How to Mindfreak Your Sales Team

By Mark Roberts 

One of the top activity’s sales managers can do to drive sales team performance is a regular cadence of sales coaching calls and meetings. In a study by the Sales Readiness Group and Selling Power they found sales managers at high impact sales organizations spend more time coaching. 65% of managers spend more than 20% of the time coaching. Unfortunately, most sales managers today were promoted because they were awesome salespeople and were never trained in sales management skills. As shared in the book A Sales Managers Guide to Greatness, we must close the skills gaps to be an effective sales manager verse a high performing sales representative.

A quote from the study sums up the problem: 

“While most organizations recognize the leverage sales managers can have in increasing sales performance, the majority of all sales managers are still left on their own to learn how to coach; and 45% reported they do not have sufficient resources or budget for the development of their sales managers.“

Unfortunately, in many organizations sales is a dark art, mystical even. It’s like this magical thing that happens in a black box called your market. Have you ever seen the Cris Angel perform? This guy is amazing. His show is promoted as one of the top magic shows in the world. Some of his illusions leave most of us breathless asking the question: How did he just do that? His work is known as MindFreak.Once you have lived through one of his shows, one of his experiences magic is never the same again. 

It’s time we MIndfreak our sales coaching with a data analytics tool.

With this tool you are not having to read the mind of your salesperson or your customers but your data tells a powerful story if you know how to listen.

What if we established such a powerful coaching experience that prescriptively drives future sales behaviors with actionable data?

Today I want to give every sales manager a new tool to coach your salespeople with and drive performance results. 

I have an idea for your next series of 1:1s with your sales team. Your focus will be cross selling and upselling at your current accounts. And you can start the conversation by posing a straightforward question:

"(Name) who is your most profitable client?"And sit back.

They will probably name the client who has brought them the most revenue. Or their biggest deal last quarter. 

Once you clarify the question, they will tell you that they don't have that information.

Now, pull out a Whale Curve Report and hand it to them.

Explain it as follows: 

"The Whale Curve is a graphic representation of client profitability. It's a new tool for us, and I think it's useful. The report depicts from left to right, the most profitable to the least profitable clients, so it's a helpful tool to develop a sales strategy. You'll see that the most profitable customers (20%) create the most significant part of the overall organizational profit. You will see these clients where the curve first rises. Next, the curve levels off, showing the clients that are a break-even (60-70%). Finally, the curve growth declines, surfacing customers with negative profit (10-20%.)”

"We can also run one for products or verticals in your territory."

*****************************MINDFREAK*********************************

We are now showing sales something they have always wanted but never thought possible: A report with actionable, prescriptive data they can use. The dark art of sales is now demystified. 

Now, usually, this is where the rep says, "Whoa, I didn't know any of this!"

Unlike Cris Angels amazing shows this is not an illusion. The data that creates the whale curve is your transaction data pulled from your system.

This is when you have your conversation about cross selling upselling. It's odd to me that many sales reps are afraid to go back to their current clients. I was always taught to gain my unfair share of the buyer’s wallet but for some reason salespeople struggle with this. I think it's because they lack actionable data and or fear one or both of the following:

●     They don't want to harm relations with the client by being "annoying" or upset them because they are paying you money.

●     They suspect the client isn't happy and they don't want to poke the bear.

To both of these, I say the salesperson needs to get past it. By giving the client a chance to voice their content or discontent, you gain a clear understanding of the problem or why they are happy. Consider it an opportunity to improve the product or service or even your selling technique.

Being a proactive sales organization resonates with clients and transforms your clients into evangelists!

Buyers want and need trusted advisors who provide insights to add value to their businesses.

It doesn't matter which side of the whale curve you start with－but most start with the profit leakers. 

Taking each account one at a time on the right side of the curve, ask the following questions to brainstorm a strategy your salesperson will execute and own:

●     Should we raise the price of the product?

●     Should we ask for cost support from the vendor?

●     Should we attempt to sell more products and services? The increased spend will amortize the margin across the total sale.

●     Should we lower the cost of sale by using the inside sales reps?

●     Should we lower the cost of sale by assigning this account to an inside sales team?

●     Should we lower the cost of sale by having the customer order electronically?

Now for the break-evens and profitable clients. 

At a minimum, they should be getting a quarterly call since you've already gained their business and their trust. The salesperson should be having a real conversation to gauge how effectively the products they are buying now solves problems, how satisfied they are, and how can you deliver more value. 

Use these questions as a guide:

●     How do you intend to grow the business/organization?

●     How do you intend to grow (product, service) use?

●     Assuming nothing changes, where do you see sales and profits a year from now?

●     If adoption (of product service) goes well, are you looking to scale? To what level?

Primarily you are using the Whale Report to resolve problem clients that are leaking profits and gain additional sales and profit from happy clients. And it's a lot easier and quicker than the effort the sales rep would expend trying to close a net-new client. Now your salesperson is seen as a trusted advisor giving buyers insights and sharing success stories. 

Do your reps invest time upselling? Why or why not?

During your 1:1s are you spending more time on pipeline new opportunities than current customers?

Do you use reporting to guide the conversations during 1:1s? 

What types of reports do you use today? 

How successful is your sales team at driving organic growth?