But really…..asking open ended questions is like table stakes in a poker game; it’s the price of admission and everybody does it.

Using questions effectively is one of the most important skills a sales professional, or a sales leader, can have. It’s also one of the most poorly executed.

Most Sales pros know about:

• Open Ended questions
• Leading Questions
• Probing Questions
• Making a Statement, but disguising it as a question

But one of the most effective, and least well-leveraged is the skill of asking 2^nd, 3^rd, 4^th… level questions.

What exactly is a 2^nd or 3^rd level question? It’s actually very simple; I ask you a question (that’s a first level question), you give me an answer, then I ask you a question building off of the answer you just gave me (2^nd level question), you give me another answer, I ask another question building off of that answer (3^rd level)….

This is the natural way that comfortable and meaningful conversation goes in ‘real life. So why not do it in our business life? There are a bunch reasons why this happens, or doesn’t happen – the sales person or leader isn’t curious enough…or doesn’t know how to process the impact of the answer they just received and doesn’t really know what question to ask next…or has fear of feeling like they are interrogating the prospect… There are a myriad of reasons, but frankly, none of them are good enough.

By NOT asking multi-level questions, we are having superficial discussions and we are not engaging the prospect in a meaningful way; we’re just like everybody else.

Most sales reps ask 5 questions when they speak to a suspect or prospect:

B – Do you have budget?

A – Do you have the authority to make a decision?

N – What do you need?

T – When do you need it?

The BONUS QUESTION – Can I have an appointment?

Waaaaaay too often we leave a TON of valuable information on the table because we don’t drill down in levels. Most often, a sales person or leader asks a question; example – “What problem are you trying to solve with this project”? The Prospect answers with something that usually sounds like “My current system no longer gives us what we need”. The most common thing that happens next is that the questions become about ‘What do you need in a new system”?

(Interestingly, most technology sales people and sales leaders ARE comfortable asking multi-level questions when asking about features and capability needs.)

But the real value would come from asking questions like “What, exactly, is it about your current system that is causing you problems”? (2^nd level question) “Why is that happening”? (3^rd level question) “What kinds of business problems is that causing you”? (4^th level question) “How is that affecting you and your company”? (5^th level question).

This doesn’t apply only to sales reps, this applies to sales leaders as well. When we are doing pipeline and forecast and deal reviews with our team members, we should dive in and ask more meaningful questions.

This helps our sales team mates to learn and to ‘see’ things in their sales cycles that they may not have seen before. Also (and if you’re a sales leader and you remember nothing else from this blog, hang on to this piece), every sales rep does some amount of prep work prior to coming into a pipeline / forecast / deal review meeting with you. Most will anticipate 1 or maybe 2 levels of questions you might ask them. If you simply ask a 3^rd level question, you and the sales rep will get much closer to the facts in a deal.

Asking multi-level questions when speaking with prospects, and with each other, helps us to see the situation from different angles and depths. It helps us all to learn and find new issues, new answers. It also helps separate us as sales professionals from the rest of the herd.

Be different. Be curious. Ask ; you’ll be very happy that you did.

For our purposes, ‘strategy’ means that there’s a plan. ‘Tactics’ means that you’re thinking on your feet.

A sales cycle that includes both is much more likely to succeed than a cycle that relies on only one of them.

Tactics make sales fun. Strategy makes sales more predictable.

Here’s the executive summary – do both; and do them both in every sales cycle. Trust me on this; the sales cycle where you (or your rep) believe that the deal is a ‘slam dunk’ and you don’t need to plan it out…you know the one….at some point you’ll all be “standing around the fax” (or the phone, or your computer….or the mail box) waiting to get the good word, but it doesn’t come and you’ll be wondering, ‘what the heck went wrong?’ If you have a plan / strategy, chances are better that you won’t have to answer that question.

Tactics (especially when not accompanied by sound strategy) can get risky.

So the rest of this blog is dedicated to a true and pretty funny story involving sales tactics.

A few years ago I had the pleasure of working at a software company that had the best sales force I’ve ever seen. One of the very best in that group was a guy named Clark. For years a major Eastern-based utility company refused to do business with our company.  The VP of IT hated our company. No matter what anybody tried, nobody could get a meeting with that VP.

That is, until Clark got involved.

Thinking about this still makes me laugh.

Clark took an ace of hearts – from a regular deck of playing cards – and mailed it to the guy in a plain white envelope; no letter, no nothing. A week later he sent the ace of diamonds.  A week after that the ace of clubs. On the 4^th week he showed up at the guy’s door step and asked to see him. The gate keeper asked if he had an appointment. Clark said “No ma’am,” So she asked, “Whom may I say is calling”. Clark said “Tell him it’s the Ace of Spades”.

The guy came out just because he HAD TO see who this guy was. Within a quarter, Clark closed a significant deal with that company.

This is true.

There is a pretty funny epilogue to this story.

A few years later we had hired a new, young sales rep. I can’t remember her name. She was nice and she tried hard. She had heard of Clark’s story so she decided to try it herself on a particularly tough account. She did the exact same things Clark did. But, when she showed up at the Prospect’s office the guy panicked and called security! They escorted her out of the building. The Prospect had become so freaked out about the mysterious cards, he thought that somebody was out to get him!

This really is a true story.

So, tactics can be fun, but don’t rely entirely on them. Happy selling!

During my MBA I don’t recall being taught how to effectively manage or implement organizational change, nor have I seen many practical change management workshops designed specifically for business owners or senior managers of SMB companies. So how do we implement change effectively? What are the secrets to success?

I suspect that, like me, as a business executive, you have relied primarily on gut intuition, combined with practical, logical reasoning to determine how best to drive change through your organization. The unfortunate truth is that up to 70% of change efforts fail or get de-railed (Blanchard researchers Pat Zigarma and Judd Hoestrka). So here are some key required elements critical to successfully creating change in your organization and ensuring that the returns and outcomes you are expecting are actually realized.

Scare Them A Bit.

Unfortunately, the majority of the human race is inherently lazy. We like to be COMFORTABLE! We don’t LIKE to change without meaningful motivation. Politely asking people to change and expecting results is both overly optimistic and somewhat naive. With any change initiative you have to overcome the issues of complacency and comfort associated with continuing to do things the way they are currently being done. Ask yourself honestly, why should your team change? It’s not enough to create a logical business case, or pragmatic argument, using numbers and facts. You have to appeal to their emotions. At our core there are only two truly effective motivating forces: pain and pleasure. All of our behaviors are driven by either avoidance of pain or pursuit of pleasure, which makes fear a great motivator for change.

When was the last time you committed to a weight loss or exercise program? For many it was after a failed relationship, a health scare or an unexpected weight gain. Unpleasant as it might be, fear very effectively drives change, so identify the threat your organization is facing and make sure your entire team understands it, and how it will impact them personally. Ask them, “What will happen if the organization doesn’t change? If current results/behavior/production doesn’t change, what is the natural long-term outcome?” Create a sense of urgency with logic, analysis, charts and graphs but understand these are intellectual motivators. Appeal to their emotions first. As unfortunate as it may sound, a healthy dose of legitimate fear will produce the engagement you need far quicker than logic will.

I Don’t Care If You Are The Owner, Don’t Make The Change Alone.

Many times I hear; I’m the owner or boss; I make the decisions and want to be in charge, in control. While you certainly can drive change alone, it will take much longer and it won’t secure everyone’s buy in; which is critical to the effectiveness of the change process. You need well respected individuals and influencers behind the change to ensure broad based buy in. Identify your top performers and organizational leaders, and then get THEM to help communicate and drive the change. You can’t ram change down people’s throats and expect them to sustain the change long term. If you want to roll out a CRM system internally for example, take your top 2 sales people out of the field for a few weeks and have them demonstrate and teach others how to improve their sales by using the system. Your sales team will believe them more than you, and consequently they are far more likely to embrace rather than resist the change!

Plan For Resistance

It is unlikely you will get everyone in your organization engaged and supporting your change. Every change, no matter how small, will stimulate resistance. Why? Because people have to be prepared to let go of something (a belief, a process, an expectation) in order to do things in a new way. Let’s say, for example, that you reorganize your company and promote an individual; better title, more responsibility, larger span of control and a salary increase. Your expectation is that the employee should be happy, grateful and excited. Why would they possibly resist?

Intellectually they buy into the change and see the logical argument that this transition is positive for both themselves and the company. YET, at an emotional level, they are being asked to stretch outside of their comfort zone. Perhaps they feel they will be giving up some of their freedom, or feel overwhelmed by the increase in stress and pressure that comes with more responsibility. They may not feel they have the required skills to be successful and are afraid of looking or feeling incompetent until they learn the new job. Yes, they are “happy” and buy into the change on the outside… but they will likely feel fearful and emotional on the inside and subsequently resist this change, at a conscious or unconscious level.

Anticipate and plan for resistance, no matter how insignificant (or disruptive) the change and you won’t find yourself caught off guard or feel overly frustrated when there is a reaction. Identify a list of what you are asking people to give up as well as the benefits they will enjoy (which you will use to sell them on the change), then communicate clearly that you understand and acknowledge what they are losing in the process. Everyone needs time to let go before fully embracing a new way of being; it’s simply human nature.

1. NEGATIVE OUTCOME

The Recovering Sales Leader often reacts to missing their numbers (The Negative Outcome) with shock and denial.

The denial allows them to cling to Hope as a strategy – as in “I hope that if I refuse to accept it, it won’t be true”.

As a strategy, it also helps the recovering Sales Leader to avoid dealing with the full realization of what just happened.

As a Rule Of Thumb, this period of shock and denial often lasts until the Recovering Sales Leader must present the results and their Recovery Plan to the Board, or until they receive their End of Quarter pay stub.

2. CATATONIA

Numbed disbelief…then, as the shock begins to fade, it’s replaced by unbearable pain, mingled with a liberal dose of guilt.

The guilt extends to include thoughts of the things the recovering Sales Leader did or didn’t do with/for their Sales team. The Recovering Sales Leader can often be overheard muttering sotto voce: “Did I pay enough attention?”, “Did I provide the team with the right guidance and coaching?”, etc.

This stage conjures plenty of scary feelings and inevitably, polishing up the resume.

3. ANGER & BARGAINING

At this stage, the Recovering Sales Leader begins to exhibit some of the Type-A personality that makes them a competitor. As the guilt and self loathing subside, they are replaced by the question, “Why is this happening to me?”.

The Recovering Sales Leader begins to lash out, with their head on a swivel, looking for people and places to lay blame for their miss. The usual suspects in the Blame Game list include – The Unreasonable Boss, The Never Do Well Sales Team, The Slow-To-Act Legal Department, The Never-Gives-Us-Enough-Good-Leads Marketing Department or The Always Ridiculous Budgeting Process.

While this is a time to release pent up emotion, it’s a good idea for the Recovering Sales Leader to be careful not to do or say anything that they’ll live to regret.  It can be awfully difficult to keep your dignity while trying to extricate both of your feet from your mouth.

This is also the stage where the Recovering Sales Leader will often try to bargain their way out of the situation – “I promise that I will never drink again, if you just give me a do-over on last quarter”.

Well, why not? This is a Sales Leader we’re talking about and it’s in their blood to negotiate.

4. DEPRESSION, REFLECTION, LONELINESS

Now the Recovering Sales Leader realizes the extent of their loss at missing the quarterly numbers. The Recovering Sales Leader begins to isolate themselves as they are consumed by their feelings of despair. The Recovering Sales Leader begins to wonder out loud: “Why do I do this?”, “Maybe I should just go back to being a rep – I’d make more money, work a lot less and my time would be my own.”, etc.

The Recovering Sales Leader’s teammates, family, and friends try to pull the despondent, Recovering Sales Leader out of their funk. But, truth is…they should just let the Recovering Sales Leader chill out, because the next stage means that everybody is going to have to work harder.

So if you are on this Sales Leader’s team, enjoy this stage while it lasts.

5. HOPE (REAL HOPE….THE UPWARD TURN)

Uh oh! The Recovering Sales Leader makes the adjustment to accepting that they truly are behind The Quota Eight Ball, but they realize that they can do something about it. The Recovering Sales Leader decides that this is not a place he/she wants to be very often or for very long.

The Recovering Sales Leader becomes more organized and calm. The gleam returns to his/her eyes and although it drives the people around them crazy, the Recovering Sales Leader can be heard humming the Rocky theme song everywhere they go.

6. ACTION

The gleam in the Recovery Sales Leader’s eyes becomes a fire and he/she sees realistic solutions to the challenges before their team. The Sales Leader meets with the other stakeholders to devise a strategy for success and the plan to carry it through.

7. CHOICE & EXECUTION

Get outta the way! We know what to do, how to do it and who needs to do it.

We have deals to close and behinds to kick.

Monday morning Sales Meeting is at 8:00 A.M., sharp!

Oh…and bring your up-to-date forecast.

As sales managers or executives, what’s the most common request we hear from sales people?

Leads! More Leads!

What they’re really asking for is not just more leads, it’s, more, more qualified and DIFFERENT leads… the Glengarry leads.

It almost never matters which leads we have, they aren’t the ones we want.

Here’s something I’ve dealt with first hand. I’m not sure if this makes me want to laugh or to cry.

Until recently I was a VP of Sales for an international technology company. One of our more senior sales representatives was struggling. Let’s call him Paul. His forecast was thin and his pipeline was weak. Paul was concerned about his quarter and he asked for help.

Good on him for being at least a little proactive.

Paul wasn’t into prospecting. He’d wait for in-bound leads from Marketing.

Marketing Leads – Quantity vs. Quality

Paul’s feeling was that he needed to get fewer leads (huh?). He was getting lots of leads from Marketing but they were “terrible” (his words, not mine). Paul also said that although they were bad leads, in good conscience, he still felt compelled to treat them with respect. So he found himself going through dozens of crappy leads in order to find the few, worthwhile leads.

Paul reasoned that if we provided him with fewer but more qualified leads, he’d be able to dedicate more time to each of them and he’d have more time to prospect on his own.

Paul’s declared (and I quote), “It’s not about the leads, it’s about the opportunities.”

Business Development – Honing Qualifying Leads

Since we already had a group of Business Development Representatives (BDRs) that handled incoming calls, it was fairly easy to change the BDR role slightly so that they did more qualifying. We gave them the training and tools (including scripts, templates, etc.) to do the job properly.

The result was that fewer leads got through the funnel, but they were definitely more qualified.

How do you think this translated to Paul’s results?

Surprise! Paul’s results did not improve in the slightest. In fact they got worse.

Neither did he dedicate any more time to prospecting. Instead, complained that he wasn’t getting enough leads!

Go Bigger or Go… Small?

Paul then proposed a different idea. Since he was a senior sales representative (higher base salary, higher commission and higher quota), he was focused on larger companies. Paul wanted to be allowed to sell to our smaller company prospects as well.

It should be noted that our company sweet spot was in the smaller companies. These sales cycles could be pretty short; from a few days to three months.

Paul argued that as a more senior sales representative, he would be able to drive tons of business in those smaller companies and close a greater volume than our representatives that usually sold into that space.

We agreed to do a test. We began to give Paul a bunch of those smaller-company leads.

Any guesses how this went?

After one quarter, Paul had not closed one deal. Not one. He also still had done no prospecting.

When we sat down to have our difficult conversation, Paul said that those smaller company leads were, “not worth my (his) time”.

Moral of the Story

A Sales Professional should expect to generate at least 25% of their business through their own prospecting efforts.

There will always be good leads and bad leads. The bottom line is that all leads should be treated with respect. As sales professionals, the best leads are the ones that we come up with ourselves.

If somebody else gives us a lead it really is just a contact or a suspect until we’ve vetted it and if we don’t like the leads we’ve got, then we need to go out and get some other ones.

What would we do if Marketing disappeared overnight?