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Zero-Time Selling. 10 Essential steps to accelerate every company’s sales. Andy Paul. 2012. ISBN 9781614480501. This short (168 pp) tightly written book punches way above its weight class.  The 10 steps are simple, obvious and elegant. It relates very well to changes we are seeing in the marketplace, changes that negatively impact technology sales.

Why change?  Here is his comment on the buyer’s life today.

“Customer firms are no different from any other business.  Most productivity gains are due to people being pushed to work harder , to increase their output within the same number of hours.   If buyers are stretched thin like everyone else, then it stands to reason that one good avenue for creating value for the customer through the selling process is to reduce the time he needs to spend assembling the information required to make a fully informed decision.”

As a salesperson, do you deserve to be in front of the buyer? Have you done your homework on his industry and his needs plus do you have the product knowledge to answer the most important of their questions immediately?

To make Zero-Time work ( and this is not a quick fix ) sales managers need to be able to measure that:

• 100% of leads are being followed up
• lead follow up time is meeting your set time goals (30 minutes? )
• the salesperson is answering the buyers needs/questions without extra follow-ups?
• weekly reviews with ea salesperson show that:

they are tossing the losers from their pipeline and

selling  the proper solution to the people that need it. (Often this is the researcher/user, not the payer who is  waiting for the users approval/research results.)

This book is recommended to sales people and their managers who want to step up their game in response to the changing selling situations.  One cautionary note to sales managers.  The Sales Lead Black Hole research indicated that the more seasoned/mature salesperson can be expected to react negatively to extra manager attention to lead follow-up. See below. (full post)

We also find that as sales reps become more experienced, they are less likely to:

1. pursue marketing-generated leads,
2. respond positively to managerial tracking of marketing lead follow-up, or
3. respond positively to greater marketing-generated lead volume.

Thus implementing a change to your program means more than a Jean Luc Picard “Make it So” .

You will need to think this through and work together with your star performers first.

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• Sales Training: Value Propositions Continued (rocketbuilders.blogspot.com)
• 4 Ways Marketing Automation Will Shorten Your Sales Cycle (hubspot.com)
• Accelerate the sale. Kick start your personal selling style to close more sales, faster. Mark Roberts. (regnordman.com)
• Implementing a Value Based Sales Approach – Part 4 of 4. Some sales training ideas (regnordman.com)
• Sales Contests: How do you Focus on the Right Things? (rocketbuilders.blogspot.com)

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Value-Based Pricing. Harry MacDivitt & Mike Wilkinson.2012. ISBN 9780071761680.  This is one of the best texts on this topic I have run up against so far.  First the descriptions of pricing and how it is arrived at is succinct, clear and bang on the money.  Second this is the first pricing book that really identifies how many objections that sale can find with changing the pricing strategy  as well as the huge obstacle that sales is to implementation.  Then they do show you how to capture customer value in order to extract the price you deserve. The case studies at the end of the book are a bonus for those serious about implementing value based pricing. This is a must have reference for sales and marketing organizations as well as CEO’s.  Plus with both authors from the UK, they do not waste a word- it is all clear and valuable.

Related articles

• LinkedIn Poll – Where does pricing have the most impact in the sales funnel? (leveragepoint.com)
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• Implementing a Value Based Sales Approach. Part 2 of 4. Marketing (regnordman.com)
• The Art of Pricing: How to find the hidden profits in your business. Rafi Mohammed. (regnordman.com)

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The No Asshole Rule. Building a civilized workplace and surviving one that isn’t. Robert J. Sutton. 2007. ISBN 9780759518018. This is so funny and true that it hurt to read it.  I could have used this a few times in my work life – one of the reasons I went into consulting was gaining the ability to chose who I work with – never regretted it.   Guy Kawasaki posted an online survey to self diagnose how much of an asshole you are .  This book is required reading if you work in a tech company.  Well written, clear prose that makes your day better!

Related articles

• THE NO ASSHOLE RULE (Living, Business, Career Video) (thepulsemagazine.onsugar.com)
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• Assholes & Organizations (mzlprof.wordpress.com)
• Horrible Bosses and Revenge: The Uncut Version (bobsutton.typepad.com)

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The Trophy Kids Grow Up. How the millennial generation is shaking up the workplace. Ron Alsop. 2008. ISBN 9780470229545.  One can read this book two ways. First to rail against the millennials who

• job hop
• seem entitled
• are not willing to wait to climb the corporate ladder
• want it all, quickly
• are unafraid to challenge the bosses
• seek a meritocracy
• bring along helicopter parents
• seem to need endless feedback
• require detailed checklists of explicit work directions
• prejudge a company from what its website says
• a lack of manners and suitable etiquette

Or you could hail them for

• a much better sense of real altruism than any generation so far to date.
• seekers of  work life balance
• a desire to get the work done, in any location and then do what they want
• reducing the need for huge offices and cube farms
• working for much of the time without supervision and not just nine to five.
• showing how intrinsic motivation is a growing influence on modern productivity ( See Driven by Dan Pink)
• helping break us all free of the reward punishment management model ( which Dan Ariely shows is counter productive today)
• using any and all technologies at a whirlwind adoption rate.

I think I will hail them for their pressure on HR and recruiting systems. I will recognize that having four generations in the workplace now calls for some pretty serious negotiation and mediation skills. But our culture is evolving and will not stop.  This is a clearly written book, based on what is really happening in the workplace as we have all seen it. If you have to hire people today, you need to read this book.

Related articles

• Why Won’t Millennials Work? (millenniallemons.com)
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• Are Millennials cut out for this tumultuous job market? (cnn.com)
• Managing Different Generations Requires Different Techniques (thinkup.waldenu.edu)
• The millennials are coming – what does it mean for sales training? (customerthink.com)

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The Art of Managing Professional Services. Insights from leaders of the world’s top firms. Maureen Broderick. 2011. ISBN 9780137042524. A snapshot of what the big service firms are doing complied from an extensive survey . It  describes best practice as detailed through numerous case studies.  And it confirms that these companies are:

• still slow to change,
• focused on the short term, and
• still totally clueless about marketing

None of the above will change. If you were expecting some priceless insights  or new practice models you will be disappointed.  A compilation of best practice is by nature not innovative.   This book does not displace the great work done by David Maister, it goes to show that these companies are not even implementing his ideas.

Related articles

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Building Business Value. How to command a premium price for your midsized company. Martin O”Neill.2009. ISBN 978098205056905.  As part of my ongoing pricing research I was lead to this book.  It does exactly what it says it does.  In a well thought out style the author leads you through the internal and external drivers that determine the value of your company. Very telling advice was , ” If you drive to increasing company value, you can exit at any time”.  Any business owner will benefit from going through this book and answering the questions the author asks.  We see too many companies who would be rockets if they just asked themselves a few simple questions.  Well written, good notes and through bibliography make this a long term reference book for the business owner. I especially liked his way for describing what good was , then pointing out how to measure how good your company was, the major ways that people fail and how to prevent that.

Related articles

• Pricing for Profit. How to command higher prices for your products and services. Dale Furtwengler. (regnordman.com)

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How to Sell at Margins Higher Than Your Competitors: Winning every sale at full price, rate or fee. Lawrence L. Steinmetz & William T. Brooks. 2006. ISBN 978-0471744832.  (also Kindle).  This is a small but detailed book and one I recommend to any sales manager charged with getting margins up.  A bonus with the book is a complete addenda that lists all the ways professional buyers will mistreat (beat up ) a seller in order to get him to crack on price. if you have been there as a sales man you will recognize some of these immediately!  Buyers lie in order to get you to lower price.  If they could get it from someone else at a better price, why are they still talking to you  (unless they can’t get delivery, quality, service or they are not allowed).  The authors discussion of the price buyer is excellent and thorough.  What I appreciate about the book is that it is more than a list of what happens, they then give you tactics that are useful in the sale.  I have been at this a long time, and never knew the breadth of tactics in this book. I have already been able to use a few in the last few days to great results. (What do they say about the old dog, new tricks?)  Their one chapter analysis on setting prices gives the practitioner immediate tools to help decide where you should stand.  They are dead set against letting the market determine price – you have to.  An essential book for your sales library.

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• You’re Working Too Hard To Make the Sale. More than 100 insider tools to sell faster and easier . William T. Brooks & Tom Tavisano. 2nd Ed (regnordman.com)
• Consultative Selling. The Hanan formula for high-margin sales at high levels. 8th Ed. Mack Hanan (regnordman.com)
• With sales vs. profits, listen to your market, not your ego. (vailchris1.wordpress.com)

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Six Steps to Creating a Profit. A guide for the small and mid-sized service-based businesses. Patricia Sigmon . 2010. ISBN 9780470554258.  I picked this book up for  my research on pricing.  It seemed to be aligned with that topic.  However this is not totally the case.  What the book is is a small handbook on getting and retaining the profits you have worked for.  This  is often called controlling the margin waterfall. It is a very useful book, with a valuable set of checklists to cover any and all operational issues that end up draining your company profits.  In our experience with technology firms, all of them could have used some or all of this book’s guidance. If you are a smaller player , without a large support staff and suspect that there are things that could be improved, you will enjoy this book.  It is written in a quick no nonsense style, making it immediately useful.  I also recommend it to to turnaround specialists as a helpful reminder.

Related articles

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Five Things We Know For Sure About Today’s Customers

Guest post from Chip Bell (Wired and Dangerous)

Customers today are Picky–more cautious in their choices (and they have many more choices) and interested only in getting obvious value for their money.  They are well-informed about choices, smarter in choice-making, and selective in whom they elect to join.  Blame it on a scary recession, but it is a fact!

They are Fickle–much quicker to leave if unhappy.  They not only show a lower tolerance for error, they will exit just on account of plain old indifferent service.  The hype of a brand name means little in deterring the disappointed customer’s exit.  And, their expectations for their encounters with you are up 33% over this time last year!  The old “tired and true” is no longer the “tried and true.”

Customers today are Vocal–more apt to rapidly (and loudly) register concerns with their higher standards for value and their expectation of getting a tailored response.  They assertively tell others their views of service; they also listen to fellow customers’ reviews and make choices without even giving the organization a chance.   Three-fourth of customers makes a decision not to do business with you based solely on “work of mouse” from other customers.

Finally, they are Vain–expecting treatment that telegraphs they are special and unique, not just one of the masses.  This customer narcissism has been forged both through the pampering provided by service providers as well as their new found muscle to get their way in the marketplace.  If you do not sell and service “their way” you will be history!

This Picky-Fickle-Vocal-Vain moniker represents a dramatic shift in what is required to insure customer loyalty–the stuff of growth and profits.  That shift has resulted in customer requirements for value being very out-of-sync with the tried and true methods organizations have relied on for years.  When front line employees deliver service that fulfils the customer’s stated needs, they are taken aback when customers give them less than satisfactory grades.  When a small gaffe triggers volcano-like customer uproar, front line employees believe they have met a deranged deviant with an attitude problem, not just a typical customer acting on instincts honed from countless disappointments.

And now, for the big kahuna!  Today’s Picky-Fickle-Vocal-Vain customers are also wired.  Word of mouse has replaced word of mouth as the most viral means of gossip, grousing and groaning about last night’s slow restaurant service, yesterday’s rude sales clerk or this morning’s glitch on Acme.com.  Today, internet connections, whether blogs, tweets or other forms of social media, have five times the impact of traditional word of mouth.  The average post is read by over 45 people today.  And, the viral effect is enormous.  When songwriter Dave Carroll had a run-in with United Airlines over damage to his guitar in their baggage handling, he penned a song and hung it on YouTube.  Over nine million people watched.  The Economist blog estimates it cost United Airlines about $180M.

What steps are you taking to more effectively deal with today’s customers?  Ignore it and you become a has-been; treat it as an opportunity and your create advocates.

Adapted from Wired and Dangerous:  How Customers Have Changed and What To Do About it by Chip R. Bell and John R. Patterson (SF: Berrett-Koehler Publishing, 2011)

Related articles

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wired and dangerous. how your customers have changed and what to do about it.  Chip R. Bell & John R. Patterson. 2011. ISBN 9781605099750. Bell & Patterson have written several great books on customer service.  This one does not disappoint.  They have brought their core beliefs right up to date with the Internet customer.   The customer has all the power with respect to Internet information access.  the vendor still retains the ability to create a great or not so great experience.  They do a good job explaining why the trend to self serve is not always in the customers interest and how to be better at service  anyway.  Lost of great examples round out this easy to read book .. There is something for every business leader in this book . In our experience in Content marketing practice, their tips on voice of the customer and front line workers are very useful.

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• Voice of the Customer Marketing. A revolutionary five-step process to create customers who care, spend and stay. Ernan Roman. (regnordman.com)
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