Pat’s Blog

“Don’t hire people based on your instincts. Have a process in place to research and test applicants thoroughly” — Peter Drucker

At financial firms large and small, I hear from managers who are struggling with how to increase individual production on their sales teams. This may seem like a development issue but the heart of the problem often lies in hiring decisions. The hard truth is: All sales candidates are not created equal. Research holds that only 1 in 4 candidates possess the raw sales talent to excel in consultative selling. Managers who want to hire better quality salespeople need to have a process in place to objectively determine whether candidates have natural sales talent.

“The ability to connect and thus, to raise the yield of existing knowledge is learnable.” — Peter Drucker

For managers, the pressure to push sales teams to achieve optimum performance has never been greater than right now. While it’s tempting to look for a “magic bullet” to correct performance problems, the most effective approach is less glamorous: “back to the basics.”

Smart managers know that one of the best ways to achieve better sales results is to revisit and reinforce basic sales skills. How much does the sales person know about prospecting? How about closing? Every individual sales person has strengths and weaknesses. Improving sales knowledge where deficiencies exist can move sales performance from good to great. The key to success? Measuring the sales person’s knowledge and customizing training to what the individual needs to know.

“What does the customer consider value?” — Peter Drucker

Value creation in marketing and sales is a fundamental issue that companies must address for long-term success. From what I’ve observed in my consulting practice, marketing and sales are typically separate silos. The all-too-common debate between the two boils down to this: Marketing argues for more investment in the brand, while sales wants more feet on the street. When there is no reliable way to tell which party is right, the one with the most clout wins the debate or the part of the business the CEO comes from is the deciding factor. An ideal solution to this problem is a process approach because it examines all the activities that produce a certain result—namely, winning a customer.
Marketing and sales people are challenged to see that the things they do and their respective inputs and outputs depend on one another.

Discovering what the customer values means answering questions, such as: What is it that the customer really wants from our product or service? Often times, companies seem to confuse customer satisfaction with customer value. They forget that people drop services they are satisfied with all the time if they find something of greater value. What do your customers value about your business?

“Specialized knowledge by itself produces nothing.” — Peter Drucker

During interviews, one of my clients asks sales candidates if they communicate with customers via a blog, Twitter or other social media. This can be important but not for the reason you might think. Technology by its very nature is always evolving so being technologically savvy is not the issue. What it does indicate is a sales person who is willing to adapt to changing customer behavior. The best sales people possess an unrelenting drive to better serve their customers which in this case, means using the latest technology to get their message out.