Professional Documents
Culture Documents
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
3 April 2009
2
Foreword by Bill
Thomson from TNT –
client of 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
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?
3 April 2009
6
What is Wrong with
Sales?
3 April 2009
7
What is Wrong with
Sales?
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
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
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
3 April 2009
12
In-Depth: Telesales
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
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!
Presentation
and Rapport
10.0
Presentation and Overall Style 8.0
Socialisers present themselves very well Story Telling 6.0 Pre-Meeting
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
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
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
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
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%
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
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
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.
New
Bus 11% 5% 16% 23% 6% 15% 10% 12%
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
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
Focus on Capability
3 April 2009
26
Conclusions
3 April 2009
27