\u00a0and give your sales managers a blueprint for increasing business and developing their teams to their fullest potential. \u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cIf we had more opportunities at bat we\u2019d sell more\u201d is a comment I commonly hear from dealer principals.\u00a0It is true that all else being equal if you had more appointments you would generate more revenue, so the question to be asked is \u201cWhy don\u2019t we have more appointments?\u201d\u00a0 Some problems have simple solutions and others are more complex than they look. So why can\u2019t a company in the copier business get more appointments?\u00a0 Here is my assessment: The sales turnover is unacceptable.\u00a0It is difficult to grow revenue with turnover > 20 percent yet most companies in the \u201ccopier industry\u201d have turnover at or over 100 percent. The sales professional is using the wrong talk track, usually focused on saving money or providing better service.\u00a0 These value propositions require that the prospect company believes their copiers are a material expense\u2014they usually aren\u2019t\u2014or that they are receiving less than acceptable service today. The sales professional is being trained with techniques that worked when copiers were actually high tech rather than utilitarian.\u00a0There aren\u2019t any true innovations with today\u2019s MFP\/D so there is nothing to \u201cwow\u201d a prospect.\u00a0The sales professional needs to focus on paper and workflow and then scope devices to fit the company\u2019s use of paper. The sales professional is not educated on business processes in vertical markets so they cannot have a business discussion with a prospect.\u00a0This results in being pushed down, if they can even get the appointment at the correct level, and a focus to \u201cwhen is your lease up,\u201d vs. uncovering a business case for a next step. Most companies allow the sales professional to control the account when today\u2019s \u201ccopier companies\u201d actually provide numerous products and services that could result in wallet share gains or entry into a new prospect.\u00a0Therefore, the sales professional might not be leading with the correct product for the given account. Management oversimplifies what it takes to get a solid appointment at the correct level.\u00a0Many times senior management doesn\u2019t look at the techniques their sales team is using through their own eyes: Would the approach they are teaching their sales professionals work if they were trying to get an appointment with them?\u00a0 The overriding belief is that activity = results but if you can\u2019t swim, you can flail your arms twice as fast as the next guy you\u2019re still going to drown. Here\u2019s what needs to change to consistently grow revenue: The industry needs to move to a more competitive compensation approach to attract quality sales professionals.\u00a0Simply go to salary.com and search for salary ranges for \u201caccount executive\u201d in your zip code.\u00a0My experience is that median salary will be in the $54,000 range with total compensation in the $65,000 range.\u00a0The 10 percent quadrant will be somewhere in the low to mid $40,000 range, meaning only 10 percent of account executive jobs pay a salary lower than that figure.\u00a0Search for \u201cstarting salary for 2015 college graduates\u201d and you\u2019ll find that business majors start in the low $50,000 range.\u00a0If the industry continues to pay a salary in the $30,000 range then we are solidly in the 10-percentile range and have very little attractiveness to sales candidates.\u00a0This doesn\u2019t mean we need to pay more as a ratio of revenue or GP\u2014turnover and low sales productivity actually drives higher sales expense.\u00a0The industry can pay a higher base and reduce sales expense if done correctly. We need to make better hires.\u00a0It makes no sense to pay more and hire the same candidate we hired with our $30,0000 base. Sales territories need to be account focused so senior management is confident that the sales professionals are spending their time on accounts with enough value for your company.\u00a0I\u2019d rather have one appointment a week with an account with 4 copiers, 20 printers, and 70 employees that could benefit from MNS, document management, and the other products and services your company sells then three appointments a week with a company with seven employees and one copier.\u00a0 I am not suggesting one appointment a week is acceptable I am just highlighting that all appointments are not equal. On that same note, the appointment needs to be at the correct level to make a decision.\u00a0 Again, I\u2019d take one appointment at the CFO level in that aforementioned company with 70 employees rather than three appointments with office managers.\u00a0To accomplish that goal\u2014getting the appointment at the correct level\u2014the sales professional needs to be able to have a business discussion as no senior manager is going to spend time with a sales professional that clings to the notion they can save them money and wants a copy of their lease agreement. Even if you have numbers 1 \u2013 4 in place, this one is critical to success: The sales manager needs to be focused on developing members of their sales team.\u00a0Development isn\u2019t simply going out on appointments with the sales professional because we already know we aren\u2019t getting enough of those.\u00a0 Development starts with helping the sales professional get those appointments through working with the sales professional to identify every opportunity inside an account to sell the products and services that your company offers.\u00a0The sales manager is the key person in the sales organization and needs to be held accountable to retain and develop sales employees. So if you want more appointments\u2014and more revenue\u2014focus on the more complex problem and fix your management. Check out our next Strategic Sales Management workshop in Phoenix on September 15-16.\u00a0Your sales managers will learn a sales process that will ensure success.\u00a0 Reserve your seat today, our last three sessions sold out! Register today for the September 15-16 SD\u00a0Strategic Sales Management Workshop\u00a0and give your sales managers a blueprint for increasing business and developing their teams to their fullest potential. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":13793,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1638],"tags":[151,339,346],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13792"}],"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\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13792"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13792\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13795,"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13792\/revisions\/13795"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13793"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13792"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13792"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13792"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\u201cIf we had more opportunities at bat we\u2019d sell more\u201d is a comment I commonly hear from dealer principals.\u00a0It is true that all else being equal if you had more appointments you would generate more revenue, so the question to be asked is \u201cWhy don\u2019t we have more appointments?\u201d\u00a0 Some problems have simple solutions and others are more complex than they look.<\/p>\n