What is CRM?

Posted by Commence on January 30, 2012 under CEO Corner | Be the First to Comment

The term CRM means different things to different people. In fact, if you ask ten people what is CRM  you will probably get ten different answers.  CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management, but its roots date back more than almost two decades to what was then called Customer Interaction Software  or CIS.  Other than a name change, CRM and its purpose in the business community remains the same.  CRM is a business software solution that is used to automate the front office business processes that impact sales execution and customer service.  Its purpose is to manage the interaction between your sales and support personal and your customers.

Companies that engage in the evaluation and selection of CRM software are traditionally looking to achieve three business objectives:

1)       Data Consolidation – information is streaming into your business every day from the telephone, fax, e-mail and the web. What happens to this information is the problem. The objective of CRM software is to ensure that all of this information is consolidated into a single unified database where it is immediately accessible to those employees that need to it efficiently do their jobs.

2)      Improve Sales Execution – this starts with implementing a structured process for lead qualification and the efficient management of the sales cycle from introduction to closure.  Proper lead qualification ensures that your most valuable asset, i.e. your sales team, is focused on the most qualified business opportunities.   Proper management of the sales cycle using CRM software has helped management keep their eye on the most promising opportunities and has  been shown to improve close ratios and generate higher returns.

3)      Provide World-Class Customer Service – In today’s world where customer loyalty is only skin deep the difference between winning and retaining customers may have more to do with the quality of service you provide than it does your product.  CRM can ensure that all members of the organization have access to customer records and can respond quickly and professionally to customer inquiries.

The challenging economy coupled with a highly competitive market place has encouraged businesses of all sizes to seek a way to get a leg up on their competition.  CRM software has proven to be an effective tool for helping companies market, sell and provide service to their customers.

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Sales Management Benefit the Most from CRM Software

Posted by Commence on January 27, 2012 under CEO Corner | Be the First to Comment

Experienced well trained sales managers understand the importance and value of CRM software and how chaotic their world would be without it.  Anyone who has managed a mid-size to large sales organization knows it is no easy task.  Sales people often come from all walks of life, from college grads to mature people who may have completely changed their careers.  One of the biggest challenges in managing sales people is implementing a structure that ensures everyone is working under the same guidelines.   Unlike your internal accountants that must follow state and federal guidelines, there are no written rules for sales people.  This is where a good CRM system can be a sales manager’s best friend.

You should look at your sales organization just like a crew of new military recruits that just arrived in boot camp.  They’re all eager to be successful, but don’t quite know how and are looking for the right path to follow.  The implementation of a structure with well-established rules and procedures is what makes the military successful. Once the recruits are comfortable with it they begin to operate like a well-oiled machine.  Your sales organization should be operating the same way. Sales people want and need a structured approach to selling and a good CRM system can provide it.

What CRM software can deliver is the ability to document a structured approach to selling where each stage of the sales cycle is managed and evaluated before moving forward.   This ensures that each and every sales opportunity is being looked at through multiple eyes and not falling through the cracks.  The results speak for themselves.  Higher close ratios, higher revenue attainment, happy sales people and happy management.   It’s important to note that simply running out and implementing a CRM system is not going to deliver more sales.  CRM software is a tool and it does not run your business, people do and sales management is the key to good performance.  CRM software will at least give them the tools they need to become a more effective sales organization.

[Image "Social Business Boot Camp 2010" by Gangway Advertising on Flickr under Creative Commons license]

Sales Best Practice #23 – Routinely makes powerful persuasive presentations

Posted by Commence on January 11, 2012 under Sales Training | Be the First to Comment

A Best Practice for sales people by guest poster Dave Kahle, author and leading sales educator.

By Dave Kahle

In my first professional sales position, I spent six full weeks in sales training before I was released to go out into my territory.  Sales training was defined as memorizing two five-page, single-spaced sales presentations, presenting them to the sales training class, critiquing the video-taped playback of the presentation, and then doing it all again – for six weeks! At the end of those six weeks, every one of us could give those two presentations masterfully.

While the use of prewritten, memorized sales presentations still continues today, it’s only rarely used in the business-to-business selling environment.  It may be that today’s frantic pace of new product development makes the time it takes to memorize a sales presentation seem less valuable.  Or it may be that today’s salesperson is more sophisticated and able to adjust the sales presentation to the needs of each individual customer.

While memorized presentations may be a vestige of years gone by, that in no way reduces the need to make a well designed, practiced sales presentation. The ability to routinely make powerful, persuasive sales presentations, regardless of the customer or product, is one of the practices of the best.

The world is full of salespeople who take a casual attitude toward a sales presentation.  Some think that they know the product so well that their superior product knowledge will ooze out during the presentation, impressing the customer into buying.  Others do not put in the necessary preparation and practice time, and, in an attempt to cover their lack of confidence, focus on those parts of the presentation with which they feel most comfortable.  Still others feel that their ability to improvise will eventually lead them to a persuasive presentation.

The truth is that there is no shortcut to a persuasive presentation.  It begins with studying the customer as well as the product or service.  It takes preparation to decide which of the customer’s issues to address, and which specific features of your offer to emphasize.  It takes time to organize the facts and features into a cohesive presentation.  It takes time to build in interactive elements, and to gather the right samples and documents.  And it takes time to practice (yes, practice) the presentation before you actually make it.  A persuasive presentation begins with methodical preparation.

Maybe that’s why so few salespeople give this aspect of their job the attention that it deserves.  And maybe that’s why routinely making powerful and persuasive presentations is a practice of the very best.

To learn more about this practice, review these resources: The CD, How to Make Powerful and Persuasive Presentations, or the Video version: Persuasive Presentations, Part 1 & 2.

If you are a member of The Sales Resource Center™, consider The One Month ‘Persuasive Presentations’ Course, or The Six Month ‘Consultative Selling’ Course.

About the Author:

Dave Kahle is one of the world’s leading sales educators. He’s written nine books, presented in 47 states and seven countries, and has helped enrich tens of thousands of sales people and transform hundreds of sales organizations.  Sign up for his free weekly Ezine, and visit his blog.  For a limited time, receive $547 of free bonuses with the purchase of his latest book, How to Sell Anything to Anyone Anytime.

Copyright MMXI by Dave Kahle
All Rights Reserved.

[Image "Day 32: Yahoo BT sales exercise" by Kerry Vaughan on Flickr under Creative Commons license]

Sales Practices: Question and Answer #6

Posted by Commence on December 29, 2011 under Sales Training | Be the First to Comment

This is a Sales Question and Answer article about sales best practices from guest poster Dave Kahle, author and leading sales educator. Follow Dave’s latest Tweets at @davekahle.

By Dave Kahle

Q. What do I do when my goals don’t match the company’s goals for me?

A.  I can look at this is in two ways – expressing two different situations.  In the first, there is a legitimate difference in the expectations for a sales person, but a basic agreement on the issues on which to be focused, as well as the values of the organization.  In the second, there is a deeper and more significant difference of opinion.

A little reality check

Let’s consider each separately.  In the first scenario, the sales person and the company differ on the degree of what is possible.  The sales person expects a 10% increase, while the company thinks 15% is reasonable.  Both agree that sales growth is reasonable, but the amount of growth is the issue.  What do you, the sales person, do in this case?

Persuade and negotiate.  Try to convince your boss that your perspective is more accurate than his/hers.  Don’t just assert that, be convincing.  Back up your beliefs with substance.  Describe specific situations and accounts, and explain why you think about them the way you do.  Prove your point.

At some point in this process, there is going to be a resolution.  There will be a quota or a goal.  Whether it is your idea of what it should be, or your manager’s version, or some compromise, it doesn’t matter.  At that point, when the issue is resolved and the number is set, your job is to give all of your best efforts to doing what your company wants you to do.

You are, after all, an employee of the company.  Your job is to do what your company wants you to do.  That’s what they pay you for.

Sometimes sales people can get a little too convinced of their own importance.  I succumbed to that temptation more than once when I was selling full time.  We think that we really are in business for ourselves, that we own our customers, and that we know what is best for the company and the customer.  So, therefore, we become agitated and upset when the company asks for a 15% increase and we think 5% is reasonable.  We are tempted to go off mumbling under our breath about the screwy management, and we decide we are going to do what we want to do instead.

A little reality check is in order under these circumstances.  If you worked in the warehouse, would you be able to decide what you wanted to do today?  If you were a customer service rep, would you get to determine how best to spend your day, and which parts of your job you’d really do?  If you were in the purchasing department, if you didn’t like the company’s direction, would you have the freedom to ignore it?

So what makes you think you are so special?  Answer — nothing.  Let’s put the freedom that we enjoy and the money that we make in perspective.  We are, when all is said and done, employees of the company.  And, I believe, we have a moral obligation to give our best efforts to that company for as long as we accept a paycheck.

Sometimes the price is high

Which brings us to the second situation.  You have some major difference of opinion in not only the degree of what is expected, but a deep-seated difference of opinion in the basic issues themselves.  I’m not talking about issues like you think you need to focus on your current customers and your company wants you to sell new customers.  Those are relatively superficial issues that fit into the previous discussion.

Instead, I’m talking about differences in fundamental values and ethics.  Here’s an example from my own experience.  I once worked for a company that introduced a new product, and developed a quota for each of us to sell that product.  The problem was, the product never worked.  It didn’t do what the company said it was going to do.  We, the sales people, knew it, and the company knew it.  Yet, they still wanted us to sell it.  We were given quotas and strongly directed to go out and get orders at all costs.  They directed us to, in effect, lie to our customers.

I left the company shortly thereafter.

The issue wasn’t “Do I sell 100 or 130 of these?”  That’s an issue of degree.  Instead, the issue was, “Do I lie to my customers?”  That’s an ethical issue.

If it’s an ethical issue, then I think you have only one choice.  Find another job.  Life is too short to spend it violating your ethics and compromising your integrity.

That sounds simple, and it rarely is that black and white.  It almost never happens that your manager sends you an email that says, “From this day forward you will lie to your customers.”  Instead, it is more likely that a pattern emerges over a period of time.  One incident is generally not representative of a character flaw.  But, when you see a pattern of cutting ethical corners, of disdain for integrity, of fuzzy moral boundaries, then you can conclude that those are expressions of a corporate character flaw.

In my situation, the “lie to your customers” direction was not the first indication of a lack of moral compatibility between me and the company.  It was, however, the final one for me – the most recent and blatant of a string of incidents that made me feel uncomfortable with myself for being a part of it.

Also, sometimes the price is high.  The position I left was the most fun, most challenging, best paying job I ever had.  It was 15 years before I made the kind of money again that I made in that job.  Believe me, leaving that job for ethical reasons was a difficult decision.

Money is just money.  It comes and it goes.  People, and sales people particularly, who will do anything for money, who evidence no compulsion and no moral boundaries, are sad characters.  They have succumbed to the most superficial of temptations and displayed themselves to all those around them as people with little integrity.  They are unfortunate examples to their families, friends, and all who know them.

You only have to read the newspapers over the last year or so to see multiple examples of the damage that greed, un-tempered by morality, can do.  The real damage, though, is not the highly visible corporate crooks that we read about every day.  The real tragedy is all the less visible managers and sales people who we don’t read about – those business people who share the same “money at all costs” attitude – whose legacy is not as public, but none-the-less still damaging.

I would hope that you would not be one of those.  That you would have the strength of character to disassociate yourself from a situation that comprised your integrity.

So, when it becomes an issue of morality, I think it’s time to leave.

Good luck.  Sell well.

P.S. I expect that my comments may generate some responses.  Feel free to email a comment to me.

********************************************************************************************

You may want to dig deeper into the issues uncovered in this article.  I’d recommend the book, “Take Your Performance Up-a-Notch.”

If you are a member of The Sales Resource Center ™  consider reviewing these lessons:  Pod-21: “Goal-Setting,” or  Pod-34: “Ethics for the Professional Sales Person.”

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About the Author:

Dave Kahle is one of the world’s leadng sales educators. He’s written nine books, presented in 47 states and seven countries, and has helped enrich tens of thousands of sales people and transform hundreds of sales organizations.  Sign up for his free weekly Ezine, and visit his blog.  For a limited time, receive $547 of free bonuses with the purchase of his latest book, How to Sell Anything to Anyone Anytime.

Copyright MMXI by Dave Kahle

All Rights Reserved.

Sales Practices: Question and Answer #5

Posted by Commence on November 28, 2011 under Sales Training | Be the First to Comment

This is a Sales Question and Answer article about customer relationship management from guest poster Dave Kahle, author and leading sales educator. Follow Dave’s latest Tweets at @davekahle.

By Dave Kahle

Q. How do I ensure that I get the last look in a competitive bid situation?

A.  This is a question that I’m often asked.  In a lot of industries, particularly those involved in construction, government purchases and large-volume manufacturing, most of the customers require an official bid.  It’s not unusual for these to be highly formal and structured.

Here’s a typical scenario.  The customer sends a bid to five suppliers, and each responds with a written document by a certain specified date.  The customer reviews the bids, and awards the business.

The writer of the question wants the ability to go in after the bids have been submitted, to look at the competitive bids or at least the lowest bid prices, and to change his/her prices in order to be awarded the business.

First, it should be noted that in some instances, the “last look” is illegal.  In many cases, it’s viewed as unethical.  In other industries and situations, it’s viewed as business-as-usual.  This question and answer is only relevant to the latter situation.

I have responses for this on several different levels.

1.  Avoiding a bid situation to begin with.

2.  Making a last look unnecessary.

3.  When all else fails, insuring that you get a last look.

Let’s think about each one separately.

1.  Avoiding a bid situation to begin with.

OK, I know that bids are standard operating procedures in your business.  But, I also know that a lot of business is “negotiated.”  In other words, the customer selects the vendor he/she wants to work with, and then negotiates the best deal with that customer.

I’d much rather you get yourself into a negotiating rather than a bid situation.  That way,  you’d avoid the bid scenario altogether.

And, while it is true that you’ll never convince 100% of your customers to negotiate with you rather than send out bids, if you are successful over the next few years in moving 20 – 30% of your customers to negotiating status, you’ll see a tremendous improvement in your sales.

How do you earn that position?  Two ways:  First, build powerful business relationships, be a reliable supplier, and offer a special relationship – “negotiating” – with all your good customers.

In other words, bring the subject up regularly, plant the seed in your customer’s brain, tell stories about how you were able to work effectively with others – how they cut costs, paperwork and time out of the cycle by working with you.

If you are good, and persistent, you’ll eventually convert a significant chunk of your customers.

The second way to operate effectively in this situation is to become more deeply involved in the customer’s buying process and influence the creation of the specifications in such a way so as you are the only one who can meet those specifications.  The bid then, becomes superfluous.

Some of you who have been in my programs have heard me tell the story of how I did the most profitable transaction of my life in an account whose policy it was to bid everything to five vendors.

2.  Making a last look unnecessary.

“…if you have some aspect of your product, service or offer that sets you apart from the competitors… then the customer should be happy to do business with you even if you are not the absolute lowest price.”

The whole concept of a “last look” implies that the reason the customer would do business with you is that you are the lowest price of the group of bidders.  While there is a time and place to be the low price, I’d like for you to question whether or not this is how you’d like the customer to think of you.  If you have done a good job in the past for the supplier, if you have become the low-risk supplier, if you have understood the customer’s situation at a deeper level than your competitors, if you have some aspect of your product, service or offer that sets you apart from the competitors, if you have communicated those things in a persuasive way, then the customer should be happy to do business with you even if you are not the absolute lowest price.

In other words, if you have done a good job of selling, then a couple percentage points in the price should have no impact on the deal.

So, rather than try to be the low price, I’d prefer that you do a deeper, better job of selling this account so that you don’t have to be the lowest price. And that means that you have created powerful, trusting relationships with the key people, that you have understood the dynamics of their situation at a deeper and more detailed level than any of your competitors, and that you have fashioned a unique proposal that meets their deeper needs.

When you do that, you don’t need to worry about the last look.

3.  Insuring that you get a last look.

While everything I said above is fine, the reality is that there will still be some situations where you won’t be able to implement those strategies, and are reduced to one option – be the low bidder.

Some of your customers negotiate the business with you, and the last look is, of course, not an issue with them.  Some of them will buy from you because of the good job of selling you did, and the last look, with them, is not an issue.

But you will still probably be left with those who are going to bid and award the business primarily on the basis of price.  It’s that group for which you’d like to have the last look.

How do you do that?  By achieving excellence in the basics:  building powerful, positive business relationships with those key contacts, by understanding their needs in deeper and more detailed ways than any of your competitors, by doing everything you can to assure that your company is highly respected by the customer, and finally, by asking for the opportunity.

What you are really asking for is the preference of the customer.  In other words, where the customer sees no difference between you and the other guy in your offer, he still prefers doing business with you.  This scenario assumes that there is no difference between you and your competitor, and there is no reason for the customer to pay a little more to do business with you.  Your only hope is that the customer will prefer to do business with you, providing you are the lowest price.

Ask yourself why the customer would prefer you.  Create a detailed answer. Then set about becoming the supplier with which your customer would want to do business.  And, continually ask for the opportunity to have a last look.

Remember that getting the last look is the last, least desirable strategy to pursue. While there will always be times and situations where it is your last resort, those times and situations should be minimal.

If these ideas resonate with you, you may want to dig deeper into the concepts expressed above.  Consider the CD’s, “Conquering the Number One Buying Obstacle: Reducing the Risk.” or “Sales Practices to Increase Margins.”

If you are a member of The Sales Resource Center ™, review Cluster CL-1: “Preventing the Price Objection,” and CL-11: “Price Pressures”.  Take the lessons in Pod-16: “Successfully Selling in a Price Sensitive Market,” and Pod-18: “How to Sell Value, Not Price.”

Image owned by Amanda G (cc)

About the Author:

Dave Kahle is one of the world’s leadng sales educators. He’s written nine books, presented in 47 states and seven countries, and has helped enrich tens of thousands of sales people and transform hundreds of sales organizations.  Sign up for his free weekly Ezine, and visit his blog.  For a limited time, receive $547 of free bonuses with the purchase of his latest book, How to Sell Anything to Anyone Anytime.

Copyright MMXI by Dave Kahle

All Rights Reserved.

Sales Managers Find Good Value in Commence CRM

Posted by Commence on October 6, 2011 under CEO Corner | 2 Comments to Read

The efficient management of a sales organization is no easy task these days particularly when members of your team may work in remote locations or outside your country of origin.  Lead capture and distribution, and the management of the sales cycle become more difficult if you don’t have the proper tools and processes in place to support remote management.  Companies with this challenge are turning to web based CRM software programs like Commence CRM to help automate the sales and lead management process.

Commence is a cloud based CRM solution that is targeted at mid-size companies and small enterprises that have outgrown traditional contact management software. These businesses now require robust lead management, sales management and marketing campaign management functionality.  What sales managers have found particularly interesting about Commence CRM is the product’s automated business processes that enable the capture and automatic distribution of leads and the ability to rate and color code leads based on specific criteria. Red colored leads represent qualified opportunities, yellow promising new opportunities and blue are ones just starting the sales process.  This unique feature ensures that sales representatives are always working on the most qualified opportunities and not chasing tire kickers.

Commence CRM also incorporates an automated organization chart that details the reporting structure of every lead and account, and highlights the person name, title, telephone number and e-mail.  This allows sales managers to assist in the sales process and quickly identify the economic buyer and influencers within any organization.

Org Chart helps you identify the key contacts

Commence CRM is clearly focused on helping companies improve the management of leads and the selling process and offers functionality not available in competitive offerings such as Microsoft CRM and Salesforce.com. For more information about Commence CRM software, visit the company’s web site at www.commence.com and ask for a free trial.

Best CRM Software for Small to Mid-Size Businesses

Posted by Commence on October 5, 2011 under CEO Corner | 3 Comments to Read

Small to mid-size business are beginning to engage in the use of CRM software at a higher rate than ever before.    There are several reasons for this, but the growth is primarily driven by the rapid deployment and low cost of today’s CRM product offerings.  Most of the small to mid-size businesses seeking a CRM solution have experience with traditional contact management software. They have been using these desktop solutions to manage their interaction with people but they now require more advanced functionality.  The capturing and distribution of leads, management of the sales process and the ability to promote their own products and service using bulk e-mail programs are the driving force behind the interest in CRM software.  The biggest challenge for these businesses however is finding a quality solution that deploys rapidly, is easy to use and has the scope of functionality they require at an affordable price.

One of the CRM software solutions that has become very popular among the mid-size and small business community is Commence CRM from Commence Corporation.  Commence is a web based CRM solution that is deployed via a cloud computing environment. The product offers one of the most comprehensive suite of applications in the industry including contact and account management, activity management, lead management, sales opportunity management, marketing, customer support, a document library, project management, reporting and an accounting interface.  E-mail integration with Microsoft Outlook, Gmail, Mac E-mail and access to the CRM system via any hand held device is also part of this robust offering.

Upon entering a password and login, users are greeted with a cosmetically appealing home page or dashboard which is completely customizable by job function and enables the end user to manage their daily activity without leaving the screen.  Customers report that even the most novice PC or Mac users quickly become comfortable with Commence CRM.

The Commence CRM platform also mirrors that of enterprise level programs like Salesforce.com and Microsoft Dynamics CRM. Built using a Java backbone and SQL server,  Commence is highly scalable and offers excellent performance – two important decision criteria not commonly found in lower end CRM offerings.

While the company’s twenty year history and track record for producing award winning software is a comfort to most companies that select Commence CRM, the product offers several unique features that are simply not found in competitive CRM offerings.  First is a customer account rating feature that allows the end user to rate and color code their customers based on the value they provide to your business.  Some of the rating criteria include company size, revenue produced, profitability, cost of servicing the customer, the potential for growth and retention.  This feature enables management and staff to quickly identify their top customers based on their rating and color.  This rating feature has also been extended to the leads application allowing sales management and their sales team to rate and color code leads based on where they are in the buying cycle.  Another core feature that customers find unique and valuable is an automated organization chart.  The chart is tied to the account and contact records so that employees and management can quickly determine the reporting structure of every customer.

Commence CRM offers an attractive blend of features, function and price that have made it perhaps the best CRM solution for small to mid-size customers.  To learn more about Commence CRM software visit the company’s web site at  www.commmence.com.

Sales Practices: Question and Answer #2

Posted by Commence on August 25, 2011 under Sales Training | Be the First to Comment

This is a Question and Answer article from guest poster Dave Kahle, author and leading sales educator.  Follow Dave’s latest Tweets at @davekahle.

By Dave Kahle

Q. How do you know how far to push a sale without overstepping your bounds and threatening the sale and/or the relationship with the customer?

A.  First, let me share with you an idea that may be totally opposite of everything you have heard and believe about this question.  It is OK, every now and then, to overstep your bounds.  That helps you understand where the boundaries are. If you never push it to the limit, you’ll never know where the limit is.  Believe me, far more sales people are held back by their fear of overstepping the boundaries than are guilty of doing so.

Let me illustrate with an example from my selling career.  At one time I sold surgical staplers.  I would approach a surgeon in the surgeon’s lounge of an operating room suite, demonstrate the staplers, and then ask to accompany the surgeon into surgery where I’d talk him through the application of the instruments.  Getting into surgery was the absolute essential step to selling our stuff.

In one hospital, the chief of surgery decided that I was too aggressive in approaching his colleagues, and told the Operating Room Supervisor to keep me out. I was devastated.  When I commiserated with my boss, he said, “Don’t feel bad.  Now you know where the limits are.  If you never step beyond them, you’ll always wonder if you could have done more.”

It’s the same idea as losing some business because your price is too high.  If you never do that, you’ll never know if you could have gotten more.  You have to lose some in order to establish the boundaries.

So, it is OK, every now and then, to overstep your bounds.  But you don’t want to do it too often.

With that as a preface, let’s deal with your question.  How do you know if you’re pushing too much?

As a general rule, your customers will tell you.  Now, they may not say it in so many words, but they will communicate to you via their body language, with what they say and what they don’t say, that you are overstepping your bounds and going too far. You’ll see them become uncomfortable and show it.  You’ll see them be a little irritated, and show that.  You’ll see them become personally affronted, and show that.

They key thing for you to do is be sensitive to the communication you receive from your customer.  Consider the possibility that you may be pushing too much, and sensitize yourself to reading those messages from the customer.

Once again we come up against one of the foundational truths upon which effective, professional sales is built: It is far more important to be a good listener than it is to be a good talker.  The best sales people are great listeners and are especially sensitive to the customer.

Probably a better question to ask is this:  How can I prevent pushing too much?

And the simple answer to that question is “dialogue.”  Dialogue is, according to Webster’s, “an open and frank discussion, as in seeking mutual understanding or harmony.”

If you can regularly engage your customer in an “open and frank” discussion of where the customer is in the sales process, and how the customer views your solution, you’ll be equipped to make thoughtful and sensitive decisions about your next step.

One of the best simple techniques to use to keep an ongoing dialogue going is to simply ask for an agreement following every conversation you have with the customer.  That puts the issue on the table, gives you a continuous reading of where the customer is, and ends every conversation with a mutual agreement.  As long as the customer is agreeing to do something, you are not pushing too hard.

Hope this helps.

To help you develop this key sales skill, consider these learning units in The Sales Resource Center ™:  Pod-19: Characteristics of Super Star Sales People, Pod-36: Achieve Instant Rapport with Anyone, and Nugget N-22; Push Too Far.

About the Author:

Dave Kahle is one of the world’s leading sales educators. He’s written nine books, presented in 47 states and seven countries, and has helped enrich tens of thousands of sales people and transform hundreds of sales organizations.  Sign up for his free weekly Ezine, and visit his blog.  For a limited time, receive $547 of free bonuses with the purchase of his latest book, How to Sell Anything to Anyone Anytime.

Image by storem, on Flickr available under a Creative Commons license

Best Practice #47: Understands, and is guided by, an effective sales process

Posted by Commence on August 10, 2011 under Sales Training | Be the First to Comment

This is a Sales Best Practices article from guest poster Dave Kahle, author and leading sales educator. Follow Dave’s latest Tweets at @davekahle.

By Dave Kahle

All too often, sales people are directed by the urgencies of the moment:  A lead pops up, a customer calls with a problem, or some paperwork to which you need to attend.  They find themselves busily pursuing an agenda created by other people.  They are busy, but too often with the wrong things.

The best sales people, however, understand that sales happen as a result of methodically managing people through certain well-defined steps in a sales process.  They have refined that process to the specifics of their selling situation, reflecting the uniqueness of their customers and their offerings, while at the same time building it on the infrastructure of the fundamental sales process.  Here is an excerpt from my book, How to Sell Anything to Anyone Anytime, which describes that sales process.

Step One:  Engage with the right people

“Engage” means to interact in some kind of communication.  It can be face-to-face, over the phone, via email, or via a website.  “Right people” means those people who have a need or interest in your product, and for whom the timing is right.

If you don’t engage with the right people, you spend all of your time in the wrong place.  Sort of like trying to plant carrot seeds on a cement sidewalk.  You can do everything else right, but it won’t matter.

Step Two:  Make them comfortable with you

If they are going to believe what you say, you have to be somewhat credible, and they have to feel at least a bit comfortable with you.  If they aren’t comfortable with you, they won’t spend much time with you, and the time  they do spend will be guarded and tentative.  They may be convinced to do business with you because of the fundamental attractiveness of your offer, but if they are not comfortable with you, it will be action taken against the grain.  They will be forever uncomfortable and eager to find a replacement.

On the other hand, if they are comfortable with you, they won’t mind spending time with you.  They’ll be much more open to sharing the information that is necessary for you to do a good job of crafting a solution.  They’ll believe what you have to say.  You’ll get the benefit of the doubt and they’ll be eager to share future opportunities with you.

Step Three:  Find out what they want

Selling is not manipulating people so that they take something they don’t want.  It is, instead, finding out what they already want, and appealing to that interest.  The best sales people excel at this step in the process.

I believe this step is the heart of selling – the essence of what sales is all about.  I know that flies in the face of the routine practices of multitudes of sales people, who believe that the end-all of their focus is to push their product.

You can proclaim the merits of your product to willing and unwilling listeners and web page visitors far and wide, attempting to sway them with the powerful features and advantages which your product offers over the competition.  Or, you can focus on the customer, finding out what motivates him, what issues are important to him, what problems he has, what objectives he is trying to solve, what he looks for in a vendor, etc.  That’s a better way.

Everything that comes before is designed to get to this understanding.  And everything that you do after is based on this step.  It is the fulcrum upon which the entire sales process pivots.

Step Four:  Show them how what you have gives them what they want

Proclaiming your product’s features is the preferred routine of the mediocre sales person.  Personally and individually crafting your presentation to show the customer how what you have gives him what he wants is the mindset that, in part, defines the master sales people.

If what you have doesn’t help them get what they want, you either have the wrong thing, or you are talking to the wrong person.

Step Five:  Gain an agreement on the next step

Closing the sale is by far the most over-hyped phase of selling.  If you have the right person, and you have uncovered something they want, and you have shown them how what you have gives them what they want, why wouldn’t they take the next positive step?  It’s natural.  You just need to help them define what that is, and commit to it.

In more complex sales, there can be a series of appropriate next steps.  They may need to test it, to evaluate it, to submit it to a committee, etc.

Every sales interaction has an assumed next step.  If you call someone for an appointment, the next step is the appointment.  If you present your solution to a decision-maker, the next step is the order.  In between, there are thousands of potentially different sales calls, and thousands of potential action steps that follow the sales call.

The agreement is the ultimate rationale for the sales call and the aspect that makes it a “sales” call.  A sales call is set apart from the rest of the interactions in this world by the fact that it anticipates an agreement.

Without an agreement, the process has been a waste of time.  It is the ultimate goal of every sales person, and of every sales process, and of every sales call.

Step Six:  Follow up and leverage the transaction to other opportunities

After they buy, you then make sure they were satisfied, and you assume that, because they are satisfied, they will want to do other business with you and will want to let their friends know about you as well.  Sounds simple, and it is.

This is the step of the sales process that is most commonly neglected.  Most sales people are so focused on making the sale they neglect to consider that their real purpose is to satisfy the customer.  And that extends beyond just the sale itself.

The sales follow up call on the customer, made after the sale is complete, delivered and implemented by the customer, is one of the most powerful sales calls available.  In it, the sales person seeks assurance that the customer is satisfied, and then leverages that affirmation to uncover additional opportunities within the customer and/or referrals to people in other organizations.

The best sales people build all of their actions on this module, effectively moving people from one step to the other.  That’s why they are the best.

To learn more about this best practice, consider my book, How to Sell Anything to Anyone Anytime. If you are subscriber to The Sales Resource Center, consider course C-2, The Kahle Way® B2B Selling System.

Customers Applaud Commence CRM’s Full Featured Dashboard

Posted by Commence on August 9, 2011 under CEO Corner | Read the First Comment

The highly competitive nature of the CRM software sector has software providers searching for ways to differentiate their product from the myriad of options available. While many focus their attention on adding wiz-bang features that often provide little value, one CRM software provider has focused their attention on the product’s usability and access to customer data.  That CRM software provider is Commence Corporation.

Commence is a feature rich CRM solution that is attracting customers away from industry giants Microsoft CRM and Salesforce.com.  While Commence offers several unique features over the competition, what customers find most alluring about Commence CRM is how easy the product is to use.  Commence has paid close attention to the routine functions that individuals in sales, marketing and customer service perform each day and has incorporated this functionality directly into the product’s dashboard or home page.  With Commence CRM, sales and customer service people can conduct the majority of their daily business without ever leaving the dashboard.  This not only reduces the learning curve, but provides customers with an immediate return on their investment.

Commence customers and resellers have commented about  the clean and efficient deign of the dashboard which is cosmetically appealing and so easy to use that employees immediately become comfortable with the product’s navigation and access to customer information.  “Commence CRM is well designed, has an excellent sales workflow process and enables the user to perform numerous tasks with a single click.” says Nigel Park, managing director of TPS Consulting, an IT consulting firm and reseller of Commence CRM.  “Customers who test the product prefer it every time over the competition.”

Commence CRM Dashboard

With Commence CRM the user can read and compose email right within the CRM system, add activities, create a new lead or a new account, add a sales opportunity, a service ticket or a project task right from the product’s dashboard.  You can even access both standard text and graphical reports from the reports tab on the left hand tool bar.  No other CRM system offers this level of access to customer and sales data as easily as Commence CRM.

Outlined below is a comparison of the dashboards of Salesforce.com and Microsoft Dynamics CRM.  You can see for yourself why customers prefer Commence CRM.

Salesforce Dashboard

Microsoft CRM Dashboard

To learn more about Commence CRM and the features that are making Commence one of the most talked about CRM solutions, visit the company’s web site at commence.com or call Commence Sales at 1-877- 266-6362.