The telethon starts this Saturday, Jan 15th at 8:00 pm and runs for 24 hours ending on Sunday Jan 16th.

The telethon is a annual tradition in South Eastern Minnesota. Last year the 24 telethon raised $800,000 for cancer research at the Mayo Clinic, Hormel Institute and University of Minnesota! Each year hundreds of people come together volunteering their time and talents to make the telethon a success.

To everyone involved in the telethon I say thank you for all of your wonderful work.

You can access the new website at http://www.eaglescancertelethon.com . You can help make this years event even better than last year buy submitting a donation that helps fund cancer research.

One channel of Social Media that we, MCC, feel is a clear winner for all B2B sales teams is LinkedIn. To help sales teams better comprehend what is possible with LinkedIn we created a new On Demand Sales training session.

In this session our goal is to educate B2B sales teams on:

• Getting started on LinkedIn
• Developing connection
• Preparing your profile for recommendations
• Leveraging LinkedIn to validate your business to prospects
• Maintaining a healthy LinkedIn profile

We made this little video to give salesforce.com users of all shapes and sizes a good idea of how incredibly easy it is to deploy a web-to-lead form on your company site.

You will see some obvious changes in the overall look of your salesforce.com user interface (UI).

• Search box is now located above your salesforce.com tab set.
• Admin links are now a “dropdown” menu accessed by clicking on your user name at the top of the screen.
• Application menu change in appearance.

Additional upgrades were made to Reports, Outlook integration and Service.

Winter ’11 General Enhancements (Recommended viewing for sales team)

Real-time Report Video:

http://na1.salesforce.com/reportbuilder/tutorial/reportbuilder_overview.htm

Salesforce for OutLook:

http://na1.salesforce.com/setup/crmforoutlook/tutorial/SalesforceForOutlookVideo.htm

Winter ’11 Service Enhancements (Recommended viewing for internal Salesforce.com Support Administrator)

Setting up Service Consoles:

http://na1.salesforce.com/consoleSetup/tutorial/ConsoleSetup2.htm

Using the service console:

http://na1.salesforce.com/consoleDemo/tutorial/ConsoleVideoDemo2.htm

Expectations are a list of measurable criteria and behavior policies creating a basic performance benchmark.

Goals and Expectations are unique from each other, they are not the same.

Expectations

One of the best actions an organization can take to is to create a clear list of basic sales expectations.
This list should include the following:

• Sales revenue
• Start and Stop date to achieve revenue
• Record keeping practices
• Marketing actions
  • Calling
  • Partner development
  • Meetings
  • Sales presentations.

By implementing expectations everyone in the sales group has a clear benchmark of performance. Because sales management can be a fire drill new hires are often left to wonder. “Am I falling short, meeting, or exceeding expectations?”  Your list of expectation will allow them to see for themselves how they measure up.

Goals

Goal setting is an action for salespeople to look internally, placing the “bar” higher than the company expectations. Salespeople should set their goals so that they move well beyond basic company expectations. In addition to setting individual salesperson goals every sales group should develop an overall sales goal. Management needs to view goals as upside and expectations as must have levels of performance.

Company budgets should work off of expectations!

This means that you should never set goals and expectations at the same level. I look at expectations as my “Good Enough” watermark. When a salesperson meets expectations they earn the right to stay on the team! When a salesperson achieves their goal they receive a bonus.

When setting quotas (budgets) should you look at expectations or goals?

The only quota that matters to salespeople is the one they carry around in their head. This is the one which holds the amount of money and recognition they want to achieve in their own lives and is completely independent from anything the company publishes.

I find a good policy is to set sales quotas at your “Good enough” expectation level and then implement a commission plan that highly rewards salespeople that help your service bureau achieve the overall sales goals. Here is an example for a retail salesperson (50 and under employees focus.)

Sales Quota:

• 120,000 Annual payroll sales
• Quarterly quota 30 – 45K depending on quarter
• Base Salary + XX% annual payroll revenue

Sales Goals  Bonus considerations: Quarterly Bonus Considerations

• $100 for every  five opportunities developed by one business partner
• $250 bonus for every $5000.00 sold above quarterly quota
• $500 for adding five work comp clients
• $500 for adding 10 HRanswerlink clients
• $50 dollars for each demonstration hosted in our office

In developing a sales bonus program look beyond revenue and bring in overall business goals. The more services you deliver to customers the more likely it is they will not leave your service bureau. So, you should tie your sales expectations and bonus structure to drive sales habits which deliver more than just payroll business.

In summary expectations will keep everyone on task and leave no mistake as to who needs to “up” their game. Goals guide your team past expectations helping salespeople reach their full potential. Sales budgets should be set according to your service bureaus expectations with bonus gates/programs clearly defined rewarding salespeople that perform at a high level and deliver on company sales goals.

A sales blitz is a focused effort to uncover new business using simple sales actions in a very short period of time. A well run sales blitz will uncover new business opportunities and help your entire team become hyper focused in the push to the end of the year.

To run an organized blitz preparation is the key. A blitz needs to be very easy on your sales team. Here are some items you will need to create prior to running your blitz:

• Targeted list of 300-1000 prospects/leads
• Tracking sheets
• Call themes
• Goals

Because a blitz is a focused effort in a short period of time you must create a clean call sheet to speed up the process. Call aversion can kick in at anytime, to help your sale team it’s very important to take the thinking out of the calling action and create a “Just do it!” environment that allows their sales skills to rise to the top.

To stay organized simple tracking sheets should be used so that every salesperson can gauge their success and quickly identify areas for improvement. In our End of Year Sales Blitz sessions we cover a very simple to use conversation method to help salespeople seamlessly enter into payroll sales conversations. Using tracking sheets you and your team can better see what is working and what isn’t working. Meaning don’t continue running down the wrong path, know what you’re doing well, measure it and make the appropriate adjustments.

Calling themes will help your team be well prepared to begin conversations with contacts. Before beginning your campaign take time and review what works for your service bureau and talk about this with your team. At MCC we find these group discussions always yield new information about what is important to the customers so that everyone on the sales team can perform at a higher level on calls
.
Goal setting can be very effective in improving sales performance. When planning your blitz be sure to examine your goals from multiple angles. There is much more to success than just appointments. In our blitz program we look at goals for updating your sales database, setting appointments, qualifying buyers for non-buyers and partner leads.

If you are looking for more guidance in running your next sales blitz consider registering for one of our upcoming online sales blitz sessions, learn more here.

JigSaw is allowing me to offer you a sample of 20 free contacts. To give JigSaw a try use the link below and be sure to enter the promo code of MCC

https://www.jigsaw.com/Register.xhtml?landingPage=index_jsp.18

Jigsaw is an online directory of down-loadable Company profiles and more than 22 million business Contacts. Every Jigsaw business Contact is complete with hard-to-find direct dials, email addresses, and much more!

Don’t forget to use the promo code of MCC.

Have a great weekend!

Chris

In the past I would have to go directly into the meeting event in salesforce.com to see the attendee status information and comments. This was always a bit of a pain because of the additional clicks required to view the information. Today I noticed a new tab displaying in the Event section of  my Salesforce.com Home Tab, Requested Meetings!

What this means is that the days of clicking to get to my invited attendees responses are a thing of the past. YES

Just as your salespeople need to be out and about to create sales, management needs to always be on the lookout for sales talent. You never should be caught flat-footed in the new salesperson adventure.

The wonderful thing about an always recruit mindset is that it’s not hard. In our everyday business lives there are tons of opportunities to recruit. Here is a list of daily activities where you can find and see salespeople as they really are.

1. Your desk
2. Your vendors
3. Chamber of Commerce
4. Networking groups
5. Business peers
6. LinkedIn

Your desk:

This is by far the easiest place to check on your local talent. All you need to do is commit to taking a few incoming sales calls every day. This is a wonderful way to hear how a potential new hire sells. As payroll is a business to business profession, we get the opportunity to interact with recruits as we watch them try and sell to us. This allows us to make a decision whether these recruits have the skills we want.

Your vendors:

Look to your vendors and ask them if they know of any good salespeople. If a vendor is getting worked over by a competitor’s salesperson, a good strategy for them might be to direct you to the salesperson they compete with the most. In this, you might also be able to do some baseline checking on your vendor’s performance.

Another way to handle this is to contact your vendor’s competition and bring them in to see how the salesperson tries to win your business. If you like what you see, move into recruiting mode.

Chamber of Commerce & Associations:

The real world of local Chamber of Commerce is that 90% of the people who attend events are salespeople! Once again, by getting out in the crowd we can look for people that fit our ideal profile.

The same scenario exists at Association Trade Shows. As an owner, you attend shows for information, but you should also be on the lookout for outstanding talent. Every booth is full of salespeople looking to earn your business. By walking up to a booth, you are getting firsthand knowledge of how a person sells.

Networking groups

When we regularly attend these groups we are allowed to see the many layers of a salesperson in action. Businesses to business sales require a “get after it” mentality. Look for the people that show a solid commitment to their position.

Business Peers

As a business grows, the group of people we gain access to also grow. We should constantly reach out to our peers for support and advice. Ask your business peers about the people from whom they have recently purchased. If you hear about an outstanding salesperson, see if your associate can get you connected with them.

LinkedIn

Of all the social networks today, LinkedIn is the best at connecting people in business. By using groups, you gain the ability to see an unlimited number of salespeople whom you can monitor as a group member and learn more about their selling skills or you can reach out to them for a simple phone interview.

Why traditional hiring practices lead to poor hires:

Does this sound familiar? Your business is doing well; you want to accelerate the growth. So you make the decision to add another salesperson.

To get started you place an ad in monster.com, on your website, and in your local paper. Then you wait for the resumes to come flying in the door. Sometimes the resumes fly in the door, while other times nothing happens.

If you are lucky, you end up with a nice group of people to put through your interview process. At the end of the process, you make a hire and see what happens. Unfortunately, oftentimes what happens is that the new person falls short of everyone’s expectations. Sometimes this is the salespersons fault, sometimes it is a training issue, yet most of the time it is a hiring issue. Primarily, in our desire to grow our sales team, we hire based on short-term need and don’t spend the proper amount of time evaluating talent.

The opportunity for sales success increases when the new salesperson is recruited out of a sales position with average to above-average performance. Even in a down economy, a producing salesperson won’t be out on the street. Look at your team. If times are tough, would you get rid of one your producers to save cost?

The best method to improve your hiring is to always recruit! It should be management’s goal to conduct at least one new sales interview in your office every week. You will become a much better evaluator of sales talent, improve your hiring process, and be in a position to spend more time interacting with potential hires. Anyone can look good in a 40 minute interview. The cracks start to appear in the second and third interaction.

The reason I recommend conducting interviews in your office is you gain a slight team incentive. Salespeople know who is on the team and where they stand; sometimes all a person needs to get motivated is to see someone being interviewed. I’m not advocating managing by fear, which is the worst way to run a sales team. What I am promoting is an environment in which production is the norm and the rules of employment are clear and fair. Some salespeople have an internal fire while others need external influence to get moving.

The Owner and Sales Manager have a responsibility to maintain a healthy and productive team. Always recruit is just one step to maintain and improve overall sales team health.

Do you have a sales hiring process?

Once you have a group of candidates, what is your hiring process? Since most people still hire on gut instinct, a set process can help ensure your gut makes a good decision.

When looking to hire a new salesperson, be clear in what your expectations are before you begin the process. This will place you in a strong position when it comes to landing your ideal candidate. Most salespeople prefer to work in environments where expectations are clear and simple to understand.

The best method to ensure a good hire is to spend time with the candidate. It’s often impossible to spend days with potential hires, but you can maximize time with candidates by seeking multiple opinions within the office. Here is a process I have used in the past and one that might help you on your next sales hire.

First interview should always be on the phone:

Sales is a communication position. Salespeople spend a lot of time on the phone. Because of this, you should incorporate this communication medium into at least one part of the interview process. I prefer to conduct a phone interview first for the following reason: if they can’t talk on the phone, they can’t sell on my team; I want to discover this before inviting them into my office. A second benefit is that on the phone, you are more likely to not allow physical appearance to cloud your judgment. The prettiest salesperson is rarely the best.

Baseline questions:

You need to use a standard list of questions so that you can fairly compare one candidate to another. Free-flowing conversations are important, but at some point you will need to make a decision; using a baseline list of questions will help with that decision.

Repeat questions with hiring team:

When involving other people in the interview process, they should ask some of the same questions so that you can compare notes. If you have a critical characteristic that you always want within your sales team, create questions that help you evaluate this trait and ask it more than once. All of us can get fooled once.

Personality or Sales Profiles:

These are a must. You can get a high quality profile for a few hundred dollars. I use profiles to help me confirm my gut feelings and plan additional questions for the third or fourth interviews. Today I use the Caliper Profile and find that it gives me more than enough information to help guide the selection process. The expense of putting 3 – 5 candidates through a profile is minimal when compared to what a poor sales hire costs your business in hard dollars and missed opportunity.

Profiles are not a magic bullet. They offer additional insight that you can use to make better hiring decisions. Many people can be good in sales, but are employed in the wrong type of sales. A profile can help you see which type of people can be successful in a rigid sales environment and which salespeople will be successful in a flexible environment. Profiles will also give you great insight in how to properly manage and coach the successful candidate.

To give yourself a proper reading of a sales profile, have your existing team, including yourself, take the profile you chose to use. This will only help you better understand the numbers and give you a better idea of the sales personalities identified by the profile.

Work history:

When I look at and talk with salespeople about their work history, I find it best to start at their first jobs and work toward today. In doing this, you will go outside the candidates’ prepared response zones. In doing this, I find it easier to spot personality problems while also discovering the people that have the “IT” factor to be successful in sales. Always explore why they took each job and their reasons for moving on.

Only hire the right candidate:

My worst hiring decisions have one thing in common –my gut said no, my arrogance said yes.

Only hire when your gut says YES!!! If someone can’t get you to that point, do you really think they can make potential customers leave their current provider? Seriously look at that last sentence because that is what you are hiring. We only want YES; anything less will be a time-consuming-slow-money-sucking-time-wasting lesson in business. As I said, many people can sell; they just need to be in the right position to leverage their talents.