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Pricing
Strategies
Selling
VALUE instead of HOURS
A
consulting colleague of mine recently sent me an
email with a dilemma he was facing. His email
said, "Hey
Russ, I have two clients that I'm meeting to
review how I can help them improve their
sales. We are looking at their business plans and
reviewing their geographical market. What's a fair
hourly rate for someone to come in and review
sales, processes and do a SWOT analysis?"
When
I hear "hourly rate", I usually think of
my mechanic. "Well, your framastat isn't
passing signals to your defibulator, so we need to
run some diagnostics and probably will have to
replace your entire transgasual system. I'm
guessing 12 hours at $200 per hour. Yes sir, we're
talking about $2400 or so for the job," as he
spits his cigar stub out of his mouth and into an
oily can sitting next to my poor unsuspecting car.
While this may be fine for the trades, business
consultants can't operate this way. We have to
look at the big picture and consider the value of
the work being done....Read
More
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Get
A Fresh Perspective For The New Year
Wow!
It's nearly the end of another tough year. Time to
reflect on 2004 and see what went right, what went
wrong, and what should change in 2005. If you were
like most other sales managers and sales reps, you
were too busy trying to reach your goals,
especially in the last quarter of the year.
Chances are you didn't reach them. I hope you did.
One
thing you probably didn't have time to do is plan
for 2005. You also may not have had time to focus
on sales rep deficiencies or organizational
issues. So how will things be different in 2005?
You've undoubtedly heard the definition of
insanity -- Doing the exact same thing over and
over and expecting different results. Now I know
none of you are insane. Nevertheless, it's easy to
get swallowed up in the sales game and lose focus
on other important issues, ending up repeating the
same things you did last year with the same
results. Yes, there are other important things
than hitting your revenue goals. In fact, many of
these other things will help you achieve your
goals, such as sales training and sales processes.
It
takes a strong and confident professional to reach
out and use external help to enhance the
performance of their team. I hate using sports
analogies, but they work so well. So please
indulge me. Tiger Woods is an excellent example of
someone who used outside help to improve his game.
Several years ago he hired a golf coach, someone
who could work with him to improve his physical
and mental game. It had a huge effect on his
performance and he went on to win tournament after
tournament. Last year, Tiger's performance was
less than stellar. In fact, he dropped out of the
#1 position in the PGA. What happened? He got rid
of his coach. Look at the difference. I'm sure
there was more to it than that, like focusing on
his personal life by getting married, and the
like. But the effect an outside coach had on his
game cannot be disputed.
Tiger
and most other winning golf pros don't let their
egos prevent them from getting help. They don't
say, "Hey! I'm one of the top 10 golfers in
the world and I don't need someone telling me what
to do. I got here by myself and I can continue by
myself." Instead, they embrace the fact that
someone can bring an unbiased view of their
performance and help guide them to improved
results. It's no different in business. Managers
are too busy running their respective departments
and putting out fires to be able to handle all
aspects of the job. Hence, getting outside help is
not only advisable, but strongly recommended.
An
outside consultant can look at your existing sales
processes and determine what needs to be done to
enhance them, or even replace them if needed. For
instance, they can determine how leads are
qualified by marketing and delegated to sales
reps, then how sales reps handle the leads and
provide feedback to marketing and follow-up with
the prospects. They can also determine the
effectiveness of your long-term customer
relationships after the sale is made and how that
affects customer retention. An outside resource
can also provide training to sales reps on selling
skills. One should never assume that just because
someone's been selling for many years that they
can't learn more, or that they in fact still
exercise best selling practices, because they
usually don't. Everyone can use sales training,
whether they are new or experienced in
sales.
So,
as you look toward 2005, make sure you have a
fresh perspective on what it is you need to do
differently and what resources you need to help
you succeed in the new year. If we can help with
designing your sales processes, providing sales
training, or other similar services, please let us
know. And most of all, have a very Happy Holiday
season and a prosperous, safe and healthy New Year!
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