Top 5 Reasons To Fire A Top Sales Performer

I'm not a fan of 'stack ranking' which is the practice of creating a performance table and firing the bottom 10% to 15% every year. It's usually carried out summarily on a quarterly basis targeting the bottom 3-5% of sales non-performers. Think, Lord Of The Flies meets Celebrity Apprentice, for the right image in your mind.

Numbers never lie but numbers never tell the whole story either... real leaders dig deep and uncover root cause before firing-up the flame thrower. Sales performance is a partnership between the sales person, their manager and the company providing intrinsic value in the market offering. Getting up to speed takes time and sales success can be a complex equation.

Yet the biggest mistake I consistently made when leading companies and sales teams was holding on to the wrong people for too long. I deluded myself into thinking that my inaction was driven by good values (be patient and continue to help) but in hindsight, maybe my weakness was driven by fear. We all worry that if we fire sales people, then we won't have the resources to go get the revenue so desperately needed. We are almost always desperate because head office piles quota uplift upon quota uplift in their relentless pursuit of shareholder value! They compound the problem by fiddling while Rome burns withholding headcount approvals and nitpicking over recruitment fees. Mixed signals from on high seem commonplace.

Today I work with sales leaders and CEOs and I'm constantly exhorting them to make the tough decisions concerning their teams. Retaining the wrong people always turns caustic but before that, they consume endless amounts of energy and time. Jim Collins agrees with me and if you want proof, read his classic leadership tome, Good to Great. It's one of the first things that he nails: Get the wrong people off the bus and don't worry about having some empty seats... the right people will get on the bus and fill them.

At the end of this article I'll give you my 'Rule of 24' for deciding who needs to go and who should stay, but now here are my top 5 egregious traits that should cause you to target a sales person for negative attention.

1. Phil The Corporate Psychopath: Life is way too short to work with nasty politically motivated whack-jobs who spend most of their day plotting and scheming how to 'do people over' who are just trying to do their jobs. Their twisted evolutionary 'survival of the nastiest' ethos destroys a culture and leaves a trail of destruction. Yet all this is usually veiled behind a charming facade. The warning signs are that they're a control freak, emotionally manipulative narcissist who happily seeks to burn you out. They think nothing of telling lies and are masterful at managing-up, climbing the corporate ladder by using the knives they've wedged in the backs of others as their foot-holds. They have a very nasty side when challenged and are uber-competitive, casually stealing other peoples ideas and taking the credit, while masterfully positioning others for the fall when something they're working on goes badly.

If you work for one of these people, forget talking to the Human Remains department, just go find another job and leave as soon as you can. If one of these people works for you, regardless of their apparent high performance, manage them out as fast as you can. Nasty people don't belong in your team.

2. Mike The Network Marketer: Your customers belong to you, not the sales person. The employment contract they signed states it clearly and every relationship they build while on your dime is a corporate asset. Yes, people build personal relationships with clients, and customers sometimes choose to follow sales people when they move... that's their right. But for a sales person to be leaning on your customers to join their side business is wrong, plain and simple!

Back in the late 1980s I was in the Amway business for 6 years and did pretty well, earning the equivalent of an annual salary on the side and was front-line to one of the biggest couples globally today. But I built my network of well over 1,000 down-line without compromising my employer or my integrity. While I was at my MLM peak and a sales manager in the corporate world, I fired a sales person who worked for me when his customer complained about being invited under false pretenses for dinner only to be pitched 'the plan'. We had a clear understanding that neither of us would engage in this behavior... it was a sacrosanct rule.... fired.

3. Side Deal Sam The Slippery Snake: Overt corruption can bring a business to its knees, especially side agreement letters hidden in the drawer or commitments that no-one wants the auditors to see; these end careers and for good reason. People who sign business with zombie skeletons hiding in the closet have no place; neither do sales people who have corrupt arrangements with resellers or 'partners'. Transparency in dealings is essential. You cannot afford to be associated with an employee doing dodgy deals. Dishonest people must be terminated.

Here's a law of life – your reputation is everything. Integrity is a prerequisite for sustained success but 'integrity' goes beyond mere honesty. It is about being a person of your word and being someone who does everything possible to honor commitments. No weasel words, no wriggling out of what has been promised. No commitments that cannot be fulfilled. Make no mistake, being mercurial or duplicitous always comes home to fester.

4. Lester The Liar: Honesty is the foundation on which every successful career is built, so if trust has been broken, the person's career is effectively over. Lying through omission, cheating on expenses, lying about whether you're working or not, misleading people about the relationships you have or the meetings that have occurred... it's the kiss of death. Without trust at every level, there is nothing. If you don't trust your employee, don't keep them around.

5. Harry The Sexual Harasser: You have an obligation to protect everyone in your employment and also your customers. Slimy sexual predators have no place in your employ, and neither do bigots and racists. Your own team culture is a sub-set of the corporate values so be very clear about what you stand for. No preachy holier than thou Pollyanna persona... just you being the real deal about standing for what is right. Understand people's real values and beliefs... it is a real predictor of behavior.

I promised you that I would provide my framework for deciding who belongs in your team and who should go. Here it is: The Rule of 24.

Bonus list... not worthy of firing someone but notable mention:

Virgil The Victim: The very best sales people find a way to be successful despite their environment. They find a way to create success. Victims endlessly drain energy, time and resources. Everyone needs to be resourceful and show initiative.

Nelly The Nasty Gossip: Negativity is poison and gossip is the cancer of the workplace. Yet it's amazing how many nasty gossips package their toxin in pretty packages. 'I'm really concerned about...' If people are concerned, challenge them about what they are going to do to help.

Neville The Negative Naysayer: 'I don't want to be negative but... ' And then they go on to be wrist-slashingly negative. You've heard it many times. People with negative attitudes bring people around them down. Sales is difficult enough without attempting it with a defeatist attitude.

Bill The Empty Suit: Social selling means that we sell naked. If the emperor has no clothes then the whole world will know... all they have to do is look at the profile in LinkedIn or run a basic Google search. A person's social proximity reveals much about the company they keep. Does their social profile show substance and insight; and can they carry a conversation with some gravitas?

Liam The Luddite: Everyone in sales today must be technology savvy. This includes being able to leverage social platforms and conduct online research. Success in selling requires people to create mash-ups on methodology and technology to listen, engage, build brand, collaborate and sell effectively.

Sid the sloth: Work ethic is an essential element of sustained, predictable success. Anyone who does not work hard should have a big question mark above them. There is no room for sloppy in highly competitive markets. As the manager of a sloppy employee, you will inevitably be dragged into rewriting their proposals and salvaging your own brand.

Now it's over to you. What are the traits you see that destroy careers, or worst still, warrant dismissal?

If you valued this article, please hit the ‘like' and ‘share’ buttons below. This article was originally published in LinkedIn here where you can comment. Also follow the award winning LinkedIn blog here or visit Tony’s leadership blog at his keynote speaker website: www.TonyHughes.com.au.

Main image photo by Flickr: Mike Poresky

10 Crazy Cooky Concoctions To Step Up Your Motivation Game

1) Listen to motivational speakers on your way to work. The car is the ultimate classroom.

2) Read two hours a day, one hour sales related and the other non-sales. TV is a definite NO NO, YouTube has awesome sales channels.

3) Spend one hour a week with a mentor, perhaps from the other side of the world.

4) Exercise even if it's just walks around the office meeting new people.

5) Write daily and work on being interesting and quirky.

6) Flex your curiosity muscle. It will grow and you will become a cosmic filter of everything awesome!

7) Think positively, your attitude determines your altitude. This is the greatest discipline to habitualize and master.

8) Become a No-Limit person, think bigger and aim higher.

9) Network and reach out to your favorite sales thought leaders and authors.

10) Do at least one thing that scares you. Most likely this is picking up the phone and calling the client who could change your stars!

If you valued this article, please hit the ‘like' and ‘share’ buttons below. This article was originally published in LinkedIn here where you can comment. Also follow the award winning LinkedIn blog here or visit Tony’s leadership blog at his keynote speaker website: www.TonyHughes.com.au.

 Main image photo by Flickr: Jens karlsson

5 Lover's Quarrel Ends: Sales & Marketing Must Bury the Hatchet

This is no longer about chucking the 'good leads' over the wall only to have bitter enmity grow between the marketing team and sales. It goes beyond that. The entire organization needs to generate unique, compelling insight. It's not Marketing's fault Sales can't close their leads. It's not Sales fault that Marketing is so out of touch. Let's not even get to the impact this vicious cycle has on Client Services trying to fulfill on solutions sold that the company probably doesn't even deliver.

The lines between sales and marketing have inextricably blurred. It's time to get stakeholders from all sides into the same room weekly to get on the same page.

1. Marketing and Sales must collaborate together to build an insight generating flywheel machine. If you think this will erode selling time, think again. Generic decks and off kilter personas from the marketing team that don't align with top seller's vision, clutter the pipeline and create busy work ad nauseam.
2. Marketers work hard and often make great sellers. They're masters of lead gen and due diligence experts. Sellers needing marketing skills and marketers need selling skills. Exchange books, ideas and training programs. Build an interdisciplinary marketing and sales superpower.
3. Content marketing has changed the game for inbound selling, marketing and PR. If you haven't embraced a culture of content generation, you are simply behind the times. Every person on your staff should be blogging about their expertise. The caveat is obviously strong social media policy but that's so ten years ago. Build in quality control via a series of editors, even if you bring in former journalists to your content team, as LinkedIn is does. Massive open source software companies can now scale to tens of millions of dollars through community learning centers alone, pumping out vibrant, lively user generated forum content that attracts the key B2B customers, incentivizing them with value added services.
4. The costs of paid content and native advertising are astronomical in contrast to guerrilla efforts customer driven and amplified. You need to be paying for a portion as a catalyst but a strong organic strategy is sound for SEO juice to fill the funnel. Google is a cash machine and for good reason. Jason Miller of LinkedIn, recently made the case that paying to promote select content in a "bat out of hell" strategy for the "big rock" content like The Sophisticated Marketer's Guide to LinkedIn, is essential. Thisexclusive interview is insanely relevatory. ––– 'I’ve seen ‘Big Rock’ content drive millions of dollars in business…. The first ‘Big Rock’ piece of content we created at LinkedIn over a year ago was called The Sophisticated Marketer’s Guide To LinkedIn and has driven more than $4.6 million in business in just the first 90 days- it’s still bringing in business to this day!'
5. Seth Godin said that 'all marketers are liars' and then as a corollary to that hit book redefined them as 'storytellers.' Truth be it told, only a data driven approach, that benchmarks performance, highlights case studies and allows your best customers to generate new customers, will ever be trusted. Bottom line is both sellers and marketers are fighting a tarnished image and reputation. A chain is only as strong as its weakest link and there's just too much spam, scam and get-rich-quick empty promises reaching epidemic proportions in this modern incarnation of the internet.

These quotes from Jason Miller, Senior Manager, Content Marketing, Marketing Solutions at LinkedIn are just too phenomenal to pass up. Buy his stellar book: 'Welcome to the Funnel' to here and rock out with him! Underscore, double-underline, solar-flare high ninjitsu kick on these gemstones of quotes:

If you’re not using some kind of marketing automation… you’re behind the times!”

I’d rather one piece of content be viewed by 15 CMOs that I want to reach than a thousand-practioner types that we’re not trying to reach”

It’s 2015, folks: Native advertising – if you’re not paying to promote your best content then you’re missing opportunities."

At the end of the day, you don’t need to create more content you need to create morerelevant content”

I worry about our messaging being too forward-thinking…it’s no good if what you’re saying is not relevant to your audience or their current interests”

You have to repurpose the hell out of your content – make sure it’s optimized for every channel where your audience is.”

Marketers who use the right technology can now show their contribution to pipeline and prove that they’re a revenue-driver not a cost center.”

Don’t let your ego hijack your content strategy… I’m not concerned with the number of shares, I’m concerned with who is sharing it.”

It's time to break down the silos and competing methodologies and realize both groups are very much morphing into the same thing. The 'smarketing' of 2020 is about attraction. It's about building audiences and increasing engagement. The sales cycle on magnificent content can take up to 2 years to convert according to the prescient Tony Hsieh of Zappos. Here's a mind-blowing slideshare by Rand Fishkin of Moz that you should sit through explaining why your content marketing efforts are failing. It has massive implications on complex B2B marketing and sales alignment.

Why Content Marketing Fails from Rand Fishkin

You have to ask yourself, whenever you are producing any type of content, Who will amplify this and why? ~ @randfishTechEmergence

Now it's your turn: Where do you see sales and marketing going? Will it become 'smarketing?' Will this battle du jour ever end? Do you agree with this article? I would love to hear your most outrageous or innovative thoughts about revolutionizing sales and marketing into something that works in a modern context below.

If you valued this article, please hit the ‘like' and ‘share’ buttons below. This article was originally published in LinkedIn here where you can comment. Also follow the award winning LinkedIn blog here or visit Tony’s leadership blog at his keynote speaker website: www.TonyHughes.com.au.

Main image photo by Flickr: MGEARTWORKS

Strohkorb's SMARKETING Manifesto

'Smarketing' thought leader Peter Strohkorb sounds off on this subject for the ages:

First a caveat: I have nothing against technology. In fact, I am a big fan of it and believe that it has delivered great benefits to humankind. This article is about the WAY that it is often implemented, not about the technology per se, because human nature is such that anything that is imposed on us will initially be resisted, or even become outrightly rejected.

In my opinion, most business technology implementations are conducted the wrong way around, i.e. focusing on the Technology first, not on the People using it.

A common pattern that I have observed is that business executives become excited about what technology vendors are promising from their latest “solutions”, be it CRM systems or any other kind of business process automation tool. In my line of work, I have experienced numerous implementations of CRM and sales enablement software, and this is how it all-too-often seems to work out: Eager to see the promised business benefits materialize the executive team approves funding and hands the implementation over to the technical team, who then appoints a project manager to coordinate the various project streams.Have you heard the saying that “To a hammer, everything looks like a nail?”

What I have seen is that at that handover point to the implementation team the entire project focus changes, from the broader perspective of delivering business benefits towards mostly just getting the technology installed on time and on budget. The project plan suddenly moves to reflecting milestones and deliverables that largely focus on the technology, while the end users often become a bit of an afterthought. “Oh, we'll give them training.” is an often-encountered response.

Why is that wrong? How many sales reps do you know who love filling in forms? I have seen CRMs that demand the sales reps to fill in dozens of fields for each client interaction. Are you surprised that they then balk at this task and that process compliance and technology utilization rates reach nowhere near their projected targets?

Let’s face it, sales reps don’t view CRM systems as a sales support tool. They see them as a sales management tool, and what's more, one that expects them to give up their personal knowledge and client relationship information. They often feel that giving up this personal information makes them more vulnerable to job loss when their employer organization decides to downsize its sales force. In their minds, filling in CRM data is not only boring, time consuming, taking them away from selling but also reduces their personal job security.

According to Accenture, 85% of technology projects fail to deliver the anticipated business benefits. Is it any wonder? Are you surprised to hear that most CRM implementations take two to three years before they start to deliver the business benefits that the vendor promised would happen in a much shorter time frame?

So, what is the solution? For a start, you don’t do what seems to be the standard way that consultants like to work and that many technology projects seem to be implemented. All too often, I have seen consultants and technology experts come into an organization, work predominantly with the executive team and with the IT department on a process and technology solution that is then imposed on the end users with only the barest minimum of consultation. The catch-all that I have witnessed, as far as the end users are concerned, is often just a group email addressed to them with a list of the proposed solution features, and the laconic offer to "Let us know if you disagree with anything."

Are you surprised then that when the new tool is switched on, the end users do not naturally embrace the change, and often outrightly resist the new solution, complaining it does not work the same way, nor better than the old?

I have even seen instances where the design of the new solution was changed at great expense and significant delay AFTER it was first launched, in response to belated end user feedback. As is so often the case, the people at the front line often have the best ideas but they rarely feel empowered to voice them, and only very few are ever asked for their opinion.

My recommended approach is to include those people early and comprehensively who are most immediately impacted by the new process and technology solution, namely the end users. What's more, the very people that help to craft the solution, will be far more likely to embrace it after implementation and they will be far less likely to resist change. So, in my opinion, most business technology implementations are conducted the wrong way around, i.e. focusing on the technology, not on the people using it.

One of my favorite sayings is this: “You can have the latest technology and the most sophisticated processes, but if your people are not with you, then it will all come to nothing.”

Why is it then that most business technology implementations, particularly as far as CRMs are concerned, seem to focus on the technology first, and on the people last? So, are most business IT solutions implemented the wrong way around? Are CRMs putting people last? What do you think ?

My team works with Sales and Marketing teams in medium and large B2B organizations. We hear all the time how sales reps complain that Marketing doesn't produce high enough quality sales leads. There are statistics around that, that say that Sales only follows up on about 15% of the leads that Marketing provides. That’s 85% of leads being wasted!

Sales says that Marketing doesn't produce “qualified” leads and Marketing says that it isn't their job to “qualify” them; that their job is only to generate enough general interest in their business offerings for prospective customers to just contact Sales. While they are really unqualified leads often Sales refers to them as “Cold Leads” or tire-kickers, rather than a real genuinely interested buyer.

That is the crux right there: Marketing may think that just a name and a phone number are a sales lead, whereas sales reps ideally want a ready purchase order and probably the accompanying payment for the product or service they are selling. Ideally, Marketing people argue, they want to be order takers, not sales people.

The old sales funnel is dying and the Buyers’ Journey is upon us, which means that the entire way organizations attract interest and sell things is changing dramatically. Organizations that do not adjust to the new paradigm really risk being left behind only to go the way of the dinosaurs.

My experience, with a lot of different organizations, is that there often is no coordinated effort between Sales and Marketing on how to manage leads. Instead of an agreed, documented and managed lead nurturing program often the initiative is handled solely by Marketing and then imposed on Sales without much collaboration between the two.

This results in sales leads of various quality being simply thrown "over the fence" for the sales people to follow up and then weave their magic. Marketing gloriously acclaims that they have successfully generated X number of leads. While Sales exclaims that they aren't worth their attention.

If the organization doesn't have a mutually agreed plan in place on what constitutes a lead and how to handle them, then the leads will most likely end up wasted with the response from the sales rep something like this: “I called them and they weren't interested,” or even worse “I called them and they didn't remember making an inquiry about our product.” I believe this is where the “Death of a Lead” happens, because what happens to a lead once it is handed over to a sales rep will demonstrate of how much value it was to start with.

In many organizations the quality of the feedback from Sales to Marketing is either non-existent, very poor or at best rudimentary. What is missing is a structured, measurable and - most importantly - consistent and constructive way for Sales to inform Marketing of what works and what does not.

Once Marketing receives constructive feedback from all Sales reps it can then make informed decisions on how to better support them. So, if we can close the feedback loop between Sales and Marketing we can create what we call a virtuous cycle of collaboration that stops wasting time, money and effort on both sides and allows both teams to live up to their full potential. We call that Sales+Marketing Collaboration, some call it Smarketing.

But no matter what anyone calls it, most would call it Nirvana. And wouldn't it just be a wonderful thing?

Sales and Marketing are two of the most customer-facing functions in any sales organization. As the key revenue-generators they are what a customer gauges the business on and they are the organization’s present and future growth engines. So you would think that there can be no higher priority to the senior management team than to ensure these two vital teams work together as effectively as possible in order to present the best possible image to the market and to entice customers to buy from us, rather than from our competitors.

Additionally, there is a whole lot of evidence that closer Sales+Marketing Collaboration lifts Sales Productivity, and I can show you that a lift of just 5% in Sales Productivity can yield a 20% increase in profit. So, Sales+Marketing Collaboration should be a BIG DEAL.

So, what stands in the way of getting Sales and Marketing teams to support each other more effectively ? The following is a collection of high level mistakes that we have compiled for you. Contact us for more detailed information.
Here are seven of the most common mistakes:

1. Ignoring the Problem and Doing Nothing
The worst mistake one can make is to turn a blind eye to problems. Yet, denying that there is a problem, that there is room for improvement, and merely accepting the status quo can magnify issues that would be otherwise manageable. For too many companies, sales and marketing departments are working in their respective silos, blissfully unaware of the need to adapt to the changing world that surrounds them. Too many organizations have taken this path and have suffered for it. How did Kodak miss the digital-camera revolution? How did Canon not see the threat from smartphones with in-built cameras? Show initiative and address the problem.

2. Relying on "Quick Fixes"
The world is increasingly impatient and our attention spans are becoming shorter. Combine that with the short term results outlook in many sales organizations and it is no wonder that when problems arise we look for quick fixes. However, shortcuts rarely work when it comes to sales and marketing collaboration. When sales reps do not make their targets, many organizations try to fix the problem with short-term solutions.

Let’s look at some of these quick fixes:

• Provide more sales training
This is a popular panacea but according to the nineteenth-century German psychologist Hermann Ebbinghaus, 87% of new knowledge is forgotten within 30 days. What do you think happens 30 days after sales training?

• Hire more sales reps
The rationale for this popular choice is as follows: if X number of reps bring in Y amount of revenue, more reps will bring in more. However, bringing more reps into a flawed sales and marketing environment will not yield the desired results .

• Generate more sales leads
Surely, this is the way to boosting sales results? Well, it would be if all your sales lead creation and management processes were perfect, if sales and marketing were working harmoniously together to generate, nurture, hand over, close and report on leads perfectly. If that is not the case, why would you want to spend good money creating more leads only to see them dry up and lead nowhere thanks to a flawed process? Stuffing more leads into a flawed sales process will not resolve a sales effectiveness problem. The best thing here is to fix the cause, not the symptom.

3. Having no one responsible for improving Sales+Marketing Collaboration
Sales and marketing obviously need to work together. For such cooperation to be possible, cross-functional processes need to be in place to make sure that both sides are in alignment. Not having a intermediary in place to intermediate between Sales and Marketing is a gross oversight. Get a referee.

4. Neglecting the Human Element
Collaboration is a deeply inter-personal matter, it relies on people doing the right thing. When attempting to foster a cooperative relationship between Sales and Marketing it is important to address the human dimension as a priority. Only then will it be appropriate to move on to HOW each department can support the other, what tools should support them or what joint processes and metrics we should use. People come first.

5. Believing that Technology will deliver a Miracle
I have nothing against technology, as long as it is deployed properly. It seems though that there are vendors out there that offer their latest whizz-bang technology by promising the world. It is pretty obvious that even the most sophisticated technology will remain ineffective if you don’t have your people and your business processes aligned first. Technology is good, use it wisely.

6. Trying to implement Change without Executive Support
When change touches on aspects of corporate culture, implementing reforms can be an uphill battle. As laudable as it might be for middle managers or junior staff to attempt to make cultural changes, such optimistic projects are often doomed to failure unless they have executive buy-in. Get the boss involved.

7. Expecting Immediate Results
Too often, we expect overnight results, and sometimes even that’s not fast enough. The fact is, any change must be given time to work its way through the system if it is to have any chance at producing the hoped-for results. Hasten wisely.

Now it's your turn, please go check out Peter Strohkorb's acclaimed consultancy: How are you aligning sales and marketing in your organization? How are you solving the age old problems of CRM with proper implementation and enablement? What are your thoughts on Peter's powerful thought-provoking contribution and advice above? Perhaps drop him a line in the comments below if you agree or have a different opinion. He's raised some critical issues that all business people must endeavor to collaboratively resolve in the information age.

If you valued this article, please hit the ‘like' and ‘share’ buttons below. This article was originally published in LinkedIn here where you can comment. Also follow the award winning LinkedIn blog here or visit Tony’s leadership blog at his keynote speaker website: www.TonyHughes.com.au.

Main image photo © 2015 Peter Strohkorb

My Last Post On LinkedIn!

This is my last post on social media or blogging of any kind in the foreseeable future. It’s been a tweetin wild ride but I've made a fortune in social selling and I'm retiring to become an organic farmer and micro-brewer. But I’ll also be working with Professor Neil Rackham to create his biography and document the history of modern selling.

All this became possible with just 4 months of manic activity in LinkedIn where I made enough money from Social Selling to pursue my dream of living on an organic farm in Tasmania to brew a revolutionary beer infused with beetroot juice. It's a Blue Ocean strategy inspired by an Australian juicing documentary that I saw in 2013. Now I've literally 'bought the farm' to start a healthy alcohol revolution. Tasmanian Red Beet Beer will be potent in vitamins and antioxidants to transform the inner-health of millions while masking digestive realities, eliminating any stress caused by visible blood in the stool or urine.

But back to Neil and the book we will co-write in Tasmania on the farm. The tome will be titled: The Consolidated History of Modern Selling – From SPIN to Social Solution Challenger Value Selling With All You Need To Know To Sell Succinctly In The Digital Age.

Neil visits Australia regularly and I remember him telling me the story of when he bought a Driza-Bone coat in Adelaide many years ago while on a wine pilgrimage down under. He has a love of the country… and goats, but not in any sort of inappropriate way. Goats are an important part of the blue ocean strategy because they weed and fertilize the farm and they’re much cheaper than importing child labor from the third world. The goats on the beetroot farm will live on blackberries, themselves fertilized by the hops left over from the beer brewing process and goat fecal pellets. It’s a virtuous organic circle of goats-cheese-fertilizer-beer-blackberry-love-goats.

During the day, Neil and I will walk the hedgerows of blackberry bushes and beetroot stalks with loyal goats in tow, positing the future of B2B social selling spiced with challenger solution value techniques jacked with back-to-the future ninja warrior social principles. Every evening we'll riff over organic red ale gazing down the valley with Tasmanian Devils howling in the distance.

Organic beer will be the fuel for our writing; but Neil was initially skeptical about the benefits of beets and he told me that beet-beer is only a benefit if it solves a specific problem articulated by drinkers.

The SPIN Selling courses I attended earlier in my life enabled me to nail the perfect response: "Imagine that you're being intimate with someone and they ask you if they're bleeding. You can provide great comfort in simply telling them you're sure it's just the coloration of the beets. But the benefits are not just psychological, beets can do for beer what red grapes did for wine, but without the tannin. Guinness pioneered with black but now the new black is a darkish red."

Neil had nothing in response and then I hammered it home: “The benefits of combining beer and beets are compelling! We all know that with enough beer ugly people appear to be attractive but the properties of beets provide clarity amidst the fog of inebriation. Surely everyone would like the ability to articulate their wisdom in a more compelling way while also uninhibited by intelligible thought processes at the end of a rollicking good evening at the pub.” He was speechless. No objections – closed.

I plan to spend many evenings on the porch with Neil in Tasmania on the micro brewery beet farm with our goats, ideating the future of B2B professional solution social selling. Mentor and mentee masticating on goat cheese, chugging beet-beer, ruby red lips waxing lyrical about the tremendous cottage industries that are micro brewing and sales training.

Only wankers drink Corona with a pretentious little lime wedge shoved in the top but we'll each have a beet stalk hanging out of our brew which is actually the most nutritious part of the plant and provides valuable fiber... another benefit on top of your nasal hairs being caressed by the beet foliage as you sip away. Using your tongue to maneuver the stalk to the side while swallowing provides a playful challenge and the whole experience truly engages all of the senses to deliver a genuine drinking solution and the ultimate customer experience.

Every morning we will emerge from the homestead a little hung over and milk the goats before checking on the micro-brewery copper vats. Then we'll stroll back to dig-in to writing the book. When we need a break we'll turn to poetry... most people don't know that Neil is actually a poet and it's one of the reasons he was invited to contribute to The Challenger Sale (see page 82) with his SAFE BOLD sonnet. I've entered us into a poetry competition at the local town pub where we've instigated the Community Poetry Night and we've already made it to the final with this.

All that is told is not Twitter,

All blogs in LinkedIn are not lost;

The told that is true does not wither,

Deep beet roots are not reached by the frost.

From the likes in social we'll be woken,

A goat from the thickets shall spring;

Reviews and shares shall be spoken,

The crownless again shall be king.

The publican, Mike Blunt, is quite sophisticated and I helped him optimize his LinkedIn profile on the basis that we all sell naked these days on social. Now the other 17 people who live in town, plus the 43 who dwell in the shire, can see his personal brand and comment in his LinkedIn group about why he prefers eloquent pros instead of karaoke or open mic nights with people singing off-key. My first act of philanthropy will be to provide WiFi for the whole town so that we can end face-to-face talking and drive real connection through social.

I've begun ghosting his profile to drive engagement and we're promoting "Professor Neil Rackham – International Poet Laureate Sales Anthropologist" as the major draw-card. I'm confident we can quadruple numbers – who says there's no ROI in social. Mike has no idea and reckons the only social feed that matters is a good T-bone counter lunch sold to a mini-bus tour group. Goodbye and farewell for now. Thanks for following my posts here in LinkedIn over the last 4 months and keep an eye out for Tasmanian Red Beet Beer and Neil's biography later this year... I am not fit to tie his sandals but it's such a privilege to serve the sales training industry in this way.

Sayonara ~ TJH (12:01am April 1, 2015 in Auckland, New Zealand)

If you valued this article, please hit the ‘like' and ‘share’ buttons below. This article was originally published in LinkedIn here where you can comment. Also follow the award winning LinkedIn blog here or visit Tony’s leadership blog at his keynote speaker website: www.TonyHughes.com.au.

Main image photo by Flickr: David Goehring

10 Telltale Signs You Just Might Be A Sales Change Agent

“What you leave behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments, but what is woven into the lives of others.” ~ Pericles

1. Not only do you 'default to prospecting mode' [Weinberg], it's your favorite part of your job - talking to prospects, customers and clients. In fact, you'd always rather be dialing, skyping or inmailing rather than doing reporting for the reporting or endless admin or passive strategic process docs.
2. You're fundamentally proactive. If you don't get 3 major boulders moved by lunch, you know you failed so you always do this with gusto and that habit generates big commission checks this quarter and ensures rich pipeline for the next.
3. The status quo is like a challenge to you. You see the world through disruptive rose-colored glasses and this is a good thing. When you look at a business model your knowledge of the industry already plugs in 5 ways to stand the legacy paradigm up on its head.
4. You speak CXO, the language of outcomes and risk, the language of strategy. Your vernacular is about 'real business outcomes,' opportunity cost and risk mitigation.
5. 'I can't' and 'I'll try' aren't in your vocabulary. You abhor too much talk and not enough action. While everyone is busy strategizing how to get into the account or proceed to the next step in the sales cycle, you've already had multiple cell phone conversations with the key stakeholders.
6. Your CEO loves you as do dream clients. You're treated as a trusted advisor everywhere you go on many subjects way outside the realm of "selling" – branding, marketing, product innovation, scaling, forecasting, technology and 'big ideas' to take back to any discerning board.
7. Face-to-face contact is the root of your book of business. You preference meeting with real people above anything else, even if you run an inside sales team. Nothing happens until a sale is made and a customer is satisfied. You are the engine of the new technoconomy.
8. You don't follow a script. You riff off 10 scripts you're A/B testing in real-time until you've honed in on the chained lightning winner.
9. Your activity levels are off the richter scale. By 9am you've done more outbound hunting than the next 5 people on your team did last week. Serious! You understand the symbiotic relationship between leading measure activities and hard revenue outcomes. You're action oriented and detail oriented without being overly-fastidious. You practice economy of effort in your writing, speaking and body language.
10. You are confident to a fault but empathetic and collaborative. You're never afraid to challenge but do so respectfully. You see the world differently like Steve Jobs.You're not afraid to give candid feedback and speak your mind. Although you may not be the ideal manager of people,clients love and trust you because you tell the truth and that's literally 'priceless' in their business. Your deeper motive is aligned with helping them succeed with your solutions and navigate the complexity of the ever changing landscape. There is no need for a tactical 'social selling' distinction – only high quality strategic selling - Social has been in your DNA since 2004.

Now it's your turn: How do you personally relate to these 10 points? How and why do you see yourself as a change agent? How have you changed the company's culture you work in or that of a customer's? Where do you need to improve? I ask myself this last question every day. Please comment below.

If you valued this article, please hit the ‘like' and ‘share’ buttons below. This article was originally published in LinkedIn here where you can comment. Also follow the award winning LinkedIn blog here or visit Tony’s leadership blog at his keynote speaker website: www.TonyHughes.com.au.

Main image photo by Flickr:  Gemma Stiles

Is SPIN still the best book on sales ever written?

Wherever I go around the world, speaking and training, the term 'spin' is ubiquitous. Granted, Challenger came along but salespeople in as diverse fields as electronics, manufacturing and even speculative verticals like high technology, still swear by it! It works in both B2C and B2B.

So what are your thoughts on this? Is the SPIN methodology still all you really need to know, the Holy Grail of selling and applicable in complex enterprise selling? Could it be that the level of real research that went into Neil Rackham's study is what made it withstand the test of time? There have been lots of shallow surveys, anecdotal observations, and manipulated 'research' that masquerades as 'empirical data and insightful findings' since, but in my opinion nothing has ever matched the integrity and depth of Rackham's ground-breaking work.

Neil Rackham is The Professor of Professional Selling, and his prescient methods fit into the DNA of Challenger Selling. His SAFE vs BOLD framework is included on page 82 of The Challenger Sale book and he writes the foreword. Is Challenger merely an offshoot of Rackham's thought leadership over decades? If you continue to study sales executives, won't the same patterns continue to re-emerge?

Has the sales cycle truly changed that much? Many argue that with increasing complexity and commoditization, and the difficulty in making a considered purchase, it's actually a preference of many senior level executives to seek out trusted advisors to shepherd them through the maelstrom of options.

I would define the SPIN acronym for you but I'm sure you're all very familiar. The book is about the quality of the questions we ask to uncover the deeper pain's implications and need-payoff scenarios as we peel the onion to the real root causes of problems. According to the data 'the result of millions in painstaking research,' that ability – which can be coached and trained on, thankfully – separates the winners in any sales arena from those that came in 2nd place or below. Unfortunately only one company gets to close.

I was pretty impressed that I can actually tag this post as 'spin selling' because it's that big. So this is a bit of a short punchy post:

1. Would you agree that SPIN Selling is the best book ever written on strategic selling? Why?

2. How has it impacted your life and career?

3. How are you using SPIN to manage, train and get world class results out of your team?

4. If not SPIN, what are you using instead?

5. If you were to go to a desert island, is there really any other book that you would need?

6. Is anyone having success applying SPIN methods to social selling? Sales management?

Now it's your turn. Please answer any of the above questions that inspire you and in regards to sales writings – What's your top 5 of all time? I have a big announcement coming concerning Neil Rackham but that's a post for a few days from now. More about Neil, please by all his books. He was gracious enough to review The Joshua Principle, Leadership Secrets of Selling:

"There are millions of sales jobs around the world today, but a large number of those are disappearing every year. As technology advances and consumer demands increase, the idea of a salesperson as a 'talking brochure' is no longer valid. World class sales forces understand this and are making every effort to adapt and maintain their positions of leadership in the marketplace. There is no greater authority than Neil Rackham on where the selling profession is headed and what individuals and organizations must do to distinguish themselves from their fierce competitors.

Having conducted the largest-ever study of professional selling – observing more than 35,000 sales calls in over 20 countries, at a cost of $40 million in today’s dollars – Neil presents objective, quantitative insights in a dynamic, interactive fashion that brings true learning to the audience. (The effectiveness of his teaching and training methods earned him the Instructional Systems Association’s lifetime award for Innovation in Training and Instruction.)

Many of of the Fortune 100′s largest companies in the United States, including IBM, Xerox, AT&T and Citicorp, have engaged Neil Rackham as an advisor on sales performance. More than half the Fortune 500 train their salespeople using sales models derived from his research. As a sought-after conference speaker, Neil has shared the platform with notable leaders such as Tom Peters, General Colin Powell, Philip Kotler and many others. Using his signature combination of humor, passion and group interaction, he stimulates and challenges his audiences to reach new heights in the world of professional selling."

If you valued this article, please hit the ‘like' and ‘share’ buttons below. This article was originally published in LinkedIn here where you can comment. Also follow the award winning LinkedIn blog here or visit Tony’s leadership blog at his keynote speaker website: www.TonyHughes.com.au.

Main image photo by Flickr:  Simon & His Camera

Closing Time! Waterboarding Your Prospects For Commitment

If only we could invite prospects and clients to the office and then whisk them into the interrogation room for some water-boarding and fingernail therapy on the last day of the quarter. That would get results... surely more effective than discounting and begging.

I've seen it all and it's not pretty. The boss, two levels above and based overseas, issues the edict: 'Get the deal closed, discount but tell them it's time-bombed and the price goes up if they jerk us around, lean on the relationship, go sit in their reception area until they bring you the signed contract, phone them at home, winners find a way, use the goat close if you have to, coffee is for closers... 'selling is easy'.... yeah, right.

All that does is annoy your client, damage relationships and hammer a stake in the ground concerning the cheapest price they can get at the end of your next quarter. Here's the truth about closing in large enterprise sales environments: If you didn't set-up the deal right in the first place, all you're going to do is cause damage if you push for the order when the customer is not ready to buy.

Understand the customer's process and timing. Build a project alignment plan to validate every step through to them being live and implemented, deriving the business benefits of your solution. Hope is not a strategy so instead act as if you are a project manager... a real professional.

Everyone wants to hire 'closers' but closing is a process that starts from the very first interaction... it's not a roll of the dice, apply the blow-torch, kneel in prayer kind of event at the end of a roller-coaster ride with the prospect. Professional selling is all about relationships of trust focused on the creation of value, navigating politics and processes to deliver outcomes that are good for all concerned... except your competition! The very best sales people and sales manager understand that opening is more important closing because it sets the agenda.

I've written previously about why you deserve to be fired in sales. Almost all the stress in closing is caused by not being across the detail of your deal, or not having real understanding of their timing and process. Maybe you're oblivious as to who is really making the decision and who needs to sign-off. And now for your viewing pleasure, and to put you in mood.... it's closing time.

Not really... focus on opening time instead, close early for commitment and mutual actions... it's a dance in which both buyer and seller need to engage and where both take turns leading. Waltz together creating mutual trust and compelling value and also understand the politics and processes on both sides to make win/win a reality instead of a cliche. Is your coach in the deal someone who has real power? The biggest mistake sales people make is that they build relationship with the wrong people.

If you valued this article, please hit the ‘like' and ‘share’ buttons below. This article was originally published in LinkedIn here where you can comment. Also follow the award winning LinkedIn blog here or visit Tony’s leadership blog at his keynote speaker website: www.TonyHughes.com.au.

Main image photo by Flickr: Andres Rodriguez

Top 10 Flagrant Social Selling Mistakes Reaching Pandemic Proportions

1) Blasting InMail as a form letter template equates to worthless spam.Don't do it. Innovate on the subject line, customize and personalize the messaging, point out something that exhibits diagnosis and research of their business. Reference an actual common connection you both know, event you attended or relevant subject you admire, so that when they back-channel to corroborate your mere existence, it comes back sterling. 

2) If you share 20 articles per day, even if you schedule it with Buffer, you could run the risk of losing some of your finest, top connections.CEO's especially, won't put up with your firehose. They'll just think you're in the camp of the fun-employed or work-life balance is totally out of whack. Find a posting frequency that makes sense. Thought leaders who provide value with every post and keep a super high quality bar, get away with much higher posting frequency into the streams. But they've earned that mouth piece by building a solid platform over many years. Don't assume that just because a subject matter expert Tweets 20+ times a day, that you can suddenly emulate that. It may create scorched earth. 

3) Mass adding C-Level executives even if you do write a personal message to get away with it. Just because you don't use the generic LinkedIn invitation text, doesn't mean you have carte blanche to add everyone who fogs a mirror and could be sold to. Scott Britton was the first I've seen to suggest never sending LinkedIn invites. There is a spectrum of thinking along these lines but again, seek to find your sweet spot based on the golden rule of how your communication is being received. Perhaps interact with your prospect in a LinkedIn group comment thread or chat before sending a request at all.

Just because you presented on-site and got business cards, still think twice about looking "too interested" by thinking that "connecting" is a given. The Principle of Non-Hunger is your friend. Use caution in whimsically adding people. Prune back your network to the essential and start to value each connection like they're worth $10,000 just to meet with. Imagine how powerful 1,000 connections that you know are (or are relevant to your mutual business) versus LION status. Reid Hoffman speaks of the strength of weak ties but keep in mind, they're still actual ties. A total stranger is not helpful unless they are a thought leader which does give context. If you're in mobile technology and they run the mobile marketing association, they'll see you as part of their tribe albeit ambient and be less apt to dismiss networking requests.

4) Duplicate content. Posting exactly the same blog in multiple places is perilous from a Google search perspective. Ultimately, post different content on your WordPress blog from your Navigator, from your guest company post, from your Google+, Twitter and Facebook. Understand that SEO optimization speaks to highly relevant, unique content because Google uses the Panda machine learning, natural language advanced algorithm ingesting your content that it crawls and taking in over 300 signals for rank based on more sophisticated constructs than just backlinks. Be original everywhere and take the time to customize everything. It's fascinating to me how few social sellers are avoiding this mistake. It's subtle and does take a great deal of extra work! You want to put your solution content, case studies, benchmark reports and white papers into your own words. If it's going up in 3 places and spread into social, customize the content in three different ways. 

5) Tactics without strategy. Social media is just one medium. It's one channel to sell with bifurcated into various tacks to the target. The truth is that all tactics fail in and of themselves. They're just tools. Without a coherent strategy that is multi-channel including analog and the phone, you're toast. Radiating that you spend all your waking hours in social media, makes prospects extrapolate that you may not have any clients or you may not close any deals, so you're almost putting out this desperate anathema, over-the-top, "needy" brand. If you look larger than life because you have no life: stop!

Why not batch process, schedule an hour (if you're a heavy user) at the beginning and end of your day. Use Buffer to schedule your content. The converse and caveat of this mistake is balancing it with a need to still operate in real-time. You have to strike a balance. What I've seen the most successful, deft social sellers do is be always on but share case studies from their day about deals they're closing, reviews on their blogs, results clients are driving and quality conversations that they're having with prospects (obviously respectfully leaving the names out). They're basically bringing in their audience to the constructive actions of their day and the results they're driving via execution. This shows a go-getter who wishes to interact. It's a very key distinction which fosters collaboration and intimacy as opposed to a constant sales pitch of "look at me" and "features, functions and benefits." 

6) Failing to leverage trigger events which is another way of saying, pre-call due diligence. Navigator will allow you to passively track target prospects, take note when they move around in organizations, get promoted and look at mega trends like funding, M & A, news and new product releases. Being able to see what a prospect is sharing, liking and caring about along with what groups they're participating in, is a pivotal value add for Navigator that pays for itself in rewards. There's honestly no better way to accelerate traditionally long, arduous enterprise deals, then being armed with the edge of quality, up-to-date information. NOT reaching out until you've pinpointed the correct trigger event, compelling event or data to support the outreach, is a discipline that can pay dividends. Cultivate it! Imagine if a very close connection suddenly goes to that company, or someone your investors know, joins their board. You can be researching these movements and place a hyper-targeted InMail, warm call or referral – perhaps all three in combination. You can watch how your alumni network is moving within your territory and use this as a basis for increased connectivity. 

7) Building a LinkedIn profile to get hired to sell rather than expressing to clients how you can execute for them. Some companies don't even tout the title 'sales' because they'd rather employ wolves in sheep's clothing. Personally, I'm proud to restore the dignity of complex B2B selling when stigmas of the used car pusher prevail. Let's look at a profile where the seller lists quota attainment or how far they crushed and exceeded it. Great, if they're looking passively to get hired but how does that make a potential prospect feel that's researching their company listed as anonymous, to see if they're credible. They may see this and feel like an object, a number or an "it" to be crushed. It's a fail.

The best way to structure your profile is to talk about how you've delivered unexpected value for dream clients in all your previous roles and why it matters to you. What are your mission, vision and values in the startup of one. What drives excellence and how do you solve difficult problems that yield tangible outcomes and mitigate risk? Why not talk about how your solution and your collaboration with customers around crafting it, transforms their businesses and that of your customers' customers for the better.

If you state hard metrics, talk about actual ROI you drove for key clients in revenue driven you or operational efficiencies driven. Make it all about the potential decision maker reading it and existing clients coming back for more. I can't tell you how many times a customer renewed or increased their buy after viewing my profile. It's building brand credibility and trust. Keep your CV, your social media presence and especially your LinkedIn profile a testament of transformational value creation. Sophisticated hiring managers will get this nuance (and feel free to clarify it to them) if they wonder why you didn't release your client list or bonus plan fundamentals especially when much of this info is sensitive anyway. You've probably signed an NDA, frankly. Recently, a less seasoned departing salesperson, released their entire former employer's client list when going to their competitor! Brick to forehead moment and actionable, I may add. Just makes them look amateur and embarrassing for all involved. 

8) Using LinkedIn like it's Facebook. I'm hoping that the powers that be rein in all the cats with snorkels, sunsets, quote memes and Facebook-like fodder that's clogging up the news feeds as of late. Recently, a major Digerati celebrity posted a newborn baby photo into the LinkedIn feed. Beautiful, inspiring and personal. But a contact in his network, commented that it may not have been appropriate for LinkedIn. Honestly, they're pretty liberal about allowing any positive content on LinkedIn but do this at your own peril, as collateral damage and being tuned out is a likely result. Professionals networking with you are looking for unique business value, opportunities and to learn, grow and be challenged by your content. They're looking for utility and insight, not necessarily what Michelangelo said, a dream mansion or sweet ride. 

9) Don't assume just because an executive is connected to you, they know you, like you, remember you or will do something for you. A CEO was approached recently for permission to "use their name" in reaching out to someone else on LinkedIn. Why? Flaunting, leveraging and dropping names or asking for permission to do so wouldn't fly at an analog cocktail party, a networking event and certainly won't in a virtual space like a social network. Sending referral requests to random people that don't know you is similar to blanketing every single person in your network with a request for a personal recommendation or endorsing people you don't know. It's lazy and callous, it turns off the people that really matter and lowers your stock. It trivializes the value of the network itself. Elevate social by making your actions count. There are ramifications of behaving badly in social so be aware that things like endorsing a programmer on C++, Java and Node.js when you've never taken a computer science class, may be perceived as a bit disingenuous. One very august technology executive recently wrote an email requesting that the person not 'flaunt his name' because he'd only ever met him once and had heard back through various channels he was constantly mentioning it. 

10) Narcissism and egotistical behavior in general which manifested in Facebook as notorious 'Humblebrag.' It's not humble and is definitely a brag. Don't be fooled... If you just made a million dollar bonus, flew on the private jet share or bought a spanking new Tesla, maybe that's a Facebook post to just the family or friends (or Path). Tamp down your gloating overconfidence flirting on the border line of arrogance. Flaunting your success may turn off customers who are spending six or seven figures with your company and could have a technical problem or are in the midst of a fire with your fulfillment team. Practice humility and a focus on the client. Always remember like a mantra that our customers and prospects are the heroes, the lifeblood powering our business. Keep your broadcasting of accolades, acquisitions, materialism, self-aggrandizement, political and religious rants and name dropping out of the stream.

From Emily Post to Nelson Mandela, humility is a great secret to likability. Be willing to make fun of yourself with self deprecating wit. Play yourself down as a level V servant leader and always seek to move the spotlight onto your direct reports, colleagues and especially the client. Fly the Bat Signal when they're struggling and help them save the day! Building customers for life is about moving away from transactional promiscuity developed by even labeling a strategic seller a "hunter." It's not a meal, it's a trusted advisor relationship that could last years so treat it with care. Every deal you close creates a legacy. 

Amidst all the social activity; don't forget that the goal is to generate a conversation on the phone!

Bonuses: 

11) Hide your connections so competitors can't poach them outright. This one was disputed but let me tell you how rapidly I can pinpoint the exact buyer of a competitor's solutions with just 3 mouse clicks. Why invite direct poaching? Competitive point solutions are going to apply enough pressure to your existing clients no matter what you do!  

12) Don't post a profile photo of clubbing in Ibiza with a hot date. Nor of you underwater waving at sharks or crushing it on the golf course.

13) If you're in some profession where you get a new title every month, consider turning off public sharing settings momentarily because it's confusing, even jarring to your network. It's exhausting to congratulate Bob once per month! Go Bob! 

14) If you are passively hunting for a job, avoid showing that you're job hunting. Hiding feed updates will keep all the recruiters you added from filling your stream, and even endorsing them and sharing their content. If you work for the top ERP company in the world, and are suddenly sharing sensational insight-driven content from the senior recruiter of your competitor, it looks very bad. You may not even be aware you're doing it.

Winning in social is fairly easy. It's all about manners and good taste, really. Imagine everything you do being pushed to the screen in Times Square or prime time television and you'll do just fine. Happy closing!  

I am no one to call the kettle aubergine or throw stones at glass houses so I'm obviously working to constantly refine my own approach. Now it's your turn: What are the most flagrant mistakes that you're seeing in social selling? Please comment below as a public service announcement.  

If you valued this article, please hit the ‘like' and ‘share’ buttons below. This article was originally published in LinkedIn here where you can comment. Also follow the award winning LinkedIn blog here or visit Tony’s leadership blog at his keynote speaker website: www.TonyHughes.com.au.

Main image photo by Flickr:  B Rosen

Test Your Social Selling Effectiveness

John Dougan, ex-Huthwaite / MHI Global is now with Sales ITV in Australia and he's initiating some very interesting research that I'll be commenting on in the coming weeks. John thinks that if you believe that 'social' changes selling behavior, then you shouldn’t be in sales!

In his article ‘Evolution not Revolution’, John explains how social selling is very simple and effective for professional sellers to communicate with customers. Social is a component of all that has gone before it and does not work on its own; nothing works on its own. He highlights that even the skills and behaviours that are required to be successful online are consistent with those that are required to be successful offline.

I've long advocated that the best sellers today bring proven old world techniques to new social platforms and tools. We live in the age of mash-ups with methodology, process and tools to drive sales effectiveness. Social is without doubt most powerful for research and connection. John and I agree that new tools are changing how we engage and collaborate and that both buyers and sellers need to be supported differently in today’s complex business environment. But‘Social Selling’ is a mere cliche for many sales people and worse, a complete mystery to others.

John Dougan says, "There is however, a meaningful transition to social engagement where those adept at developing personal brand, and who can develop a select network, can credibly connect to reap the rewards of improved customer experience."

How mature is your organization concerning social selling? Click here to complete a 2 minute survey and watch for the results in coming weeks. Were there other questions that John should have asked in his research survey?

If you'd like social selling defined is business to business (B2B) context, see my 6 part series which covers the 5 pillars of social selling.

If you valued this article, please hit the ‘like' and ‘share’ buttons below. This article was originally published in LinkedIn here where you can comment. Also follow the award winning LinkedIn blog here or visit Tony’s leadership blog at his keynote speaker website: www.TonyHughes.com.au.

Main image photo by Flickr: Robert Huffstutter

Why Customer Experience Trumps Customer Service

Andrew Vorster is a brilliant futurist and technologist from the UK and we were both speaking at a recent Customer eXperience (CX) conference. He made the important distinction between customer service and customer experience while explaining how technology is disrupting traditional business models. I asked him how he sees the customer experience of the future. Here is his response.

"I have to start out by saying that many people I come into contact with immediately start talking about 'customer service' as soon as I say 'customer experience'. I point out that while customer service is an important facet of the customer experience, most people will only experience your customer service once they are a customer."

"But the customer experience begins way before that point in time and it's a large component of how your brand is perceived"

"Marketing departments are therefore been the early adopters of technology, constantly seeking new ways to augment and amplify engagement by using technology. Take for example this stunt pulled by Pepsi in London which is an example of people experiencing the brand, augmented by technology. The goal of a customer experience is to evoke positively memorable emotion and I think Pepsi certainly hit the mark on this occasion."

But it’s not just about a new advertising format. I constantly ask clients about how they can you use the 'Internet Of [their Company’s] Things' to enhance customer experience. There is a fantastic example of how Samsung proposes to use its own technology to save lives on the road in Argentina by rendering its trucks 'see through'. This is a incredible example of using technology to improve lives and deliver innovative customer experience."

Andrew believes this technology should be rolled-out globally and that those who lead with practical innovation that improves lives create powerful following. I asked him how he thinks it converts to revenue.

"Can you imagine the first time you experienced one of these trucks on the road? I think that the enhanced customer experience would make you think very positively about Samsung as a technology company and would quite possibly influence your next purchase decision."

"When you enhance customer experience you increase loyalty. Rather than pushing marketing messages and offers, think about how to create exceptional customer experience. Meat Pack is a trendy footwear store in Guatemala and they used a clever combination of technology including indoor location sensors and real time marketing to generate the kind of customer experience that its target market would love.  Hang in there watching this video explaining how 'Hijack' works... it has customers sprinting at break-neck speed to do business with them."

Meat Pack's “Hijack” campaign successfully created a buzz around the brand on social media through customer advocacy – who wouldn’t want to share that kind of experience with their friends? I came across a great advertising campaign in Australia the day before my opening keynote – it’s for Hahn Superdry beer and the slogan goes “if you’re not collecting experiences, you’re not living” (https://experiencecollectors.com.au/). The campaign is full of aspirational dreams and activities that many of us stuck in suburbia might yearn for but deem to be way out of reach. But that’s not the point. The point is that deep down, we are all “experience collectors”. How will you leverage technology in the future to give your customers an experience worth collecting?"

View fullsize

Andrew makes excellent points and is not saying that great customer service isn't important. He highlights that service should fit within the overall customer experience that you create well before someone becomes a client. How do people feel about you and your brand before becoming a customer. Sales and marketing must work together to innovate and create best end-to-end customer experience.

Contact Andrew here in LinkedIn and also follow his Publisher page. If you valued this article, please hit the ‘like' and ‘share’ buttons below. This article was originally published in LinkedIn here where you can comment. Also follow the award winning LinkedIn blog here or visit Tony’s leadership blog at his keynote speaker website: www.TonyHughes.com.au.

Main image photo by Flickr: Craig Sunter - Some people are just never happy!

Ten Reasons Selling Is Easy! The 'Goat Close' Trumps All Others.

View fullsize

B2B enterprise insight challenger solution selling has never been easier. Anyone can simply pull all the elements together by paying close attention to everything in this 4 minute video. But can you execute?

The goat close has some ethical challenges but hey, Challenger Selling is the new new selling... it's far more effective than the Arnie close (I'll be back).

I forgot to mention how important it is to be masterful with 100-slide PowerPoint to bedazzle your audience, using your melodic NLP droning to tune their alpha brain waves into the subconscious need to purchase something from you. Great tips here from Don McMillan. Pay special attention to where the term 'bullet point' came from.

If you're a sales manager, then the last thing to know is that it's super important to innovate in the way you train the team. This is a cutting edge mash-up of Wizard of Oz meets Jeff Slutsky Sales Magic... strap yourself in to be entertained and educated all at the same time. Imagine the impact of immersing your team in this assault on their senses on day three of your annual sales kick-off. The awards night was the night before and they'll be even more receptive in their hung-over state.

If you valued this article, please hit the ‘like' and ‘share’ buttons below. This article was originally published in LinkedIn here where you can comment. Also follow the award winning LinkedIn blog here or visit Tony’s leadership blog at his keynote speaker website: www.TonyHughes.com.au.

Main image photo by:  www.peta.org and iStockphoto.com/smileus