When does a client cease be worth the effort?

Dealing with a difficult customer can be a challenging and frustrating problem and there is a very fine line between being firm, forthright and being rude to your client or appearing to be dismissive of their views. If you have been in and around business long enough you will have met a few awkward customers along the way and it will often have felt like you are banging your head against a brick wall.

My business is entered around giving clients business and marketing advice and I have a team of highly experienced and talented people around me to ensure that our clients benefit from a diverse range of skills, experience and opinion. We are not a cheap option for a business to engage with but we are very good at what we do and only ask our clients to pay if they are satisfied.

That said, it is of constant annoyance to me that I have clients who use our services only to then find a reason to disagree with every piece of advice we offer, to table a "better" marketing solution than our recommendation or to rewrite the copy of a press release we have sent for their approval. We are an open-minded business and love it when a client gets heavily involved with our work but there is no point in us working with a client who believes they can do the job better than we can and if they feel that then they really should never have engaged us in the first place!

The other annoyance is from clients who make repeated promises about what they will do for us to assist us to deliver on their brief but consistently fails to deliver anything. Typically they will not reply to calls or emails as they are too busy and then, when our project finally hits their radar they complain at the lack of progress - these clients are possibly the most difficult to deal with as they simply cannot ever see any fault in their own actions and look to appoint blame anywhere but with them.

There are some members of my team that will do anything to keep a client happy and will always be completely respectful of the client regardless of of how deserving the client is of that respect. I have a different opinion to most of my team - that no client will be allowed to continue to use our services if they are a pain in the ***! 

To me, it is simply not worth the hassle. Clients like this bring the morale of my team down, they take up a vast amount of time to keep vaguely happy and are never complimentary or remotely happy with anything we do. They will not pay their bills on time and when they finally pay they will look for discounts or reasons to reduce the amount billed. For me these are the clients that I will happily walk away from. 

It is with this approach that I can focus on the clients that want to get the very best from my team, that want to engage and that take an open-minded approach to new ideas and concepts. We are not always right, we will sometimes misunderstand a brief and a client will need to tell us our work is not in keeping with their expectations - and this is absolutely fine, in fact it is refreshing when it is communicated constructively and positively.

My team are positive, creative and passionate people and I have observed with interest how their talents become eroded when clients become unnecessarily difficult or obstructive and because of human nature that negativity can be carried into the work of other clients and that is what I simply cannot allow to occur.

So to all clients out there; be nice, be constructive and play fair because if you do then you will get the very best from my team, you will get their passion, their energy and they will share your pride when our work impacts on your bottom line and if you can't play nice or play fair then you will very soon be playing on your own!!

Hands up, who actually likes networking meetings?

Many of us attend networking sessions and an awful lot of us hate it but I have met a few over the years who have claimed to like it. In my experience those that enjoy networking gatherings do not do much networking but they chat to old friends and associates and generally use the event as a social occasion.

I'll admit that networking can be fun when you are familiar with some others in attendance but I do firmly think that to call this networking is being rather generous! I like a beer or a glass of wine with my business mates just like anyone does but we'll deride one of our crowd who dares to attempt to talk about work - let alone try to sell something.

Then there is the networking event that you agree to attend only because some random contact you last saw in a Travelodge three years ago managed to convince you over LinkedIn it would be a good idea. You arrive and know nobody, you have added your name to a card and slotted it into the plastic sleeve you then have to wear on a lanyard. As you walk into the main room there are a few too many shiny suits and an overpowering smell combination of aftershaves and perfumes. It is at this point that the "host" will come beaming up to you with a big fat smile and a metal name badge to display his significance over anyone else. With a chuckle he reads your name from your badge out loud and instantly becomes adhered to your side like a heavyweight limpet for the next ten minutes. "You must meet Marjorie" he will suggest enthusiastically (Marjorie will normally be free and talking to nobody because all those in the know already avoid her like the plague as she has all the charisma of a meatball) "Marjorie runs a VERY successful business selling egg cups made from recycled garden hose" exclaims the host with enough volume to ensure Marjorie has heard this compliment.

Marjorie is harmless enough, she looks like something between Hyacinth Bucket and Pat Butcher. She tells me how she came up with this "wonderful idea" after her husband Cedric died and she realised that he had far too much garden hose. Her very successful enterprise has online shops on eBay and Amazon but she has not yet reached double figure monthly sales - she just needs one of the big boys like John Lewis to stock her product and then she will be preparing for the call from the producers of Dragons Den.

Marjorie never asks about you or your business and the conversation inevitably falls into an uncomfortable silence. "Excuse me, I must just pop to the loo" gives you the break you need and Marjorie is left alone until the next newbie arrives.

"Ladies and gentleman, please gather around" booms a voice. It's the host again and he is about to launch proceedings. You gather into a crowd in front of him and avoid going anywhere near the front. He waffles on for five minutes or so about how nice it is to see everyone and then it comes...the words we all dread..."can we all now form a circle and tell everybody a little about you and what you do." Everybody shuffles around, those that hang back hoping to escape this ritual are ushered in like a queuing pig at the abattoir. "Who would like to start?" Silence. Everybody is avoiding eye contact and waiting for some poor sod to be volunteered to kick things off. Norman eventually starts, he is an Accountant from Norman & Borem Partners, next up is Kylie, she is a spray tan specialist from Southend. Now it's Deano's turn; he is the International Business Development Director for Plat'num Motors behind the B&Q in Billericay - they deal in "Beemers, Merks and Owdeez but can get 'old of anyfing." 

Now it's your turn, you attempt to recite the same spiel you used at the last 49 of these events and you just about pull it off - not that anyone listened or can remember your name ten seconds after it was said.

Now onto the mini Scotch Eggs and cocktail sausages from a paper plate with someone's homemade relish that tastes like feet.

Why do we keep doing this to ourselves? It could all be so much easier! Have two big tables; one for the boys and one for the girls. Put some booze on the table and let things happen naturally. As the session progresses people will swap tables and mix with those they feel an infinity too - that is how business is done. None of you buy anything of someone you don't like or think is an idiot so why on earth do we think there is a great business opportunity to be had by forcing a group of people upon each other in such an unnatural and uncomfortable way?

If you put people together they will find the like-minded others, they will connect and they may do some business. We do not need handholding or to be forced into these embarrassing circles of hell so please stop bloody doing it!!!

It's people that matter!!

It never ceases to amaze me the number of small business owners that want to project an image of being a much bigger entity than they are. Do they really believe that being a small business is a bad thing? Does it make them less committed? Does it make them less reliable or trustworthy?  Of course not, quite the opposite I would say.

A small business owner is much more likely to care, much more likely to need you to pass his details on to others and will be much more grateful when you do. Running a small business can be a tough job, money can often be tight as prices get squeezed by the big boys and there are certainly not thousands or millions of pounds set aside for expensive marketing campaigns. 

So the small business needs are support. No big deal, we've known that for years and many of us try to support the small business when we make buying decisions which can only be a positive. I'm certainly happy to spend more to give my business to small independent businesses.

So why oh why are so many of these businesses launching glossy websites claiming to be a sizeable business offering an extensive range of services, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week??? If I need a tradesman I'm going to look for a small business so please don't hide behind a big frontage as I'm much less likely to call you!

If you're a plumber called Bob Smith who's been in the trade for twenty years then you are the guy for me. If you as Bob Smith call yourself Delta European Plumbing Solutions "plumbing and water flow engineering specialists" I really am not going to call.

Keep it small, keep it honest and keep it local, it really is what so many of us want.

Suited and booted

The chosen attire of a salesperson has been a contentious point of discussion for years. It seems to typically come down to one key issue - should salespeople only wear formal business clothing such as suits?

It is certainly the case with the majority of sales roles that the suit is the popular choice but there are a number of cases when there are valid arguments for not wearing the standard salesperson uniform. Indeed there have been numerous occasions when I have decided against looking too formal and have gone for a more casual look.

Arriving on a building site in an expensive suit will often leave you open to ridicule and covered in mud - here there is certainly an argument for dressing in clothing that will allow the customer to relate to you and also navigate the obstacles on a site in development. It can be a very uncomfortable experience sitting in a Portacabin in a suit whilst surrounded by tradesmen. I have always found it much easier to arrive in a pair of jeans and join them in a mug of tea with three spoons of sugar!

Back in 2000 I attended a sales conference in Phoenix, Arizona where there were over 500 salespeople from the telecoms and IT industry. Not one of the American salespeople wore a suit during their working day - it was very much branded polo shirts and chino's and they introduced themselves as Sales Engineers. For them, they would never consider walking into a customer meeting wearing a suit as they felt that instantly devalued their experience and technical ability.

I have generally left salespeople to choose their own attire and make their own judgements. There will of course be times when they get it wrong but that is how they learn best. The most common time this is an issue is when there are two people from a business attending a meeting together in different clothing choices - this presents a very contradictory message.

These days I never wear a suit. I am sometimes smart, sometimes smart casual and sometimes casual and it has had nothing but a positive effect on the way I'm perceived. Whilst it may seem presumptuous of me, I expect my clients to judge me based on what I deliver and not my attire choice of the day. In most instances it seems to relax my clients who see me as more of a person than a businessman and it is actually extremely rare for any client of mine to wear a suit.

In reality there is no right or wrong. Some people will expect polished shoes, a well-tailored suit and will refuse to accept anyone who does not meet their expectations and others will really not mind. 

Personally I'm not sure it matters!

Sales Meetings - High Fives or One-on-One's?

The sales meeting. Loved by some, hated by many.

Making a success of a meeting with often many different characters is a challenge at the best of times for a Sales Manager but like it or not, sales meetings are an essential part of the working life of a sales team.

I have seen every method of scheduling possible from the MD who considered it vital to have a meeting at 9am each day with the sales team to "get them set up for the day" through to business owners that considered a chat over a cigarette next to the trash at the back of the building as being a meeting!

It is natural that some people will work well in a team and thrive from competition and some will have no interest in being part of a team and will simply be interested in earning money and having to do with any of their colleagues. Some Sales Managers like the big energy, high-fives and I even experienced one who literally through a leather gauntlet onto the meeting table and shouted "which of you is brave enough to pick that up?" he was met with silence.

I often found that the geographical location of the team made a big difference to the effectiveness of a meeting. If people needed to drive 200 miles to get to the meeting then it was never a good thing to ask for their attendance at 8am. With national sales teams I have always insisted that we rotated around the home towns of all attendees and they would then be responsible for selecting a venue for lunch.

With such a strong mix of characters and ego's there will never be a perfect meeting, what appeals to some will bore others and this is why a mix is good and the meetings should not be too long. I have learned over the years that the strongest teams are built through socialising together and not sitting around a meeting table discussing targets.

There is of course a need to talk about business but this can be fitted in during the course of the time together. I always used to meet with my teams once a month and never on a Monday or Friday. We would meet at around 10am for a meeting and there would always be a plentiful supply of pastries and hot drinks on arrival and then I would allow the first half hour or so to let the team catch up with each other and enjoy a chat together. When we would get down to business I would start with a very quick review of the previous months performance as a team with attention only focused on the top performers and not the people that didn't meet their targets.

After talking for around an hour about other issues and new products etc I would take the team out for lunch and I would then use this time for chats around the table about new business and problems that the team were facing. It is much easier to get the true feelings of the team when they are in a relaxed environment and not singled out at a meeting. 

The venue was very important as it needed to have a large table for us all to eat together but I also always made sure there was a standing area nearby as this is where I could talk to people on a one-on-one basis and typically everyone likes to get up from the table and stretch their legs after eating.

Overall I wanted Sales Meetings to be booked only when necessary and to be as relaxed as possible - salespeople need to have their ego's massaged and this should be done both at the meeting in front of their peers and also during a one-on-one chat afterwards.

I would love to know your thoughts or experiences on this topic so please let me know in the comments below.

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What is the working day for a field salesperson?

This question can be very challenging for a business to answer as the reality is that most businesses cannot be sure of where their salespeople are at any exact time.

I am a great believer in having no set working hours and having trust in the self-management skills of salespeople. If a salesperson finds it acceptable to go missing or "skive off" then their problems will generally be much more wide ranging than a few missed hours.

I have always encouraged my sales teams to ensure that when they work they work at 100% and if they need a break, even for a game of golf or a lie in, then they take it. As long as the targets were met and the customers were happy then I have always given huge amounts of flexibility to my staff. I am fully aware that the life of the field salesperson is very demanding. They don't get noticed when they leave home at 4am for an appointment 400 miles away or if they do not get home until 10pm because the motorway was closed. They do get noticed though if they dare to have no appointments after 1pm on a Friday!

Good salespeople want to perform, want to be out in front of customers and they will almost certainly be awake in the small hours at times catching up with correspondence. I don't think salespeople respond well to the "where are you now?" phone calls. If the balance is right then there should be little need to ask this question and your salespeople should always feel at ease to tell you when they are not working. If a good performer tells you at 1pm on a Thursday that they are going for a beer with some friends then that should be great news for you as they will feel they have earned it and are comfortable with their performance.

In addition, I have always tried to keep meetings with the teams to a minimum. Salespeople are impatient and often bloody-minded and sitting at a meeting room table for more than an hour listening to me congratulating their colleagues and offering high-fives is a sure fire way to bore them! 

A good salesperson will make sure their clients and prospects are well served. They will generally keep their mobile telephone switched on around the clock and will take the calls that really matter outside hours. It was rare for my salespeople to need to work at weekends and I was firm in avoiding all but vital contact with them between 5pm on Friday at 9am on Monday - I would not even send emails to my team during these times. An email received from the boss at 8pm on Saturday night discussing new targets etc is so demoralising and will receive much more interest if simply sent on the following Monday. By allowing my teams time to escape work completely they performed so much better when they were at work and this method was respected by all and rarely abused.

However, as a boss, I will ALWAYS be available for my team - if they call me with a problem at 4am on a Sunday I will answer their call and they will get my complete attention.

I have never insisted on holiday allocations for my sales staff either. They know and I know when they are in need of a holiday and with performing salespeople I have never been bothered if they take three or four holidays a year - the principle is always the same; deliver the targets set and what you do outside of that is up to you. There is little to be gained by setting levels of twenty days per year etc - some will need to take more and some will want to take less - go with the flow and all will generally be good.

Whilst these methods will not suit all and will probably even prompt anger with some business owners they have always worked for me and created a very close-knitted team of dedicated professionals who consistently perform. The only problems I have ever experienced with this method have been with non-performers who have invariably promised more than they have the skills to deliver.

Salespeople are easy to criticise and find fault with. Unless you have actually been selling in the field for a few years it is really hard to understand what is involved and the levels of concentration required to be successful. Make sure you are the boss who supports your team and sets them free to be achievers. A salesperson that performs constantly and gets the job done will likely be the type of character to be best left alone to get on with the job - I have never found a great salesperson who likes being micro-managed. 

Set them free, let them sell and just watch the results....

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Never forget

So sales is easy?

Sure it is - for anyone who is not in sales.

Sales is easy when you know how and absolute hell when you don't. It is like being a master craftsman - you will have spent years mastering your trade and learning the intricate skills required to be one of the best and you will have confidence in what you do - the problem is that salespeople rarely command respect.

I am constantly baffled why salespeople do not get the respect and admiration they deserve. I have been in sales for over twenty years and I still meet people in the commercial world who regard sales as being a job for the  loudmouth ego's. Persuading a business or individual to buy your product or service is hard at best and has possibly the lowest success rate of any trade. For every sale you make you may have been told "No" to the one hundred phone calls or emails you have made perviously.

If you are an accountant, lawyer, banker, doctor or professor you will have gained some respect for the effort and time you will have invested to be a qualified professional or expert. You cannot be a sales expert.

Without doctors people die. Without lawyers they feel wronged, without bankers they are putting their money at risk (maybe!) but without salespeople what is there? Who sells the drugs to save you? Who persuades you to buy things that results in businesses banking their takings? Who grows your business or the businesses of others that create the growth you need to be employed? Without salespeople most businesses will be nothing at all and yet the lifeblood of many businesses are given such little respect. 

Salespeople are needed and should be respected as professionals. You cannot get a degree of any value in sales, you cannot be qualified but an awful lot of salespeople have made their bosses an awful lot of money and yet these bosses will be much more likely to boast the merits of their business concepts and not the salespeople who delivered the paying customers.

I have experienced this first hand with an old business partner. We built a business over many years that we successfully traded and sold. We were very well served by some excellent salespeople who have now moved on to pastures new but ultimately they created the value that allowed us to sell. My ex-Partner now, despite having never actually sold or even met a customer, regards himself as being the key to the success of the business and will happily tell all he can about his business successes without a mention of the people that delivered the sales.

There is however a balance. I have been in sales for over twenty years and have seen all of the ups and downs. Salespeople are generally fairly arrogant, selfish, egotistical, greedy and are bad at accepting any criticism. They can be very difficult, stubborn and often lack understanding of the roles of others. I therefore do not put salespeople on a pedestal and am fully aware of their negative character traits but we all need salespeople in business - whether we are buying or selling, it's them who make the business world tick. Sure there are rogue salespeople who lie and twist the truth to get a sale, but there are rogue builders, accountants, mechanics, landlords - there are rogues in all walks of life.

The art of sales cannot be simply summarised as having the ability to talk and be persuasive. The sheer thought and strategic planning that can go into winning an order or contract can be immense. A salesperson will analyse every part of the contact with the client and will go over and over the detail trying to find, understand and solve any objections or concerns the client may have. They will need to understand where their product or service may be weaker than their competitors and what they need to do to counter that. They will need to understand the clients opinion of them and the business they represent. They will need to deal with the budget constraints of the client and may need to become very creative in finding ways that make their proposal affordable. This is a process that is often started in the car after an appointment and the salesperson will be going through every small comment and reaction from the client and trying to highlight anything significant. It is a hugely taxing process that takes years to master and will occupy much of the salespersons thoughts during the day.

I have taken on junior salespeople and made them brilliant, I have employed great salespeople and made them even better and there is one consistent fact I am constantly reminded of - good salespeople need to work very, very hard. They are grafters and they are hungry, yes they mostly want lots of money, a flash car and good luck to them. Boost their ego's, tell them they are amazing and watch them puff out their chests and go sell for you. They want to be the best, they want their peers to be jealous of them and they want to earn fortunes - you want the sales and they want the money so give them every incentive they could dream of and watch your business grow.

I would love to know your thoughts or experiences on this topic so please let me know in the comments below.

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How do your quotes or proposals look?

The proposal or quotation. For some businesses this is the most important document in their portfolio and they can spend hours or even days labouring over providing a personalised proposal for a client. On the other hand there are just as many businesses who will sing the merits of a single-sided A4 sheet of paper detailing the elements and a price. So what is the right way for you?

I think any business does need a mixture of proposals at its disposal. This is simply because no two clients are ever the same. Some will want chapter and verse on what you can provide and others will just want a price. The problem is that you won't be successful if you present a simple proposal to someone expecting detail and you certainly won't inspire a person who just wants a price with a fifty page bound presentation.

Reading the client is key and the manner in which you deliver the proposal can make a big difference. If I am unsure as to what my client expects and I have not felt comfortable enough to pose a question then I will deliver a well separated proposal that contains plenty of information whilst ensuring that the client can easily locate the pricing page(s) if that is what they want to see.

Whatever the size of the document I consider it essential to start with detailing the requirements of the client and the briefs of any meetings that preceded the presentation.  Your interpretation of what the client has requested is vital to ensure that you have clearly identified their needs and to avoid any misunderstanding about what is to be provided. I generally open most proposals with a positive comment about the client; "Bob Smith provided us with a well defined and excellently considered brief..." This often will entice the client to ensure your proposal is shown to the bosses!

A quotation that is based on a template is ok as long as there are elements that will be personalised. I think any quotation that does not have any personal input will be obvious and probably overlooked by the recipient. On the whole though I would suggest writing your proposals with large emphasis on personalisation to the client, it shows diligence, effort and an attention to detail.

Visual representations are often well received - a picture can be worth a thousand words so if you are able to illustrate any elements of your recommendation then do so. This will require a few design and graphic skills but all these are very simply applied if you or your salespeople have Apple's MacBook's rather than conventional PC's.

Your proposal is a very important part of the sales process and must be respected as such. As it is a printed document you are not in control of who reads it and hence you need to make sure that whoever is passed your proposal is able to understand and digest its contents. I invest a great deal of time into my proposals and always make sure I include something that nobody else will have added. Whether this be a visualisation or some data, additional benefits or a relevant case study - I will not allow a proposal to be submitted that I do not feel has an edge in some way.

Just for a final "plug" at the end I would add that SalesFriend will review, edit, create or rewrite your proposal content at any time :) You can email me directly any time at chris@salesfriend.co.uk

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Who decides your price?

This is a very pertinent question. I have assessed many businesses over the years who have a pricing policy decided ultimately by the salesperson.

Often there will be a cost or trade price with the salesperson receiving a percentage of the profit between the trade price and the sale price and this can prove highly successful. 

It can also be problematic as many salespeople are inherently selfish and will often adapt any proposal to suit their needs rather that of the customer or their employer.

So how do you manage pricing within your business? How do you ensure your customers are getting value whilst still allowing your business to make a profit and keep your salespeople well rewarded? In truth it is very hard as there are so many moving parts to keep well-tuned. What you may regard as a fair price for your product could be deemed to be expensive by a competitor who has a differing business model. Offering a very low price will affect your profit and probably the commission of the salesperson too.

It all ultimately comes down to the overall objectives of your business and what you are looking to achieve. I have operated a few schemes whereby the customer gets a good deal and the salesperson gets the lions share of any profit and I gain the benefits of the ongoing business. This has always worked well for me as my previous businesses were generally centred around long term sale value rather than a need for a large trading profit. These schemes allowed me to reward salespeople at a level that few others could match and our customers got a good deal - and my client base grew quickly.

Salespeople will always need some degree of flexibility of pricing as giving a discount or doing a deal is a fundamental part of the sales process. By not providing the salesperson with a discount tool in their kit is like asking an artist to paint without a brush.

There are a lot of businesses who apply a simple markup over the cost price - this is very common in retail and low-margin, high volume businesses. On the whole these do prove successful but can also be very predictable for competitors who know they will be competing against you for your business - a big problem for standard B2B sales in a localised environment.

If your business has a need to issue a price list to clients or on its website then it becomes essential that you have a robust and regularly researched pricing policy as comparisons become very easy and you will often have no human interaction to justify or explain your pricing.

It is important to remember that pricing is not everything. I have had clients historically who have proved very profitable for me and pay a high price for my products and services but they get what they need. It may be they needed me to be on call 24/7 during the rollout of a project or that they needed full time project management or for me to be able to drop everything during a key phase and produce some advice at 3am on a Sunday morning. My clients understand that they are paying a premium for me if they need me to be available for them regardless of the time of day and we all regard this as being completely fair.

For me as a business owner it is important that everyone feels they are getting a fair price. The customer must not feel they have been charges excessively, the salesperson must feel well rewarded and I must feel that I am doing something worthwhile. There is little benefit for anyone involved if either party in a transaction is resentful of the price paid.

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Do you really need a Sales Manager?

I have encountered this a few times. The head of sales has been promoted through the ranks and now manages the sales team and takes responsibility for all sales related issues within the business. They rarely sell.

Often they have been a top performer with a great track record and are therefore the natural choice to head the team when the time comes. Natural choice? For who? 

Taking your top performing salesperson away from sales duties and into a management role can defy all business logic and whilst they may be delighted with the pay rise, better car and the prestige there has been little done to be any benefit to your business. If you have a salesperson who performs consistently why on earth would you change anything that may affect that performance?

I have learned over the years that for most sales teams of ten or less people there is no need for a Manager or Director. Motivated salespeople need very little management. There is certainly a need if there is training required by then this is best organised in the field with the sales staff and certainly does not need a dedicated person with a title. As the owner of the business you are best placed to manage the needs of your sales staff and adjust things accordingly - a sales manager in a business of ten of less salespeople is an expensive and unnecessary luxury.

I have been in the position of Sales Manager with sales teams of between seven and  nineteen people. My life with the team of seven was hardly a challenge, I did not ask for the job, salary, bonus or the Range Rover that came with the title but all was laid on regardless. I had my seat at the monthly "Management Meeting" and I was able to hire and fire but other than to intervene in the odd issue between sales and operations there was little to my job and I found myself missing the buzz of the win.

I met with my MD and we collectively agreed that the position was part-time at best and really required little more than a few hours each month and as such I returned to a predominantly sales-based role where my skills were best utilised whilst I "managed" the sales team on a part-time basis and remained as part of the management team.

As a salesman I didn't want or need management. I was able to manage myself and worked to a simple principle that Monday to Friday was for selling and weekends off. I would happily work 20 hours a day in the week but would never work on the weekends and this discipline worked well. I knew that without time away from work I would perform badly so I allowed no compromise in this regard.

With a team of nearly twenty there was certainly more of a demand for me to wear my Manager hat but this was only really to support salespeople with prospects that I would have handled alone had I remained as a salesperson.

I am not suggesting that there is no need for any management with a sales team but I do question whether any sales team of less than twenty needs a full time manager. It is really the case that with experienced and performing salespeople there will be very little need for daily management. Actually, it is often the case that a manager can negatively affect performance as they can find it necessary to instil their own methods on people that have no problem performing. 

In my opinion, it is essential in any business that management within a sales team (if they are necessary) must be actively selling and maintain their own customer relationships. A Sales Manager who does not produce sales will quickly lose the respect of their team. Whereas a performing "manager" who is also part of the team will have plenty of respect.

If you have a Sales Manager in your business ask yourself what value is created by their position? In my experience the vast majority of the duties in this role, such as reporting and monitoring, can be performed by an Admin Assistant with the support of the part-time Sales Manager to handle the few management responsibilities that are required.

By their very nature Sales Managers are well equipped to justify their positions and benefits but the reality will often remain that they are best for you when they are in front of customers.

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How much should you pay a salesperson?

The million dollar question!!

As an experienced salesman I have had salaries ranging from £6,000 per year to well over £200,000 plus commissions and bonuses - but I do regard myself as one of the best! :D

I was always very careful to ensure the package I was offered was balanced - a salary that is too high just made me complacent and ineffective and a salary that was too low just bred resentment.

The one criteria I always set myself was that by employer had to make money from me - if they were making money and I was then we were both happy.

A "get it while you can" attitude simply equals a short term position. No employer will tolerate you getting paid a huge salary without exceeding all expectations.

When I have been the person footing the bill for salespeople I have always worked to a 1:4 ratio. The salespersons salary should be 1/4 of their On Target Earnings and their OTE should be realistic. I always paid high commissions and big bonuses as I always wanted my salespeople to be chasing the next target. Therefore I was happy to pay a salary of £25k if the OTE was £100k and this would be the minimum acceptable level of performance. Anyone that sat in front of me and wanted a higher basic salary and lower commission would experience a very brief interview.

By sticking to these principles I was fortunate to work with some very successful sales teams who simply did not tolerate the interference of managers who wanted to overhaul the methods of consistent performer. They wanted to be left alone to perform and expected to be well rewarded for doing so whilst always knowing was help available when needed.

I have never had a problem with a salesperson who requests a minimum take home pay for a limited period in order to get established - in fact this filled me with confidence. A salesperson who simply needs to earn big money in order to fund his mortgage and lifestyle will be very driven and will nearly always excel. In every instance where a candidate has requested a minimum level of take home pay I have always requested previous wage slips. If they are requesting a guarantee of £3000 for three months then I need to be shown that they have consistently earned in excess of this figure and that the request is genuine. This of course provides me with additional proof that they have previously performed at a high level.

A good salesperson with a proven track record may well be worth breaking your budgets to win but remember that whilst salespeople are good at selling themselves but there are a myriad of issues that may arise when and if the salesperson starts working for you. I am guilty of following my gut instinct a few times too many and have paid too much to people who did not perform as promised and I have subsequently had to have some difficult conversations. I now work on a very clear principle, I will pay great money when the salesperson has proved themselves and I have no problem with committing to that within the offer of employment I send to them. If they meet the required targets for an agreed period of time they will receive whatever has been promised. I will often award the increases or bonus in stages over twelve months as I have often seen an initial flourish followed by a barren spell in the first year of employment.

The reality is that I cannot tell you what to pay your salespeople but I can tell you to make sure that they earn just enough to live and need to sell to live comfortably and need to sell lots to live well. Do not over-reward underperformance. Remember you only employ a salesperson to make money and/or to increase your value and the majority of salespeople are not as good as they claim!

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Whose clients are your clients?

So your best salesperson wins a great new customer.

Things are good and this is one of the customers you have been targeting for a while. Sales will increase and so will your profits...nothing but good news, right?

Hopefully.

Now take a step back, does the salesperson refer to this new client as "his" or "hers"? If you hear this phase then you have a problem.

This client is YOURS - you paid the salary of the salesperson to win this client, you will have paid the commission and probably the mileage of the car to get to the appointments. You will have paid the mobile telephone bill for all the calls and all the emails will have been sent from your domain name. You cannot allow this client to be owned or controlled by the salesperson.

Regardless of how much your salesperson resists you need to make sure someone else meets this client, your client. Take them to lunch or just meet with them, if nothing else call them and introduce yourself.

These words are not intended to ensure that you undermine your sales staff or to imply you should not have complete trust, they are intended to protect the investment you have made in securing your clients. I have lost count of the businesses I have met that have experienced desperate times after a key salesperson left the business only to embark on a complete assault of all clients known to them and have "stolen" the clients for their new employer. These clients are often told many untruths as encouragement to change.

I have found one consistent fact in most of these cases - despite what could be many years of loyal service, the salesperson will generally lose all loyalty to you once they are working for a competitor and have new targets to meet. In the cold light of day - the "existing" clients of the salesperson will be the easiest catch out there and many find it hard to resist.

When I raise this issue with clients I am often told "don't worry, that is all covered in our employment contract. Our salespeople cannot approach our clients for a year after they leave". "That's great" I reply "have you considered if and how you could enforce that contract before the damage is too severe?" Silence is the most common response to this question.

Take a minute to think this through. You have 500 clients of which 40 clients place orders every month. Your salesman, let's called him Kevin, he has left for pastures new and you can still recall the handshake he gave and the assurance that he won't cause you any problems in his new job. A couple of weeks after Kevin left you have noticed sales are a little down, nothing severe but enough to register with you. End of the month arrives and sales are more noticeably down, by 30%. You look through your sales ledger and see there are ten or so regulars that have been quiet. You call a couple of the owners you know, they are not available but you are assured of a call back. A week goes by, no calls returned and still sales are falling. You call another few regular clients. Finally one tells you the news that will send a small chill down your spine "Oh Kevin came to see us and told us he could save us 20% on our bills so we have signed up with him".

Kevin has been busy, in fact by the time you are first advised he has broken his word to you he has already signed up 20 of your "regular" clients and in effect has halved your businesses regular income.

Now Kevin won't answer his phone or reply to your messages, emails or letters. You contact your Solicitor to enforce the contract of employment. A very strong letter is sent out and you feel that all will be OK. Kevin may take notice, he may not but you will not win those clients back as a client will not be told who they must buy from. If you attempt to reduce your prices to match or undercut those of Kevin you will be asked why you didn't offer these prices before. Either way you have lost and there is nothing you can do.

You may send a few more letters to Kevin threatening court action but you won't actually go to court as your Solicitor will tell you that you are unlikely to win. Perhaps you do go to court and you do win, what have you won? Can you realistically collect any compensation? Will you get your clients back? It is all so stacked against you, the damage is done and you will need a minor miracle to come out of things unscathed.

So what can you do?

Well there is little you can do to guarantee this will never happen to you but there are many steps to reduce the possibility. Certainly a tight contract will deter some and a good amount will keep their word to you. For sales staff I always consider paying an additional 2.5% commission as a loyalty payment to be paid no less than six months after they have left your employment. If "Kevin" earns around £3000 per month then you will add £75 to the loyalty fund each month. After five years of service this fund could be £4,500 and that is hard for anyone to walk away from and may well focus his mind on keeping his word. Six months after he left you will have had chance to build new relationships with your clients and Kevin will find it much more difficult to win that client's business. I have found this method effective in retaining loyalty and also taking them out for lunch on their final day to set things on the correct course seems to end things well. Finally, as a last action on leaving day I draft a letter to all customers for the leaving salesperson to personally sign and send to thank them for their business and to send them best wishes for the future. This letter always concludes with: "due to my personal desire to keep my word to, agreement with and my respect for ABC Limited I will be unable to keep in contact with you professionally and hope that you can understand these principles...." I have never had a single person, having shaken my hand that then refuses to sign these letters.

Whilst there are many options to protect your business - the easiest and most effective of all is to recognise you need to manage your clients in a way that means they have a relationship with you and your business too - not just your salesperson. This will not happen overnight and certainly should not start when a salesperson has just resigned or left - your clients will see right through that. Regular contact with all clients is essential, whether it is a monthly customer service call or an event/open day when your clients can meet you in a social environment your clients will stay much more loyal if they know many members of staff at your business. 

Encourage your non-sales staff to build good relationships with clients when they have the opportunity to do so. If a client makes a payment ask staff to call them to confirm receipt and say thank you - simple little touches that will often lead to a brief chat or moment of humour can really help build relationships and make a big difference when changes do occur.

Losing a client is painful at any time, it is agony when you lose a client to someone to whom you paid a handsome wage and trusted.

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Can your customers afford you?

Do you offer a high value product or service that is only really available to businesses with deep pockets? Do you offer flexible payment solutions?

If the answer is No then you need to read on.

Making your product affordable or linked to the cost benefits it creates is simply a non-brainer. A product that saves £300 whilst costing only £200 a month is a very attractive proposition.

By allowing your customers to spread the cost of their investment in your product you are making your product easier to sell without affecting your cash-flow negatively.

How can this be?

By allowing your customers to rent or buy your product over a fixed-term contract can result in your business getting paid for the product in full upon delivery and your customers to pay monthly or quarterly.

With some schemes, at the end of the term of the contract ownership of the equipment can be passed to the customer, the lender or the seller and this can mean that the product can even be returned to you at the end of the agreement.

I have found that many businesses that use this service are able to satisfy the needs of customers with all budgets: Companies that want new equipment can be assured that they will have their equipment replaced every three years whereas businesses with less available capital are able to rent the equipment that is no longer required by others for a low rental. The company that made the original sale get to provide value and make money from both clients and therefore everyone is happy.

Funding services are provided by a number of operators, for more information feel free to contact us.

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Email marketing - Informative & clear advice.

When does a salesperson become successful?

So you employ salespeople.

Whether you have one salesperson or one thousand - the requirement is simple, they need to be making you money. But how do you judge this?

Do you judge it on the performance of the last month, the last quarter, the last year, the ongoing orders from their initial sales or the back end value to your business?

This is a really tough but really important decision. If you employ salespeople or plan to then it is vital that you decide how to measure their success or failures.

I have worked with and for a number of businesses where their requirements of me were not clear. Would they prefer that I deliver ten clients a month who spend £1000 each or one client a year worth £300,000? The client who spends £1000 will be a significantly easier sale than the £300,000 spending client but what is better for your business? Lots of regular income that covers the costs of the salesperson each month or more income in large bursts but with the added cash-flow pressures of funding the salesperson while they try to win the larger deals?

It is really important that you do not become the employer that wants it all ways. It is perfectly possible to have a good mix of sales but if you are one of the 4.9 million small businesses in the UK it is unlikely that you will have a salesperson delivering twenty clients every month spending between £1000 and £300,000 anyway.

You need to decide what your ideal client is. Is it a client who makes just one large order or one that makes orders every month? Is monthly profit or back end value your primary objective? Can you achieve both? Are the skills of the salesperson suited to gaining your ideal client? Should your salespeople be focused on new business only or are they required to look after existing clients too? These are all questions that you must ask and answer before you employ salespeople as these issues will arise constantly and will cause confrontation.

I used to own a telecoms business. Before it was sold in 2012 we offered a huge range a products and services ranging from telephone lines and calls through to telephone systems and maintenance contracts and even with clearly defined responsibilities there were conflicts constantly from hungry salespeople chasing every deal they could. If a salesperson sold a telephone system to a new client all was simple but what if that client wanted to spend another £20,000 after two months? Who should run that sale? The original salesperson or the account management team that looked after the customer post sale? 

We in fact worked out that the initial sale was of little value to us so we rewarded the salespeople very well for the initial sale and we retained the benefit of forward business. The salesperson was happy with the lions share of the profit on the original deal whilst we wanted the long term value from the client and managed the relationship thereafter and paid the salesperson a token percentage of all future business - this worked well as they felt there were getting something for nothing.

Only once you have considered, planned through and communicated the criteria can you start to measure the success of your sales staff. If your business is based around a single sale to a single client then clearly performance is easy to assess. But if you get an initial order and then lots of regular orders or other elements of your business are able to cross-sell products into the same client then the ultimate value gained from the initial sale can be much harder to measure. This complication can be increased if there are other salespeople further down the line who are also making sales to the customer and need to have their success assessed.

Salespeople are very territorial and feel like they own every client they sell to and there are some arguments to back up why they should feel this way. They did, after all, win the client originally and could therefore argue they are best placed to manage all the needs of the client. But then what happens is that you can have salespeople doing very little work as they are able to earn significant income from the sales of their existing base and therefore new business can dry up.

It is a challenging problem for many businesses.

There is no right or wrong answer as every business is different but I think every decision you make in this regard should be solely based on what is right for your business. If you allow the decision to be clouded by the views of salespeople then you will regret it.

Of course you want to ensure people are rewarded for their performance but you pay commission for that. You do not pay commission to salespeople for them to demand anything beyond that reward. You need to make sure the targets of your salespeople relate to the needs of your business and then when targets are met you can be sure that your business objectives are also being met. This method will stop your salespeople making great money while your business is not progressing.

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It's long but does make some valid points...worth watching

Who do salespeople work for?

Quite a question!

Any business needs their sales staff to be self-motivated, driven and focussed on success but to what extent?

When I started in my life of sales the salaries were low, the commissions high and the rewards were there for all that wanted them. These days it all seems a little different. I see adverts weekly in the press offering sales positions with generous salaries, car allowances and high commissions. 

I know that the UK Minimum Wage regulations impacted on the packages of salespeople but I can't help feeling that life is a little easier for the salespeople of today.

I started my sales career when I was eighteen years of age. Full of chat and proud of my Ford Escort. I had a suit from Burtons with a jazzy waistcoat to match. I started training on a Monday morning in 1992 and by the Wednesday I was told to get on the phones and start making appointments. My basic salary was £6,000 per year, commission of 30% of the profit and a hope of a company car after three months if all went well. There was little monitoring during the month but on the last working day we were either publicly applauded for hitting or exceeding target or derided for low sales. It was hard work with great rewards for the winners and humiliation for the losers with the possibility of being fired.

We had to work very hard, my first appointments were made between 0915 and 0930 and my final appointments were as late in the day as I could make them. Monday to Friday was dedicated to work and weekends were my downtime. It was not uncommon for me to leave home at 6am and return at 11pm and still have correspondence to catch up on.

I am pretty sure I would end up in a tribunal if I demanded a similar performance from the salespeople of today.

I know there are still many very driven salespeople out there but things have definitely changed. At one recent sales assessment we completed for a client the sales team made their first appointments of the day at between 10:00 and 10:30 depending on the travelling required. The last appointments were generally made for around 3:30pm and often earlier if the return journey was long. All this means that the business of today may well only get one third of the effort of twenty-two years ago - whilst paying salaries of perhaps four times the amount.

For many of the sales people I meet now the effort required to make good money is significantly less and that can only be a bad thing for businesses. What shocks me is the apparent offence at my suggestions of what I regard as a "full day's work". "If I need to leave home at 6am then I want overtime" "I am not paid enough salary to work those hours" "that appointment is not in my territory so I am not doing it" are just a few of the comments I have heard in the last few months. I have heard sales staff being critical of telesales staff for making appointments with customers that are "not convenient" or not acceptable because "Man City are playing....". My particular favourite is "my basic is only £45,000 a year and is not enough to do that" when suggesting sales meetings happen outside "core selling hours".

I am unsure if the market has changed or if people have. Is dedication, commitment and "hard graft" a thing of the past with sales staff? Whether it is banging on doors, writing letters and emails or getting on the telephones - all these tasks are the fundamental duties of a salesperson and yet when I mention them I am often met with a look of utter contempt. "I don't make my own appointments" "I am too busy to get on the phones" are worryingly familiar comments.

Now I know there are vast amounts of sales staff out there who are incredibly committed and work hard for their employers and are not afraid of the good old "hard graft" but do they work for you? Are they the norm? I am sure I sound like an old misery complaining about the good old days but really, why are employers so less less expectant of hard work from their salespeople these days? There seems to be a culture emerging in many businesses that sales staff are paid a salary for simply being employee's and if hard work is  demanded then that of course costs more!! Hitting sales targets used to be necessary in order to keep your job - these days it attracts a bonus.

It seems to me that in an awful lot of businesses the salespeople have a sense of entitlement to large salaries for not performing and then get very annoyed when this is suggested!

When I am called into a business with under performing sales staff one of my first objectives is always to get some old principles introduced.  A working day structured around using the core hours of 0930 - 1700 for face-to-face meetings with proposals, quotations and correspondence being completed outside the core hours. The old values of hard work for big rewards really can still be instilled in sales staff but it is a much harder task to introduce this to an existing sales team rather than making it clear at the point of recruitment. 

There are also a number of disciplines that I consider to be essential within any sales team. Appearance should be expected. Nothing that catches the eye whatsoever. A standard, well fitted suit, white or blue shirt, conservative tie and clean shoes. This attire will be expected by a client and will present a professional appearance. I have never allowed salespeople of mine to personalise their own appearance, regardless of the latest fashions or trends. I have lost count of the salespeople I have sent home to shave or clean their shoes, whom I have lent a tie to replace the "Where's Wally?" tie or insisted that the huge tie-knot is retied into a standard Windsor Knot. 

This may all seem petty and certainly does annoy salespeople but there are a number of elements to be considered; They are being paid by you to represent your business and therefore you have a right to decide how, within reason, they dress. It also demonstrates respect for your business, if a salesperson cannot be bothered to adhere to your dress requirements they are very unlikely to be bothered about any more procedures you have in place in the sales process. Salespeople should be paid a salary to reflect their skills, position, experience and to provide some degree of financial security any worker is entitled to. But this salary should clearly be defined as being paid to be a salesperson with commission being paid for achievements. Therefore, hard work, dedication, additional hours when required, wearing suitable work attire and always working in the interests of the business will be the norm and do not become things that attract additional pay or benefits.

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