Clearly my management team has focused on improving the activity ratio.  There has been a huge sales push for activity in the past few weeks.   ACTIVITY = DEALS! flashed up on my Blackberry a few weeks ago.  Guess the boss read my last blog  

I don’t disagree with the concept, but suggest one modification – THE RIGHT ACTIVITY = DEALS.  The reason for my suggestion is simple.  If you are pushing your sales team to make new calls, do they have a clear sense of:

• Who they should be approaching
• What they should be asking (not saying)
• Which prospects are worth their time

The difference between an average performer and a top performer can be as simple as knowing where to fish and when to cut bait.  I frequently see sales people spend lots of engergy on first calls but never get the deal done.  Why? 

Most likely they are not calling on decision makers.  It is very easy when cold calling to start low in an organisation rather than going to the decision maker.   Don’t get me wrong, calls at lower levels in an organisation can provide the information and insight into what a decision maker values.  However, believing these conversations will progress your sale forward is a fools game if you never get to the decision maker. 

The second mistake I often see sales people make is to go into a first call preparing what they want to say.  They spend countless hours wordsmithing their presentations and practising their opening/closing remarks.  The pre-call ritual of top performers is a bit different.  They spend their time doing two things – learning about their prospect and preparing questions (not presentations). 

I’m not sure how much time it takes your sales people to prep for a pitch, but 15 minutes on the web can provide some very good info on the company (earnings pattern, key partners, strategic initiatives, etc).  Even more powerful is 15 minutes on the phone with a peer or supplier of your prospect.  They can tell you how they buy, what they value and stuff you just can’t learn on the web.   So make sure your sales team does their homework first.

The thing that separates top performers is once they have information, they prepare “high gain” questions which help them understand what is important to the prospect.  The secret isn’t so much in the questions (2 or 3 should suffice).  The real trick is to allow the prospect to fully answer them.  Unfortunately, this is where most average performers fall down.  They ask a question, let the prospect provide a top of mind response and then start talking as soon as the prospect finishes.  If they would just sit quietly and count to five after receiving the first answer,  the prospect will expand on their answer and start to provide some real insight.   So step two involves preparation and patience.

The third and most critical mistake I see is investing time into ”prospects” who just aren’t worth the effort.  The toughest decision any salesperson faces is when to stop calling on a prospect.  There could be 25 really good reasons to stop but the “possibility that they could buy something someday” keeps prospects on call lists way too long.  When you are rewarded for closing deals, conventional wisdom would say the more targets you have the better your odds.  There are two fundamental flaws with this assumption – you have unlimited time and all sales are of equal value. 

 Top performers share know which prospects are worth their precious time.  They don’t just use size of the deal as a rule of thumb or length of the sales cycle.  They use both.  What top performers do very well is assess a prospect’s propensity and capacity to buy.  They also assess how much time and effort it will take to get them to buy.  Lastly they compare this effort per unit of revenue to their other opportunities and decide where to focus their time.  This makes it easy for them to objectively determine when it is time to cut bait and move on to another fish.

My advice this month is simple – help your sales team focus on getting to decision makers, ask high gain questions and objectively evaluate where to invest their precious time.

This quote pasted to the bottom of my computer screen is one I read often and one of the secrets to success of top performers.  They don’t waste time on small talk or make excuses for their sales results.  What they do very well is plan and execute –  maximising the use of their time to generate results.  “Plan your work and work your plan” is the mantra of top performers. 

As you walk the halls of your firm this month, take notice of what people are doing.  Are they betting on luck or executing a plan for success?

My guess is most of your staff (and possibly you?) spent the first week of 2009 doing being very busy but accomplishing very little. 

If you have a staff of below average performers you probably heard lots of calls that began with “Happy New Year”  or “I’m just calling to reconnect” and concluded with “Let’s keep in touch this year.”  

If you have a staff of average performers, you may have overheard them confirming appointments a few weeks out or fishing for appointments with the weak closing remarks like, “let’s find some time to get together this quarter.”

However, if you have a staff of top performers, you would not have overheard them last week.  Why?  Because they were out of the office, face-to-face with customers and prospects solving problems and looking for opportunities.

All the top performers I know have their own style and approach.  Some constantly seek referrals, set bold new appointment goals or ruthlessly network.  Their one common thread is simple.  They book their most important appointments well in advance. 

So instead of reconnecting by phone the first week of the New Year in hopes of securing an appointment, they set their most important appointments for 2009 before jetting off for holiday.  By planning in advance they got a jump on the competition and significantly increased their odds of success in 2009.

So my tip for you this month is simple, observe what your people are doing and see how they spend their time.  If you want to create a culture of top performers, then you need to encourage the simple discipline of planning, prioritising and time management.

For the past 8 years, I have spent the Christmas holidays in Vail, Colorado.  Vail has become a winter playground for wealthy individuals from around the world.  As you walk around the village, you see the international jet set draped in the finest designer clothes indulging in all the great food, drink and shopping on offer. 

While on my way to the mountains this year, I wondered if things would be different: 

• Would there be fewer conspicuous consumers crowding the restaurants and lift lines?  
• Would the resort offer discounts to convince skiers to spend their hard earned dollars? 
• Would I find a parking space after 9:30 am?

Well, I can report that the credit crunch doesn’t appear to be affecting the business at Vail.  The lift lines, the restaurants and the parking garages were bursting at the seams.  This is despite price increases across the board for all of these services.  So how did they do it?

The best way to describe Vail to a non-skier  is to compare it to Pebble Beach, a public golf course with beautiful scenery and a hefty price tag.  The course is impeccibly maintained and provides a great round of golf that is discussed for years with family and friends. 

One important variable Pebble Beach can’t control is the weather.  However, they charge the same price as when it is raining as when it is sunny.  They can do this because they have a clear value proposition – playing Pebble Beach is all about the experience and this experience isn’t diminished by inclement weather.

When it comes to the weather, Vail is no different than Pebble Beach.  The management know this and have invested heavily (billions) in infrastructure to ensure that vacationers have other options (snow tubing, spa services, dining, shopping, ice skating …) when the weather isn’t cooperating.   They have also invested in technology to make it easy to consume more of the resort’s services.  You can pre-load your lift tickets, schedule ski school for the kids and rent skis via the web before you arrive.  Once on the mountain, you can pay for food and other entertainment by flashing your ski pass.  Being at Vail remids me of visiting a casino, you don’t physically hand over your money, but your wallet is much lighter when you leave.

So the challenge facing financial services executives is no different than the challenge faced by ski resorts and golf courses.  How do you get customers to buy more from you even when times are tough and the weather (aka markets) uncertain? 

The first step in figuring out this problem begins with considering the following questions:

• Who is your customer and what do they value?
• How well is your firm delivering on this value?
• Have you set your customers expectations that despite your firm’s expertise you can’t control the weather?
• What could you do to deliver an experience your customers will rave to their friends about? 
• What two things could you do this year to make it easier to do business with your firm?
• What can you do to command a premium price, other than accurately forecast the markets?

Regardless of what 2009 brings, I’m sure the  markets will be mixed with some sunny days, some cloudy and some just plain dreadful.  I plan to don wellies and a raincoat in an effort to figure it out.  I hope you will do the same.