dangletech

Last time I talked about 3 of the6 habits that I have observed in successful Salespeople.  They were being Highly Organized, being Pessimistic, and that they have a Win As a Team, Never Lose Alone Attitude.  Now for the other 3.

Maximize Customer Face Time
We always need to remember that successful Sales are driven by extensive and deep relationships with the customer.  It is certianly possible to sell low cost, brand recognized, packaged products over the web or by telephone - the classic transactional sale.  So don’t get me wrong here - not all sales require face time.  But to truly develop and successfully complete a complex sale, or build long-term recurring business with a customer account, it is going to take extensive face time with the customer.  The best Salespeople I’ve worked with know everyone in their customer accounts, and the customers know them - from the receptionist through to the key executives (and their administrators).  They live their working days with their customers.  I will never forget when several years ago I went for a couple of days of calls on the US East Coast with my most successful account manager and watched him in action.  He had the ability to recall the smallest of details with the people in his accounts.  While we waited to be escorted to our meeting at one account, he talked to the receptionist about her daughter’s latest exploits.  At another account he discussed with the CIO that we met with about his last vacation, and on the way out his PA thanked him for the flowers he sent the previous week.  Everywhere we walked in the hallways of each account people stepped out of offices and cube farms to say hello.  The trunk of his car was full of small personal gifts he handed out to contacts that had helped him.  It became clear to me why this guy blew his numbers out every quarter - he lived with his customers.  Conversely so many average or low performing Salespeople never leave their desk.  They send emails and leave voicemails, and are faceless to their customers.  I will never understand how anyone could possibly ever believe that a centralized Sales team could be truly successful (and believe me there are more than a few executives, VCs and Board members out there that think you can do it this way).  You’ve got to be out there with your customers to make it happen.

Proactive, not Reactive
If you wait for it to happen in Sales, it never will.  This applies to how you behave internally and externally.  The best Salespeople are proactive before the sale, closing the sale, and after the sale.  Anticipating what your own organization will do is as important as anticipating what the customer will do.  Knowing how your development team performs against schedule can be a key factor in how you deal with your customer.  Do you present the release schedule that Product Management gave to you, or do you buffer it?  Do you wait for your champion to say you’ve got the deal before you go looking for the Purchasing and Legal primes in order to get your agreements reviewed, or do you go seeking them earlier and get copies of their frame agreements?  Before the last day of the quarter do you understand the approval process, required signatures, who’s on vacation?  Oh how many times have I been burned by an an account manager who told me it was a done and committed deal only to find out that the last signature on the PO is sitting on a beach when the quarter ends.  And on closing the deal, I’ve watched the really good account managers take the Support Manager and Product Managers in front of the customer - proactively get them to understand what will be coming their way.  It’s all about being proactive about the little things (and the big things).

Understand that Time is Never on Your Side
I take no credit for this one - this was the favourite saying of a mentor of mine from years ago, and it has rung true for me so many times since.  In Sales time is never on your side.  Just when you think the deal is done, some major change occurs in the economic climate, the customer organization goes into a merger and acquisition scenario, your customer champion leaves the company for a greener pasture, the division you were selling to gets shut down.  I’m sure you can insert your own “the deal got killed” event here.  I managed the US East Region for a billion dollar public software company when 9/11 happened - you can imagine what happened to my pipeline for the 3 rd quarter.  I think the biggest mistake I have witnessed that falls into this category is not taking the deal that is already in hand.  The Salesperson, a Sales Manager, or an executive gets greedy and decides to try and make the deal bigger.  In doing so the time to close moves farther out and some event inserts itself in the way and the deal never gets done.  If only you had just taken the smaller deal when you had it… But it’s not just about that.  It’s about having a sense of urgency and creating that sense of urgency in your own company.  Because otherwise in the technology business time will pass you by.

So those are the 6 habits from my own experience and perspective, and the things that I would climb on the soapbox to tell my teams about each and every time we met.  Some people heard them and practiced them, some people didn’t… I’m sure everyone who has managed a Sales team has their list of things they look for, and hopefully some of them match up with mine.