Garth's World

Notes from the Sales 2.0 Conference

Last Friday the group of sales experts and vendors that I have dubbed the “Sales 2.0 Mafia” put on the second annual Sales 2.0 conference at the W hotel in San Francisco. Gerhard Gschwandtner of Selling Power was the primary cat herder for the conference that was sponsored by 8 technology companies including Jigsaw. About 100 VP and Director level sales managers, primarily from companies based in the Bay Area, came to network, trade best practices for sales efficiency and optimization, and presentations from several sales leaders (customers, not vendors). I personally invited six customers to the show and had one (Lars Nilsson from Arcsight) present how his sales team uses Jigsaw to cut down on prospecting time and boost sales.

What is Sales 2.0?

As tempting as it is to just lump any company founded before 2003 (input data dinosaurs here) into the old Sales 1.0 category, or just say “it’s Web 2.0 for sales,” there really is some good thinking behind the tagline. One of the pre-conference goals was to define the term Sales 2.0, which Pelin Thorogood does nicely in the following white paper   I like the one sentence summary “Sales 2.0 brings together customer- focused methodologies and productivity-enhancing technologies that transform selling from an art to a science..” Even though the interpersonal communication that good sales people excel at will forever be an art form, I nonetheless think that automation and measurement is not only possible but critical along all parts of the sales and marketing funnel.

Much to my horror, I think that my thoughts from the show can be best portrayed in Twitter –sized snippets. I spared the world (or at least the 40 people that follow me on Twitter) by refraining from Tweeting and instead compiling these comments below:

- Obviously the recession was at the top of everyone’s mind- I had a customer there from Sun who received news that 6,000 of his co-workers got the ax that morning- but if anything this fuels the need for customers to “do more with less.” In fact, most of the sponsoring companies, including Jigsaw, stated that they were doing better as customers focused their dwindling budgets on revenue generating activities in sales and marketing.

- This conference further solidified a point that I have made over and over on this blog- the days of the Silver Back sales guys who don’t know how to prospect and use technology are over. It’s too bad, too- my kids are no longer babies and I was going to dedicate myself to improving my golf game.

- The Internet has produced an explosion of available information that has transformed the way people buy things. Customers now demand to be sold to how they want to be sold to and are no longer dependent on the sales guy to make buying decisions. This makes the Sales 2.0 professional (and his company in general) become much more customer centric in order to compete.

- Another key component of Sales 2.0 is synching Sales and Marketing to the point of blurring the age old boundaries. This is done not only by implementing new technology but by (gasp) forcing and Sales to collaborate on process change. 

- I heard rumblings from some attendees that the customer presentations were “thinly veiled sales pitches.” Not only did I think the presentations/panels were interesting (the circa 2001 keynote excepted) and very metric focused, but most of them highlighted several unique processes and technologies used in addition to the vendor that sponsored them. And fancy lunches at the W ain’t free, Wendy Whiner.

Overall, the conference was a success. If nothing else, we got 100 sales execs from different companies to sit for an entire day and actually think about the overall process of selling- and I got to goof around with Larissa and Lisa Gschwantner, who incidentally do all the real work for their father at Selling Power. See video:

Step away from the Ledge

Although I don’t live and die by a quota anymore, I am nonetheless the “executive sponsor” for between one and several large business development deals at any given time. Last week we lost one of those deals. A really big one. It would have improved Jigsaw’s market position, increased our data size and revenue by massive amounts, extended our global reach, ensured a nice bonus for several of my team, the list goes on- it was a serious punch in the gut after months of work. There was no loss to a competitor- the company’s board wussed out at the level of commitment required in a flailing economy.

Sound familiar?

I’ve lost tons of deals in my career and at the risk of wandering into Dr. Phil’s world; here are a few tips that have got me off the ground and back in the sales saddle.

First:

- Make sure you really lost. Sit down with all your representatives (coaches, buying influences, whatever you like to call them-if you don’t have them then it wasn’t a deal anyway) and make them tell you to your face that you aren’t getting the business and why. If there is a condition that will change (price, winning competitor has a trial period, the exec standing in your way has a pending sexual harassment ruling) then you are still selling.

- Don’t salt the earth. No matter how tempting, don’t be that Oracle or Parametric (PTC) guy from the early ‘90’s that goes to the CEO’s summer house and demands to have everyone in IT fired. Or flame your coach. Or write in your company blog (oops). The world is a small place- your territory and industry is smaller. Some of the most lasting relationships I have in business were with people I was unable to sell to the first time around.

- Get away from it for a while. You’re in sales- you can skip a day and hang with your family, hike the local inspiration poster mountain, Twitter your Facebook “friends,” shop, get a massage, blow it out with the boys, do origami, catch catfish with your fist- whatever you’re into. Cold calling your next deal can wait- start fresh the next day or week without bile in your throat and a penchant for random violence.

Then:

-Do an autopsy. This process is well documented in lots of business books. Spend some time really thinking about every aspect of the deal and figure out what went wrong. Be honest and get other people involved if you can. Change the things you can control, avoid the things you can’t. Don’t just put the pan back on your head and start battering yourself up against the next prospect the same way, really use what you learned to change the next outcome.

-Figure out and get past the philosophical stuff. If you think you’re not cut out for sales, or your company is going in the toilet, or your relationship with your manager is untenable (called him a pansy in public just one too many times), or you really want to be a gymnast, etc.- make the call whether you are staying or going and get on with it. Whenever you lose deals or get behind on your quota all these pesky thoughts just erode your confidence and your determination in getting deals and generally stress you out.  Pick a time or event when you are going to re-evaluate your employment and shelve those demons until then.

Moving forward (none of this is new, but you need to hear it anyway):

-          Don’t rely on one deal. Keeping a steady pipeline is an exercise in tantric self control, but it will spare you the stress related disorders so common in salespeople.

-          Keep an eagle eye on what will go wrong to kill the deal and assume that it will happen.

-          Don’t calculate your commission before the deal is done. Definitely don’t spend the money before it hits your bank account. Don’t tell your wife anything.

-          Accept failure as part of the game. NOBODY bats 1.000

There. I wrote it out. No need to climb up on the roof of our building and start shooting strangers…

Garth

PS The Bridge Group is conducting an Inside Sales Metrics & Compensation in Technology Companies survey. The 6-minute web survey will be used in the 2009 Inside Sales Metrics & Compensation Report - due to be released early 2009.

Topics being investigated include:

·         Compensation at the Rep & Management level

·         Reporting structure

·         Hiring & attrition

·         Quota & contribution

Participation is open to Sales and Marketing Executive at Technology Companies with Inside Sales implementations. If you are interested, please email insidesalesreport@bridgegroupinc.com. If you participate, The Bridge Group will send you a FREE copy of the report when published.

Watch your back, Indy

Anyone who has worked with me in sales has heard my analogy--which reaches allegory proportions if I’m in the right mood- between sales and Indiana Jones. (I’m talking about Raiders and Temple of Doom era Harrison Ford- not Ally Mcbeal’s geriatric boyfriend with the earring or that cheeser Shia LaBoeuf.) Basically I liken a direct enterprise sales process to Indy when he breaks out of the jungle and has to cross an ancient rope bridge across a giant ravine. Before he can safely reach the other side, which represents the customer, the sales person has to make his way across the canyon of objections, competitors, bad economy, price wars, standards boards, corporate legal, etc. If I have the listener trapped in a car or in a customer lobby then I really get creative and affix names to the Indians (sorry-Amazonian Native Tree Citizens) blowing poison darts or the rats gnawing through the vines beneath the sales guy’s feet. Any misstep and he falls to the river below and has to start over again---if he survives (doesn’t get canned) and there is enough of the bridge intact.

I won’t bore you with all the Indy-style challenges that the sales guys faces from the front (customer) and below (market forces). What I’m going to lament today is when the salesperson feels that inevitable rocking and twisting of his tenuous grip on the bridge and looks behind him to find people from his own company, safe on the land side from which he came, trying (usually inadvertently) to knock him into the water below.

Here are profiles of the top offending friendly fire saboteurs of your deal:

-          The Rouge Sales Engineer. This offender is the worst, because he is actually out over the ravine with you - his bonus is affected by your sale- but he nonetheless can’t get over the fact that you scored lower in the math SAT and thus ignores your silent pleas to end the demo, keeps pointing out your (minor, of course) product exaggerations and generally undercuts your credibility.

-          The Futures Obsessed Product Guy. This CTO wannabe appears at first glance to be an awesome boost to the sales process, but when put in front of the customer blathers on about “what’s on the horizon” and always talks about products “in development” (i.e. in his mind) that are “game changing.” Engage this blowhard and watch the width of the canyon grow as your customer either a) gets sick of being talked down to or b) decides to wait for all the nifty stuff that never makes it out of MRD Neverland.

-          Jackass Sales Manager. Literally, you have a donkey on the rope bridge with you.

-          Legal. Congenitally pre-disposed to find problems with your contract, this guy is lobbing flaming tar cannonballs at you from a hidden place back on your side of the jungle- just as your hands are gripping a rock on the customer’s cliff.

-          Biz Dev. Since their “deals” don’t require actually crossing the ravine, these howler monkeys sit high in the trees looking for their kind on the customer side. When they spot a similar face they screech industry buzz words at each other. The only way they affect you is by distracting resources on either side from helping you get across to your deal.

-          Marketing. As if responding to a Manchurian Candidate trigger, these guys somehow sense when you are close to a deal signing and send out a mass spam email to 100 different individuals at the customer, or completely redo the website mission statement, or fire some other PR shot that clips you off your perch.   

-          Glory Days Founder. This guy should be able to swing you over to the customer on his back with all his power and knowledge, or know paths to where you don’t even need a bridge (i.e. can get you a deal with his friends). Instead he has become so accustomed to hanging on the other side of the divide with VC’s and bubble company founders that he no longer can face the practical questions from a “simpleminded” customer.

Whether or not you are with me with my Animal Farm length description, just remember that while most of your company wants to help, you’re solely responsible for getting across that bridge to the deal and you need to strictly monitor everyone from your company who comes in contact with your customer.