Holden Blog

Escape Inertia: Sales Success in Uncertain Economic Times

September 25, 2008

With the U.S. currently addressing the Wall Street bailouts and buyouts, economic uncertainty is driving the headlines. Companies and employees around the world are stunned at the economics of impending mergers and acquisitions and potential failures within the U.S. economy. Few firms will be unaffected by these market dynamics. Here's how to escape the inertia and lead your sales team:

Checklist for Sales Success in Uncertain Economic Times

1) Exhibit confidence and an offensive mindset

� Remember that "Winners" in business see times like these as opportunities to further build competitive advantage. Warren Buffett grabbing 10% of Goldman Sachs is a prime example.

Point out opportunities that could be seized by your customers.
Take market share while competitors may be wallowing in inaction or uncertainty.

2) Ensure that you are working with an influential customer "Fox"

Now more than ever, you simply have to know who the Foxes are and hook their agendas.
Foxes are powerful people at the center of influence of organizational Power Bases. Foxes have a disproportionate amount of influence. Not always at the top of an organization, they are people who influence decisions outside their organizational authority, work behind the scenes to pre-wire decisions, are rarely surprised by events and most importantly, can operate in exception to company policy.
Simply put, Foxes find budget when others cannot in order to seize opportunities. Your alignment with a Fox directly impacts your chances of sales success and this is especially true in times of economic uncertainty.

3) Stay well-informed by devouring the daily news, in particular studying the Wall Street Journal and your customers' web sites

� To be a leader, you must be informed of the news and how it may impact your client on a daily basis.

� When informed, you can proactively shape the impact of an event as an opportunity to advance.

4) Make strong business cases for all solutions

� Now more than ever, you need strong Value Statements and Value Propositions. Go back to the fundamentals -- concise, clear and precise.

� If your "operation level contact" is not asking for Value Statements and Value Propositions, do them anyway because the Fox will ask for it.

� You need to show how your offering will help them seize a market opportunity

� Do not skip this step!

5) Prioritize your time to target well-performing industries and companies with strong leaders

� Focus on the savvy companies led by visionaries.

� Seek leaders who are able to see around the corner and seize opportunities to advance in this uncertainty. Take extra time to assess their leadership and industry.

6) And it goes without saying, maintain discipline in your sales process --- this is not the time to "skip steps"

Do a quantifiable Opportunity Analysis, complete the Value Propositions, update your Support Base Map, assess your competitor's likely strategy.
Be precise in your execution - close doesn't cut it.

While these action items should always be pursued in competitive sales situations, they are especially critical for selling in economic uncertainty. Keep a fresh, informed perspective and lead your team to sales success.

As always, feel free to contact us if we can be of assistance.

Ryan C. Kubacki

President

Happy Independence Day

September 25, 2008

Holden International wishes you a happy Independence Day holiday celebration with friends and family.

Holden International Salutes the Men and Women of the Armed Forces This Memorial Day

September 25, 2008

Holden International salutes the men and women of the Armed Forces this Memorial Day. It is an honor to work with you.

We extend our deepest gratitude to all military personnel -- from the men and women who have served our country throughout history, to those who risk their lives serving in uniform today, and to the honored Americans who have given their lives defending our freedom. Thank you.

New Ballgame: Sales Force Training Critical to Selling Services Profitably

September 25, 2008

Response to May 2008 Harvard Business Review article "How to Sell Services More Profitably" by Reinartz and Ulaga. www.hbr.org

In "How to Sell Services More Profitably" (May 2008 Harvard Business Review), Professors Werner Reinartz and Wolfgang Ulaga share their findings from multi-year research into a wide variety of product companies that have pursued strategies to sell ancillary services. As a sales training company, Holden is excited to see the role of sales training highlighted as the third of the four essential steps on the "Path to Profitability."

Reinartz and Ulaga refer to this step as "Creating a Service Savvy Sales Force." They conclude "the successful manufacturers we studied all took pains to retrain their sales force." Conversely, the companies who did not provide additional training to their existing sales force floundered with the new service strategy. They were unable to sell in to what Holden International refers to as "The Power Base�."

Reinartz and Ulaga illustrate this effect with the example of a European IT manufacturer who found itself in this challenging situation: "the salespeople were used to selling products with basic service contracts attached, and their traditional contacts at target firms were too low in the hierarchy to make decisions about multi-million-euro solutions contracts." This initial strategy created financial losses. Only with a major sales force course correction did they found success.

This example and article hits at the core of why advanced sales training is necessary. Even with years of successful product selling, senior sales people can be assigned to selling services and find that they need a new framework for approaching their accounts. Reinartz and Ulaga note the "longer sales cycles" and the number and levels of people involved in the decision making requires a new approach. Those companies that recognized this challenge and provided training found success faster.

In Holden's thirty year history, we have studied hundreds of thousands of sales professionals. Our experience divides sellers into 4 stages of sales proficiency. Stage I and Stage II sales professionals often enjoy lucrative careers. However, they generally find success related to servicing demand for their products and services at the opportunity level. Stage III and Stage IV professionals are differentiated by their ability and experience in creating demand. They have trusted advisor status within their accounts and are integral and committed to the riskier proposition of having to provide unexpected value to their customers.

In our experience of evaluating and training sales professionals, while it is a transition to move from a Stage I seller to a Stage II seller, it is a transformation to make the leap to a Stage III or Stage IV seller. This transformation requires them to learn to feel and distinguish the ebb and flow of influence and authority in an account - we call this "mapping out power bases".

There is no magic training wand to make this transformation happen in a training session. Rather, this transformation requires knowledge that is gleaned in training, the use of reinforcing tools post-training to see further into account dynamics, and most importantly, sales managers that are certifiably effective in coaching this level of account management.

In our experience, approximately 4 out of 5 salespeople we evaluate will initially fall into a Stage I or Stage II selling category. This supports Reinartz and Ulaga's conclusion that sales training is a critical step to selling services more profitably. To be that coveted 1 out of 5 Stage III or Stage IV seller - most of the existing sales force needs a framework with transformative powers and tools to guide them as they develop higher-order sales habits and an offensive mindset to winning business.

Selling ancillary services profitably is a challenging trend facing American and International businesses. Reinartz and Ulaga predict that it is a strong trend that is not going away for three reasons: 1) Outsourcing trends 2) Saturation of an installed base and 3) Commoditization in product markets.

With that forecast, even for seasoned, successful rosters of sales teams, it's a whole new ballgame.