Collaboration is the new buzzword.  It seems everywhere we turn, we read about collaboration–it’s critical to Sales 2.0, Enterprise 2.0 and just about everything else that’s 2.0.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m on the collaboration soapbox as well, but I wish the focus wasn’t just on Shiny New Collaboration Toys. 

I’m attracted to any article that has collaboration in the title, but am often disappointed because it is another article on technology–whether a new telepresence approach (Yes Cisco, your advertising is working), a new software/social networking tool, or something else.  These are interesting and provide new ways to extend the way we collaborate, but seem to gloss over the essence of successful collaboration—or even the fact that collaboration isn’t necessarily the right answer for everything.

I remember when collaboration used to be called teamwork, but I guess that’s not as sexy a term.  Plus we all know about teamwork–it’s really hard.  Collaboration is hard too, but we spend more time talking about shiny new toys than about how to collaborate effectively or whether to collaborate at all.

Over the past several weeks, I’ve sat in on a number of interesting webinars on sales productivity.  Inevitably the focus is on tools the sales manager can use to monitor their teams, track performance and improve effectiveness.  Whether it is a new Sales 2.0 tool or using CRM, the focus is on sales managers.  While I think this is terrific, where is the Sales Person in the discussion?

Don’t get me wrong, key aspects of the manager’s job is to track performance, coach for improvement, and manage the business.  But I think we miss a major opportunity by not focusing on the sales professional.

Every sales professional needs to have personal metrics, by which they measure their progress.  The metrics aren’t necessarily different from what a manager looks at, but each sales person should monitor a few key metrics against which to track their own performance.  Each sales person should be able to evaluate their own performance, looking for ways to improve.

Sales managers, don’t keep the metrics to yourselves.  Help each person in your organization internalize them, there maey be a different set of metrics that each person may need to look at.  Help each person understand how to track their own performance.  Let them leverage the tools for their own benefit.

The cold call started pretty well.  Someone called, he had a good premise for the sales call, he had done his homework, he asked a question…….

That’s where it went terribly off course.  I had barely begun my response when he interupted, “Our company is involved in those areas as well, this is what we do…..”

“Hold on,” I sputtered,

“…and we have a lot of experience in working with companies like yours…..” he went on.

“But, but…..”  I tried to interrupt.

“….I really think you will like what we do, here’s why….”  he continued.

Normally, at this point I would hang up, but I decided to let it go on (Disclosure time, as you know these calls are great fodder for blog posts).   I put the call on the speakerphone and read a few emails.

“Well what do you think, when do you want to get together and talk about how we can help your company?”  he finished his pitch.

Improving sales productivity is the Holy Grail of all sales professionals, executives, Sale 2.0 solution providers and every sales consultant.  We look for all sorts of tools and mechanisms to improve productivity.    Sometimes, it becomes very gimmicky.  Maybe we are making it too complicated.

I was apalled in reading IDC’s Sales Enablement Service’s recent survey of IT Buyers.  In this survey, 54% of IT Buyers said sales people were unprepared for their initial customer meetings.  For those seeking a silver lining, the 2010 survey indicated 54% were unprepared versus 57% for the 2009 survey.  Nothing to be proud of. 

While I don’t have the data, my experience indicates this probably extends far beyond IT Buyers to buyers in all disciplines.  Our own research, not just limited to the initial meeting, indicates that sales people tend to make 2-5 times more calls than necessary to close a deal.  A key finding in this research is they did not prepare or plan adequately for the call.

Why prepare?  Most sales people I meet are very bright, they are nimble and fast, why not continue to shoot from their lips?

To say things are changing is almost trite, with the confluence of the new economy, globalization, social media, globalization, new and different competition, new and different growth opportunities, we must rethink everything we do in business.

For some time, I have been thinking, reading, researching, and talking a lot about the future of selling.  Where are we going as a profession?  What’s the next step function change in how we sell and create value for our customers?  What are the critical skills, processes, methods and tools we need to embrace to perform at a higher level?

There have been some interesting discussions about this in the “blog world,” but often, I feel like Bill Murray in the movie, Ground Hog Day.  Much of the conversation revolves around doing what we are doing, only faster, better and with fewer resources.   To some degree, that’s true.  There is always room to improve what we do and how we execute.  But I’m convinced we are on the brink of some very significant changes in selling–many that may be thrust on us, without being prepared.

Last week, I wrote about inspirational customer service.  This weekend, the pendulum swung to the other extreme.  I went out looking for new cars.  No blog is long enough to contain my rant on how disfunctional the process of buying a car is, so I won’t go through the whole thing, but focus on a few low points-and not the lowest, I have to keep this reasonably civil.

On Saturday, I went to look for a new car, I had settled on 4 different models, done my research, knew what I wanted in each and what a fair price might be.

All too often, we hear nightmares about customer service and how abysmal it is.  No one listens, no one cares, they just want to take our money and screw the customer.  It’s great fodder for cocktail party and bloggers.  Overlay this with the news reports on Toyota and their lack of responsiveness to customer complaints about problems, it’s no wonder no wonder we are terribly cynical about customer service.

However, just when cynicism starts to take over, all of a sudden, we experience these moments of absolute surprise that enable cause us to pause and reflect.  Customer service is not hard, it starts with caring about your customers.  It continues with listening to what your customers have to say, not necessarily agreeing with them, but trying to understand the issue and helping them understand.  That’s great customer service.  Sometimes we experience the awesome, customer service professionals who surprise and delight.

I was listening to a web-conference today, one of the speakers discussed the importance of collaboration in sales, citing the higher use of web conferencing, webinars, Webex, and other tools.  While I have great respect for the speaker, I wanted to scream!  Absolutely, collaboration is critical to sales, and business, professionals.  It’s always been important, new forms of collaboration are increasingly important.  But web conferencing ,  webinars, Webex are not collaboration — they have little to do with collaboration!

Effective collaboration is about alignment of goals and objectives.  It’s about working together, perhaps in different ways than we have in the past.  To collaborate effectively, we have to look at how we realign our work processes, how we share risk, resources, rewards.  Effective collaboration requires shared values and vision.  Collaboration changes the way we look at control and independence.  Collaborating means that we have to surrender some levels of control and increase our dependence on those people we are collaborating with.  At its core, it requires much higher levels of trust.

Do great sales people make great sales managers?  This is a debate that never seems to end, I’ve written about it before, over the past few weeks, I don’t know how many posts I read about the topic.

There is a real problem, too many times, we take great sales people and move them into sales management roles.  Some succeed, some fail.  Move anyone into any management job, some succeed, some fail.  The real issues are: 

• Do we know what skills, capabilities, experiences, and mentality do we want in a sales manager?  Do we have a profile of what the ideal sales manager looks like?
• Do we look for candidates that match our requirements or profile as closely as possible?
• Do we have an “on-boarding” or development plan for the new manager?  Are we providing them the right training, coaching, and development to enable them to be successful?
• Does this job change make sense as the next step in the person’s career?

Evaluating candidates against these criteria helps us make better decisions about sales managers.  Great sales people matching these criteria are likely to be great sales managers.  Great sales people that don’t match these criteria are best left to be great sales people.

The web provides endless amusement in understanding new approaches to selling.  I recently found the following post in a sales training discussion blog I participate in.  It was posted as “Huge Favor:”

Hi! My name is Melanie and I need a huge favor. I just started a new sales job providing (Some product from a big company). As part of my requirements for graduating from training I need 10 referrals to let me call them to present the offer. You do not have to buy anything at all. (Of course, you can if you want to and I can get you a system for free). If you would be willing to let me call you, send me your name and number to (Melanie’s email address)  with the best time to call you. After I call you I will put you on the “do not call list” so you won’t get any further calls. I know this is asking a lot since you don’t know me. But if you wouldn’t mind, I would be so grateful!!

I’m fascinated by this new approach to selling: