"They are pushy, they are ambitious and they think they can sell anything to anyone – whatever it takes, and whatever the cost."

I’m not the greatest fan of reality television but I’ll admit that my heart sank beyond its usual depths while reading this initial description of ITV’s new reality show ‘Natural Born Sellers’. I don’t doubt that this tele-visual sales microcosm can be beneficial for those who wish to learn more about sales, but I can’t help but feel that the overall experiment is going to be a horrific public relations nightmare for the industry as a whole. The credibility of sales people in general is tarnished with the ‘car salesman’ stereotype that provides such a strong blockade to creating trust in business relationships – won’t such a program just enforce this further?

Most will agree that the very idea of reality television is oxymoronic but instead a goldfish bowl of carefully chosen individuals designed to create the maximum friction possible in the pursuit of ‘great television’. The pressure put on to perform in front of camera does funny things to people and most of them are negative in such a genre of broadcasting. But then, isn’t sales all about pressure and ambition?

I will probably give the first few programs a trial to see whether my fears are at all founded, and who knows this may be a wonderful opportunity to learn… though I’ll reserve judgement on that right now.

A funny thing happened on the way to a football match

A rare midweek excursion ended up with me and the wife going out to eat in London before we went off to see a football match. Whilst sitting waiting for the main dish I could not help but overhear tones of discontent about a subject dear to my heart. At the next able were two men sitting drinking their vino and sampling the local dish and they were having a rather heated discussion.

‘I just don’t know how to satisfy my manager all he keeps going on about is how bad my sales forecast is. He doesn’t realise what state the economy is in and what effect it’s having on my opportunities.’ Said the first man.

‘So what has he suggested you should do?’ said the second man.

‘The same as he always does forecast more accurately’.

‘What are you going to do about it?’

‘Just keep doing what I am doing and hoping for a lucky break and also try and convince my boss as to what is really happening’.

Well, all I can say is that my wife was right; I didn’t hear a word she said. I was too interested in the conversation. It was screaming out for me to intervene and say go and ask your manager what he would do in such a situation, how would he get some accuracy into the forecasts? Has he ever presented how he judges the probability of a sales opportunity? Has he ever explained the company’s sales process?

It was time to leave but they were still discussing the state of the world. I will never know but will that sales person be another statistic to failure, which is ‘he hasn’t made his targets so get rid of him’, or will his sales manager coach him and help him improve his performance? We will never know.

I have been fortunate enough to have spoken to Craig Elias many times and can personally attest to the creativity that Craig, as a sales professional and entrepreneur, brings to the sales industry as a whole. For those who don’t know him, Craig is the creator of Trigger Event Selling and for over 20 years has been the top sales performer at every company that he has worked for. His impressive resume includes coverage in some of the US top news and sales journals with one of the pinnacles of his career winning $1 million in a global “Billion Dollar” competition.

On the 17th September (not long now) Craig is hosting one of the largest webinars for business leaders, entrepreneurs and sales and marketing professionals. This webinar will deliver the proverbial “silver bullet” in sales to those who want to increase and maximise their business potential.

I strongly urge anyone who wishes to learn more and improve to go check out Craigs site to learn more on the "Silver Bullet in Sales" webinar or to register for the event here.

A company is going to implement a brand new CRM system into their work environment. The initial negotiations have been concluded and the value of the system has been recognised, the proof of concept has gone through without a hitch and even the finance director is on board. The IT department has analysed the specs and has concluded that the company’s present infrastructure is compatible and that it can accommodate the new system. At one point in this entire process will the sales person who actually will be using this system be consulted?

Is it:-

a) From the very beginning – The Company recognises that for maximum impact and increased probability of buy in, the sales force that is going to become more efficient and hopefully sell more from this venture should be consulted at every stage. They are consulted about what they would like to see and have a genuine input into influencing the buying decision of the company.

b) Towards the latter stages of the buying process – After senior management are satisfied with proofs of concepts and are sure that the system is going to provide them with what they require, the sales manager will present to the sales force a synopsis of the project and what is required. Dialogue at this stage of the process is intended to pave the way for greater buy in further down the process when the system is implemented.

c) At the end of the buying process – The sales force are notified momentarily before implementation of the system when the buying process has been concluded. The first time any sales person has direct contact with the system is the half day training session after which the sales force will be expected to be fluently capable of using and benefiting from the new system.

Discuss.

(Please give reasoning for your answers – you may use a protractor)

Michael Byrne’s blog post on Sales Management 2.0 highlighted an innovative way of implementing new technology and web 2.0 into the very culture of doing sales within the organisation itself. To summarise, Michael’s company facilitated a conference call system where sales representatives in a pharmaceutical company review their sales calls with a sales coach and the contents of the call are recorded on to a podcast on the company intranet for other sales reps to download and learn from. I not only find the concept interesting but also find the strategy of implementing this technology into the framework of the business itself an inspirational move. Not only can sales people learn from one another but it creates a community in what can be a very solitary business requiring a lot of travelling from one place to another.

If web 2.0 signifies the revolution of the way that internet users participate and use the web, then sales 2.0 surely should be a similar shift in using technology to increase business connectivity not only with new customers but with their very own sales force. Community and conversation is the way that expresses the way that technology has been used to define the changing ways of using the internet, but what can be said of sales? Is there that same shift in community in the sales industry; is there greater collaboration internally within the organisation? Are we reaching out to each other not only globally but internally as well?

Some would argue that technology in the internal infrastructure of companies is damaging for real communication between one person and another. Certainly, I have seen email change some working atmospheres where conversation is replaced by a hive of internal company emails (Read Matt Beaumonts “E: A Novel” for a hilarious fictional story centred around company internal email). Will using sales/web 2.0 techniques in the company benefit the way we do things at the moment? Perhaps there is great potential in both good and harm in integrating new ways of connecting as more communication facilitates more distraction. Michael’s solution to using podcasting certainly highlights that web 2.0 technology in the sales arena can be used in situations where communication is difficult and inaccessible but where distraction in the work place is limited.

Whatever the potential the general existence of community that 2.0 culture promises isn’t prevalent in companies at the moment. Yes, there are a lot of sales people using social media sites for lead generation and networking. There are a lot of people using online sales tools and SaaS systems for keeping up-to-date with their business information but the question I would like to answer is how many companies have adapted their organisation to fully utilise sales 2.0 by creating community within their organisation? The potential that 2.0 culture gives us is in creating closer knit groups of people who will work harder for one another and learn from one another.

Ps. Well worth a listen to is Michael Byrne's set of interview podcasts on "core competencies" on QBC.