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SalesTool Talk Newsletter:  Sept 10th Issue

For quite some time, vendors of Sales Software were simply known as CRM (Customer Relationship Management) companies.  But CRM has its short-comings - namely, the lop-sided focus on collecting data FROM salespeople vs providing value TO them.  

 

Enter Sales Enablement Software which fills the gap giving sales reps quick access to knowledge-bases, content and strategies.

 

For the longest time, great salespeople were seen to have been born with their ability to influence others.  We talk about the “art” of sales.  

 

Now we realize that great salespeople are great because they have a playbook from which they select the best plays for each situation.

Sales Enablement Software can help transfer that knowledge and success rate to others and institutionalize successful practices across the organization.

 

Kadient is a Sales Enablement Software vendor worth looking at and is the product we’re profiling in this issue.

 

 

 

Should you do more to enable your salespeople?

(hint: how badly do you want to hit your sales targets?)

Kadient sets out “to give sales people the information and guidance they need, specific to the opportunities they are managing and the people they are selling to, at every stage of a customer’s buying process”.  Nicely put!

 

The most important element to effective Sales Enablement, according to Kadient, is to recognize that it’s value is derived by what THE SALESPEOPLE GET OUT OF IT, not the data they key in.  Salespeople will not adopt a technology unless they get value from it (which is why there is such a high rate of failure to adopt CRM systems).

 

Though I never thought I’d be quoting Dr. Phil, he is known for one particular exclamation:

 

How’s that working for you?

 

Here’s a handy “how’s that working for you” checklist that Kadient provides, to determine whether you could better enable your sales team.

• Are your current tools and materials producing the results you want?
• Does your sales portal mean anything to your sales team?
• Can your salespeople engage your prospects in meaningful conversations?
• Does your sales team have the right knowledge for creating and sustaining conversations?
• Can your salespeople get the information they need in the right place, at the right time?
• Can your knowledge be tailored to specific sales situations?
• Are you drawing insights from real-life sales processes?
• Can you take advantage of what’s learned in the field?
• Do you have a process for collaboration and continuous improvement?
• Does your sales team have access to proven playbooks?
• Can you move your “middle 80%” toward improved performance?
• Does your CRM deliver real value to your salespeople?

 

If you answered NO to any of these questions, your current system isn’t working very well for you!

 

Kadient consists of 3 components woven together

 

Dynamic Sales Content:  A sales content management engine for capturing the information and sales tools that are proven to impact the key points in the sales cycle, and ensuring the messages that reach buyers are accurate, up-to-date, brand-compliant, and personalized.

A central library for all content - a centralized location to access all the approved and proven content available to salespeople.

Easy customization - Kadient’s system guides your salespeople through the process of creating deliverables tailored to each prospect's needs.

Search, browse and filter capabilities - Make it easy to find the documents and content your team needs.

 

Sales Playbooks: Provide salespeople with the situational coaching and guidance they need to advance and win deals. Model what your best salespeople are doing to advance and win deals and put them into the hands of your entire sales team.  Go to their Sales Playbooks page for more information on how they work.  In short, they are a way to align sales activities, content, tools, and coaching with the customer’s buying cycle, served up within a CRM system, so the salesperson knows what to do, how to do it, and when to do it.

 

Sales Performance Analytics - Optimize the performance of your sales team by gaining visibility into what your salespeople are doing to work their deals, and what impact the activities they perform and resources they use are having on results.

Ask yourself if you should be doing more to enable your sales team (and to improve your sales results and meet your sales targets) - if the answer is ‘yes’, you should put Kadient on your short-list.

 

Sponsored Advertising

 

No More to No Power, No Potential (by Josianne Feigon)

 

Selling through a downturn means we are faced with more, not less. More objections, more decision-makers, more departments to sell into, more knowledgeable customers, more products to sell, more tools available, more processes to learn, more choices.

 

According to Miller Heiman’s 2008 Sales Best Practices, there are now 16% more decision-makers involved in the sales process, but fewer who actually hold budget dollars. You would think with so many more decision-makers to contact, the chances of landing on the wrong ones would be minimal. But according to a recent finding by CSO Insights, 22% of deals are lost because of “no decision.” That means salespeople are still hanging out with the wrong people.

 

It’s getting harder to find the real power in a company, even though both technology and business systems are bombarding us with more data than ever. Today, salespeople are is engaging in extensive pre-call research and coming away equipped with hundreds of people to contact per target company. How can they quickly distinguish who has the power and who are the No-Po’s- these are the ones with No Power, No Potential?

 

Why We’re Drawn to No-Po’s

 

Unlike the traditional gatekeepers, these No-Po’s are very knowledgeable and are part of the committee or department. They often hold a prestigious title, such as Manager, Director, Engineer, Administrator, Analyst, or C-Level Executive. Although they earn more than receptionists and executive assistants, they hold roughly the same level of power when it comes to making purchasing decisions.

 

No-Po’s are hard to resist. After we’ve dialed a hundred outbound calls in a week, with little success, we just want to connect with someone live—it’s easy to find comfort in someone who wants to talk. So we’re happy to get fooled by them. No-Po’s love talking with vendors, and act as though they have power, but they discourage you from talking with anyone else, especially their bosses.

 

 

What’s NoPo?!

No-Po’s love your product and understand it better than you. They are generous with their time, often asking lots of questions. Soon, you believe the sale is getting closer because No-Po’s invite more people to your conference calls and demos. You may even go so far as to forecast this prospect on your sales report, assuring your manager that you’ll bring in the deal.

 

Learning to Let Go of No-Po’s

 

Even after we realize we are talking with a No-Po, it’s hard to let go. We believe that if we just hang in there, they’ll come around. Salespeople, unlike No-Po’s, are loyal. After spending months with a No-Po, we may believe we are “owed” the business. We may truly believe we are helping the No-Po convince their boss to buy. Meanwhile, the salesperson’s forecast has suffered because they haven’t closed the sale.

 

Steps to Letting Go of Your No-Po

 

Most No-Po’s aren’t malicious, just uncertain about the boundaries of their own job. No-Po’s often don’t know whether they have power. Talking and making plans with vendors is a way for them to believe they do, so they want vendors to listen and be loyal to them and only them. But sooner or later, you will need to ask yourself some hard questions:

 

1. Is this person going to help or hurt you in the long run?
2. Is this person really talking about you with the executive team, or should you take matters into your own hands?
3. Maybe this person’s level of influence is uncertain or questionable within their organization. Could that be why they are so protective?
4. Have they been burned by hungry, clumsy, greedy, slimy vendors in the past that caused them trouble?
5. Can you assure them of your loyalty while also setting expectations about having access to a higher level?

 

Josiane Feigon coined this No-Po concept in her new book, Smart Selling on the Phone and Online–just one of the 10 sales skills Feigon covers in her book. Listen to Josiane’s podcast interview on her book or watch her YouTube Channel and learn about each of the 10 skills in a one-minute video format.

 

Josiane Feigon is the founder and CEO of TeleSmart Communications. A twenty-year veteran of the industry, Josiane is recognized as one of the world’s leading experts on inside sales team and manager talent, providing consulting, coaching and training solutions for hundreds of Fortune 1000 companies, including Cisco, EMC, Microsoft, Autodesk, Hewlett-Packard, and VeriSign. Josiane is the author of the sales blog Cubicle Chronicles and her articles have appeared in Selling Power, Salesopedia, Eyes on Sales and other industry publications.

Buy Josianne’s new Book

 

Now Available!