Some Thoughts From Neil RackhamOn Selling In A Down Economy

Had the pleasure recently of hearing Neil Rackham share his thoughts on how to sell in a recession. A summary follows (the thoughts are his, the errors if any are mine). The deadliest selling mistakes he's seen when times are hard:

• chasing too many opportunities,
• negotiating rather than selling, and
• selling price rather than safety.

Rackham notes that only 1/3 of B2B Reps have ever sold in a recession. This creates the risk that most will make these same deadly mistakes that were made last time, and they won't even know when it's happening.

Whenever it takes many calls to conclude a sale, and the economy tanks, sales leaders may ask their Reps to work harder. Reps then build bigger funnels and half-sell to twice as many prospects. This is a proven recipe for big effort with small rewards. An example which Rackham cited: a capital goods company in which Reps were making an average of 1.4 calls per day. The VP Sales pushed for more effort and got:

• a 36% increase in calls/day
• a 16% increase in orders
• a 1.5% decline in sales (as the average deal size declined)
• resignations from 4 of his top 10 salespeople
• subsequently fired

Instead, in these circumstances, Rackham advocates:

• working smarter, not harder (serve the right few)
• creating value (rather than communicating it)
• making calls so valuable that prospects would pay for them
• focussing on safety (it will matter more than price)

It Now Takes More Work To Win The Same Amount of Business

According to a recent Harvard Business Review Research Report,
B2B sales is becoming a tougher job because of declines in:

• the % of leads agreeing to meetings
• the % of meetings progressing to presentations
• the % of presentations converting to sales
• the ratios of sales support staff to Sales Reps

"It now takes many more leads, (more time), and much more work to win the same amount of business." Sales tools, as a result, increasingly focus on process and sales effectiveness. These are important, but insufficient, improvements.

Consider how Reps sell. They often call prospects who aren't ready for (or interested in) a callback. This guesswork is effort laden and time consuming.

When this guesswork is systematically eliminated, sales productivity improves. It sets a higher performance focus of helping Reps do the:

• right things
• the right way
• right away
• with the right people.

It helps Reps create significantly more value with their prospects who are most interested. The rewards from innovations which enable such a focus can be significant.

Reps get better results in less time and with less effort, as happened in this case study. New hires reach peak productivity in weeks, rather than months, as happened in this case study.

Prospects Are People, Not Refrigerators

In B2B sales, companies often make the mistake of thinking if only their message were to land in more places, their sales would improve. Prospects are treated like refrigerators at an italian pasta party. Companies throw content at them looking to see what, if anything, sticks. Usually, not much, if anything, ever does.

Prospects are people, not refrigerators.

They engage in a sales process when they get content in volumes that make the valuable bits easy to find. They engage when offered help on topics they're interested in. They engage when the process is informative, helpful, time-saving, pertinent, and timely.

Consider the results from a recent info update sent by one of our clients to some of their prospects (see summary below). Their email was brief, to the point, and pertinent to many of those who received it. Many prospects clicked. Virtually all of the 18 offered links were clicked on by some. Prospects’ clicks triggered targeted callbacks and offers of further assistance. Conversations and sales ensued. This client's sales are up 16% this year. It's no accident. To the helpful go the rewards.

Sales Productivity Is Another Melting Iceberg

The fable of the Melting Iceberg outlines how to succeed in turbulent times. For any company concerned about its future, the fable's points are well taken and well made. The fable shows that success depends on changing how people think and feel:

• collect + analyze data, then present it logically in ways that change people's thinking.
• after reading and reflecting, discuss what's been learned and what more might be learned.
• from such discussions, find new + better ways to act.
• create surprises that change how people feel.

Sales productivity is an example of such a 'melting iceberg'. It's an urgent issue. There's no single, obvious, way to fix it. Fixing it requires short-term wins that can inspire long-term wins over time.

Many of the fable's keys to success are embedded in Amacus, our sales productivity tool. Amacus changes how B2B Sales Reps think and feel by giving them feedback on the impacts of their actions + doing so in ways which:

• are timely, helpful, and compelling to each user.
• are often surprising (she's actually interested?!).
• help users know whom to call, when to call, + why.
• show the positive impacts of smart choices.
• create short terms wins, often as fast sales.
• inspire users to keep trying + learn from the past.
• create new opportunities for members of a sales team to help each other improve results.

With 'melting icebergs' the biggest payoffs often come from team impacts: "when you act in concert with others, the end results can be very powerful." Our clients know this. They've seen it happen.

An Inside Sales Rep Sees Her Productivity Improve

Had an interesting chat yesterday with 'Sally'. She's a part-time Inside Sales Rep, working 1-2 days per week selling an on-line service. She's been an Amacus user for less than a month. She called to say how impressed she was.

Now when she comes into work, Sally checks her voicemail, checks her email, and logs into Amacus. It lets her see all her prospects who are potentially ready for, and most likely to appreciate, a callback (they're the ones who've read materials emailed to them following the last sales conversation). Armed with this feedback, she's placing fewer calls to, and having more conversations with, prospects.

She's only used Amacus a few times yet its value is already obvious to her: "Amacus really works. It's saved me many phone calls."