2. Strategy
‘A good strategy is a coherent plan to tackle a
defined problem....... It’s all about how you
will get to where you want to be.....’
-- Richard Rumelt. ‘Good strategy / Bad strategy’
3. Sales is a sleeping strategic weapon.
• Measured inadequately
• Managed inadequately
7. We all sell.......
• ‘Chicken killed in any manner of your choices.’
Hyderabad restaurant
8. We all sell.....
• ‘I watched an operation to remove cataracts....
When the bandages were removed he saw his
blue toy truck and was spellbound. His mother
spoke and he looked up and saw her for the
first time. I absolutely cried my eyes out. The
operation cost £27.’
⁻ Joanna Lumley
9. Fools’ paradise...?
• 1992 – 2007
– Great sales behaviours or great customer
behaviours?
– Were we great or were we lucky...?
• 2008 onwards....
– Services with intangible benefits dropped
– Growing competitive pressures
– Decision-making centralised
– Longer buying process
– Budget restrictions
• “We can’t sell how we used to because our
clients aren’t buying like they used to...”
10. It’s not well managed....
- Bersin survey Winter 2009
• % who agreed that they had uneven gaps in
current capability:
– Customer service: 42%
– Sales: 45%
– Line management: 59%
11. It’s not consistent either....
-- Accenture survey 2009
• Top 20% bring in 62% of revenue
• 80% bring in 38%
12. At the heart of the challenge....
-- Accenture senior executives survey 2004
• Top line: lack of sales capability, not trading
conditions, is the biggest challenge:
– Sales = most important part of the work: 61%
– Sales org’n no better than competition: 50%
– Sales organisation worse than competition: 20%
13. Did I say it’s not well managed...?
- Sales best practices study 2009 (3500 s’people)
• Adequate coaching from sales mgr in ave
week: 22%
• Sales mgr spends less than 10% of time
coaching: 52%
• Sales mgr spends no time coaching: 33%
14. Is standard sales training the answer...?
-- Holton & Baldwin study 2000
• 10% of formal learning gets transferred to the
workplace. 90% is wasted
• Reason:
– The sheep dip approach to training doesn’t work
15. Why the sheep dip doesn’t work.
• Environmental fit
• Perception of relevance
– Connection with business strategy and results
• Connection with sales activity plan
• Linkage with individual motivation
– E.g. Recognition and reward
• Application, application, application...
– Reinforcement in the field
– Measure change over time
• In a word, the common denominator is............?
16. Lots of incorrect assumptions about
motivation.
• Strong evidence that ‘carrot & stick’ approach
is ineffective, especially for ‘right brain’ tasks
• LSE ‘pay for performance’ plan studies found
financial incentives can result in a negative
impact on overall performance
19. Recruitment and retention issues
‘As many as one in two high potential employees
is likely to leave during the up-turn.’ - HR Daily 2009
• The rise of ‘presentee-ism’ (‘ghost turnover’)
• Most obvious gaps:
– Insufficient attention to motivation / wrong
assumptions
– Person spec doesn’t accompany job spec
– Too much ‘fishing in same pond’ when recruiting
23. The 3 most common mistakes people
make when selling.....
• They pitch too early
• They make too many assumptions
– Instead of asking questions and listening carefully
to the answers
• Nowhere near enough attention given to what we
should be questioning for (i.e. identify needs for what?)
• They don’t quantify enough.
30. Another productivity example....
First impressions.
Cognitive scientists say it can take up to
200 times the amount of information to
undo a first impression as it takes to make
one......
31. Sony Ericsson research 2007
• Transactional selling environment
– Core performer effectiveness index of 100
– High performer index of 159
• Solution selling environment
– Core performer effectiveness index of 100
– High performer index of 289
• “3-5 hours p.m. of the right kind of sales
management coaching produces an average 17%
improvement in productivity”
32. Reasons for resistance to change
(From ‘Rich Dad, Poor Dad’ by Robert T. Kiyosaki)
• Fear
• Cynicism
• Laziness
• Bad habits
• Arrogance
– Arrogance = ego + ignorance (“what I don’t know is not
important..”)
33. The challenge on a human level
1. Senior management demand
2. Able to see the gap to be closed
3. Motivated to close
it
