Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/80263
How Proactive continued going on in your territory? Second 10 Minutes: What crisis or fires are you dealing with right now? These first two topics are the ones that every sales rep is going to want to talk about, so get them out of the way. Third, Fourth and Fifth 10 Min- utes: Have your sales rep pick three dif- ferent accounts and spend 10 minutes talking about what their plans are and where they're goingwith each account. The Final 10 Minutes: Summarize what's been talked about and reviewthe action plans that everybody has agreed to. If you do this the right way, it will be very difficult to get this done under an hour. By the way, this does not only apply to the salesmanager and the sales rep.The manager of the sales manager should be spending at least two hours a month reviewing all of the notes that the sales manager gathered during his coaching sessions. Sit down and discuss where they're going with the reps and offer help as to what the sales manager can do to better assist reps. This not only encourages accountability, it also ensures the owner has a clear under- standing of what their sales reps are doing. noticed that during your presentation and in many of your "You Can Always Sell More" articles, you have a few key phrases you often use to explain the nui- sances of proactive sales management. One of them is "working on results instead of the sales process" and anoth- er is "stop letting your salesperson off the hook. Q: I'd like to try something different for the next round of questions. I " How do they fit into your overall philosophy that any salesperson can sell more by being proactive? "Working on Results Instead of the Sales Process" of sales at the beginning of the process that are not savable unless you dramati- cally cut your price,which significantly reduces your profitability.This goes back to my earlier comments about commu- A: If you only focus your attention on 28 FEDA News & Views The manager of the sales manager should be spending at least two hours a month reviewing all of the notes that the sales manager gathered during his coaching sessions. nicating value. Proactive sales manage- ment really relates to higher profitabili- ty because the more value that's com- municated or set up in the beginning of the sales process, and the more people that understand what your value propo- sition is and howit differs fromthe com- petition's, the more willing the cus- tomer is to look beyond price. Even though they know you're higher, they see your value and the lower total cost. This is what all of the coaching and the sales efforts are about—that one moment when the customer questions your price.You may have to give a little bit of a concession, but you don't have to match your competitor's price. The major challenge of selling is that cus- tomers tend to assume that multiple vendors from the same industry have equivalent features, so the job of a sales rep really becomes to educate the buyer on what the differences are and how one is more relevant or applicable over another. in value is the primary determinant. In other words, if the customer does not see value, they will buy the cheapest price. So if the sales rep comes in and says, "we lost the Johnson account because our price is too high, " what they're saying is they didn't do their job as a sales rep. I teach sales managers to never again accept"we lost because our price is too high. " It's not the reason you lost, it's a the results discussion,you'll lose a lot symptom. You lost because the cus- tomer didn't see enough value and the symptom is that's why they beat you up on price. By agreeing that price was the reason for the loss, the sales rep doesn't have to change anything or consider what else they could have done.Why didn't they see more value or why didn't the sales- A: Price is not the primary determi- "Stop LettingYour Salespeople Off the Hook" nant in your industry; the difference person walk away once they realized they were dealing with a price buyer? If you don't hold themaccountable for the sale, you're missing out on a proactive opportunity to coach. Ask what they could have done differently and what can they do differently the next time to avoid the same outcome. Q: Ultimately, though, if change is Becoming More Proactive: Steps to GetYou Started going to occur, you argue that it not A: Let's break this down into three only has to be systematic but also com- panywide. What steps can a company take as a whole to help their sales man- agers become more proactive? parts: action steps for the owner, the sales manager and the rep: For the Owner: Evaluatewhere your sales manager spends their time. How much and how frequently are sales reps receiving coaching help? Another ques- tion is how much coaching help is the sales manager getting—other than just transactional discussions? It's also important that the owner makes the sales manager accountable. Speak with them and make sure they understand the important role of coaching, but don't just stop there. Consider how you can help the salesmanager free upmore time for future-focused coaching. Look at getting a junior person involved in some of the major accounts to handle some of the paperwork and the smaller details. For the Sales Rep: It's about proac- tively going to your sales manager and asking for help. Ask them to walk you through your most important accounts and look for ways to improve.About 80 percent ofwhat a reactive and proactive salespersonwill do and saywill be iden- tical. It's that additional question or the extra moves to set up the next discus- sion that sets them apart. Being proac- tive is like playing pool.You don't just shoot the ball that's easiest to put in the