A Road-map to Success

 As I said in a previous post, it's easier to teach a hard worker to sell then to teach a salesman to work hard. There is no substitute for hard work. Waking up every day and putting in a full day's work will always be the secret to success in sales. Working hard is great but working smart is what separates the top 10% from the rest of the pack! Technology is helping sales professionals work smarter then ever before.

Google Maps allows you to create your own custom map that can help you minimize driving time, drop in on potential clients, or visit current customers. Everyone has used Google maps at some point but Google Maps Engine is a bit less known-

Google Maps Engine-

To begin creating your map CLICK HERE.

 

Once you are here you click on the "Create a new map" button. This will bring you to your new map. From here you can import a list of your clients or prospects. To import a list first start by creating an excel spreadsheet that has at least the following two columns on it:

 A) Names

        B) Addresses 

 Save your excel spread sheet and then click the "Import" link on your new map.

Once you have imported your excel spreadsheet, just follow the on screen prompts. The first thing that you need to do is tell google which columns on your excel spreadsheet contains the addresses that needs to be plotted. If you forget which one it is you can click the little grey question mark next to the choices presented and a yellow box with a preview will pop up.

You will then be asked to follow this same process for the "Names" in the next screen. Once this is completed your new map will be ready to use. You can now customize the look and feel of your new map. One of my favorite features is the ability to outline specific areas on the map and create "Zones" as seen in the zone outlined in white in my example below

If you hover over one of your plotted points on the map with your cursor, a white box pops up with all the information that you included on the excel spreadsheet that you created. I like to create a column on my excel spreadsheet called "notes" and leave it blank because then you have a place on your map to take notes (as seen below):

One of the most powerful things to do with your map is to email the URL to yourself and then open it up on your smart phone. You can then save the map to your homepage and you will create an "App" that has all of your clients. Since your mobile device has GPS you can even see where you are currently located on the map with a little blue dot. Say you get done with an appointment early and you have an extra 15mins to kill, well instead of wasting that time you could pull up your map and see which potential clients are close to your current location. 

 

Hopefully this helps. Create a map and work smart. Wasting those 15 mins in between appointments can add up to quite a bit of wasted time. Using Google map engines can help you capture opportunities that would otherwise go wasted.

TRUST or MICROMANAGMENT

There is a saying “People don’t quit Jobs, They quit Managers”.  Although this might not be true for everyone, it has been true for me.  I’ve had a number of different mangers over the years. Some of them I have loved and some of them I have detested. It’s usually not difficult to determine whether or not your manager trusts you. My level of frustration for previous managers has had a positive correlation to their level of micromanagement.  No one wants to feel like a puppet that is being controlled like a marionette. I think TRUST and MICROMANAGMENT are the Yin and the Yang of sales. The use of a CRM has provided sales management the ability to micromanage their reps on a whole new level.  Conversely, a CRM provides managers a completely new way to communicate trust.

The most fundamental part of the sales process is generating a high volume of “reaches” to prospective clients. A “reach” happens each time a sales professional “reaches” out to a prospective client via email, phone, or a drop-in.  Failure in sales can usually be traced back to a low volume of “reaches”. You can be a great closer but if your pipeline dries up due to a low volume of “reaches”, you will never meet your sales goals. The ability to monitor “reaches” has been made effortless with the use of a CRM. Sales managers can watch the activity of their team remotely as the members of their sales team log their “reaches” in the CRM. This ability to monitor “reaches” is exciting for managers but extremely annoying for sales reps. Logging activity into the CRM is a task that tends to be micromanaged. Do you remember what I said micromanagement did to my relationship with previous managers? Despite the benefits a CRM provides, its usefulness is completely undermined if the sales team won’t commit to logging their activity. Getting seasoned sales professionals to implement the use of a CRM into their daily routines can be quite challenging and expensive. The cost of not evolving is far greater than the cost of implementing a CRM. Effectively getting your teams buy-in and participation can skyrocket productivity and performance.

So the question is how does one motivate a sales team to implement the use of a CRM into their daily routine? Although there isn’t ONE right answer to this question, the following story portrays how a few of my previous managers succeeded in getting me to do it:

Having a baby changes your perspective on a lot of things.  It made me want more security and less risk in my life.  In an attempt to mitigate some of the risk associated with being a self-employed entrepreneur, I took a sales position with a relatively large company. My biggest fear in taking the job was how I would respond to having a boss again. My new manager was very unconventional and used more foul language then a drunken sailor. Despite his extreme lack of political correctness, the guy knew how to sell! He wasn’t one of those managers that only talks the talk… he walked the walk. He was highly directive, extremely confident, and knew how to close. On the very first day I was hired, he had me tag along with him to an appointment that he had with a professional basketball team. The excitement of meeting with an NBA team was quickly overshadowed by a deep respect for the masterful way my manager conducted the appointment. He immediately built a relationship of trust with me by showing me how he wanted me to sell rather then telling me. A few weeks later, I had the opportunity to have my zone manager spend the day with me. We met early one morning in a coffee shop and the first thing he said to me was “I’m going to get you 2 new sales today”. He then opened his Macbook, signed into our CRM, and dug through the database to find hidden opportunities.  My direct manager showed me how to sell and my zone manager showed me how to work smart. The key here is that they SHOWED me how to work rather then TELLING me.  They spent their time selling rather then micromanaging. I loved every opportunity I got to have either of them spend the day with me.  I knew that a ride-a-long with either of them meant finding new opportunities, closing new deals, and making more money. I followed their example closely and by doing so I was singled out as the top preforming rookie sales rep at that year’s national sales conference.

So the moral of the story; Walk the walk and don’t just Talk the talk. Show your reps how scrubbing the database for opportunities can increase their sales. Don’t expect your team to know how to use your CRM effectively if you don’t know how to use it yourself. Monitor the activity your reps are logging but pick your battles wisely. If you have a rep that is consistently meeting or exceeding quotas, then it’s not necessary to micromanage their “reaches” to potential clients. You can’t deposit “reaches” into a bank account but you can deposit revenue. Even if it’s not reflected in the CRM, revenue equals “reaches”. I’ve never been really proficient at logging my “reaches” but I’ve always crushed my goals! If you have a rep that is struggling to hit their quota, have them focus on their “reaches”.  The only part of the sales process that we can truly control is our “reaches” to potential clients. Make sure that your team understands that the only way missing quota won’t land them in hot water, is if they have logged a significant amount of “reaches”. I would much rather fire a good closer with a low “reach” volume then a bad “closer” with a high reach volume. It’s much easier to teach a hard worker to sell then to teach a salesman to work hard. If you have a rep that is struggling, go show them how to walk the walk. Lead by example. Although you might have the managerial instinct to correct performance issues with micromanagement, the only thing that micromanagement truly produces is a puppet that miserably wants to cut the strings.

Choosing not to evolve- Salesforce

My wife’s grandfather and I basically have the same exact job.  We both sell a similar suite of services to small business owners. Although our jobs are similar, the way we go about them couldn’t be more different. I use mobile apps and he uses a pencil. I use an iPad and he uses manila folders. He networks at the rotary club and I use social media. The landscape of business has changed. Technology has reformed productivity in the workplace. Despite the tech revolution, there are still people who resemble my wife’s grandfather more then myself. The reason there are still sales professionals pathetically clutching their manila folders and number 2 pencils is simple… Change is hard! It’s easier to stick with what you know then to learn something new. Learning a new skill requires time, effort, and hard work.   What has achieved success in the past won’t necessarily achieve it in the future. Choosing not to evolve and embrace technology is much more costly then just sucking it up and doing it.  You can’t afford not to embrace technology because the customers you want to attract and the competitors that you’re trying to beat are all using it on a daily basis.

 I recently took a senior sales position at a multi billion-dollar company. During the interview process I made sure to ask about their use of technology. I was pleased to learn that their efforts were organized through the use of a CRM. When I found out their CRM was Salesforce, I took the job! I LOVE SALESFORCE! Salesforce gets more hits from my IP address then facebook and youtube combined! When I started this new job I assumed that my colleges would love Salesforce as much as I did, they didn’t. I assumed the sales team would rely on Salesforce in their prospecting efforts like I do, they weren’t. I also assumed that managers would be using Salesforce for reporting, I was wrong again.  

This multi billion dollar company was dumping millions of dollars into a CRM that their sales team was ignoring. The majority of my colleagues were prospecting, reporting, and keeping notes in excel spreadsheets rather then in Salesforce. One morning on a conference call, I heard one of the top reps in the country mention something that blew my mind. This rep told everyone on the call that he spends about 2.5 hours each Friday reconciling Salesforce and his excel spreadsheets. This means that one of our top performers in the country is spending 10 hours a month or 130 hours per year completely wasting his time! THIS WAS THE FINAL STRAW!

After digging a bit and asking numerous colleges why they weren’t using Salesforce, I finally figured it out. When the CRM had been rolled out nationwide, It was presented as a tool used for micromanagement. Now this multi billion dollar company didn’t literally come out and say “Salesforce is the means by which all reps are going to be micromanaged”. They did however come out with numerous MANDITORY training modules on topics like logging activity, creating an opportunity, and reporting a sale. These modules were focused on things that helped managers keep tabs on their reps rather then helping the reps increase their productivity. Salesforce had been presented to the sales team as digital busy work. Does anyone really like busy work?

So rather then get on a soapbox I decided that 100% of my prospecting efforts during my first full month on the job were going to be done strictly in Salesforce. My goal was to prove to my colleges that using Salesforce could help them make money.  The first thing I did was run a few reports and filter the clients I found down to a very specific demographic. Once I had my reports just the way I wanted them, I sent out a mass email to everyone on my list asking for a quick 20 min meeting. I did this 3 times for 3 different areas in my territory.  The entire process took me about 30mins tops. Those three emails resulted in over 80 appointment requests from clients asking to meet with me. I finished my first full month in the field over 600% to goal. Word traveled quickly throughout the sales organization about my success and everyone wanted to know my trick. My response was simple….. “I USE SALESFORCE!”

The moral of the story is that most people are selfish and lazy. The majority of us wont welcome change unless we see how it can benefit us and make our lives easier. If you have anyone in your organization who is struggling to adopt technology in their daily routine it’s because you have failed at showing them how THEY can benefit from using it.

Some of the best sales people out there are still using pencils and manila folders. Even though they might be miraculously staying afloat their hard work can only get them so far.  I don’t want to merely float… I want to swim! I want to be the Michael Phelps of Sales. Technology helps you work hard but more importantly it helps you work smart. Hard work, a great attitude, and passion are timeless principles that my wife’s grandfather and I both rely on to achieve success.  Although these timeless principles will never change, the tools used to implement them most assuredly have.