{"id":13666,"date":"2015-07-28T18:21:43","date_gmt":"2015-07-28T22:21:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/?p=13666"},"modified":"2015-07-28T18:21:43","modified_gmt":"2015-07-28T22:21:43","slug":"sales-strategies-for-the-21st-century","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/state-of-the-industry\/2015\/07\/sales-strategies-for-the-21st-century\/","title":{"rendered":"Sales Strategies for the 21st Century"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Kate

Kate Kingston<\/p><\/div>\n

It\u2019s a good bet the old adage, \u2018Those who can\u2019t do teach\u2019 doesn\u2019t apply to your average document imaging industry sales consultant. Sales consulting and training has become a cottage industry as folks who were once out in the field selling day in and day out or running dealerships are now enjoying second careers offering training and consulting to dealer principals, sales managers, and other sales professionals.<\/p>\n

With that in mind we\u2019re going to examine the value proposition that these consultants provide to the dealer community, focusing on why there\u2019s a need for these services even in a successful dealership and what\u2019s being taught with an emphasis on new sales strategies.<\/p>\n

Why, Why, Why?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cDealers call me because they want to increase market share, because they want their sales executives to be hunters not farmers, and they don\u2019t necessarily know how to do it on their own or have the time,\u201d says Kate Kingston, president and founder of the Kingston Training Group.<\/p>\n

Kingston is a familiar face at industry conferences and events and for the past 14 years has been training office technology dealerships to prospect effectively at the C-level.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we can get them in front of the customer more often, more proposals will be written, which means they\u2019ve increased not only the number of new clients they have, but also the size because we\u2019re hitting the C-level and working on larger opportunities,\u201d states Kingston. \u201cThat\u2019s what builds a dealership.\u201d<\/p>\n

One often hears there aren\u2019t any guarantees in life, but Kingston would disagree, especially since the Kingston Training Group guarantees results.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have a track record of delivering over a 50 percent increase in new meetings across any sales force I train or my training is free,\u201d she says. \u201cYou bring me in because there is an ROI that\u2019s guaranteed, because you may not have time to do it, and because my entire life\u2019s work is making sure business technology sales executives can get in front of their customers successfully at a decision maker level.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Tom

Tom Callinan<\/p><\/div>\n

Dealers who hire Strategy Development are some of the most successful dealerships in the industry.<\/p>\n

Why do they need help if they\u2019re already successful?<\/p>\n

\u201cThe most successful companies are always looking to improve,\u201d contends Tom Callinan, principal of Strategy Development. \u201cA successful entrepreneur can never be an expert in every area. I bring sales management expertise and put a stronger process in place.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a $10 million dealership the owner might be considered the process [for sales management], but once a dealership grows to $30 or $40 million with multiple branches, Callinan says the process the smaller entrepreneur originally had isn\u2019t scalable or repeatable.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can eliminate the mistakes, and over time they\u2019ll be able to do it as well as I do it,\u201d says Callinan.<\/p>\n

Strategy Development offers training and consulting. With its consulting business Strategy Development helps the dealership implement these new management or sales processes discussed during their training sessions in a step-by-step fashion.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you attend one of our training sessions we\u2019d lay all the processes out for you from A-Z,\u201d explains Callinan. \u201cIf [you only attend the training session but don\u2019t become] a client, my expectation would be you\u2019d go back and implement it, but I\u2019d have no way of knowing if you did.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Andy

Andy Slawetsky<\/p><\/div>\n

Industry Analysts has been offering sales training since the 1990\u2019s, much of it originally focused on product and how to sell one brand against another. Now much of its training is brand agnostic and geared towards the new rep, or as a refresher for a senior rep who needs to learn new tricks of the sales trade.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s basic sales training,\u201d explains Andy Slawetsky, president of Industry Analysts. \u201cHow to get to the decision maker, for example.\u201d<\/p>\n

He maintains that many dealers are looking for training beyond what\u2019s available from their manufacturers. \u201cNot that the manufacturers aren\u2019t providing good training, but sometimes they provide the same thing over and over and dealers just want something a little different,\u201d states Slawetsky.<\/p>\n

Dealers who contact Slawetsky for training either read the Industry Analysts newsletter or see a Tweet that strikes a nerve when he comments on what a sales rep might experience while closing a deal, something that Slawetsky experienced back when he was selling copiers.<\/p>\n

As to why dealers can\u2019t do this themselves, Slawetsky says, \u201cThey don\u2019t want to deal with it; they don\u2019t have a curriculum, they want turnkey.\u201d<\/p>\n

He acknowledges that some of the bigger dealerships have their own training departments, but many don\u2019t have the bandwidth. He also acknowledges that it\u2019s not unusual for new reps to spend a lot of time in the field with an experienced rep, which can be a great learning experience, but at the same time also exposes them to bad habits.<\/p>\n

\"Larry

Larry Levine<\/p><\/div>\n

Larry Levine, social sales strategist for Dealer Marketing Systems, has one of those trendy sounding job titles, but it accurately describes his expertise and what he provides.<\/p>\n

Levine has put in his time in the document imaging industry in various sales positions with various dealerships and OEMs for well over two decades. He describes himself as a copier guy that understands personal branding and how to build relationships.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve figured out how to grab net new business by doing that,\u201d says Levine.<\/p>\n

He enjoys sharing LinkedIn stories and describes LinkedIn as the \u201cgame-changer\u201d in the highly competitive copier world. He coaches and transforms copier sales professionals to grow their net new business by helping them tell their story and communicate on LinkedIn. He can also help sales reps build their relationship funnel.
\n\u201cYou can\u2019t have a sales funnel if you don\u2019t have any relationships,\u201d maintains Levine. \u201cThe copier industry is sorely lacking in teaching and training sales reps how to market themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

Evolving with the Industry<\/strong><\/p>\n

As the industry has changed, sales consultants have had to roll with the flow.<\/p>\n

Levine pulls no punches about the necessity of disrupting the status quo in a changing world. \u201cSales reps today have gotten fat and lazy, and the dealer principals don\u2019t want to rock the boat with the tenured rep and lose the rep, so they just sweep it under the rug.\u201d<\/p>\n

He adds that cold calling has changed and sales reps today need to figure out how to take a cold call and turn it into a warm call.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you ask any sales rep what they hate most, it\u2019s doing paper work or cold calling,\u201d states Levine. \u201cThey have to do paper work if they want a commission check, but everyone\u2019s forgotten how to cold call. A lot of sales people are petrified, so they don\u2019t make calls anymore and try to drive everything through e-mail. If you think about it, C-level people are getting 100+ e-mails a day so those messages are getting lost. Sales reps need to take modern sales techniques and incorporate that into the sales process. The copier sales process hasn\u2019t changed\u2014you still need meetings, you still need to solve problems, and you still need to create your unique value\u2014but the pre-part of this has really changed.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why Levine touts LinkedIn as a way to reach the C-level suite to start building those relationships.<\/p>\n

\u201cLinkedIn is where the B2B buyer goes when they want to find out more about you,\u201d he says. \u201cThus what is your digital first impression?\u201d<\/p>\n

The way Industry Analysts\u2019 sales training has changed and evolved are the tools Slawetsky recommends for reaching the decision maker, i.e. social media including LinkedIn, Facebook, and the Internet in general to get past that gatekeeper.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s common sense if you think about it,\u201d observes Slawetsky.<\/p>\n

Some of the heaviest participation in his training sessions comes from the older reps who often agree with what he\u2019s saying while also seeing the value of the social media sales strategies he\u2019s touting.<\/p>\n

\u201cFifteen years ago the technology solution was the copier, now it\u2019s an on ramp to the network,\u201d notes Kingston about how the industry has changed. \u201cDealerships are obviously getting involved in 3D, so how do you verticalize that? How you talk to a manufacturer is different than a large dental practice. Managed Services, MPS? How do you explain that and pitch it to the layman?\u201d<\/p>\n

All these technological changes keep Kingston busy because she has to know what\u2019s going on.<\/p>\n

\u201cI need to know how to pitch it better than the dealership themselves, otherwise why would they hire me,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Kingston, who is an avid reader, keeps up with these changes by reading at least one business book a week and two to three trade journals a week.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust like some people are good at writing songs, I\u2019m a wordsmith and understand you have to be able to speak in the customer\u2019s language about how a technology solution fits in,\u201d she says. \u201cI\u2019ve evolved from phone calling and foot canvassing training to being able to smartly use LinkedIn, social media, and Twitter to get meetings, not just to get connected.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even though the industry continues to change and evolve, Callinan compares a strong sales process to fundamental math.<\/p>\n

\u201cAddition is still addition, multiplication is still multiplication and distributed properties of math are still distributed properties of math,\u201d he says. \u201cMaybe as you go further through complexities of math, calculus becomes different.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Dealer Perspective<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"John

John Konyenbelt<\/p><\/div>\n

John Konyenbelt, vice president of sales at Applied Imaging in Grand Rapids, MI is a Strategy Development client and was originally introduced to the company via referrals from his peers in CDA (Copier Dealers Association). He actually started by attending one of Strategy Development\u2019s first seminars on Managed Print.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt really resonated with me and felt like a great fit for our company,\u201d recalls Konyenbelt.<\/p>\n

From there, he attended the company\u2019s sales management training. \u201cManaged Print was one thing, but sales management was the big thing for me,\u201d he says. \u201cThe approach to management, especially in our industry, was laser focused on what\u2019s important in the duties of a sales manager.\u201d<\/p>\n

Further validation came from one of Konyenbelt\u2019s sales managers who had been in that position for six months after being promoted from a sales rep.<\/p>\n

After the training, the sales manager revealed that he never understood what he was supposed to do as a manager, but after the training, now he knew.<\/p>\n

Applied Imaging has also called on Strategy Development to help them train managers and their Managed Print reps.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey helped us make sure we were efficiently managing our investment in time with prospects and customers,\u201d notes Konyenbelt.<\/p>\n

Strategy Development also helped Applied Imaging develop metrics and benchmarks that its sales managers need to hold their teams to in order to be successful. Those include validating the pipeline, understanding how the pipeline should be set up, benchmarks of the pipeline in terms of dollars as compared to the rep\u2019s monthly quota or monthly plan, and how to manage people to those numbers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had a fair amount of \u2018aha\u2019 moments,\u201d recalls Konyenbelt. \u201cIt\u2019s strong stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Ray

Ray Belanger<\/p><\/div>\n

Ray Belanger with Bay Copy has used a couple of sales consultants over the years, primarily for polishing sales management skills and bringing more process and structure to his dealership. The outcome, he says, was \u201ca mixed bag.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI learned some things and it helped with development of more processes and structure,\u201d acknowledges Belanger. \u201cIt\u2019s good to do from time to time to get a different perspective, but it\u2019s not a panacea. Sometimes we all get lulled into thinking you write a check and someone is going to come in and make everything better. At the end of the day you\u2019re still left to implement it and manage it. It\u2019s not just the information, but what you do with the information.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vision Office Systems in Charlotte, NC brought in Kate Kingston after hearing lots of success from other CDA (Copier Dealers Association) dealers.<\/p>\n

\"Jason

Jason Habbal<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cThe methodology she uses does work and it put us in front of a lot of decision makers that we weren\u2019t able to get in front of from the traditional cold calling and follow up methods,\u201d says Jason Habbal, vice president of sales.<\/p>\n

Art Post may be best known these days for his Print4Pay Hotel blog, but he\u2019s worked in the industry in various capacities over the years, including service tech, sales rep, and even as the owner of a dealership. And in the interest of full disclosure, he\u2019s even done some sales training on the side. When he does attend an industry event and sits through one of these sales consultant presentations his goal is gaining more knowledge that will increase his closing skills and his appointment setting skills.\u00a0He recalls one helpful trick he learned from a sales consultant.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cHe enlightened me on the use of Google,\u201d recalls Post. \u201cThe trick was to search the DM, see what comes up, and then try to develop a rapport using the content that I found.\u201d<\/p>\n

Afterwards<\/strong><\/p>\n

There are certain expectations from bringing in a sales consultant, both from the dealer side and the consultant side. Once the sales training is complete, in an ideal situation what happens next?<\/p>\n

\u201cA sustainable and measurable increase in net new meetings that result in funnel selling opportunities,\u201d states Kingston. \u201cI can\u2019t guarantee which deal will close, but if you have five deals out there and you close one in five the goal is to get 10 out there and then you\u2019ll close two.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe sales rep goes back to their territory, revisits every account and goes through and fills out the CRM like we did in the training and harvesting information on his or her territory more thoroughly,\u201d adds Slawetsky.<\/p>\n

For Levine, the ideal outcome is that the sales rep will use LinkedIn as a tool to help grow their business, build their personal brand, and promote their story. LinkedIn provides the outlet to market themselves while growing and nurturing their network.<\/p>\n

\u201cSocial selling isn\u2019t a buzz-word,\u201d he says. \u201cIt has now become a crucial part of how sales people communicate with their prospects and clients. We now have to hang out on the same field where our buyers and clients are and this is online,\u201d emphasizes Levine.<\/p>\n

What kind of outcome do dealers expect?<\/p>\n

\u201cThe outcome was great for us, but we also learned that you have to have management understand that it is a very different method than the traditional cold call all day and follow up the next day,\u201d says Habbal. \u201cWith that misunderstanding, at the time, we did not follow through with using the program. Kingston sets aside certain periods of time for phone calling sessions, and our management at the time couldn\u2019t see why that was necessary so the concept slowly went away. I still use her concepts today to get into tough accounts and the talk tracks and methods she teaches work great.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Art

Art Post<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cI\u2019d equate it to golf,\u201d states Applied Imaging\u2019s Konyenbelt. \u201cIf I am bad at putting on the green, it\u2019s not the putting on the green that\u2019s the problem or part of the problem, it\u2019s the approach shot to the green. I\u2019m not hitting good approaches to the green so I\u2019m leaving myself 30-foot putts all the time. If I look at three or four different benchmarks inside of Strategy Development\u2019s approach to sales management for a person not producing at the right level, I can tell exactly what the problem is and diagnose and fix the problem pretty quick.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe outcome afterwards is always a renewed interest to schedule more appointments. Except for the one Google search, I’ve not seen anything new in years,\u201d concludes Post.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s a good bet the old adage, \u2018Those who can\u2019t do teach\u2019 doesn\u2019t apply to your average document imaging industry sales consultant. Sales consulting and training has become a cottage industry as folks who were once out in the field selling day in and day out or running dealerships are now enjoying second careers offering training and consulting to dealer principals, sales managers, and other sales professionals. With that in mind we\u2019re going to examine the value proposition that these consultants provide to the dealer community, focusing on why there\u2019s a need for these services even in a successful dealership and what\u2019s being taught with an emphasis on new sales strategies. Why, Why, Why? \u201cDealers call me because they want to increase market share, because they want their sales executives to be hunters not farmers, and they don\u2019t necessarily know how to do it on their own or have the time,\u201d says Kate Kingston, president and founder of the Kingston Training Group. Kingston is a familiar face at industry conferences and events and for the past 14 years has been training office technology dealerships to prospect effectively at the C-level. \u201cIf we can get them in front of the customer more often, more proposals will be written, which means they\u2019ve increased not only the number of new clients they have, but also the size because we\u2019re hitting the C-level and working on larger opportunities,\u201d states Kingston. \u201cThat\u2019s what builds a dealership.\u201d One often hears there aren\u2019t any guarantees in life, but Kingston would disagree, especially since the Kingston Training Group guarantees results. \u201cI have a track record of delivering over a 50 percent increase in new meetings across any sales force I train or my training is free,\u201d she says. \u201cYou bring me in because there is an ROI that\u2019s guaranteed, because you may not have time to do it, and because my entire life\u2019s work is making sure business technology sales executives can get in front of their customers successfully at a decision maker level.\u201d Dealers who hire Strategy Development are some of the most successful dealerships in the industry. Why do they need help if they\u2019re already successful? \u201cThe most successful companies are always looking to improve,\u201d contends Tom Callinan, principal of Strategy Development. \u201cA successful entrepreneur can never be an expert in every area. I bring sales management expertise and put a stronger process in place.\u201d In a $10 million dealership the owner might be considered the process [for sales management], but once a dealership grows to $30 or $40 million with multiple branches, Callinan says the process the smaller entrepreneur originally had isn\u2019t scalable or repeatable. \u201cI can eliminate the mistakes, and over time they\u2019ll be able to do it as well as I do it,\u201d says Callinan. Strategy Development offers training and consulting. With its consulting business Strategy Development helps the dealership implement these new management or sales processes discussed during their training sessions in a step-by-step fashion. \u201cIf you attend one of our training sessions we\u2019d lay all the processes out for you from A-Z,\u201d explains Callinan. \u201cIf [you only attend the training session but don\u2019t become] a client, my expectation would be you\u2019d go back and implement it, but I\u2019d have no way of knowing if you did.\u201d Industry Analysts has been offering sales training since the 1990\u2019s, much of it originally focused on product and how to sell one brand against another. Now much of its training is brand agnostic and geared towards the new rep, or as a refresher for a senior rep who needs to learn new tricks of the sales trade. \u201cIt\u2019s basic sales training,\u201d explains Andy Slawetsky, president of Industry Analysts. \u201cHow to get to the decision maker, for example.\u201d He maintains that many dealers are looking for training beyond what\u2019s available from their manufacturers. \u201cNot that the manufacturers aren\u2019t providing good training, but sometimes they provide the same thing over and over and dealers just want something a little different,\u201d states Slawetsky. Dealers who contact Slawetsky for training either read the Industry Analysts newsletter or see a Tweet that strikes a nerve when he comments on what a sales rep might experience while closing a deal, something that Slawetsky experienced back when he was selling copiers. As to why dealers can\u2019t do this themselves, Slawetsky says, \u201cThey don\u2019t want to deal with it; they don\u2019t have a curriculum, they want turnkey.\u201d He acknowledges that some of the bigger dealerships have their own training departments, but many don\u2019t have the bandwidth. He also acknowledges that it\u2019s not unusual for new reps to spend a lot of time in the field with an experienced rep, which can be a great learning experience, but at the same time also exposes them to bad habits. Larry Levine, social sales strategist for Dealer Marketing Systems, has one of those trendy sounding job titles, but it accurately describes his expertise and what he provides. Levine has put in his time in the document imaging industry in various sales positions with various dealerships and OEMs for well over two decades. He describes himself as a copier guy that understands personal branding and how to build relationships. \u201cI\u2019ve figured out how to grab net new business by doing that,\u201d says Levine. He enjoys sharing LinkedIn stories and describes LinkedIn as the \u201cgame-changer\u201d in the highly competitive copier world. He coaches and transforms copier sales professionals to grow their net new business by helping them tell their story and communicate on LinkedIn. He can also help sales reps build their relationship funnel. \u201cYou can\u2019t have a sales funnel if you don\u2019t have any relationships,\u201d maintains Levine. \u201cThe copier industry is sorely lacking in teaching and training sales reps how to market themselves.\u201d Evolving with the Industry As the industry has changed, sales consultants have had to roll with the flow. Levine pulls no punches about the necessity of disrupting the status quo in a changing world. \u201cSales reps today have gotten fat and lazy, and the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1641],"tags":[105,106,162,208,677,2336,2326,2303,435,2261,339,2335,346],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13666"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13666"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13666\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13671,"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13666\/revisions\/13671"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13666"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13666"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13666"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}