Category Archives: Sales

Stuffing the Channels

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Move product and make quota at all costs. This is how Sales Professionals are incentivized.

It is no wonder then, Sales tends to stuff the channels. They are provided all the short term incentives to do so.

This method is opposite of how the company as a whole would like to operate. The company as a whole would like new customers, organic growth, sustainability.

Channel stuffing causes volatility and becomes unpredictable. You begin to lose control and have big swings in business. This is not good for a commissions, quota, and is undesirable in the eyes of investors.

So when the company has a few good quarters, then one terrible quarter, the question isn’t why did we miss this quarter. It is understanding why product did not move off the shelf in that particular quarter.

If you look back at the channel stuffer, and see sales are increasing, but there are no new customers, the answer is pretty clear. The product needed to go somewhere.

Channel stuffing only works for a short period. Whether you are selling directly to end customers, or it’s your distributors ability to move product, you can only stuff the channels for so long.

Channel stuffing can become rampant within an organization for two reasons:

  1. Compensation encourages it
  2. Sales professionals are untrained in helping customers use more product

In the first scenario, it’s not the Sales Professional that is to blame for stuffing the channels. Their compensation is set up to encourage this behavior. When bonus is achieved based upon percent to monthly quota, the Sales Professional will naturally do anything possible to get to that number this quarter. They will not worry about next quarter. It is short term thinking.

In the second scenario, it is upon the sales professional to train their customers to use more product. They need to help the customers build their business, which in turn builds their business. This means the Sales Professional needs to be forward thinking, and understand the customer or distributor needs product training. This is the win—win principle.

If your business is volatile, with rampant channel stuffing, possibly it is time to look at the system, not the people.

Good luck and good selling!

Delaying The Launch

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Businesses—whether a conglomerate, Startup, or any size in between—make a big deal about The Launch.

The conglomerate might put large sums of money, time, and research into ensuring a product is going to be a success. It is about mitigating the risk associated with potential failure.

The Startup will seek funding based on a minimal viable product (MVP). Resulting in its ability to go back to the drawing board, perfect the product, and do further research and market testing. The goal being the same as the conglomerate. Mitigating the potential risk of failure.

“The Launch” is about starting. Starting to sell to clients. Starting to build an organization. Starting to hire employees.

We fail to launch for two reasons: timing and fear.

Timing a launch can be an important step to have the largest initial effect of publicity and attention. This could provide the needed traction to get things moving.

Timing a launch could also be a question of whether the market is ready for your product. The need may not have built enough momentum. The problem you solve is not great enough to justify paying for it. The company is not prepared to rapidly scale.

Fear of launching, on the other hand, is having a lack of confidence. Lack of confidence in the preparation and research conducted. Being unsure whether things will work out. By not launching, you can hide for just a bit longer behind “building”. Delaying potential rejection or massive success. Both could be difficult to manage.

Launching can be scary. You might ask:

What if they don’t love our product?

What if they don’t love our organization?

What if I chose the wrong strategy?

What if they won’t buy from me?

Sometimes, no matter how much research is conducted, the flaws in a product will be unknown until the market provides feedback. It might be better to launch and fix problems along the way. Delay could mean spending more money, discussing the same problems, and not moving forward.

Timing a launch may provide the necessary environment to be effective.

Fear of launching might be the reason you should just take a deep breath and dive in head first.

Good luck and good selling!

Why Should I Work With You?

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Selling is simple.

Anybody can do it, and everybody should do it.

This is how you “Win Friends and Influence People”.

Selling is not about hoodwinking or pressuring. It is about believing what you posses is of so much value, you have an obligation to present it in the most attractive way to a potential recipient.

Sales, Marketing, Business Development, Growth Hacking. Call it what you want, but the goal is to share what you possess with others.

The simple process is this:

Sell Yourself

People buy from people they trust. Selling yourself is about building trust and educating someone why they should work with you.

The client is asking: “What can you do for me?”

Sell Your Company

Why should someone partner with your company? Is your company innovative? Do they provide excellent customer service?

What is the reason why someone should work with your company. The value proposition.

Sell Your Product

What problem is your product going to solve? Will your product make the clients life easier? Save them money? Generate them more business?

Answering these questions will make it easier to share the value of your product with clients.

After all, taking these steps is not being pushy. If you have something of value, be it a product, skills for a job, or an idea for improvement at work, you have an obligation to sell it.

Why should people do business with you?

Good luck and good selling!

One Habit Could Change Everything

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I hit the snooze button and slept another half an hour, yet again. That’s the third time this week and its Wednesday. I lost count how many times it has been this month.

The result of my love affair with the snooze button is I am now running through my morning routine. It is not therapeutic, and if I believe everything I read about morning routines, I am not destined for “success”.

I know that if I just wake up early and have the kind of morning routine I could write a book about, I will be successful. In fact, I will probably be the next Steve Jobs.

The building of habits and routines is very difficult. This is where “The Power of Habit” proved to be an excellent and thoroughly worthwhile read. In recently finishing “The Power of Habit”, I thought I would share my greatest take away.

“The Power of Habit” discusses a number of scientific and theoretical approaches to changing and creating habits, which as you read the book, you will dive deep into scientific models. But the one concept I found thoroughly enlightening is the concept of the baseline habit, or the habit that if changed, would transform a number of other habits. So lets put this in real terms.

The habit I currently want to change is my morning routine, or improve it. I want to have enough time in the morning to thoroughly enjoy bacon, eggs, coffee, and a shave. My huge issue though is the alarm clock snooze button. I think this is a common problem.

So as I deconstruct what is infringing on my morning routine, I find that it is this alarm clock snooze button. As I found in the book, I have to go further back into my morning issues and now tackle my alarm clock habit, which is hitting the snooze button. After a bit of research I find myself looking at sleep quality. My sleep regimen is now my next stop on the path to morning routine optimization, and when looking at sleep, it is my evening routine. So in order to change the one habit I want, my morning routine, I have to turn the clock back all the way to my evening routine.

Looking at my key take away from “The Power of Habit”, the one habit that will change other habits is my evening routine. The adjustment to my evening routine will allow me to get enough sleep, which then I will be rested, less likely to hit snooze, and therefore wake up on time.

Whether sleep is a habit you think you should improve, or another habit, “The Power of Habit” is a great book to add to your book list. Examples range from P&G getting customers to use Febreeze, to how making your bed in the morning can help give you a productive day.

Whatever your habits, hopefully you will find this book as enlightening as I did.

Good luck and good selling!

Just Take The Money And Run

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Have you had those meetings, in the middle of a busy week which completely fell through the cracks? The type of meeting you left, forgot to follow up with the customer until about a week later, and at that point the follow up just felt awkward.

Needless to say, this meeting with a potential customer went nowhere. Unfortunate, because who knows, it may have led to a huge sale.

The next situation is the sale with a very difficult customer. The kind you are happy to sell the product to and not have to speak with again. These are the “take the money and run” clients, but we should really take the time to nurture them, although they are difficult.

In both cases, what is missing is the follow up. The art of the follow up can make or break a long standing business relationship. It is better to use this opportunity to make it.

Here are a few ways to follow up with customers:

Email

A quick email following up a meeting, an interaction, or a phone call can be a good way to open a more meaningful conversation. If coming out of a meeting, the email is a great way to convey you heard and understood what was being said. An email after an interaction at an event is a great way to say you would like to do further business. So simple, this opportunity for a follow up should not be overlooked.

Hand Written Note

Although time consuming, a hand written note is a very nice touch. Whether you are thanking a client for an order or for being a longstanding customer, the hand written note conveys that you go the extra mile when it comes to taking care of your clients.

Connect On Social Media

Social media provides an excellent opportunity to stay in touch with colleagues and customers. This provides an opportunity to share items which you think are beneficial to their business. Also, it provides an opportunity for you to show up on their news feed and be fresh in the clients mind. This is beneficial for two reasons: 1) you are warming up a prospect if you have recently met, 2) you can keep existing customers informed of updates within your company.

Provide Follow Up Information

It is bound to happen that there will be a meeting where you do not have all the answers. This is where the follow up can provide you a great opportunity to over deliver on the quality of information you were lacking within the meeting. You can provide detailed insight if you leave the meeting and research the information the client was seeking.

Schedule Your Next Meeting

Turning your follow up into the next sales meeting can be an effective way to close, stay in front of your customer, as well as convey to the customer what you can do for them while you are not together. This is a huge test, which will show how much work you have the ability to do on behalf of your customer in between meetings.

The follow up is so simple, but in a busy day when something may have been forgotten, it is just as simple to forget.

What is your favorite follow up method?

Good luck and good selling!