From a macro-economic perspective, recessions are all about a decline in top line revenue growth. The 2008/2009 recession means the United States (and most other countries) are experiencing a decline in sales revenue (economic activity) across the board.  The media has done an exceptional job ensuring that everyone is acutely aware of the recession, and this, in and of itself, has helped to fuel the recession by dampening business and consumer confidence.

Businesses have responded to this, quite rapidly I might add, by drastically adjusting their budgets. The last 90 days have brought a constant stream of bad revenue, earnings announcements and hundreds of thousands of layoff announcements. And budget cuts across all departments.

So, if a recession is all about “top line” revenue, how do companies expect to increase sales by cutting the budgets of sales and marketing departments? During every recession, there are still customers who buy goods and services; and, they become better negotiators. Being absent in their decision processes will not help sales. While budget cutting is crucial to preserving cash, slashing sales and marketing budgets will not solve top line issues.

Recessions offer unique opportunities for bold and prudent firms that can conceive of “life after the recession”. Recessions offer opportunities to execute “land grabs”, to push weak competitors out of market sectors and to introduce disruptive products and services that provide true cost savings or revenue enhancement to customers.

This is what Prolifiq is doing in CY 2009. We have chosen to dramatically expand into a new market sector, and we are going to be completely transparent about it. The management team of the company will share with you the trials, tribulations and successes as we navigate these choppy waters, and you will be able to interact with the whole Prolifiq team and learn from us as we learn from you.

In my next post: You’re doing what?

I recently attended the SIIA On-Demand conference in San Jose. The most interesting comment I heard all week was: “SFA/CRM [sales force automation/customer relationship management] systems have never helped a salesperson sell a damn thing. They are a reporting tool.” The speaker: Anthony Lye, SVP Oracle Corporation.

WOW! I guess he would know; Oracle is arguably the largest provider of SFA/CRM systems globally. And, I completely agree. CRM systems are a scoreboard that feed information to sales management and finance about what has happened. Having a salesperson dependent on CRM systems is akin to driving your car by looking in the rearview mirror.

So, if CRM is historical and doesn’t help us sell, what does? 

This is the question the Prolifiq management team asked ourselves 6 years ago; and it is the question that drives everything we do. We set out to build a bridge between sales and marketing to deliver top-line revenue growth, reduced cost, improved productivity and an enhanced brand experience for the customer. Have we been successful? Yes and no. Yes, in that we service some of the largest companies in the world, who are all leaders in their respective industries. No, in that we don’t yet have you as a customer. But, you can change that…;-)

I have spent these past weeks telling the salesperson’s story to help you understand Prolifiq’s mission. I have personally enjoyed this journey because it allowed me to publicly say some things I would normally only say in private. This journey has been challenging and rewarding because it has forced me to step outside my comfort zone—so I thank you for taking the time to read my musings.

In my next post, we (the entire Prolifiq team) will begin a new journey. We will begin transparently telling the inside story of Prolifiq as we continue to grow and evolve. I invite you to join us as we take this journey for all to see.

I recently overheard a marketing communications manager state: “…we don’t have content that is aligned with the sales process.” Say what? I find this statement disconcerting, on so many levels, especially in these times.

My first question is: “Then, what have you been doing with your time and resources?” Because, in the absence of content that maps to the sales cycle, salespeople will do what they know how to do—improvise (see previous post: Betty Crocker vs. Rachael Ray). Salespeople will make their own content that fits their sales process. And it will not map to your marketing process and it is doubtful it will support our brand.

For salespeople to tell a story (see previous post: Tell me a story), they need content that is relevant to the customer; and, this relevancy is timing dependent. Salespeople will use your content and your messaging, providing they can get to it easily and they can use it in a cadence that fits their customer’s decision cycle and purchase path.

We just witnessed a near-flawless execution of this with the recent Presidential elections. Barack Obama won the election because he was on-message at every step of the campaign. He and his staff did an excellent job of knowing who they were talking to, what needed to be said and when to say it.

So, our relationship is pretty straightforward: I need you to tell me who to talk to, what to say and how to say it. I commit to deciding on the optimal time to say it and saying it to the best of my abilities. When we execute this properly, we will be celebrating many, many victories. I’ll be happy to pour the champagne.

One of my favorite questions to ask when interviewing is whether a candidate cooks. I have them describe how they do it, etc. Besides getting the candidate to step outside their comfort zone (probably not a question they rehearsed for) it helps expose their personality. What I am trying to learn is if the candidate is highly structured or can deal with improvisation and uncertainty.

Betty Crocker is a marketer’s chef – she has a highly structured, methodical, planned process. Rachael Ray is a seller’s chef – she is gregarious, unstructured and has an improvisational cooking style. Both produce excellent results.

There is a recipe to selling—it involves lots of planning and preparation. However, the most successful salespeople improvise all the time; because, we have to. Things rarely ever go as planned; ingredients are missing. The temperature is not quite right; you don’t always have the right tools. Demos fail; people don’t show up. Planes are late; conference calls fail.

I remember winning a deal for the strangest of reasons. We were scheduled to give a presentation to a HUGE customer (multi-million dollar infrastructure sale). Seven of us flew in for the meeting. We arrived at the conference room with the CIO, only to discover the room was too bright for the projection of our fabulous presentation because there were no window shades and it was brilliantly sunny. We all removed our suit coats and draped them over the windows to darken the room. We won the deal. The CIO chose us because she saw us adapt to the circumstances and overcome—this was more important to her than our 700 features and/or our price. This was never covered in any seven step training process; but, IT IS how life goes.

The moral of the story: next time you cook, pick a recipe without first planning all of the ingredients. Start cooking and when you require something you don’t have—adapt and see what happens. Trust me, you won’t go hungry.

The term windshield time is a term used to describe the personal bonding that takes place between field sales reps as they travel to and between sales appointments. The personal interplay on these trips results in the nuances of the sales process being transferred from one rep to another. It is why sales managers spend so much time in the field observing and coaching their reps.

The advent of web-based selling tools and travel expense restrictions are making windshield time an endangered species; I think this is potentially a tragic loss of institutional learning for organizations. I believe it is critical for marketers to do windshield time to intimately understand the entire sales process from start to finish.

I invite you to join me. Let’s team up to take one A lead from start to finish. I’ll have you join in on all of my calls as both an observer and participant. We will do the discovery call; we will conduct the needs assessment. We will do the departmental interviews; we will do the competitive analysis. We will jointly create the proposal; and we will jointly make the presentation.

This process will be good for both of us—you will witness first-hand how a customer reacts to what we have to say; I will benefit from your observations of what I am doing right, and what I can do better. And most importantly, we will win a new customer.

What I believe will be the greatest outcome of the process is you learning how integral marketing is to the process.

Having mastered the use of seven words (who, what, when, where, why, how & which) I can find out just about anything I choose to learn from my prospects and customers. These words create open-ended questions that cannot be answered with a simple yes or no. They allow me to learn why a qualified prospect is motivated to buy from us.

The process of questioning a customer is a known as discovery interview selling; done properly it is the difference between mediocre and above average sales performance. Neil Rackham developed a selling methodology around this process known as SPIN Selling after observing some 30,000 sales calls and identifying what works.

Rackham found the most effective sellers had mastered the art of discovery and used what they learned to tailor the sales process to each buyer’s motivations. The resulting story (see “Tell Me a Story”) was pertinent and made the buyer feel the seller and their company was talking directly with them.

Following this process through the entire sales cycle, the most interesting result is the “close” becomes a foregone conclusion and ends up being a non-event in both the seller’s and the customer’s mind. So, sit back, listen and watch—we are going to make some calls. The process should help you with what comes next.

I recently completed a homework assignment my whole company took part in. We collectively read “A Whole New Mind,” by Daniel Pink.

Pink postulates the successful people of the future will master six “new” senses; one of these is story telling. You probably wonder what this has to do with leads – it’s my job to move the A lead you just gave me through the final stages of the decision process to secure them as a customer. To do this I must tell a story.

Tom Peters made the case that markets don’t buy anything, people do. For this to happen, I need to appeal to every buyer in a different way and make the story relevant to them. We all listen to the same radio station: WIIFM (what’s in it for me). My job is to learn the customer’s buying motivations and tailor our story so that it appeals to them.

This story is not about our 700+ features, the historical legacy of our company, our price point, our competitive differentiators, or our product roadmap. The story is only relevant IF each buyer sees and feels how they will benefit from our product. This is no simple feat.

I know you think all I do is talk; however, we will craft our story first by listening. I have mastered the seven most powerful words in the salesperson’s dictionary. They are the keys to my success. I’ll tell you about them in my next post.

Marketing is looking for Mr. Right.
Sales is looking for Mr. Right-now.

I say this tongue-in-cheek to illustrate my point. We both look to establish relationships and talk with customers. The difference is our time horizon.

I eat what I kill. If I don’t sell this quarter I don’t get paid. I don’t get paid, a lot of people don’t get paid. I do this long enough I don’t have a job (and possibly a house, car,…spouse, etc.)
You want to develop conversations that span several quarters, causing leads to progress from C to B, B to A and then hand them to me. That’s fine and good; I’m glad you have that perspective.

Here’s mine: I need leads that are going to buy THIS QUARTER. Period. 30 days from end of quarter, you hand me an “A” lead that is 90 days from buying, it doesn’t help me. Keep it. Talk to me next quarter. I have a very short attention span that is driven by survival.

Keep doing what you do—make sure the demographics, psychographics and statistics are right. Make sure they are serious. Make sure we can service them. Then make sure it fits my time horizon. As with most things in life-- timing is everything.

Hello, it’s me. Your sales guy. I saw you at the “all-hands” meeting and by now you’ve read the memo. Cutbacks have happened. Revenue forecasts have been adjusted (downward). Your tradeshows have been cut. You can’t travel. Your department is decimated. You’re not sure you’re happy to be a survivor—you have the pleasure of doing the work of three people. Your department has been hit harder than mine. The reason is simple: I’m directly measurable—you probably are not. Our management will find ways to do that, and soon.

Guess what—the company needs us now more than ever. Sure times are tough. But if you and I truly believe in the value of our product and what we do, there are people and companies who will as well. You and I have to find them and demonstrate how we help them (sell more, spend less, thrill their customers even more, etc.). Peter Drucker said: “Companies exist for one reason—to find and keep customers.”

And here’s something you probably never thought you’d hear me say: “I NEED you; I need your help.” You and I need to be better, faster, smarter and cheaper (or at least more efficient) at finding and keeping our customers. Everything is different now. Many of the things we used to do won’t work in this environment. But the basics are what will get us through this—WE need to: prospect, qualify and close. It’s that simple.

I need leads. I need leads. I need leads. If you don’t get this, I suggest you watch: "Glengarry Glen Ross" starring Al Pacino, Jack Lemmon, and Alec Baldwin.  A dark humor movie to be sure (we sales types love dark and sardonic humor); but,  it is a must see for anyone trying to understand the makeup of sales types.  But, I don’t need lots of leads—just the good ones. So what is a good lead? That is the magic of our relationship.

So, get yourself a cup of coffee. Get out a clean sheet of paper. Look around at all of the empty cubes in your department. Take a deep breath. Give me a call. You and I have work to do.

People tell me I’m a sales guy. I look like one. I talk like one. I act like one. And, yes, I’ve moved my share of product in my day. I’ve also been a marketer. Now I am responsible for both and I am befuddled about how these groups work together.

One would think the two disciplines would be more closely aligned and work like (pick your metaphor here): Butch & Sundance, Starsky & Hutch, Crockett & Tubbs. Unfortunately most companies’ marketing and sales departments get along as well as Nancy Pelosi and Newt Gingrich. I don’t get it.

This blog is intended to give you some insight into a sales guy. Hopefully it will help you understand us a little better, and maybe, just maybe you will see just how much we really need marketing.