Janet Spirer

When recently working with a Senior VP at a top professional services firm, we kept hearing that consultants and analysts were on customer sites all the time doing project work – yet the firm routinely missed learning about new business opportunities.

As the VP shared: “Our customers only know what we do for them, not our full portfolio.  In many cases new projects pop up and we don’t hear about them. The customer doesn’t think about us.  This represents a huge opportunity lost.”

Professional service firms who have large project teams located on customer sites for long periods of time represent a special case where “howdy calls” (not a term they would use) make great sense.  The on-site teams are technical people.  Nevertheless, they can as the VP noted, “keep their heads up” for new opportunities and pass that information along to the firm’s Business Development...

Opening does not take long, but how you start often determines how you finish. So although there are no magic words, you do need to think about it.  Three specifics stand out – you should determine how you would:

• Create initial rapport.

• Gain agreement on the purpose of the call.

• Establish the customer’s permission to ask questions.

As is usually the case, there are some common mistakes – Opening mistakes are relatively easy to overcome if you just keep them front of mind.  The three most telling mistakes are:

Wrong Time – Wrong Place. This is a failure to “pick up on” the fact that this is an inappropriate place or time.  This mistake is particularly memorable and unfortunately not easily forgotten in some markets such as when an account executive is calling on a physician in a hospital environment.

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After all the market assessments, business plans, alpha tests and beta tests, at least half of all new products still fail to achieve commercial success.  Why do so many new products fail?

Sometimes the product design was fundamentally flawed.  In others, the product concept was backed by poor market research.  At times flaws in the product itself leads to failure. And in still others, it was just the timing was off.  Yet, even when all these problems are addressed, and increasingly they are, failure remains the final result.  One reason for the lack of success of new products is the failure to get the sales team to buy into the new product and teach them how to sell it.

Let’s explore the tale behind that story.

Sales people who have multiple products “in their bag” often tend to focus on some of products over...

There are many negative consequences to high turnover; in sales the consequences can be very costly.  What happens when a sales territory is left uncovered for several months? How will the customer’s perception change as there is sales rep “churn” in serving the account? What happens when a sales rep leaves for a competitor, “taking” many of the accounts along – as often happens in some markets, like medical device sales?

Bottom line – sales rep turnover matters. Although the estimates vary widely, a commonly talked about number relative to the direct momentary impact is 200% of the annual compensation package.  If sales rep turnover increases and persists for a sustained period of time, it has a significant impact on revenue generation and the morale of the sales team. And, as the economy picks up, sales rep turnover is likely to increase.

So what are some...