[00:00:00]
Let's talk about the hidden cost. The hidden cost of your sales team and your sales function is not necessarily the competition. It's not necessarily the threat of somebody else doing things better than you are. It is actually the gap between your current sales reality. And the sales potential that you have down the track, that gap is one that you can bridge.
It's a gap that you can do something about because we are working with human beings in your team, and human beings are predictable in terms of the results they will get. So the question is, are you setting them up for success or for failure in advance? And here, let's now unpack a few things that you can do to ensure that your sales future is a bright one, by putting the [00:01:00] right things in place right now.
First things first, hiring salespeople. Too often I've seen organizations hire salespeople. because they had a track record in the industry, like they have industry knowledge or they have the right relationships in place, or they are a personal friend of the business owner or the senior leader in the business.
All of these things are not good enough reasons for people to be hired in a sales role. The idea is that you hire for the best fits. For that role, and if people are not the right fit, you are either moving on or move them into another role in the organization that is better suited for them, or you basically move them out of the business if they have no, further future.
So hiring the right talent is essential. It's almost like if you buy a house, the best thing you can do is buy the house at the right time, at the right price, because that's [00:02:00] where you make most of your money in the future. Buy at the right price. It's the same idea if you get the right person for the right role.
It's so much easier for all of the rest to work in your favor. So that's the first thing. Hiring. Second thing is that like all people are not just predictable, but challenges that they will experience are preventable. It's called the two P's of my framework, predictable and preventable. And if you start thinking about this, what this means for your sales team as such, it means that,
You wanna set people up for success by making sure that they know what to do to be successful in the role. And again, too often I see that businesses hire people, give them a, quick, very quick introduction about the product or the service that the business offers. give them a phone, a laptop, a car, and maybe a fuel card.
And then say, whoop, here you are. Go [00:03:00] off and make it happen. Here are your targets. I don't think that that's a very smart way of doing things, because don't assume that people know what to do. Example, if you hired someone that is very much of a relationship builder, they are going to automatically invest a lot of time in developing relationships by coffee meetings, networking events, other events that they'll be attending to, and basically hanging out or talking to people.
It's what they do, it's predictable because they're a people person. If, however, you have somebody who's very transactional very logical, very cerebral, and very much, for example, target driven, which some organizations hire for specifically, then you will find that they will be just basically go a lot in what we call hunter gatherer mode.
And so they will do cold calls. They will do prospecting meetings. They will do a lot of coffee [00:04:00] meetings, and it will all be about closing a sale. Not necessarily building a relationship. Now, both of those examples that I just mentioned, they have a place in time. There's value in it. However, you can imagine that not everybody will respond well to, for example, the very personal approach from the first example, or the very transactional approach from the second one.
And so the idea is how can you basically instruct your sales team. To be situational because of the people that they're reaching out to, the people that they're developing relationships with, the people that they are looking to build referral networks with, and so on and so forth. Because not everybody requires the same approach.
And this is something that we've done so much over the years, is to really help people understand. The buyer in this case, or the referral partner in this case, or the internal stakeholder in [00:05:00] this case, because unless you truly understand and appreciate where the other person is coming from, what you're going to do is by default is you're going to treat people the way that you personally want to be treated.
And that is more wrong than it is, right? Example. we use DISC as a framework, and if you know that a very KPI driven person, a very goal orientated, person, somebody who's really incentive driven, those people will hunt for the transaction. They will do the extra work required in order to get the result, because results and winning is what they're all about.
We know for a fact that in a country like Australia, 18% of the general population are like that. Now imagine if a person with that nature, that mindset, that sort of behavior and demeanor reaches out to somebody who's polar opposites, who's very relationship, based, [00:06:00] very loyal, very, trusting and, and wanting to have a personal relationship with someone.
If that person reaches out, chances are that it will backfire almost a hundred percent, and we know already in advance that that will be the case because 36% of Australians are the polar opposite of this D type personality or column alpha type person reaching out. So if we know that, then we should tailor our approach and make sure that we treat the customer.
Or the referral partner exactly the way they require from us. Because unless people feel comfortable, they don't see a threat, there's a likability factor going on and there's rapport and trust building. Unless that's all going to happen, we won't do any business. We won't get the referrals we want, and basically the time we invest and money that the business is investing [00:07:00] in those opportunities is wasted.
So too often we see people having wastage, which is perfectly predictable and preventable, provided we have set up people with the right tools and mindset and framework. Here's another one. If you hire, for example, a typical relationship driven person, which in Australia there's about 36% on the s. And about 34% in the eye bucket.
So combine them, that is 70% of coverage of the general population in Australia. That's interesting to know because we then know that that salesperson will do well with other people that value personal connections, time together, getting to know each other, having a bit of small talk and banter and a bit of joking and so on and so forth.
However. They still can make mistakes that are very costly and predictable and preventable. [00:08:00] And so this is where they don't know necessarily whether they need to go fast and more influential and storytelling and, and using testimonials and, and all the likes, or if they gotta really go hard in terms of investing in the relationship.
Going slow and steady, being professional not too quickly, too personable, too soon. Also, understanding that change is uncomfortable for uss and that it will take time to get their head around. Also, that they need to see through steps and the process that is going to be taken.
And that people are very empathetic towards the existing relationships that will be severed as they move their business across from a current provider to you as a new one. And so if this is all the case, it's all about having that emotional sensitivity to know whether to go fast or slow, whether to go, charismatically and or go more on understanding and asking very probing questions like, how [00:09:00] do you feel about this?
How do you believe this will be impacting your business and your team? who else's opinion do you value along the way? Notice now these sorts of how questions are emotional of nature and are talking about the other people in the business that these people value and appreciate. And so this is all about knowing what to do, who with?
This is about having the right tools in your toolbox. And as a sales or commercial leader, it's our job to give our people these access to these tools because they will always perform to the support and guidance that they receive from the top. Again, there's no mistakes here. Once again, the biggest threat to your revenue isn't the competition.
It's the gap between your current reality from a sales perspective and the potential that you have in the future. And [00:10:00] beautiful potential is possible. Let me give you an example. When you look at CRM systems that are globally recognized and used like Salesforce and HubSpot and many others like that, but they are probably some of the leaders out there.
You will find that when they do their research and they report back in terms of what average closing ratios they see inside those CRM systems, across industries, sizes of businesses, countries, geographical locations, and so on and so forth, it's very predictable once again to see that most organizations, especially if you go to the B2B space.
Are sitting at that around 20% of closing ratio, which means for every five opportunities, one converts four are left on the table. Four are basically wasted. Now, some people will [00:11:00] now say, Bram, I actually disagree with that because the lead wasn't qualified or they decided not to go ahead with anything at all.
You know what? Yes. However, if a salesperson does a job thoroughly and relates to the person beautifully and handles all of the concerns, objections, and reasons why they would delay stall very well and professionally. There is no reason to see that closing ratio go up to 2, 3, 4, and even Yes.
Five out of five. How can I say so with confidence, it's because we have seen how the transformation has occurred with certain sales teams that have been on the journey with us, that have adopted. Our methodology, our mindset, our framework. And our tools and how they [00:12:00] moved the needle from the first time when we first found them over to, let's say, three months later, six months later, nine months later, a whole financial year later.
The incremental success and growth rate has been phenomenal. Yes, to the point that a 20% closing ratio, which is industry average, which is benchmarked, which is kind of normal. according to Salesforce and HubSpot and the likes, we have seen our clients do 40, 45, 50, 60, 65, even up to 95% for a competitive industry where others are still doing 20 or 25%.
This is science. This is proven. This is when we know how to use psychology. Across the whole customer experience, and this is where the marketing function [00:13:00] also plays a role where the customer service, department also plays a role. But all of it sits under this, umbrella of commercial value proposition.
So once you really knock this out, there is no reasons why your business, depending on where you sit. Has room for growth to completely fill your potential from a sales capability perspective. What else can we say? lack of follow up is another interesting one.
How often have I asked an organization, a senior leader? How many quotes or proposals have you sitting in your system that are currently unresolved, that have no answer, that have no decision attached to it? I suggest you two have a look at it for your own organization, how many proposals, quotes, and, even tenders are sitting in that system with no outcome whatsoever.
Imagine all the [00:14:00] time it's taken people not just to create the proposal, quote or tender, but also for all the research and relationship building upfront to get to the point of quoting. All of that time, all of that investment made all of the marketing dollars that it has cost in order to be considered as a solution provider.
Imagine all of that that has gone in and now is just sitting there gathering dust in your CRM system. To me, that is not good enough. That is unacceptable. This is the opportunity where we have. Just with the right follow up, giving people the confidence and the skills and the tools to do the follow up and do it well.
Because the reason why people won't do follow up is because they feel negative about it. [00:15:00] They don't want to feel that they are pressuring people into a decision. They've already followed up so many times without any resolution whatsoever, and so, or it's just that. They just don't wanna come across as a pushy person or, people said that I'll call you back or leave it to me and I'll get back to you.
And they just basically now started waiting for an outcome. Let's just be very clear about this. In my world, sales is about managing control. As professionals, we don't necessarily need to become manipulative about selling. We certainly don't have to become high pressure but we are tasked with guiding clients professionally and ethically towards a solution that will benefit them.
Now, mark these words please. Finding a solution that benefits them. It's not that we're looking for ourselves to meet our quota. It's not that we wanna secure our next [00:16:00] incentive pay or anything like it. The first priority is to make sure that the customer or the prospect is served really well. Because as they win, we win.
So we have our best interest in making the customers win, which is a big topic that we love helping our clients with because. Let's face it, if you're, for example, a manufacturer and you produce certain products that other peoples sell on your behalf and they're like dealers or um, franchisees or anything like it, right, or distributors, then you can think about, well, how can I sell more product into their warehouse and in their showrooms, right?
Put more stuff on their shelves. In a way that's your way of looking at it. That's like a very self-centered way of looking at it. However, the very best organizations that I've had the pleasure of assisting and working with over the years have become industry [00:17:00] leaders, not just nationally or locally, but oftentimes internationally.
And the reason being is that they went further. They took the customer's perspective as the guiding principle. They said, if I am producing stuff that you guys sell to your customers, the consumers. How can I help you move more of that product and ensure that your customers, your consumers, are delighted by what you offer them, right?
Equally, if you have, products to a professional market like the traits industry, same idea. Your final customers are. The ones that we can help win. And as they win, we automatically win. It cannot be any other way because if you produce what they sell, you will do better too when they sell more of it and get better feedback and a higher NPS score and positive clients, testimonials and referrals [00:18:00] and, and reviews and the like.
So it just has to be that way. So how now can we do this again? It's predictable how people will perform given the support, guidance and tools they are given. And it's also preventable for them to either have waste or have poor outcomes. And so this is all about, again, also, for example, helping your team with templates.
That. Convert templates that inspire clients, templates that appeal to clients and speak to their highest desires, needs, and wants. And this is something where, again, especially in this day of AI, is where we gotta be very, very mindful as to how we articulate our value proposition in writing and verbally speaking, this is where communication skills and communication mastery have a [00:19:00] huge measurable impact for good and for bad, because unless people are given the tools, most people on this planet, and I've had the pleasure of assessing, the behavior of more than thousands of people by now. I have the reports, I have the data, I have the insights of more than thousands of people that I have access to myself in addition to all the.
Extra scientific data that I have access to as well. But these have given me the insights that most people, salespeople included, have a default behavior. That will be successful in certain situations and unsuccessful in others. And it's predictable where it will work and where it will backfire, right?
So if we have all this, we gotta be able to cater to and set people up for success. So sales tools, like having a brochure that is really [00:20:00] speaking to the target market, that is not too marketingy, that is visually speaking. In terms of the words and the, picturing is really hitting the right mark.
Too often I see that a marketing department who thinks of things in a certain way has created something that looks beautiful and it's colorful and it's got all the right aesthetics and the likes. But if you ask yourself objectively, who is this thing going in the hands of? And then you start analyzing who these buyers are.
The chances are that you are working with client market or a pool of people that have a very specific finite persona, and it's not about the typical personas that marketing agencies. And professionals typically come up with the persona is more on a psychological nature and a communication pattern, the needs and wants, and how they deal [00:21:00] with change and how they look at opportunity and their pace and priorities and so on and so forth.
And that is typically not covered by marketing. So when we, for example, use our proprietary ip, which is Communication Mastery as a framework. We actually work with marketing teams together to ensure that what they are creating that should empower the sales team is actually a perfect fit, so that the sales team also can use the same documents in a strategic way to have client meetings that lead to high conversions.
And too often if the brochure is not exactly catered to. That sort of format, or the articles and the case studies and so on, if they are not really designed for the right demographic and target market, we're losing opportunities. And again, it's predictable and preventable [00:22:00] in advance. So it's about having the right science and framework to look at it and make sure that everything pairs up and everything aligns to ensure that we have the maximum strike rate possible.
And here, at this point in time, I feel compelled to share a story of a client that is in a engineering type environment. So it's very technical of nature and you can imagine if you are very technical of nature, that your buyers will also appreciate detail, thinking things through high compliance, getting the things right, having based on a lot of facts and figures that can be tested and tried out and where everything is very procedural.
And focusing on high quality and where risk mitigation is pivotal. Well, this client, even though they tender, has a strike rate, a conversion ratio of 90 [00:23:00] plus percent. Try to do that with any other sales methodology out there. This is very interesting. How they have gotten their, conversion and their results up to such a high level, and guess what?
They're not the only ones that we've had the pleasure working with. So it's all about putting the right things in place. Here's another one, scripts. Every challenging client conversation that is recurring obstacle or excuse or concern that somebody presents to the sales team can be engineered right from the get go for a better outcome, but they just need the words for it, which is where scripts come in play.
And scripts, of course, are not just something that we just cook up and then hand over to the people and say, good luck with it. The value of scripts is where we [00:24:00] practice, rehearse, and drill together, and where every week a sales team uses those scripts to get better at it, but often also has a time to revisit and reflect on how those, the application of those scripts, how it's actually helping it or hurting, right, so that we can fine tune and improve it together.
The thing is, every tool. It's provided in a context of ongoing support and guidance, and I see too often sales teams either be thrown in a deep end and left at their own devices, even though there might be a sales manager in place. I remember this one sales performer, top sales performer that was basically hitting month after month record sales, right?
And so therefore earning bonuses and commissions. As soon as the sales manager left and was replaced with another, [00:25:00] which was less hands-on, which was more of an introvert and less looking after the team and guiding them and inspiring them and helping them with challenges and setbacks and coaching and so on.
But somebody who's more focused on. Running projects that could also generate revenue, but doing it from behind a desk and a computer without really having a lot of close contact with the team, as soon as that person was changed from one manager to another, sales performance went down. And it could not be any other way because this was a people person that valued intimate close contact with a manager that could lead from the front.
Actually, guide and get their hands dirty and be very actively involved with improving capability week to week, day to day. And then suddenly that was all gone. So once again, [00:26:00] sales performance requires an infrastructure of the right things in place.
All of the things we've talked about so far are ingredients for a success recipe. And so of course if you want a tasty dish at the end charms everybody to say, wow, what a pleasant culinary experience You know, if that's the analogy for sales success. We wanna, again, also bring the right ingredients to the party and make sure they are aligned and working in unison together.
Because sometimes people think, for sales success, I need to put that one in and that one in this one already ticked off and we're gonna bring that in and that in, and then it's kind of tick, tick, tick of the box sort of thing. Sometimes we miss the glue that makes it all work in between, and so it's gotta be very mindfully put together.
Almost like when you put a PC together yourself with all the best parts in the world, well, you [00:27:00] gotta make sure that those parts are aligned and actually we'll work together to increase speed, performance, less lag, better quality graphics, more memory, and more processing and computing power.
It's gotta make sure that it's working together. And again, sales capability, oftentimes there's gaps. And the gaps or the cracks in the system cause havoc and cost you money, right? So the hidden cost, the question is, where is the hidden cost? And often when you're right in the woods yourself, or you're too far up in the ivory tower, you really haven't got your finger to the pulse to fully appreciate and understand where those gaps are.
Where there's potentially a crack and what small yet powerful incremental changes you can make to turn things around for the better.
Sales transformation, of course, doesn't happen overnight, [00:28:00] but it is predictable and preventable where you can take things. If you have assessed the situation properly and then created an architecture that will help you succeed.
So the way that we always work with our clients is by doing very thorough audits and assessments. To fully see where the strengths are and where the weaknesses are, and then of course address those weaknesses by putting things in place. And guess what? We are not those people that shy away from having tough calls or conversations.
I remember for example, advising the owner of a large international business. And after we assessed just the sales function, the sales team. It was very clear to me why this business stopped growing and started to go back in terms of numbers. They had less customers over time and their revenue dwindled big time as well.
And when I, [00:29:00] in short, capture what the main issue was, is that they had a full team of nurturers. Call it account managers that appreciate working with people they already know, like, and trust, but they had no people to look for strategic growth opportunities and open up new fresh doors that were of high value.
This sort of hunter gatherer was not present in the, team, apart from the sales manager. So imagine now the sales manager who is meant to inspire the team. Then suddenly because of his personal makeup, felt compelled to go and rescue the team and start to go too far ahead on leading from the front, basically disempowering the sales team behind them.
This is a recipe for disaster, which is again, predictable and preventable in advance because we know that nurturers [00:30:00] won't open up new doors. They will look after the existing. It was probably a better fit to get one very supportive and empowering type senior manager in place and have more hunter gatherers below to go open up the new businesses and actually have a few account managers in place to look after the existing strengthen and develop what you have with the account managers.
Have a few BDMs that open up new doors and develop strategic growth opportunities, including even cold calling, and then have of course a manager sitting above that really empowers both of those teams below. This would've been an ideal scenario for this business in particular, so we don't shy away from saying, this is where it's not working for you.
This is where you potentially are. Getting in the [00:31:00] way of your own team. These conversations we have openly and transparently because only when you win do we win. Also, as a consulting firm, it is our job to always make sure that we work for your best interest, and allow you to succeed as maximally as we can help you succeed. At this point in time,
I wanna share also a blue color technician type business that we've worked with. We've already been working with for 10 years, and the first time when we worked with we worked on basically an incentive program, which is rewarding the right behaviors and also with financials backing to it, but also team accountability on a week to week basis, and a scoreboard or dashboards included that measures the right behaviors that we can measure here and now, and how that actually impacts the results on the scoreboard.
We also then [00:32:00] created a bespoke program for those technicians to have better, more meaningful conversations with clients and prospects while they were onsite fixing problems.
The beautiful thing that happened as a result of this small intervention was a 21 fold return on investment within 18 months. Now notice this was not a traditional sales team, as we call it. These were technicians. They were actually very often on the disc. You could say s and C people. Slower paced, very methodical, very process driven, very high quality and information hungry and so on, call 'em problem solvers that are also, very much appreciating, building trust, trustworthy relationships over time with people.
So these people who were not necessarily liking the idea of them being in a sales role. Proactively open up nor new doors [00:33:00] and new opportunities that create a lot of new business for the business they worked with, and very importantly, help their customers with proactive solutions before a problem would occur.
So everybody won. It was a win-win, 21 fold. Return on investment for the first project. In the first 18 months and since then we've worked with senior leadership teams in that same that are client facing, more than 50 people we've had the pleasure of working with, and currently we're also working now with the service managers for each and every state in this business.
Now, this business has grown more than three folds over the 10 years that we've been working with and they recently also sold successfully to a multinational, which I'm very stoked about, so that everybody there got well rewarded for the effort along the way. But here's the point.
Structure creates [00:34:00] outcomes. And for example, when you talk about dashboards, very often organizations have so many metrics. That they make it too complicated for the sales team to know whether they are winning or losing, whether they got a shape up or not. And if a salesperson is unclear about what is expected, or feels overwhelmed or feels disempowered in advance, that they don't believe that they will be succeeding for the goals and the KPIs and the objectives that the higher up has sent them.
Then you and I of course know that it won't fly at all. It's predictable that they will fail because of the way it was set up in the first place. So being very clear about what it will take for them and zoom in on three things only maximum. That they can do on a day-to-day basis, [00:35:00] measure it, be accountable for it, and track it together with them, and be there to support 'em on a week-to-week basis with it and help him to see how, whether they do more of it or less of it, it actually impacts the results in the scoreboard.
It's having that very granular, simplistic view that allows sales teams to succeed. I've even seen teams that were not sales related, like a team of engineers succeed in three months at something that they didn't succeed at for the previous two years. Imagine this. The thing is people have a tendency to over complicate and especially the more.
I would call it, the more analytical people are, the more they have a tendency to overanalyze things and to put too much stuff to track. And complexity gets in the way of execution. And that brings me to the last part, [00:36:00] sales execution. I personally love it. I wouldn't have said this many years ago, but I love it when there's good structure and disciplines in place that allow sales teams to stay on track.
And all it takes is. Buy-in right from the get go. Buy-in means that you involve the team in the goals that you set for the team. You don't just kind of shove it down their throat what you want. So if you get the team to get involved in the decision making, that's where the buy-in happens. That's one. Two is where you get crystal clear about what works and what doesn't work, and then put that back into a scoreboard that guides weekly behavior and weekly accountability in a team environment. It guides basically the team meeting on a week-to-week basis. If you do all of this and you also make sure that people have the capability to do what you require them to do to succeed, [00:37:00] then it's so much easier for execution to produce great outcomes.
Sales incentives is another one. Not everyone is as driven by financial rewards in sales roles, as you would think. This is an interesting one, and it's controversial because other organizations think, well, we only want to reward our salespeople with an above award rate salary. Yes.
The laptop. Yes. The phone. Yes, the car and the likes or an allowance for the car. And that's basically it. Or they go with quarterly, half yearly or yearly bonuses to give something along the individual as well as team bonuses sort of thing. Or they go with full blown, meet this, and every month or every week, you can make X amount of dollars commissions in addition to your base salary.
These are the three kind of basic ways to [00:38:00] reward people financially. However, once again, if you know who you are dealing with, your team, I personally believe that is best to engineer a system for rewards and recognition that is not just covering financials. Award nights for some people are way more important than financial incentives are.
Another one. Incentive trips both for your own sales team as well as your professional resellers like dealers or, tradespeople that you work with or your retailers, distributors, wholesalers, all of these people. Incentive trips for the right people can also be a great lever to extract more sales performance from.
Once again, it's not just having this and that and putting it all together, kind of throwing stuff together in a, in a dish. [00:39:00] You gotta make sure that you cook it up in the right order, in the right quantities at the right time. That's where you gotta think it through and have an encompassing holistic sales strategy and the sales process that executes on it.
Another thing is strategic client development. If you think about margins, sales growth is not necessarily more customers. For clients sales growth can mean that you basically focus on better products that give you better margins and better profit, and make sure that you focus on growing certain projects with certain margins, but also it might mean increasing your margins for certain products or lowering them to increase the volume.
This is also part of that more strategic level of sales that is part of your mix to grow your business commercially speaking. So some clients right now, they are currently sitting only [00:40:00] at 30% of what they could mean revenue wise or profit wise for your business.
And so then the idea is, are your salespeople spending time productively to increase them from their currently 30% potential to as close to a hundred percent of where you could get 'em to if only they would have meaningful conversations that move the results? That's it. Now, here's also something that we have seen.
Not all salespeople know how to have meaningful strategic growth opportunities with clients. They don't know how to have those conversations. They just think that they go see 'em hang out and see what they can do, and look for showroom improvements and this and that and the other.
Guess what? Unless your salespeople can lead your [00:41:00] customers to see more opportunity and to help them put the right things in place, almost like a consultant, or a business advisor, and inspire them to execute on those plans really well, will you just be only getting 30% of what you could get.
So strategic client development, there is room and scope for it as part of your sales transformation efforts. How can you realize more growth for your organization by helping your customers win? It could be more customers. It could be doing more with customers.
It could be a whole raft of things, but as long as you think how can I help my customers succeed? Will you succeed at the next level as well.
Any thoughts or questions? I would love to hear from you. We love helping our clients win. And we love the space of sales transformation and everything that that [00:42:00] encompasses.
We have a lot of extra resources available on our various websites. for example, 15 puzzle pieces for sales. Transformation is one of them. And all of the 15 puzzle pieces on their own are also tackled as a blog post, as an article, as videos. So always check out more resources from Lagrou Partners.
For now, I wanna say thank you for tuning in. Look forward to connecting with you and would appreciate an opportunity for us to have a frank discussion about how we can help your business succeed.
