Business Development

I was at Venturefest Yorkshire yesterday and sat in on a session discussing the key findings from a recent Entrepreneurs' Survey.

Whilst the findings of the survey weren't exactly ground-breaking (top challenges were "cash flow and funding" and the need to generate greater sales) the discussion surrounding the survey was really interesting.

On the funding front, the room was surveyed with a quick show of hand of who had previously pitched for VC funding. Only 3 people put there hands up and, of those 2 had successfully raised funds through VC.

This corresponds with the survey data that said 81% of Entrepreneurs self-financed their business and only 1% raised finance through angel investors. Considering the event was heavily sponsored by Yorkshire Business Angels Association, that's an amazing number.

With regard to revenue and growth opportunities an upbeat 75% of the survey expected to achieve or exceed projected revenue growth. Growth strategies that came out of the survey included developing new products, technology and innovation (8%) and expansion into export markets (8%).

That last number could be a reflection on the type of businesses surveyed but it doesn't look great for UK plc in terms of export, which was a point picked up by one of the panel, Lara Morgan (founder and ex-CEO of Pacific Direct).

An interesting comment for me (which relates to the above growth strategy of product development) came from panelist Ed French, Investment Director for Finance Yorkshire. Ed made a point that many mid-sized companies often have a "product in the cupboard" that they fail to invest in bringing to market. He felt that the UK should be more like the US in this respect where there are far more spin-outs from business.

Key skills shortages that Entrepreneurs felt they needed to address were primarily in finance and sales & marketing, which really comes back to the key challenges identified in the survey.

Overall, whilst the finding may not be a big surprise, the panellist debate was excellent and Venturefest put on another event that just keeps getting better.

Labels: entrepreneurs, funding, growth, sales, start-ups

It's that time of the year where everyone starts predicting the sales trends for 2012.

The latest article to catch my eye, Barrett's The 12 Sales Trends of 2012, has the overall theme of "Adapt or Perish", which I think pretty much sums it up.

It's a lot like the theme I developed in this post last month.

Picking through the 12 sales trends covered most are part of the ongoing evolution (or should it be revolution) in sales that's been brought about by "search" and the internet. This has been the single most disruptive force in sales aver the last 10 years.

When I say disruptive, that's not a criticism, I'm talking in terms of how search has completely changing the B2B sales landscape.

It's what the article points to as "A seismic shift in the way we sell".

In the 21st century business is more about questions than answers; more about thinking than action; more about people than capital. 2012 is about getting your house in a new order because the world changes yet again and we need to change with it.

Transactional salespeople, or "order takers" have basically been replaced by ecommerce. Every aspect of sales has gone higher up the food chain, which is reflected in a number of the trends outlined including "the polarisation of buying and selling".

Your sales team today are no longer just "closers", they're facilitators.

Other trends look at improving efficiency of selling, through better CRM, targeting and segmentation and reducing expensive sales resources, such as "Field sales team numbers to halve".

It's now all about getting more from less, which is basically what every business needs to consider.

As the article concludes, "Buyers are in the driver’s seat"

Labels: b2b sales, crm, revenue improvement, sales, sales consultancy

There was an amusing moment recently when I sat in on a board meeting at a young start up company.

After all the discussions around the business proposition and how to leverage a recent launch event it suddenly became clear to everyone around the table that they actually had to start selling.

There was a lot of looking around at each other and the room fell silent.

I could almost hear the tumble weed blowing across...

The truth is that for start-ups and any small business - everyone does "sales".

Labels: sales, start-ups

It seems to me that there's a trend in articles which start with suggesting the old order is dead.

I've seen all the "Is cold-calling dead?" and "Is direct marketing dead?" ones over the last few years as everyone promoting online and social media marketing will tell you that the old nasty world of push marketing has been replaced by a new cosy opt-in world chocked full of engaging content and social interaction.

(In fact, the "cold-calling is dead" one has been doing the rounds for as long as I can remember, the first time I saw it it was pushing face-to-face networking as the solution to all your problems.)

Anyway, let's leave that argument on one side and look at a new variation on the theme, "Salesmen are Dying and Other IT Trends".

The article is focused primarily on IT B2B buyers so it doesn't necessarily equate to all sales and, in particular, service based propositions. But the fundamentals are that Internet-enabled buyers only engage with a vendor's salespeople towards the end of the process, which means that salespeople have less time to build relationships and influence decisions.

In B2B sales, the buying/sales process is more complex that B2C transactions. B2B sales is driven by multiple stakeholders and decision makers, and carries more risk. Also, with more complex/technical solutions there's a greater reliance on vendors to help with scoping the solution.

So, are sales people dying?

Certainly, the more commoditised the product the more it will move towards online transactions.

I was chatting with a client the other day who used to work for the UK's largest distributor of safety products. 10 years ago they used to have a huge branch network and hundreds of reps on the road. Now it's nearly all telesales and online ordering.

Maybe another 5 years and the telesales will be a fraction of what it is now and most will be online.

Also, the shift towards buyers researching online means that there's a reduced need for sales to engage early in the sales cycle. When I ran a field sales team we'd get the leads from head office (usually a response card from a magazine or lead from a trade show) and the local rep would make an appointment to sit down, provide the prospect with brochures, etc and qualify the lead.

Now buyers can get the information they want before they have to engage with sales. Which means less sales people are needed.

Less head count for sales means that each sales person is focused on deals that are more advanced in the buyer/sales process. Being more efficient and effective with limited resource is the name of the game, hence the rise in sales support teams, web-demos, etc.

Where is this all going?

To me, the trend in B2B sales is that the classic "sales rep" is heading for extinction. Poorly trained road warriors will be a thing of the past as buyers today don't need to waste their time with them just to find out early stage information.

The lead qualification piece has shifted internally to telesales or inside sales support.

Beyond that, there is a need for B2B sales people who bring real value during the more advance stages of the buying/sales process.

Refining scope, assisting in vendor selection decisions, support prospects with building business cases, and, ultimately, supporting with implementation and hand-over, these are the areas where sales now have to focus.

B2B sales people aren't dying, the smart ones are already adapting.

But, I agree that the dinosaurs will become extinct.

Labels: b2b telesales, inside sales, sales

I was recently reading Randy Komisar's "The Monk & the Riddle". It's a great book and provides an fresh perspective for entrepreneurs on starting a business in Silicon Valley.

In the book, Komisar talks about the different type of CEO needed at each stage of a business.

First you need a "Retriever", able to fetch together the founding team and resources. Next it's the "Bloodhound" who sniffs out the market and sets direction. Thirdly you have the "Husky" who pulls the company towards it's goal.

I thought these were all great metaphors for the different types of interim sales manager that you need at different steps in the evolution of a business.

It also reminded me of an article I posted on Ecademy back in February, Are you a "Renaissance" Salesperson or "Coin-Operated Rep"?.

This looked at how you need different types of salespeople at each stage of a company and/or market.

Renaissance Reps were the visionaries. Enlightened reps were interested in refining the sales process and, finally, "coin-operated" reps (I love that phrase) do what you would expect... go out and fill the order book.

One of the things I see most often when speaking to clients about outsourcing sales is that they fail to understand the type of salesperson they need for the stage they are at.

Hiring someone who simply wants to sell "by the numbers" when you haven't got an established and repeatable process is always going to fail. At best, they'll burn through your prospects and then retreat defeated.

Of course, as Komisar points out, that's when you'll need the last category to pull you out of the deep stuff... the Saint Bernard.

Labels: entrepreneurs, interim sales management, sales, start-ups

If you've been following the latest BBC series of The Apprentice then you'll know that it's finally nearing a conclusion. After Katie's dramatic removal from the running (I wonder whether she secretly wanted to be offered the job just so she could turn it down... if so, I admire her balls) we are now left with Simon & Kristina.

Echo's of last year, perhaps... with a "sales person" in the final two?

And here's my thoughts about this. Because it appears that SAS has a bit of a split personality on this point. All the way through this series (and others) we hear the mantra of "if you can't sell you're no good to me".

Tasks in each episode to date include selling coffee, designing & pitching a new product, starting up a business, selling trainers, selling art, selling at a french market.... you can see where I'm going with this.

Sure, there are, of course, a wide range of additional skills needed in each of these tasks but, boy, if you don't sell then you will get canned.

So, almost the same as we saw last year, why do we get to the final and then we hear "Oh, but you're only a salesperson. Do I need another sales person?"

In terms of the two candidates left, clearly "yes you do".

Kristina will surely win. She's a solid performer who (if SAS doubts she is CEO material) can be developed further. It is the apprentice after all.

Simon's a likable character but basically far too flaky.

The thing is... "sales person" is a broad label. Kristina closes major contracts with the NHS. Andy Jackson (the Car Sales Manager who was booted out after the first episode) was not in the same league.

It's like comparing someone who sells shoes in a shop with someone who closes multi-million pound outsourcing contracts. No comparison.

Selling is the life-blood of business. Of course SAS needs an Apprentice with strong sales skills.

And who knows... he may even hire a "sales person" to get it.

Labels: sales

Back in July last year I wrote an article on Ecademy called "Is Sales Outsourcing Right For My Business?". The article was aimed at helping people understand sales outsourcing and whether it was a good fit for their business.

I recently had a discussion with a sales outsourcing partner about the different models used and what the benefits are of each one.

Sales outsourcing, in the sense of contracting an external sales team, is still a young business model.

Models used by sales outsourcing companies range from 100% revenue-share/commission (usually only adopted when the company has established relationships they believe they can exploit for a superior return) to a hybrid fixed fee plus commission.

In addition to this, many companies using the 100% revenue-share model are forming joint-ventures with their clients with an exit strategy established up-front; once they build the business to a specific level the client either buys out their share and brings the sales function back in-house or, if the client's business is sold, the joint-venture is included in the trade sale.

To me, this model encourages long-term commitment on both sides, which is always a problem when working purely on commission. Plus, from a sales outsourcing perspective, it provides a larger upside through building equity. This is the principal of shared risk models - a higher reward for greater risk.

An alternative, particularly suited to very early markets, is to work on a fee + commission to ensure some control of time committed, activity levels, etc and then to phase into a full commission or joint-venture model once traction is established. This has the added benefit of both parties getting to know each other prior to any venture.

The common thread in each model is a balance of risk and reward between client and sales outsourcing firm.

Factors such as maturity of products and markets place a large part in deciding the best model. If time-to-revenue is likely to be long, then some form of retainer will ensure commitment from the sales outsourcing firm.

Otherwise, and I have seen this happen, the client will get 6 months into the contract and find out that their sales partner has dropped them for a more attractive offer.

If that happens, the opportunity cost in delayed market entry will far out-weigh any savings on fees.

Shared risk means just that... shared risk.

Labels: sales, sales outsourcing

I recently posted a blog on Ecademy, "Are you a "Renaissance" Salesperson or "Coin-Operated Rep"?".

The blog looked at three different types of sales people identified by authors Mark Leslie & Charles A. Holloway in their article "The Sales Learning Curve" (excellent article by the way).

Comments on the blog evolved around the label we gives ourselves. Is it "Sales", "Business Development"... and what's the difference?

I've nearly always worked in a role with the "Sales" label. That is, I've been clearly responsible for selling directly to customers. However, when working in a management capacity, I was responsible for developing & managing indirect sales channels & partners. So, that's "business development", right?

My line on this used to be that business development is focused on growing business revenue through indirect routes, such as partnering, sales channels, joint-ventures, etc, whilst sales had the same objective but through direct customer engagement.

Today, this has become a little blurred when many companies (particularly consultancies) adopt the term "business development" to cover direct sales activity in a less, well, "sales-ey" way.

Wikipedia is always a good place to turn to. It's definition (at the time of this post) of Business Development is:

"Business Developmnet encompasses a number of techniques designed to grow an economic enterprise. Such techniques include, but are not limited to, assessments of marketing opportunities and target markets, intelligence gathering on customers and competitors, generating leads for possible sales, follow-up sales activity, formal proposal writing and business model design. Business development involves evaluating a business and then realizing its full potential, using such tools as marketing, sales, information management and customer service. For a sound company able to withstand competitors, business development never stops but is an ongoing process."

For me, this is right on the money.

That last sentence from Wikipedia sums it up for me, "for a sound company able to withstand competitors, business development never stops but is an ongoing process."

Labels: business development, sales

I had a meeting today with a client that is just about to come out of "stealth-mode" with their beta launch.

We were talking through their go-to-market plans and the work that I am doing. The CEO was giving me the run-down of his new team, who he had in each position and what role they were to play in the overall strategy.

This is the bit I love when working with start-ups.

It always reminds me of one of my favourite films, Reservoir Dogs.

Or come to think of it, any "heist" film where the team comes together to pull "the big job". Films like Heat, Ronin, etc... just love 'em.

The bit I like is when they're putting the team together, everyone's got their bit to play. They're specialists.

You know, there's a "grease-man", a "hacker", a "driver"...

I guess, I just like working in teams where everyone had their bit to play, we're all there for our particular slice of expertise; we all know the stakes are high and we have to deliver.

And we're working together for our own slice of the action ;-)

Labels: entrepreneurs, new business development, sales, start-ups

I recently took the Roger Hamilton's Wealth Dynamics profile test online. Roger runs XL Results Foundation, Asia's leading entrepreneur and social enterprise network.

The "Wealth Dynamics" profile test is designed to match your personality, natural style and talents with strategies to create wealth. It's a bit like a Myers-Briggs test with a focus on how to leverage your natural "profile" to create wealth.

OK, maybe it's just a bit of fun, but I thought I'd give it a try.

The test gave me an number of personal insights, and overall, the greatest learning I came away with was the concept of teaming up with complimentary "profiles" to leverage each others' talents.

I came out as a "Star" profile, with strong "Dynamo" and "Blaze" frequencies. Here's my profile.

According to the system, "leaders of the most successful new start-ups are always Creators and Stars with dynamo frequency. The leaders of companies that are acquiring market share and market presence in a consolidating industry are always Supporters and Deal Makers with blaze frequency."

Having worked with so many start-ups and companies with a focus on acquiring market share and new business, this made perfect sense to me.

As a "Star", apparently, my strengths are "quick to deliver; quick to connect; can take an idea and run with it; can think on their feet; can improvise quickly in tricky situations".

And, "Great Stars have entrenched themselves in their niche, so anyone with a new product or promotion is likely to be attracted to that Star to support them."

Also, to build wealth I should align myself with "creators & deal-makers" (read: CEO's & Entrepreneurs) to give me the catalyst of content & deals that I can promote.

In a nutshell, if you want to rapidly grow your start-up... just add a Dynamo!

Labels: entrepreneurs, new business development, sales, start-ups

A good friend and Associate recently blogged on Ecademy "The very top sales people are pros at losing. What do you think?".

It all came from an article that suggested Sales people are "happy losers" and, like addicted gamblers, they are addicted to the thrill and are in fact pros at losing.

I'm not sure that I agree with the phrase "happy losers"; having worked in sales all my life I know that salespeople are seldom "happy" when it comes to losing.

But I do agree that the best will brush failure to one side and start again after the next deal. It's like they are intensely motivated by the thrill of winning that they simply ignore the inevitable set-backs.

It also reminded me of an article I read recently about Mike Moritz of Sequoia Capital. Widely recongised as one of the top tech VC's, with companies like Google & Yahoo in his portfolio, the tendency of many people is to only see the up-side.

But, in the interview, Mike is refreshingly pragmatic and reminds us that "People don't see the carcasses and the smouldering ruins on the side of the road. And there are plenty of those." He continues, "Maybe it's just that we have made more mistakes than everybody else and try not to make the same mistake twice. If we're so good, I keep wondering why we still have write-offs"

Mike says that Sequoia has "a perpetual fear of going out of business", and constantly tries to 'bake' anxiety into its partners, "hour by hour".

That's something that I recognise in great "hunter" salespeople. They accept failure, understand that it's part of the game, and are intensely focused on making sure that they keep pushing for the next win.

Whether it's an "anxiety" or simply a drive to not sit-back, the best seldom need motivation from manager - they have their drive hard-wired.

Labels: sales

I recently re-read an interesting article in the Harvard Business Review, "Better Sales Networks".

The article looks at different types of social networks and how each is more suited to different sales tasks.

The article shows how "sparser networks are better at getting access to unique information", whereas denser networks are "more desirable for coordination purposes".

As someone who predominantly uses my network for prospecting & lead generation on behalf of clients I can understand this completely.

In fact, the article recommends that "salespeople looking for new and unique information should cultivate broad marketplace networks" and suggests that, as not everyone is naturally good at this task, companies should "consider decoupling lead generation from other tasks"

I found that a very interesting observation. Not that lead generation should be decoupled - there's nothing new there. No, the comment that not everyone is "naturally good" at developing diverse contacts.

If you've been following many of the social networking platforms there's always this "quality vs quantity" debate going on. It's an old chestnut and I don't intend to add to it here, except to say that it always seems to polarise opinion.

I'm certainly firmly in to "quantity" camp as I use tools such as LinkedIn to develop access to a large and diverse range of potential contacts. If you look at all the most "connected" people on LinkedIn (apparently I've dropped a few places to #41) they're dominated by people who need to access information - such as recruiters, investors, researchers, biz dev people, etc [plus a few who just seem to be in it for the game of who can be top]

LinkedIn is such as powerful tool as it allows you to see your extended network in ways not previously possible.

But, to get back to my point, people in the "quality" camp will tell you that the most important thing is how strong the relationships are in the network, not how many connections you have.

Of course, if their focus is on coordination (getting experts together, getting contacts to actually do something for them) then it's important to not only have strong ties with their contacts, but it's important that they are also connected to each other. That makes sense.

Another way of putting it is that the more commitment you are asking for, the stronger you need the relationship to be.

If I'm just calling someone to find some relatively low-value (to them) information, then a sparse network with weak-ties is not only fit for purpose, it is actually optimum for my purpose as it gives me the widest range of access.

However, if I wanted to use this network for a purpose which requires much more commitment from my contacts (such as getting them to collaborate with me on a project) it's unlikely I would get such support unless I had taken the time to build a strong relationship with them (which, in turn, takes more time to cultivate and therefore is likely to reduce the size, and diversity, of my network)

So, in summary, if you're looking for information, you ideally want a sparse network (ie, it doesn't matter if each "node" of your network is not connected with another). If you want to get things done, you need a more tightly configured (and probably smaller) network.

Common sense really. Which isn't bad for Harvard ;-)

Labels: networking, sales

Recently, I was chatting with a client and he called me the "go-to-guy to get-you-in".

I must admit, being a "Go-to-Guy" is something I've always worked towards. It's about building a reputation for your expertise and delivery.

One of my favourtite films is Pulp Fiction. And one of my favoutire characters in the film (a personal hero, even) is the tuxedo-clad Winston Wolf a.k.a "The Wolf".

He's the "Go-to-Guy".

When Jules and Vincent are in a tight spot, having just accidently blown a colleagues head off, they are releived when their boss, Marsellus says, "Go back in there, chill them ... out and wait for The Wolf, who should be comin' directly."

From there on, what does The Wolf do?

He qualifies what his client wants, gets all the details, etc and then sets expectations that he knows he can deliver: "Expect a call around 10:30. It's about thirty minutes away. I'll be there in ten."

Next thing we see is The Wolf's car pulling up outside Jimmie's house with the caption: "NINE MINUTES AND THIRTY-SEVEN SECONDS LATER"

Now that's how to do it.

When Jimmie opens the door. We see, standing in the doorway, the tuxedo-clad Wolf. He looks down to his notebook, then up at Jimmie.

THE WOLF
You're Jimmie, right? This is your house?

JIMMIE
Yeah.

THE WOLF
I'm Winston Wolf, I solve problems.

JIMMIE
Good, 'cause we got one.

To me, this is my goal as a freelance sales & business development consultant. I'm the go-to-guy when a client wants help opening doors. Sometimes I work with clients on ongoing campaigns; sometimes it's just a one-off project.

If I can't get you in, I know someone who can.

Labels: appointment setting services, freelance telemarketing, sales, telemarketing services

Can you remember that Kevin Costner movie from 1989, "Field of Dreams"? It's about the Iowa corn farmer who, hearing voices, interprets them as a command to build a baseball diamond in his fields.

I'm not sure whether every dot-com startup watched that film, but the phrase "Build it and they will come" seems to have passed into the collective entrepreneurial unconscious.

So when Jackie Bassett told me about her new book "So You Built It and They Didn't Come. Now What?", I just had to read it.

If there was ever a book that should be compulsory for entrepreneurs to read, this is it (and Guy Kawasaki's "The Art of the Start").

Jackie shares her own experiences, as well as stories from CEO's and Investors on what to do when the wheels have fallen off. Does this sound familiar?

So you've burned thru several million dollars of Venture Capital funds,replaced the VP of Sales three times, added 17 more features that each round of salespeople you hired (and fired) insisted their prospects must have before they would buy-then didn't, now what?

You're certain there is a market for your product. You even have a handful of customers who've paid for it. But those "Wow's" aren't converting into sales.

How did this ever happen? Where did things go so wrong? More importantly, how can this be fixed and f-a-s-t!

Jackie shows you how to identify when you are in trouble, and how to stop and restart your business from a customer-centric perspective.

There is a lot in this book that I recognise from my own client experiences. One of the things about working with startups and new product launches is that you're going to see a lot of misfires.

Every now and then I have to write what I call a "Dear John" report at the end of a pilot campaign. Usually it goes something like "I'm sorry, but we don't think you've got a proposition that's really compelling for your market. Let's stop now before it costs you too much" In essence, we tell our client that they've got it wrong.

It's probably one of the hardest parts of the job, but it's something that's core to my values. If it's not working, I'll pull the plug rather than simply burn my time and my client's cash.

Of course, they can try another method of sales, or even another sales outsourcing company, but usually they go back to the drawing board and come back to us to help them test and refine their new proposition.

Our business is no different.

We tried promoting our services to startups as "market due diligence". Essentially, we'd pilot test a proposition with potential clients. However, we found that there really was little appetite for it. Entrepreneurs are pretty free-wheeling and their due diligence is usually to just launch and see what happens.

It's what we call the ultimate "Live R&D").

Labels: entrepreneurs, new business development, sales, start-ups

We use the term "prospecting" to describe what we do everyday: that is, going out there and uncovering opportunities, lead generation, appointment setting, etc.

It's become such a common phrase in sales that it's easy to forget where the term comes from.

In a recent message on Sourcers Unleashed, Maureen Sharib of TechTrak, the US-based Names Sourcing company, posted about the term "pocket mining", found in a narrative by Mark Twain:

"In that one little corner of California is found a species of mining which is seldom or never mentioned in print. It is called "pocket mining" and I am not aware that any of it is done outside of that little corner. The gold is not evenly distributed through the surface dirt, as in ordinary placer mines, but is collected in little spots, and they are very wide apart and exceedingly hard to find, but when you do find one you reap a rich and sudden harvest.

There are not now more than twenty pocket miners in that entire little region. I think I know every one of them personally. I have known him to take out three thousand dollars in two hours...This is the most fascinating of all the different kinds of mining."

Now that strikes a chord with me, and I'm sure with many others in this business.

Prospecting is all about using your skill and expertise to seek out those hard to find nuggets of gold. It takes a little time, the gold will be spread about a bit and not that easy to locate, but when you find it...the rewards can be very lucrative.

Labels: sales, sales lead generation

In her excellent book "Selling to BIG companies", Jill Konrath has a chapter on Targeting.

Jill says that, in today's hypercompetitive market, buyers "prefer to work with experts who understand their business". A key to success in getting in front of potential major new accounts, is targeting: it's not a "numbers game" anymore.

I couldn't agree more. In fact, I sometimes think that Jill's book could have been based on my life ;-)

Clearly understanding what your customers want and being able to find the right person are crucial factors to opening doors with large organisations.

The other day, I set up a meeting for a client with a Senior Departmental Head within a major global company. I found the contact through my online network and then approached him by phone. Because I knew exactly what this guy was interested in, I was able to quickly identify where my client could help him.

My client called me after the meeting. Not only was it a great meeting which we're confident will result in some very lucrative business, but the guy said this to my client:

"Tell David his approach was spot on. I get 100's of calls every week and it's very rare that I agree to meetings, but he was right on the money".

To me, that's the power in targeting. It respects people's time and seeks out real win-win propositions. And while everyone else is "cold-calling" and making so much white-noise, our approach clearly stands out.

Labels: marketing, sales

I was reminded the other day just how important strong qualification is in the sales process.

A bumped into a contact that I had met some 9 months previously. When we last met they were launching their business and were considering our services. At the time, they had already engaged a "lead generation" company to help find opportunities for them and wondered how we could help. In the end, because the other company was delivering a steady stream of "leads", they decided to run with them. I wished them good luck.

However, this time around it was a different story. Sure, they got lots of leads which, of course, meant lots of meetings, and then more meetings, and then more meetings...

9 months later they hadn't landed a single deal and had basically run out of cash. Part of their problem was the ongoing (and escalating) cost of sale.

In my book, when it comes to building a strong sales pipeline that will deliver results, the key is in qualification. Understanding which deals to pursue, and which ones to keep on the back-burner (or drop) is essential.

As my old Sales Manager told me many years ago when he handed me a wad of leads from a trade-show "your job is to make these go away".

As if to underline this point, on The Apprentice last night, the teams were set a task to sell second-hand cars. When their Sales Manager gave them the some training what did they emphasize again, and again? "Qualification". Once the selling day started it became obvious why.

Poor qualification = time wasted with the wrong punters = lost selling opportunities.

Set a strong qualification criteria and only pursue those where you have a high probability of success. And the scary thing is, when you do this you'll find the ones that would have wasted your time, will start to get much more serious.

Labels: sales, small businesses

openBC have just published their 2nd international openBC survey "Communication & Networking on the Internet".

Amongst it's findings is the fact that "beyond establishing business contacts (55%), almost one in six are now reporting business deals with openBC contact partners."

China tops the global league of openBC users with 22% having already generated new business and sales via openBC. This is followed by South America (18.7%), Europe (16.4%) and USA with 11.9%.

For me this is very interesting as it demonstrates that openBC really does have a global reach. Seeing China at the top of generating business online makes sense and, for me, illustrates how successful the platform is for finding (or being found by) new business contacts; a point I made in my previous post LinkedIn or openBC...or both!

Another even more interesting fact is that networking on the Internet is now seen as more important than at events.

The report shows that "Communication on the Internet is standard business practice. Apart from email, messenging and blogging, networking platforms for maintaining contacts with business associates and friends have developed into a convenient application. Its interesting to note that networking on the Internet is currently more important for openBC users than maintaining contacts at events. Cultural differences play hardly any role in this."

I can certainly agree with this statement. For me, online networking platforms are a daily part of my business. Over half of my clients find me through either openBC, LinkedIn or Ecademy. Plus, when I am working on consulting or sales outsourcing projects for clients, I am able to use my network to help shape a client's value proposition and identify the most appropriate contacts within organisations.

Plus, openBC has been a great way of meeting new people to understand specific markets and sectors, as well as find associates to collaborate on projects.

Labels: networking, sales, social networking sites

Mike Southon's Sales on a Beermat is an excellent, down-to-earth and pragmatic book on selling for entrepreneurs and SME's.

I met Mike recently at a networking event in Barcelona; he's a great guy.

At the end of the book Mike makes some interesting points about sales people and entrepreneurs.

Mike says, "Entrepreneurs, and no doubt some bosses of SME's, senior partners, etc think they can sell. They ususally can't". That's not to say they don't have some of the attributes of great sales people, such as charisma, but that they often lack many of the traits which really count.

A couple of key distinctions that Mike makes are that salespeople are very good listeners, where as entrpreneurs are usually too focused on their own ideas and projects.

Another is that Entrepreneurs are often impatient (they need to be to get things done), whereas sales people have to be patient and remain focused over long sales cycles.

These differences, as well as others, are why Mike advocates that every startup and SME has a sales cornerstone in the business: someone who can compliment the CEO's own skills with those necessary to winning business.

Labels: entrepreneurs, sales

Previous Posts

Monthly Archives