICK ON THIS.

Customer’s Buying Journey And the corresponding sales process of the seller

The buyer's journey describes the process a typical business buyer takes as they move through the sales funnel. It's their process, not yours.

The journey is not an administrative process, but a cognitive one. The buyer moves from being complacent to troubled, then becomes clear about needs and viable options, before deciding on preferences and opening the way for an acceptable contract.

But the selling process does not - and cannot - precisely follow this path. There are steps the seller must take that are important for the seller that are not part of the buyer's journey. So how do you align these two journeys?

They should follow parallel paths. The key is to walk through the journeys step by step and consider issues in tandem. Start with the buyer's journey and ask yourself at each stage: 'what do we have to do to help buyers move from one stage to the next?'

Consider, too, that as the seller you must do things before the buyer's journey starts, and after it has ended. 

Your execution should focus on the stages of the seller's journey. Your choice of tactics for your business should be those best able to move your buyer through each stage of their journey. 

Consider the following sales process 
which is aligned to the customer's buying journey

1.      Find new names in proven business lists.
and filter them to match your ideal customer profile.

2.      Position your business as a member of the category
by sending potential buyers monthly invitations to house-branded events

3.      Get independent speakers to 'trouble' buyers at events by discussing
real-life examples of businesses that fail to address the problems you solve.

4.      Determine if they are sufficiently troubled
by reviewing responses to your post-seminar surveys.

5.      Tele-market those with the highest scores on our qualification matrix
and pass these names to the sales department only if they “score” well

6.      Get sales people to establish their credentials in face-to-face meetings

7.      explaining measured ROI your customers have gained.

8.      Help the buyer define their needs by conducting a paid-for 'health check',  with an offer of a rebate of fees against future purchases. 

9.      Review the results of the health check with the buyer and 
discuss key contract terms on a 'should we engage' basis to identify show-stoppers.

10.  Propose a solution that directly addresses agreed gaps.
Engage the buyer with confidence in your ability to address these gaps
by taking them on a tour of two existing customers' sites.

11.  Encourage the buyer to select you as a preferred vendor
by conducting a direct competitive comparison against agreed gaps

using third-party data to support your assertions.

12.  Help the buyer to enter into a contract by making the first steps simple and affordable and condition them for future growth through user-group presentations

       highlighting new applications of the technology. 

Remember, your task is not to work buyers through your sales process, but to help them along their buying path. .

How to work out connection architecture

1.     How much individualization and customization is needed

1.1.      In  locating / contacting / accessing stage : Min ¡  Med  ¡ High  ¡ 

1.2.      In  sensing / discovery stage : Min ¡  Med  ¡ High  ¡ 

1.3.      In strategy / Diagnosis and Design stage : Min ¡  Med  ¡ High  ¡ 

1.4.      In making, pre-during-after-selling / fulfillment stage : Min ¡  Med  ¡ High  ¡ 

1.5.      In persuasion / acquisition stage : Min ¡  Med  ¡ High  ¡ 

1.6.      In customer feedback stage Min ¡  Med  ¡ High  ¡ 

2.     The more the individualization and customization is needed …

2.1.       The less needs to be the size of the target audience

2.2.      The higher needs to be Average Order size

2.3.      The higher needs to be the profitability for each order

2.4.      The higher needs to be the close-up visibility of the customer

3.     The factors that determine the task of the connection architecture….

3.1.      If B2B what level of hierarchy the customer units is from

3.1.1.      C suite (Budget Creator ) ( He has many options for spending money on)

3.1.2.      B suite (Policy Creator) ( He can shape the policy in many different ways)

3.1.3.      A suite (Activity Creator) (He can undertake actions )

3.2.      Do  we have a clear idea of the customer’s unstated payoff?

3.2.1.      What does he want to achieve

3.2.2.      What does he need to fix

3.2.3.      What does he want to avoid

3.3.      How many different types of Customer Unit mindsets / behaviors. Which of these are priority personas : ABC analysis

3.4.      For each persona unit, what is the customer’s  buying  journey : Through what stages and sequence the customer wants to go? The more the number of stages, the more is the number and variety of people and time needed. 

3.5.      The sales effort required is higher when

3.5.1.      the category is complex to explain

3.5.2.      the category is unknown

3.5.3.      the need is latent

3.5.4.      the customer will need to make extensive changes to his assets / behaviors

3.6.      Ease of getting / providing access : How to tackle the gatekeepers / barriers

3.7.      Perceived risks and unfamiliarity for each buying persona. The more the risk the more the time, assurance, trust, warranties,  proofs,  testimonials needed

3.8.      What is the selling strategy and organization of competitors

3.9.      How habituated  are the customers to solutions / vendors to buying the category from the current vendors at current specifications because the habits die hard and special efforts are required to break it

3.10.  How experienced are the customers to the category because the inexperienced customers are wary, slow, not trusting, take time and many times they abandon plans

3.11.  How formal / rigid is the buying process of the customer. This decides the extent to which the customer will drive the process. Particularly if they are far bigger .

3.12.  The more educated  / objective the customers are in specifying / checking; the more involvement of technical / back office is needed

3.13.  Size and complexity of Decision Making Unit : More number, more variety, of people and time needed.  The more the complexity, the  more the number and variety of people and more the time needed 

4.     Sales Architecture development

4.1.      BUYING PERSONAS : Identify priority personas and document them

4.2.      BUYING JOURNEY : Develop  for each persona

4.3.      SALES PROCESS : Map your “Sales Process” onto these journeys

4.4.      TOUCH POINTS MATRIX : Create a “Touch Points Matrix” 

4.5.      ENABLEMENT OF EACH TOUCH POINT : Staff, Skills, Script, tools, milestones

4.6.      ORGANIZATION : what positions, designations, Job Descriptions, People Specifications and reporting structure : needed to execute these touch points properly

4.7.      SYSTEMS : Metrics and SOPs for appropriate touch points

4.8.      ORG DEVELOPMENT PLANS : setting goals ,  reviewing, coaching, incentive