Is your sales training keeping up with developments in the selling environment?

There’s no doubt about it:  today’s sales professionals are faced with unprecedented and important changes in their world of work:

• Increased use of powerful online technology that allows faster access to real-time information.  This helps accelerate the sales process…but also makes it harder for sales reps to focus, concentrate, and avoid distraction.
• Higher levels of “information overload” from that same technology.  The flood of data from company email, CRM systems, and personal use of knowledge tools like Google search has helped create an “I want it now” expectation from sales reps when it comes to job-related information access.
• Intensifying response time compression, an increased pressure from customers and colleagues for “24/7” availability, increased speed of response, and reduced time out of field to quickly solve problems.  Customers want answers faster…and so do today’s sales training participants.

These changes (and others like them) have made it more important than ever to deploy training that is simple, memorable, and quick-to-value for the sales team.

Yet many organizations still implement sales training that is overly complex, quickly forgotten, and slow to produce value for participants.  Training that describes complicated sales process models that are hard to remember and apply.  Training that makes logical sense, but is forgotten a month later in the field.

What can be done?  Deployment of online training and tools is key to success.  More importantly, increased focus on application of use of “chunks” of learning content in the field (such as that delivered by BayGroup International’s 100minutes™ solutions) can address the need for training delivered “when I need it, where I need it.”

At an even more fundamental level, the challenge involves designing sales training that addresses a basic psychological truth:  the human brain can only hold and remember seven things at a time in “working memory.”  In fact, recent research suggests fewer is better.  That’s one reason BayGroup International sales training is designed with this in mind.  For example, our sales negotiation methodology is built around:

• Six fundamental Principles of Sales Negotiation that drive more effective planning;
• A three-dimensional model for effective negotiation (Competitive, Collaborative, Creative); and
• Five core negotiation behaviors that drive successful negotiation outcomes.

The results of this approach?  Higher levels of user adoption of sales training content, more focused field coaching, increased “stickiness” of key skills…and both larger and more profitable customer relationships.

The current New York Times best seller The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg is a fascinating read…and one with major implications for sales professionals and leaders.

This important book provides insights (through research and illustrative stories) on how habits are created, how they can be changed, and how organizations can improve performance by managing the habits of their employees.

What does this have to do with sales execution, sales negotiation, and sales training?

A lot.

After all, effective sales negotiation is often counterintuitive.  In stressful negotiations the best way to respond is often the opposite of the natural, habitual approaches we typically employ (read an article on this subject here).  Duhigg points out that a key to improving organizational performance is managing employee habits at what he calls “inflection points,” when our bad habits can be excessively costly, and when better habits can lead to dramatically improved results.

In sales, these “inflection points” are often the key moments when our natural, habitual responses get us in the most trouble, for example when we:

• Respond to customer price pressure by talking about price, rather than shifting the dialogue to value;
• React to a customer’s aggressive proposal by communicating our own proposal, rather than probing to learn more about their rationale;
• Accept the customer’s frame of reference (“This really is all about your cost per unit”), rather than reframing the dialogue to a more favorable playing field (“This is really about total cost of ownership”);
• Giving things away in hopes of closing the deal, rather than exchanging value throughout the sales process.

So what does Charles Duhigg tell us that can help?  He points out that every habit has three parts:

• A cue:  the stimulus that triggers the bad habit
• The routine:  the performance of the “automatic” habit that might get us in trouble
• The reward:  the payoff that makes us want to repeat the habit in the future…whether it’s bad or good for us.

A great starting point for changing bad sales negotiation habits is to ask questions in each of these areas, such as:

• What cues trigger me to make habitual selling and negotiation mistakes?
• What habitual routine do I intuitively, automatically use when this happens, and is it working for me?
• What reward do I get for performing the habitual routine…and what might my reward be for doing something better and different the next time the cue presents itself?

For BayGroup International clients, changing costly sales negotiation habits starts not with “how to” explanations, but with powerful discovery learning exercises that provide personal insight about the cues, routines, and rewards that drive individual negotiating behavior.  With this insight in place, it is possible to change bad habits, and replace them with counterintuitive and more profitable ones.  And as bad habits change to counterintuitive good ones, those same clients reinforce and reward that behavior through a combination of online technology, management coaching discipline, and results and best practice sharing.

Your team makes hundreds of agreements with customers every day…but only a handful, usually fewer than 20%, create 80% of the value created in your sales process.

When the goal is execution of high-margin sales, you should focus first on these “critical few” agreements that drive bottom-line results.

In his best-selling book The Last Link, author Gregg Crawford (President and CEO of BayGroup International) explains:

Any given company’s customer engagement process might require crafting hundreds of agreements.  But typically there are no more than six to eight agreements that dictate the ultimate success of failure of the sales process and corporate strategy:  the Pivotal Agreements…the agreements that are connected to the financial metrics of your corporate strategy.

Pivotal Agreements determine if your sales process leads to large, high-margin contracts.  A key to profitable selling is identifying those Pivotal Agreements (which often happen early in the sales process), and developing strategies for executing them.

To learn more about embedding a sales execution discipline in your organization that gets the team to focus on Pivotal Agreement execution, visit here.

To learn more about The Last Link: Closing the Gap That is Sabotaging Your Business, visit here.

TrainingIndustry.com recently named BayGroup International to its “Top 20 Sales Training Companies” list.

What does it take to earn this industry recognition?  According to Ken Taylor, Chief Operating Officer of Training Industry, Inc. “Companies selected all featured strong methodology, and the approaches that will handle a broad set of learning types” as well as:

• Breadth and innovation in services and delivery methods offered
• Industry recognition and impact on sales training industry
• Strength of clients served
• Geographic reach and participants trained
• Company size and growth potential

BayGroup International clients experience this excellence when they benefit from the firm’s:

• Extensive global delivery capability
• Leading-edge online technology
• Comprehensive suite of sales execution and negotiation solutions
• Powerful, tailored implementation approach
• Proven, measured bottom-line business impact

Request more information about BayGroup International capabilities here.

The subtitle of the current business best seller The Challenger Sale (by Matthew Dixon and Brent Adamson) reinforces BayGroup International’s idea that the top B2B sales professionals are better than most at “Taking Control of the Sales Process.”

Taking control.  How do high performers do it?

Sales leaders from DuPont know the answer, which is why their implementation of BayGroup International’s Situational Sales Negotiation™ has a full chapter of the book devoted to it.  The key lessons?  That the most successful sales professionals:

• Plan for effective sales execution differently than most.
• Are more skilled than others at handling price pressure from buyers.
• Adopt better—often counterintuitive—approaches to challenging customer assumptions and provoking sales dialogue about new areas of need and value.
• Managing tension more effectively in the B2B sales process using a specific, repeatable behavioral strategy.

When it comes to creating high-performing sales teams—whether or not they are labeled “challengers,” “trusted advisors,” or “valued partners”—it’s an approach focused in these key areas that drives bottom-line results.  That’s why it’s no surprise that BayGroup International is the only company (outside of the author’s own) profiled in The Challenger Sale.

Want to learn more about how DuPont got a 68:1 return on its investment implementing Situational Sales Negotiation™ to help their team take control of the sales?  Click here to learn more.

BayGroup International’s President, Ron D’Andrea, recently took part in a thought-leader panel discussion hosted by ES Research.  The subject:  “Selling To and Negotiating With Today’s Tough, Strategic Procurers/ Buyers/ Sourcers.”

Here are some of Ron’s comments:

• “A major change we’ve seen in the last four years is that our clients no longer think ‘how can I avoid the purchasing group,’ but instead focus on ‘how can I engage them in helping make the right decisions.’  In many companies procurement is now a cabinet-level position.  They are looking for ways to add value, to have better relationships with their internal partners, and to be seen as an asset to their firms.  Our job as sales professionals is to help them accomplish this.”
• “We’re often asked ‘how do I deal with tough tactics from purchasing managers?  Our advice starts with this:  Don’t take it personally, and don’t get angry.  Realize that in some organizations this is what buyers have been taught to do, and they do it because it works…with their weaker vendors. The key is to realize that there’s always tension in negotiations like this.  You may not be able to change the process, or their approach, but you can anticipate it and plan for superior results.”
• “To be successful, you have to understand the role and function of procurement in the organization.  There are often formal cost-reduction initiative that affect the approach procurement takes to negotiations.  To win on value rather than price you need to get down to specifics, and ask question like ‘What are the lead times and the need for reliable supply?  What are the service-level requirements?  What are the costs and risks of switching suppliers?’  The most successful sales teams create a checklist of questions like these, and use it to broaden the discussion from price to other areas of differentiated value.”

Want to hear more?  You’ll find archived recordings of this and other ES Research thought leader panels here.

Want to learn more about BayGroup International’s approach to value-added sales negotiation?  Visit here.

Many BayGroup International clients report that it’s harder today than ever before to negotiate profitable contracts…and that they are more frequently required to negotiate their final agreements with tough sourcing or procurement managers. Here are three ideas to help you be more effective in this challenging environment:

1. You have more power than you think. A recent study from the Corporate Executive Board polled sales and purchasing professionals, asking “Who has more power in negotiations?”  Not surprisingly, 75% of the sales professionals said that purchasing managers had more power.  But the same 75% of purchasing professionals said that sales people had more power. The fact of the matter is that most purchasing professionals are under intense pressure to hit productivity targets, to negotiate with suppliers who have strong support from internal influencers, and to finalize multiple agreements at the end of each quarter.   It’s human nature to think the other party has more power than you do in negotiations.  To be successful, it’s imperative to look at the negotiation from the other party’s perspective, to identify your own sources of power and how you can leverage them.
2. Procurement professionals “triage” their negotiations.  The way you negotiate sends a message that procurement professionals hear…loud and clear.  In training programs we run for purchasing teams we’re often told “We have to choose which suppliers to focus on in the limited time we have at the end of the quarter.  When a supplier demonstrates resolve, makes trades rather than giveaways, and keeps the focus on value rather than price…we’re much more likely to move those agreements along quickly…and focus our efforts on the other, weaker vendors.”
3. Negotiate the process…right from the start.  Many sales professionals end up in weak positions with purchasing managers at the end of the sales process because they have failed to negotiate effectively much earlier in that process.  High performers know that Pivotal Agreements negotiated early in the sales cycle (about access to key people, information, requirements, and buying criteria) have a dramatic impact on final contract negotiations.  The lesson:  When it comes to sales profitability, early agreements make all the difference.  To be successful with purchasing managers at the end of the process, begin negotiating earlier to build your power.

Want to learn more about maintaining a disciplined approach to negotiating throughout the sales process?  Read the BayGroup International white paper “Selling Value, Not Price:  Six Keys to Profitable Sales Execution,” found here.

The goal of training is to improve corporate performance.  Yet a common complaint of executives is “I don’t see the connection between the training we do and bottom line results.”

Connecting training to bottom-line profitability requires a focus in five important areas:

1. Measuring the connection between skill/tool use and financial performance. Most training managers measure participant reaction to training, and sometime learning gain.  It’s critical to go further, and document the direct connection between skill use and profit improvement.
2. Preparing managers to embed new skill/tool use into their regular routines. Many training inititiatives include a “management coaching” component.  Although this is important, it is even more important to arm managers with specific tools, coaching questions, and models for effective profit-oriented discussions of sales and negotiation situations.
3. Emphasizing application of new skills/tools to situations that most leverage profitability. Many training departments strive to offer a comprehensive curriculum to their people.  This is helpful…but what works even better is to focus performance improvement on the critical topics that drive profitability:  sales execution, effective negotiation, and team effectiveness.
4. Focusing on the (few) right things…not everything. It is tempting to deploy training that fully reflects the complexity of the world of work, that provides a comprehensive, detailed method for succeeding at work.  Unfortunately, the more comprehensive and complex the training, the less likely it is to be remembered and used back in the field.  The solution:  “boil down” learning into smaller, more actionable checklist-like tools that can be remembered, accessed, and used at the point of need.
5. Keeping the message in front of the team. The task of connecting performance improvement to profitability doesn’t end when formal training sessions are over.  It is critical to leverage online technology to keep the “profit message” in front of the team when they return to work.

To learn more about BayGroup International’s approach to implementing client projects that tie performance to profitability, visit the “How We Work” section of the our corporate website.

Given the rapid pace of business today and the proliferation of CRM systems, it’s not surprising that many organizations are implementing online solutions to improve the performance of their B2B sales teams.

Unfortunately, sales leaders often report low compliance to online sales training, low usage of online tools, and lower-than-expected return on investments in online technology.

What should a sales training executive consider when evaluating online solutions for the sales force?  A review of best practice implementations suggests that they should ask themselves these ten questions as they evaluate options…

1. Will this online solution save us money?  How much?
2. Is it “turnkey,” so my company’s administrative burden is low (so we can fully leverage our training staff on other projects)?
3. Is it easily and quickly deployed, with minimal involvement of internal IT resources?
4. Is it designed to motivate and maximize use of online content and tools?
5. Is the solution implemented using a process that fosters and improves the quality of on-the-job coaching?
6. Is content delivered in through a variety of channels, such as podcasts, asynchronous online training modules, and downloadable tools…and through mobile devices?
7. Is the quality of online video high enough to appeal to today’s discriminating audience?
8. Does it use online social media and community features such as threaded discussions groups and user ratings of content?
9. Does it allow the delivery of Virtual Live Training (VLT) that engages users with video and high levels of interactivity?
10. Can it be tailored, co-branded, and delivered in a secure manner from behind the firewall?

BayGroup International’s suite of online technology solutions are designed with these requirements in mind. They not only provide a wealth of live and on-demand content, but do so in an easily accessible, easily deployable, and highly secure way.  Find out more here.

In the movie “League of Their Own,” Tom Hanks tells his 1940’s professional women’s baseball team “There’s no crying in baseball!”  Since the recent global economic melt down sales executives have had to give their teams similar advice about the “game” they play:  negotiating profitable agreements with customers.  Complaining about the problem won’t get the job done.  Managing for profitable negotiation will…

What are top performing companies doing to address the challenges of slow economic growth, increasing price-focused buyers, and aggressive competitors?  Here are three strategies some of our most successful clients are using:

1. Focus the B2B sales force on broadening the discussion of value with their customers.  Rather than responding to the customer’s stated needs, make sure you get your team exploring unconsidered needs, those the customer hasn’t thought about during their sales process.  This strategy helps create differentiated value that supports profitable pricing.
2. Coach the sales team to exchange rather than concede value. Too often in tough economic conditions we “give away the store” to close business, and forget that no value is created for our customer if we don’t ask them to give us something back in return for our concessions.  It’s surprising how often coaches fail to ask their sales reps a simple question:  “If we give them ______, what do we get back in return?”  This simple question can drive a conversation that leads to more profitable agreements, and more value in the mind of the customer.
3. Embed a simple coaching process that reminds the sales team to do the right thing with B2B customers when the negotiation tension increases.  A number of BGI clients are implementing solutions that distribute short videos to the sales team on regular basis suggesting strategies they can use immediately on sales calls, and then encourage coaches to use those videos as a springboard for more productive, profitable discussions about account negotiation strategy.

Contact us to learn more here.