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Improving the Sales

Force
Linking sales meeting behaviour
to sales success

Inside:
• How different are Account
Managers, New Business
and Tele Sales?
• 8 Sales Person Styles
• The Formula for Sales
Success

Dr. Iain A Davies


Dr. Ken Le Meunier-FitzHugh
Prof. Lynette J. Ryals
Russell Ward
Contents

Foreword by Bill Thomson of TNT Page 3


Foreword by Russell Ward, Silent Edge Page 4
Executive Summary Page 5

What is Wrong with Sales? Page 6


About Silent Edge Page 9
Overall Results Page 10
In-Depth Look at:
– New Business Page 11
– Account Managers Page 12
– Telesales Page 13
The 8 Types of Sales Person Style Page 14
1. Socialiser Page 15
2. Deal-Maker Page 16
3. Narrator Page 17
4. Product/Service Focused Page 18
5. Storyteller Page 19
6. Consultant Page 20
7. Product Closer Page 21
8. Expert Page 22
The gaps in sales performance Page 23
Developing high performing sales people Page 24
The Formula for sales success Page 25
Conclusion Page 27

3 April 2009
2
Foreword by Bill
Thomson from TNT –
client of Silent Edge

I am the Corporate Development economic climate that was tremendously


Manager for TNT Express UK Limited. With a difficult. I believe we will do the same in again
team of 30 I am responsible for the acquisition, 2008 with the economy even more
retention and development of key accounts challenging. I am not convinced we would
that are segmented into vertical markets, have exceeded our budgets as effectively
annual revenues exceed £115million. without the work that Silent Edge completed
with my team.
I began working with Silent Edge at the
start of 2007. I chose Silent Edge after a The fact that Cranfield have produced
rigorous tender process with 4 external sales this report using Silent Edge data gives great
training companies. What differentiated Silent credibility to the decision we made. The 8 sets
Edge, and the reason I went with them, was identified in this report and the Y shape
their Sales Force Evaluation system. The determining whether you have product focused
objective nature of the assessment and the or consultative sales people is an insightful
independence of their approach are unique way of segmenting a sales force and arranging
and I had not seen anything to match it in my them into groups with different training needs.
24 years in sales.
This is entirely new to me and if the
The TNT Corporate Development team resulting training of sales staff and sales
is very experienced in both their number of managers can move people to the level they
years in sales and number of years in TNT. need to be at, then they will be fully skilled to
Engaging Silent Edge sent a message to the deliver what I want. Understanding the skills a
team that TNT is prepared to make a serious sales force require is one thing, understanding
investment in them by doing something totally where they are now and how to get them
different from anything used before. It moved where they need to be is another, this research
them out of their comfort zone and motivated may help to deliver this difficult aim.
them to want to change, which is essential if
you want to improve skills in such a team.
Bill Thomson
I thought I knew the capability of my Corporate Development Manager
team, what they were good at and not so good
at. The assessment confirmed some of my
thinking, gave me fresh information and proved
some of my thinking to be incorrect. In this
respect the assessment exceeded all my
expectations. The assessment combined with
subsequent training, coaching and
management helped us to achieve very tough,
marketplace exceeding budgets in 2007 in an
3 April 2009
3
Foreword by Russell
Ward, Silent Edge

Before I started Silent Edge with my Then it occurred to us that no-one was
business partner Lorna Dakers I was a Sales measuring true sales ability. If you ask a Sales
Director for 11 years managing pan-European Director who their best sales person is, they
sales forces of up to 165 people across 13 will think of the biggest revenue figure. But did
countries. Lorna ran global sales teams for that sales person get those sales because they
Reed Business Information. During that time, were excellent in their sales skills, or because
we became increasingly frustrated with the they had the best territory, best leads, best
sales world. The two biggest issues for us as clients etc?
sales directors were the delay between
recruiting sales people and finding out whether I believe there has been a chronic lack of
they could really sell; and the frequency with investment in developing sales forces skills
which people whose CVs and references over the years. This is now becoming an
suggested they were brilliant but, when we urgent problem. Most sales teams have not
recruited them, it seemed their skills just had to sell in a recession as times have been
vanished! good for 12 or more years. Many of the sales
managers I meet seem to me to lack the
To succeed in their roles, sales directors experience or management skills to teach their
need to develop sales teams with the latest teams how to sell in hard times. Now, more
thinking and approaches. However, this is than ever, there is a need to understand the
much easier to say than to do. We found that real skills capability of sales and sales
sales training companies frequently made big management teams and of potential recruits.
promises about the impact their training would
have on growth in our revenues. The problem Cranfield has been working with Silent
was that they all offered us “sheep dip” training Edge’s data for over two years now and this
and no measurement was put in place to prove latest finding we believe is ground breaking.
any return on our investment. The questions For the first time you will be able to identify
that kept going through our heads were “how what type of sales person you have in your
can one single course be right for all my 165 company from a skill perspective, at what level
sales people” and “why am I being offered a and in what role (product or consultative sales
solution when the training company has done person). From there you will be able to develop
nothing to understand the problem?” them.

What we really needed was for our sales Enjoy the report: it makes fascinating
forces to change their behaviour and use their reading!
newly-learned skills. Mostly, however, our
sales staff were not interested in training at all
Russell Ward
as they thought it was not relevant to them. So
Managing Director
we were left wondering how to motivate sales
Silent Edge Ltd
people to change their behaviour.

3 April 2009
4
Executive Summary

Selling is an important job. It is The differences between the behaviours


responsible for stimulating demand for a – and the success levels – of people within
company’s products and services. Research these roles was surprisingly slight. Telesales
shows that sales people in business-to- people are just as talented as account
business markets are increasingly taking on managers or new business developers. This
the strategic role of relationship management, has important implications for the way in which
becoming involved in forecasting, analysis, companies use their telesales operation.
consultative selling including product/service
customisation etc. It is noticeable that major Eight Types of Sales People
customers are becoming more demanding of
their suppliers, and in many cases it is the Our results also show that there are eight
sales team that has to respond to these types of sales people. From least to most
greater demands. successful, these are: Socialisers; Deal
Makers; Narrators; Product / Service Focused;
Storytellers; Consultants; Product Closers, and
The importance of sales is reflected in Experts. Each of these types is examined in
the number of people who do it (around a detail in this report. Each type (with the
million in the UK alone) and in the high levels possible exception of Experts) have their
of remuneration they receive (a basic salary strengths and weaknesses, which should
ranging between £35,000 and £75,000 in this influence the training and development they
study, before commission payments). receive.

Yet, despite this, many sales people What Determines Sales Success
perform less well than they should. Previous The most exciting part of our results is
research has shown that customers look for how the behaviours of these sales people are
three key factors in sales people: credibility, linked to their success. We show that pre-
knowledge, and professionalism. However, meeting behaviours and what we call ‘rising to
until now, little has been known about what it is the challenge’ are highly important but,
that good sales people do in sales meetings. surprisingly, making a pitch and storytelling
So, we were delighted to be invited to work can be negatively associated with success. At
with Silent Edge, which has used a detailed the end of the report, we propose a ‘Formula
scorecard to collect observations of no fewer for Sales Success’.
than 802 live sales meetings over the past 6
years. We subjected these observations to a
rigorous statistical analysis. The results tell us This report sets out our findings in detail.
a great deal about success in selling. This is an important document for companies
wanting to improve their sales performance.
Professor Lynette Ryals
Same People, Different Roles Professor of Strategic Sales and Account Management
Our analysis examined 539 business Cranfield School of Management, UK
development managers, 199 account
managers and 64 telesales people.
3 April 2009
5
What is Wrong with
Sales?

Yet, too many companies (especially


The aim of this section of the report is to industrial firms and those selling consumer
identify the roles and strategic importance of durables) continue to focus on sales volume.
sales people’s activities. The traditional role of This is short-sighted: sales people also provide
sales has been defined as “to stimulate, rather other services to customers. They can manage
than satisfy, demand for products. To persuade the relationship, act as the coordinator of the
customers that they need a supplier’s product, marketing effort to the customer, and can
sales people in this role focus on achieving personalise the marketing message. Personal
short-term results for their companies by using selling is of particular advantage in the
aggressive selling techniques to persuade business-to-business environment as sales
customers to buy products”.* However, this people already have an established
short-term view is changing. The sales role relationship with their customers and so can
increasingly involves a longer-term set of combine products and services more naturally.
strategic activities such as customer partner,
sales team coordinator, customer service The Role of Personal Selling
provider, buyer behaviour expert, information Personal selling allows direct interaction
gatherer, market analyst and planner, sales between the buyer and the seller. Two-way
forecaster, market cost analyser and communication allows for identification of the
technologist. Increasingly, an effective sales buyer’s specific needs and problems, so that
person will understand the interactional nature the presentation and demonstration of the
of personal selling and how it relates to product/service’s features and benefits can be
organisational objectives and behaviour. tailored to the customer’s needs. Establishing
two-way communication is essential when
There are at least a million people directly selling products, as the sales representative
employed as Sales Representatives in the UK, becomes the expert who interprets the benefits
although recently this number has been falling, of the product for the customer. The sales
driven by the increasing cost of maintaining the person uses their in-depth product knowledge
sales force and changes in the retail to match the buyers needs as well as negotiate
landscape. Although sales forces are smaller price, delivery & special requirements.
than they were, they are still one of the most
expensive parts of marketing communications. Given that customers are demanding
In the US, over a trillion dollars are spent superior relationships with suppliers, and the
annually on sales and sales materials, more importance of these strategic relationships,
than any other part of the promotional mix. strategic customer management should be
Companies need to maximise the performance based around three key issues: Intelligence,
of their expensive sales people if they are to Interfaces, and Integration.
compete successfully.
* Weitz and Bradford, 1999, p.243.

3 April 2009
6
What is Wrong with
Sales?

Pre-meeting, presentation, behaviour,


Researchers have found that the most listening, and selling.
important attributes of a sales person are their
credibility, their knowledge and their Pre-meeting denotes preparing before
professionalism. The sales force represents entering a sales situation. This may include:
the company to its customers, finds new examining records at the prospecting stage of
customers, and can answer questions about the selling process, ‘smartening up’ including
products, services and the company: “Certainly personal presentation, gaining a good
selling and influencing will be large parts of knowledge of both the customer and products
organisational marketing; but, properly seen, before the meeting, and objective and agenda
selling follows rather than precedes the setting.
organisation’s drive to create products to
satisfy its consumers.”* Today’s sales people
Presenting refers to the ego
need to be organised, skilled communicators
drive, the personal desire and need to make
who understand how the sales role fits into the
the sale. This drive is part of how the
greater marketing and strategic effort if they
salesperson comes across during the
are to be effective.
presentation stage; the best sales people are
optimistic, direct and credible and able to
Recent research shows, however, that present themselves and their company. This
sales capability and performance is a serious also involves using customer-friendly language
concern to senior managers. A study of during the sales presentation, being
interviews with 111 senior sales executives knowledgeable about the products, and being
from 96 worldwide organisations found that “in able to clarify the products' benefits. Therefore,
general, the executives were underwhelmed knowledge and experience in presenting
by their sales forces’ performance”.** So, what should have a significant impact on sales
is going wrong? performance. Skills in presenting relate to
behaviour in that honesty, integrity and market
What Makes a Good Sales Person? accountability are core traits in good
Previous studies have provided insights salespeople. Recent research has expanded
into what sales people themselves believe on this, arguing that: “Contrary to popular
makes them successful, although these have belief, true sales professionals are honest to a
been based on opinion rather than on fault. We never tell lies, twist facts or embellish
observation. These studies indicate the details to win a sale. Why? Because we realize
activities that sales people should perform fall that doing so not only is unethical, it also is
into five basic areas: incredibly short-sighted”*.

*Kotler and Levy, 1969, p.15 * Kennedy, 2006, p.32


** Atkinson and Koprowski, 2006, p.22

3 April 2009
7
What is Wrong with
Sales?

Listening is an integral part of the sales Customer – A detailed knowledge of the


process, but even more important is empathy, customer’s business and how the product or
a customer focus, and problem solving. Being service fits.
a problem solver for the client is particularly
important. However, all of these factors share Knowledge of Company Policy and
one thing in common - if you don’t listen to the Procedures – A good in-depth understanding
client, you don’t know how to help them. of the company’s organisation and the location
of specialist knowledge.
The final part of the process is actually
closing the sales or selling. The selling Interpersonal and Communication
element of the sales meeting also Skills – These skills are key not only to
encompasses being a problem solver. Offering developing good customer relations, but also
a creative or a tailored solution on the spot is to facilitating the internal flow of market
an important facet of the process for information.
customers.
However, this still leaves the crucial
Sales Performance question unanswered until now. Although
There may be a need to differentiate these earlier studies offer considerable insight
between what a sales person actually does into the role of the sales person, they do not
(behavioural performance) and their provide a clear link to sales success. After all,
performance. Behavioural performance refers less effective sales people also prepare for
to the strategies and activities carried out in meetings, make presentations, ask for the
the sales process, whilst performance refers to order etc.; it is just that their performance is
the results of the sales person’s efforts. Some weaker than stronger sales people. Although
behavioural strategies, such as customer existing research is very helpful in establishing
orientation and adaptive selling, have been a theoretical framework, this leaves a
associated with higher levels of performance. ‘relevance gap’ for managers. Exactly what
should they tell their sales people to do
Early sales research* identified four differently, next time, to improve their
types of knowledge that affect the performance performance in sales meetings? This research
of the sales person: aims to fill this gap and provide guidance on
which behaviours are linked to sales success.
Product – Not only knowledge of the
product, but also its features and benefits,
strengths and weaknesses.

* Ryans and Weinberg, 1981

3 April 2009
8
About Silent Edge

Silent Edge approaches sales consultancy During the meeting, over 170 objective,
and training from an unusual perspective. moment-by-moment observations* are noted
Rather than providing an off-the-shelf training on an electronic scorecard. These
package, it observes live sales meetings, observations document the salesperson's
compares the performance of the sales force, behaviour, business practice and selling
and provides both feedback and bespoke competency. The observation methodology
training to the sales team and, most importantly, has been proven consistent across different
the sales manager which result in a change of salespeople.
behaviour and increased skills.
Since its inception 6 years ago, Silent
The scorecards used to observe the Edge has worked with over 70 leading
selling behaviours were researched, developed companies including 3663, Barclays, Cable &
and tested by a team of sales professionals and Wireless, Bauer, AXA, Reed, and TNT, who
skills development specialists who wanted to have all benefited from measurable improved
create a new approach for measuring sales sales performance. Its approach is also used
force performance in live selling situations. From by the Institute of Sales and Marketing
this previous research, Silent Edge developed Management to judge the British Excellence in
the Sales Force Evaluation™ tool to measure Sales and Marketing Awards.
sales people’s skills, knowledge and behaviour.
The data used in the report are drawn from In this report we analyse and discuss the
these observations. In the last few years a range results from 802 observed sales people. They
of learning and skills development workshops are a mix of New Business Sales, Account
and coaching services have complemented the Managers and Telesales. The sample is 75%
Evaluation to ensure new behaviours are male. The only slight difference between males
embedded in everyday activities. and females is that females tend to outperform
males on negotiation and males tend to
The Observation outperform on company knowledge.
An independent Silent Edge observer, or
an accredited sales manager, accompanies Number
each salesperson to two real meetings, New Business 539
maintaining a discreet profile and never
Account Managers 199
intervening in the discussion. The observations
Telesales 64
reported here were conducted by seven trained
specialists using direct observation of the sales
meeting and interviews about the sales person’s
knowledge of selling after the event.
*Telesales are not measured on all scales

3 April 2009
9
Overall Results

The overall results suggest that New Thus, the average sales person is a
Business, Account Managers and Telesales pleasant individual who knows a lot about their
are surprisingly similar in how they performed products, but fails to position themselves in
in their sales situations. such a way as to distinguish either their
company or product from the competition, or to
All show distinct weaknesses in relation solve the customer’s problems.
to setting agendas, using sales value
propositions, case studies, anecdotes, If this is the average sales person in your
positioning the company and objection company, do you have a problem? In the
handling. But all three groups demonstrate modern competitive arena it is unlikely that a
clear strengths in personal presentation, pleasant product specialist would be seen by
rapport building, putting forward the company customers to add much value, or worth
offerings, imparting product/service knowledge spending the resources to employ a purchaser
and overall conduct in sales meetings. to see them. So how can they improve?

Qualification
Negotiation throughout the meeting 10.00 Meeting Preparation
Create solution on the fly 9.00 Personal presentation
8.00 Average
Objection-handling 7.00 Set agenda New Bus
6.00 TeleSales
Marketplace Understanding 5.00 Rapport Acc Mgr
4.00
Product/Service knowledge 3.00 Introductions
2.00
1.00
Differentiation from competition 0.00 Sales person's conduct

Discuss value Meeting management

Case study Specify Client Needs

Sales Value Proposition Understanding pains

Match customer pain to the offering Anecdotes


Company offerings Company background
Position company

3 April 2009
10
In-Depth: New
Business Sales

Personal presentation
New Business sales people follow much of Rapport
the pattern of the average individual as outlined Company offerings
on the previous page. They are well presented, Product/Service knowledge
build good rapport, understand their products Meeting management

and company offerings very well and have high Sales person's conduct
Marketplace understanding
meeting management skills. They do however
Meeting preparation
differ* from the other two sales groups on a
Specify client needs
number of issues: Qualification
• Although they have the highest rapport Introductions
building scores they actually have the lowest Understanding pains

score for sales person conduct. Create solution on the fly


Match customer pain to the offering
Differentiation from competition
• They have the highest product/service
Discuss value
knowledge, company offerings and company Company background
background and are best at understanding Negotiation throughout the meeting
customers pains, but fail compared to Telesales Anecdotes
at matching the customers pains to the Set agenda

product/service or company offerings. Position company


Objection-handling
Sales value proposition
• New Business sales people are the Case study
biggest users of storytelling (anecdotes and 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

case studies); they are also the biggest users of


New Business people appear to need to
sales value propositions. However, in the case
learn a lot more about listening to customers
of all of these the overall scores were still very
and then turning the knowledge gained into a
low indicating a need for more training in this
sales tool to match the offering to customer
area.
pains, select case studies of success, and
provide appropriate value propositions.
• One point of failure for the New Business
sales people was a surprisingly low score on
negotiation and objection handling, suggesting a
failure to capitalise on some easy sales

*Using ANOVA and Hockberg’s GT Post Hoc Scores

3 April 2009
11
In-Depth: Account
Managers

Personal presentation
Account Managers were surprisingly similar Rapport
to New Business sales scoring statistically* Sales person's conduct
similarly on all but 8 of the dimensions observed. Meeting management
Company offerings
• In contrast to the New Business people, the Product/Service knowledge
Account Managers score higher on conduct but Meeting preparation

lower on rapport. They are also the group best at Marketplace understanding
Introductions
negotiation and meeting preparation.
Specify client needs
Qualification
• They are lower-scoring on knowledge
Create solution on the fly
issues such as company background, positioning Negotiation throughout the meeting
the company, product/service knowledge and Discuss value
anecdotes. This may be due to these issues Match customer pain to the offering
being less prominent in long term account Understanding pains
management where many of the introductory Differentiation from competition
problems in relationships may have been worked Objection-handling

through during earlier meetings. Set agenda


Company background
Anecdotes
• However, the worrying part is that Account
Position company
Managers score relatively badly at understanding
Sales value proposition
customer pains. Given that the purpose of Case study
account management is about building a 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

relationship long term, it appears counterintuitive


for Account Managers to have less Account Managers also need to learn a
understanding of customer problems than a New lot more about listening to customers and use
Business salesperson. Still worse, this group has this to match the offering to customer pains,
the worst performance at matching the offering provide appropriate value propositions and
to the customer pain, indicating an overall failure position their company to provide solutions.
of Account Managers to capitalise on their
relationship role.

*Using ANOVA and Hockberg’s GT Post Hoc Scores

3 April 2009
12
In-Depth: Telesales

Telesales data were collected on a Sales person's conduct

slightly different scorecard to the other two Personal presentation


groups. Thus, we only compare here where
Rapport
the scores recorded were on the same scales
as the other two groups. Company offerings

Meeting preparation

• The most surprising finding was actually Match customer pain to the offering
how similar Telesales were to the other
Introductions
groups, indicating that Telesales people could
probably perform a sales role to at least the Understanding pains
same adequacy as many field sales people.
Position company

Set agenda
• The Telesales not only had the best
conduct of all the groups but also positioned Objection-handling

the company better and matched the Qualification


company’s offerings to the customer pains
Case study
statistically better then the others. However,
that said, they were worse at identifying Differentiation from competition

customer pains than the New Business group. Sales value proposition
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

• Their abilities may be tempered by the The results indicate that Telesales
Telesales group’s lower inability to articulate people can have strong potential. Thus, it
differentiation from the competition, failure to could be worth training Telesales people in
qualify if they were speaking to an appropriate developing value propositions. Although all
person or provide a detailed introduction for groups were weak at this, telesales were
the customer to the company offerings. particularly poor.

3 April 2009
13
8 Types of Sales
Person Style

Utilising powerful analytical techniques* The groups are ordered in terms of their
we have identified 8 distinct types of sales performance on these measures of sales
person style throughout the different industries success.
studied, by looking only at what they did in the
live sales meeting. These groups are: Despite expected differences between
• Socialisers service and product sales, one of the more
• Deal Makers striking findings is that people from all forms of
• Narrators sales fall into all eight categories. In fact, only
the top performing Product Closers and
• Product/Service Focused
Experts showing a particular tendency to one
• Storytellers type of sale. This clearly demonstrates that
• Consultants sales people in both product and service sales
• Product Closers, and meetings act similarly - and that they fall into
• Experts the same bad habits!

Interestingly, the best-performing group


The graph below shows how each of
(Experts) perform slightly less well than the
these groups performed in relation to three
second-best group (Product Closers) on
measures of sales success recorded in the
closing the deal. This probably reflects the
Silent Edge scorecards (closing to the next
more complex and consultative nature of their
stage, next steps and timescales, and closing
sales process, which does not normally end in
the deal).
decisions during the meeting.
10
9
8
7
6
5 Close to the next stage
4 Next steps/time scales
3 Closing the Deal
2
1
0
er er to
r d lle
r nt se
r rt
l is ak ra se l ta pe
ia r u Te u lo x
c lM a oc y s tC E
So ea N
tF or on uc
D uc St C
od
od Pr
Pr

*Cubic Clustering Criterion, Pseudo F, K-means Clustering


3 April 2009 Technique and Turkey post hoc ANOVA test of difference 14
1. Socialiser

Presentation
and Rapport
10.0
Presentation and Overall Style 8.0
Socialisers present themselves very well Story Telling 6.0 Pre-Meeting

and are able to build a reasonable rapport with 4.0


customers. However, they are well below 2.0
average at every single measure in the study 0.0
Rising to the
and significantly (using post hoc tests) lower The Sales Pitch
Challenge
scoring on virtually every measure than any
other group. Even more noticeably they are not
Customer Company
statistically better than anyone at anything. Interaction Presentation

The Good Socialiser


Average
They tend to be prepared for meetings
but not in a way distinctly better than the other They are also below average at rising to
seven groups. any customer challenges, handling objections
or negotiating.
The Bad
They are poor at ‘thinking on the fly’ and And The Ugly
seem to discuss little or nothing about their
They lack many of the basic sales skills,
company, products or competitors, doing little
failing to discuss everything from sales value
to match their offerings to the customers’
propositions, to cases studies. In particular
needs.
Number of % of total they do not position the company or discuss
each role sample the company’s heritage.

New Bus 61 11%


Telesales 17 27%
Acc Mgt 43 22%
121 15%

3 April 2009
15
2. Deal-Maker

Presentation
and Rapport
10.0
Presentation and Overall Style 8.0
Story Telling 6.0 Pre-Meeting
Deal-Makers are the hard price
negotiators. They appear to enter a sales 4.0
2.0
meeting expecting a price negotiation, and get
0.0
one. Rising to the
The Sales Pitch
Challenge

The Good
Deal-Makers are better at many of the Customer Company
Interaction Presentation
selling roles than others, particularly at setting
agendas, positioning the company, negotiation Deal Maker
and using sales value propositions: in each Average
case, only the highly-skilled Experts are better.
These individuals may need to work on
The Bad their interaction with customers, listen more
and utilise their knowledge, to move away from
Deal-Makers, along with Socialisers and
their hard negotiation and aggressive style to a
Storytellers, are the worst objection handlers
more persuasive collaborative sales approach.
and only Socialisers and Narrators are as bad
at creating solutions on the fly.
And The Ugly
. Deal-Makers are worse than everyone
Number of % of total but Socialisers at utilising information about
each role sample
the marketplace, product/service and company
New Bus 25 5%
offerings in their sales pitch. They are also the
only group to have statistically lower personal
Telesales 4 6%
presentation and rapport scores than the other
Acc Mgt 16 8%
seven groupings.
45 6%

3 April 2009
16
3. Narrator

Presentation
and Rapport
10.0
Presentation and Overall Style 8.0
As you would expect, a Narrator is both Story Telling 6.0 Pre-Meeting
well presented, a good orator, and builds a 4.0
good rapport. However, the Narrator could also 2.0
be seen as a script reader, or “talking 0.0
Rising to the
brochure”, discussing the company’s Challenge
The Sales Pitch
products/services, background, or its
positioning, without contextualisation into the
Customer Company
customer’s sphere of experience.
Interaction Presentation

The Good Narrator


Narrators are fairly well versed in the Average
company offerings, the marketplace, and have
a reasonable product/service knowledge. Thus, Narrators would be poorly suited to
dealing with complex clients and sales
The Bad processes.
What lets them down, however, is
disorganisation, inability to extrapolate their And The Ugly
knowledge into solutions for customers, and Of all the groups this is the most
poor capability at thinking on their feet. disorganised in terms of setting agendas,
specifying the client’s needs and setting out
Number of % of total value propositions. This is compounded by
each role sample their inability to show understanding of
customer pains or convert their existing
New Bus 87 16% knowledge into solutions.
Telesales 10 16%
Acc Mgt 23 12%
120 15%

3 April 2009
17
4. Product/Service
Focused

Presentation
and Rapport
10.0
Presentation and Overall Style 8.0
Product/Service Focused people are Story Telling 6.0 Pre-Meeting

similar to Narrators in that they present 4.0


themselves and their companies offerings well. 2.0
0.0
Rising to the
The Sales Pitch
The Good Challenge

What defines them is that, statistically,


they are amongst the best at using Customer Company
product/service knowledge. To an extent they Interaction Presentation

could be seen as technical specialists as their


focus on product / service performance is very Product Focused
high. Average

The Bad
They are also amongst the groups least
They are, however, statistically worse likely to use case studies and anecdotes when
than nearly everybody else at positioning the trying to sell, and rarely attempt to match their
company, discussing the company’s product to the customer pains.
background, and differentiating it from the
competition. Moreover, they have the worst
conduct of all but socialisers. And the Ugly
Number of % of total In terms of actual selling,
each role sample Product/Service Focused salespeople are very
poor especially with negotiation and sales
New Bus 126 23%
value proposition development, in which tasks
Telesales 14 22% they are statistically weaker than all other
Acc Mgt 15 8% groups.
155 19%

3 April 2009
18
5. Storyteller

Presentation
and Rapport
10.0
Presentation and Overall Style 8.0
Group 5 are Storytellers. They have a Story Telling 6.0 Pre-Meeting

good level of marketplace knowledge and put 4.0

this to great use by selling through story telling. 2.0


0.0
Rising to the
The Sales Pitch
The Good Challenge

Statistically they make significantly more


use of both case studies and anecdotes than Customer Company
anyone else. This also has a knock-on impact Interaction Presentation

on their ability to create solutions on the fly as


Story Teller
they pull in further examples to counter
Average
customer questions; only Experts do this better
If there is one further failing in these
The Bad people it is a reticence to set objectives for the
Storytellers will often discuss company meeting, set agendas or defend their
offerings but may fail to position these against proposition when challenged.
the competition or utilise value propositions.
They are also less likely than other groups to And the Ugly
discuss their own company’s background.
Compared to the average sales person
Number of % of total in this study the Storyteller really is a good all-
each role sample rounder. However, their propensity to story
telling may mean they talk through the sale,
New Bus 34 6% missing opportunities to utilise other
Telesales 7 11% capabilities to close the deal.
Acc Mgt 16 8%
57 7%

3 April 2009
19
6. Consultant

Presentation
and Rapport
10.0
Presentation and Overall Style 8.0
Story Telling Pre-Meeting
Consultants are high-quality sales 6.0
people. Only Experts are a better all-rounder. 4.0

Consultants are well presented, have a skill for 2.0


0.0
getting the most out of introductions, and build Rising to the
The Sales Pitch
fantastic rapport with customers. Challenge

The Good Customer Company


They have high levels of marketplace, Interaction Presentation

company and product/service knowledge and Consultant


use this in meetings to position their own
Average
company, promote the value proposition and
demonstrate market differentiation better than What is surprising is how many of these
anybody else except Experts. individuals come from product sales. The style
Consultants are good at objection shown in this group indicates cross-sellers and
handling and negotiation and similarly adept at complex systems sales, something more
creating solutions on the fly. Making them commonly seen in service sales.
great at selling complex products and services.
The Bad
If consultants have any failings however
Number of % of total it is a lack of preparation before meetings and
each role sample
failure to set specific agendas. They are also
New Bus 83 15%
poor storytellers, which may make their sales
pitch a little one-dimensional.
Telesales 7 11%
Acc Mgt 31 16%
121 15%

3 April 2009
20
7. Product Closer

Presentation
and Rapport
10.0
Presentation and Overall Style 8.0
These are fantastic product sellers and Story Telling 6.0 Pre-Meeting
are the only group with a clear tendency to 4.0
product rather than service sales. 2.0
0.0
Rising to the
The Good, The Sales Pitch
Challenge
No one is a better objection-handler than
a product closer. They know the product they
have got and they champion its value Customer Company
Interaction Presentation
propositions to meet customer needs. This
surety of knowledge also makes them good
Product Closer
negotiators, good at creating solutions on the
fly, and their more than adequate marketplace Average
and product knowledge serves them well.
However, Neil Rackham* suggested
these could also be ‘objection creators’; by
They are also listeners. More adept at
focusing so heavily on their own product’s
specifying the clients needs than most other
capability that it encourages objection.
people, they are able to understand the
customer’s pains and then use this to position
their product to meet the customer’s needs. The Bad
If there is one fault it is a heavy focus on
the product and little on their own company.
Number of % of total This may make cross-selling more difficult. In
each role sample particular they often do not position their
company versus the competition, nor do they
New Bus 56 10% discuss the company’s background, or use
Telesales 4 6% case studies or anecdotes much.
Acc Mgt 47 24%
107 13%

*Author of “Spin Selling” 1988

3 April 2009
21
8. Expert

Presentation
and Rapport
10.0
Presentation and Overall Style 8.0
Experts score a statistically higher score Story Telling 6.0 Pre-Meeting

than six or more of the other seven groups in 4.0


17 out of the 24 measures investigated here. 2.0
0.0
We see a higher proportion of these Rising to the
The Sales Pitch
individuals in service sales but the fact that 5% Challenge
of the product sellers are here is quite a
surprise. The greater worry however is the lack
Customer Company
of Account Managers in this grouping. Interaction Presentation

Expert
The Good, Average
The radar diagram tells the story; these
sales people are very good. Key sales skills Add to this that Experts are the best at
which lack in the other groups are abundant creating solutions on the fly and at negotiation
here, with Experts better than everybody at and you have a strong sales person.
discussing the company’s heritage, specifying
the customer’s needs and then positioning the The Bad
company and articulating the sales value
They have nothing that could discernibly
proposition to fulfil those needs better than the
be called a weakness. They appear to be
competition.
perhaps a little lacking in objection handling,
Number of % of total although it could be that no-one felt like
each role sample
challenging these truly expert sales people in
New Bus 67 12%
the meetings observed. Other than that, they
appear to be the very epitome of what this
Telesales 1 2%
study was looking for in a sales person.
Acc Mgt 8 4%
76 9%

3 April 2009
22
The gap in sales
performance

The sample set of 802 studied for this report


were all sales people from blue chip % of % of % of
organisations and were paid between £35,000 Product Service Total
and £75,000 in basic salary. Sales Sales Sample

Socialiser 16% 14% 15%


This chart shows how few of these highly-paid
sales staff are in the Expert category. The Deal Maker 4% 7% 6%
largest percentage fall into the Product/Service Narrator 18% 13% 15%
Focused group, who are at best only
Product
moderately skilled.
Focused 18% 20% 19%

Storyteller 9% 7% 7%
If this large blue-chip sample is representative
of the general state of selling in the UK, it is Consultant 12% 16% 15%
likely that many sales opportunities are being
missed. There is a considerable learning and Product Closer 18% 11% 13%
development need in such sales teams to Expert 5% 12% 9%
improve their performance.

Alarmingly, the organisations who were


studied were largely unaware of the poor
calibre of their sales teams.

Deal Product Product


Socialiser Maker Narrator Focused Story Teller Consultant Closer Expert

New
Bus 11% 5% 16% 23% 6% 15% 10% 12%

Tele 27% 6% 16% 22% 11% 11% 6% 2%

Acc Mgt 22% 8% 12% 8% 8% 16% 24% 4%

3 April 2009
23
Developing high-
performing sales
people

Product Service

Experts
Sales Success: Closing, Closing to next Stage, Next steps

Product
Closers
Consultants
Storytellers

Product Focused

Narrators

Deal Makers

Socialisers

Mapping each sales type to its relative Above the level of Storytellers, it does
success reveals a pattern from low to high make a difference whether the sales person is
performance. The four lower-performing selling products or services. To the left are
groups move from Socialisers to Product Product Closers, highly successful specialist
Focused with each group adding additional sales people who place a lot of emphasis on
competencies. They show no differences the product they are selling. Not surprisingly,
between selling products and selling services. this type is uncommon in services selling. The
third branch to the right consists of Consultants
At the more skilled level, however, the and Experts, highly successful sales people
behaviours diverge along three branches. On who are more likely to be selling services.
the short middle spur we find Storytellers.
Storytellers are relatively high-performing This illustrates how a sales team can
salespeople who sell in a dynamically different have sales people with incrementally better
way to everyone else, although it makes no capabilities at the same type of things, but a
difference whether they are selling products or few people dynamically different in sales style.
services.

3 April 2009
24
A Formula for Sales
Success

Searching for Success • Pre-Meeting


One of the key reasons for undertaking • Company Presentation
this research was to develop a clearer idea of • Sales Pitch
what led to sales success. We can clearly see • Customer Interaction
from the different groupings in the previous
• Rising to the Challenge, And
section that certain characteristics led to a
• Story Telling
higher propensity for success, measured in
terms of: closing the deal; moving onto next
steps/time scales; or closing to the next stage. (You may have noticed we also used
these dimensions to help describe the different
skill types on previous pages).
Using these three measures of sales
success we have used a specialist technique
called Structural Equation Modelling to build a The next step is to run the equations to
formula for sales success. What this process work out the appropriate weighting each of
does is firstly look at how we group the 24 these measures and dimensions require to
measures into six dimensions which are key best explain the success results for all the
parts of the sales process: individuals scored. The diagram below reports
the results of the dimensional impacts in this
very robust* model.
Personal presentation
Rapport
Meeting Preparation
Pre-meeting 0.40
Set agenda
Company background
Position company
Company 0.22
Sales Value Proposition Presentation
Product/Service Differentiation from
knowledge competition
Company offerings
Marketplace
Sales Pitch -0.19
Understanding Understanding pains

Meeting management Specify Client Needs Sales Success


Match customer pain to 0.21
the offering Customer
Create solution on the fly
Interaction

Discuss value Introductions

Negotiation throughout Qualification


the meeting
Rising to challenge 0.46
Sales person's conduct
Objection-handling

Anecdotes -0.13
Story telling
Case study

* Robustness and model fit scores: Cmin/df = 2.134, NFI = 0.98, CFI = 0.98, RFI = 0.96,
3 April 2009
25
A Formula for Sales
Success

We see the same results with Story


This is the first time sufficient quality data Telling. The negative association between
have been available to attempt to model sales case studies, anecdotes and Sales Success
success and it has thrown up some very indicates that after a certain level Story Telling
interesting results. becomes counterproductive. If you look at the
groups themselves it is noticeable that the best
overall closers (the Product Closers) barely
The first is how little impact presentation
use Story Telling at all, focusing their attention
and rapport have on success (this is
on other parts of the sale – which obviously
represented by no line between these
makes them successful. In the reverse
measures and success). One reason for this
however Experts use Story Telling to a large
could be that everyone was of at least
extent and are the best at closing to the next
sufficient standard not to jeopardise the sale.
stage and next steps and time scales – so
perhaps story telling is a longer term sales
The second interesting finding is that the strategy.
Sales Pitch itself can have a negative impact
on sales success. By Sales Pitch we are What really appears to lead to sales
referring to the meeting management and success may come as quite a surprise. Firstly,
probably the more formal pitch such as being well prepared in advance and setting an
product/service knowledge, marketplace appropriate agenda have a significant impact
understanding and the formal putting forward on success. This may indicate that customers
of the companies offerings. The fact this has a like to be certain of what is going to happen
negative impact on success does not mean and like a well organised sales person.
that this section is unimportant; it is more likely However, above all else, it is rising to a
that too much time is spent on this part of the customer challenge that leads to the highest
sale. What you therefore end up with is an performance in sales.
inverted “U” type of result where after a certain
level the sales person is ‘talking through the By rising to the challenge we mean not
sale’ (see below). only how a sales person conducts themselves
but also how they deal with objections and
Sales Success

demonstrate value creation. This raises


questions as to whether existing sales training
is actually focussing on the right areas, with
very little actually targeting negotiation and
objection handling and too much focus on the
sales pitch, demonstrating differentiation and
techniques like story telling.

Focus on Capability

3 April 2009
26
Conclusions

The way to do this is by modifying their


The analysis reported here reveals some behaviour. Of course, some people are just
startling and rather disturbing facts about the more comfortable with selling than others are,
behaviours of sales people in live sales but this report flags up a series of behaviours
incidents (client meetings, or telephone calls). that are associated with sales success, and
The broad conclusions we can draw from the many of these can be trained into people.
research presented here are as follows:
4. The behaviours that are most strongly
1. There are fewer differences between associated with sales success are preparation
telesales people, new business, and account and planning, and adaptive selling during the
managers than might be expected. Companies sales meeting. Pre-meeting preparation can
should learn from this not to underplay the clearly be taught, and should be regarded as
potential of telesales. Smart companies, an essential part of the sales person’s role.
reading this report, should note that there are Adaptive selling (discussing value, handling
almost certainly expert salespeople in their objections, negotiating) are all skills that can
telesales operation, who should be nurtured be developed through training and coaching.
and encouraged just as other sales people are.
The other general conclusion is that expert 5. The notion of the inverted ‘U’-shaped
sales people are a rare breed. Smart sales function is important as well. The research
directors will seek out these experts, develop shows that too little, and too much, story telling
their skills, and motivate and reward them to and sales pitching, reduce sales success.
stay with the company. Some of the less successful types identified in
this report could have increased their sales
2. There are eight broad types of sales success by doing less, not more. This is an
person, differentiated by the behaviours they issue relating to improved observing and
use and the extent to which they use them. listening, both of which can be learned.
These eight behavioural types are discussed in
detail earlier in the report, but a clear Cranfield and Silent Edge share a
conclusion is that most of the types are not commitment to improving the practice of sales.
particularly effective in sales meetings! Both organisations believe that business-to-
business selling is a vital skill for our economic
3. It is probable that sales people could success. We believe that there is often a
improve their sales performance by altering tendency for organisations to engage in
their behaviours in a sales meeting. Sales inappropriate sales training, focusing on the
directors –who have usually been successful wrong issues, such as the persistent belief that
sales people in their time– sometimes argue slick Powerpoint presentations are what close
that ‘good sales people are born, not made’. deals. Our research provides evidence to the
Our research suggests that average sales contrary.
people can increase their performance

3 April 2009
27

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