Understanding the Sales Force

The United Professional Sales Association (UPSA) has unveiled their long-awaited Professional Selling Ethics Framework for world-wide release and incorporation into the UPSA Certification Program for salespeople.

Rick Roberge, author of the Rainmakermaker Blog, Chris Mott, President of Corporate Training at David Kurlan & Associates, and I were reviewing the names of long-term clients of the firm from 1985 through 1995. We are attempting to create an alumni association of people who were Kurlan-trained. We were thrilled to read some of the names we recognized and remembered from 20 years ago.

Today, I witnessed – again – just how ineffective companies are at providing their salespeople with useful tools. The Value Proposition, a frequent offender, earned the honors today. So many salespeople are walking around with what they think are value propositions when in fact they are nothing more than claims, marketing messages, features and benefits. Today’s winner of the worst Value Proposition was ‘we make you money’.

Genius.com has announced a contest that your salespeople may be interested in as they can vie for some great prizes and have some fun recalling their sales nightmares. It’s called “The Worst Cold Call Contest” (www.worstcoldcall.com) where sales professionals can compete with their peers for the worst sales call experience by submitting their story online.

I took up Golf last summer so this month marks a year at this frustrating, humiliating, challenging, and surprisingly addictive game. I’ve made great strides in just a year but I still haven’t broken 100, still hit balls with amazing inconsistency and still can’t tolerate my performance on the course. That’s just the way I am. Saturday, I took my 25th lesson, hoping to ‘straighten’ out my recent woes. It turned out to be a very simple adjustment to get me hitting the ball straight again. I had developed a bad habit with my grip – ironic since that was the very first thing I learned. Back to basics.

When prospects attempt to determine who they should buy from and what exactly they should buy, it usually requires more than a phone call and a proposal.

Would you like to get sick? Try this exercise. Have your salespeople write down the exact words they use when transitioning out of rapport and into the first sales call. What exactly do they say to their prospects to position themselves for the first appointment.

Don’t let your salespeople behave like government employees. Make them take some responsibility or tell them they can go and work for the government where their behavior will be appreciated.