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"You need to be more out with the customer" - The sense and nonsense of target-settings in sales business 516 KB

Everybody who has worked in the sales business, is aware of this challenge in the headline of this article. Especially, if the new business leaves to be desired, correlated targets are quickly made by sales management or controlling. Every sales person is required to provide information on a minimum number of visits per week, in order to document that he/she executes the sales strategy.

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Bob Miller – Co-Founder of Miller Heiman Inc.: Taming the volatile Sales Cycle 2.3 MB

Many of the ups and downs of a company’s revenue stream can be smoothed out. Doing so, though, requires a fundamental change in how the organization prioritizes its sales activities. Bob is giving clear advise on how we can manage our sales pipeline towards a precise sales prediction and efficient resource prioritization. Read more

Bob Miller: Doesn't It Always Come Down to Price? 421 KB

The Conventional Wisdom: “It always comes down to price.”The Reality: “Customers will pay for value.”When salespeople are asked why they just lost a big deal, almost 60 percent will blame a competitor’s lower prices. In their minds, they seem to truly believe that the cheapest product or service will win any deal. But that’s just total hogwash! In any complex business-to-business sale, pricing is virtually never the primary reason for a customer’s decision. I’m expecting that many people will strongly disagree with me on that, but I firmly stand my ground. Let me explain.

Bob Miller: How to Forecast Sales Accurately 434 KB

The conventional wisdom: “Sales managers can’t forecast accurately because there are too many uncertainties involved.”The reality: “Sales forecasting can indeed be turned into an accurate, reliable process.”Judging by the continual news of company after company missing its quarterly numbers, you would easily be forgiven if you thought that businesses had no clue how to forecast their sales. Every week seems to bring yet another headline of a firm that missed its quarterly numbers because of some unexpected shortfall in demand for its products. Wall Street is generally unforgiving of such lapses, typically punishing the company with a drop in stock price.

Bob Miller: The Customer is Always Right, Right? 422 KB

The convention wisdom: “The customer is always right.”The reality: “Customers are always right -- except when they’re not.”Of course, nobody truly believes that customers are infallible, but many companies have adopted that attitude, apparently in hopes of improving their customer service, particularly in the retail industry.Interestingly, the slogan “The customer is always right,” which many people have attributed to John Wanamaker of the famous Wanamaker department stores, was instead first coined by another U.S. retailing entrepreneur: H. Gordon Selfridge, who founded the Selfridges department store in London.Selfridge’s well-worn slogan has a number of variations, including “The customer is king,” as well as one of my favorites, “Rule 1: The customer is always right. Rule 2: When you think the customer is wrong, go back to Rule 1.”

How do You Know if You’re Wasting Time with Prospects 660 KB

Just like puzzle pieces that don't fall into place, some customers may not fit with the solutionsyour organization provides. Many sales professionals justify pursuing bad accounts, thinking that“ten opportunities with slim chances are better than one,” or “if I put more pressure on theaccount, it will work out.” But sales professionals who stop chasing mismatched prospects canfind more profitable places to spend their time.

How much money do we (Germans on the world market) leave on the table? A special view on the German B2B-sales business 493 KB

Working together with about 80 companies, their owners, C-level management, managers and more than 3,000 sales people gave me a special picture that I would like to share with you today. After all this observances the question arises to me how much money do we leave on the capital market in the b2b sales business in Germany because of lacking sales education. I personally would appreciate your feedback regarding this topic, as I am interested in your differing or similar, supporting thoughts.

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If you build it, will they come? By Bob Miller, Co-Founder of Miller Heiman Inc.

The conventional wisdom: “Build it and they will come- In other words, the right product will sell itself-”The reality: “Even the best product in the world will fail if customers don’t understand and appreciate the value it can provide-”

If you already know the one or the other article of Bob, you might be familiar with his precise and straight forward sight on sales and salespeople. This time he takes up the often misleading opinion that sales is as good as the product quality offered. He scrutinizes if the product really always matches the expectations of our buyers and raises the question how we can get to a real customer understanding.  One of his suggestion is – “Help your customers succeed – even when your products aren’t directly involved”.  Interested? Read complete article

The potential of the process 218 KB

Successful selling isn’t magic. But even “natural sales talent”, if such a thing exists, is often not enough to guarantee success. What distinguishes successful sales people or sales organizations from the unsuccessful ones, is their use of well-defined processes and systems. Siegfried introduces in his article the strategic sales process and discusses how it can be used to increase the effectiveness of a company’s sales force.

Weekly Forecast and Deal Status Calls by Damon Jones, Miller Heiman Managing Director Strategic Accounts

Damon takes up the red-hot topic of how to proceed in order to get accurate forecast figures for business planning 2011. In his article he outlines the pit-falls many sales organizations fall in and provides easy applicable steps towards a successful forecast gathering. Read article