Author: Sienna Anderson

You Need to Create a Pipeline NOW

Posted on | by Sienna Anderson
sales pipeline kona training

These are strange times.

While medical professionals are striving to maintain COVID-19, businesses around the world are struggling with the disruption of the day-to-day.

It’s a confusing time for everyone. Many of us don’t know what the next steps are. However, the smart leaders are looking at and focusing on their sales pipeline.

They will be asking:

  • Does my sales team know how to build a new pipeline post COVID?
  • Does my sales team know how to manage the key principles of Sales Pipeline Management?
  • Am I confident that myself and my salespeople will hit the target that we NEED to hit in the next 12 months?
  • How much time do my salespeople spend in the field with customers and how will they make up for lost time in the field?
  • How many new customers / proposals do my salespeople need in their pipeline to achieve target?
  • What are the key activities that will drive their results?
  • How do our salespeople manage the average lead time from identifying a new opportunity to invoicing it?
  • What is the historic fall out rate from our existing accounts?

To find out more contact the KONA Group 1300 611 288 | info@kona.com.au

You should be considering a sales strategy “re-set” conference NOW with your leaders, salespeople and any other departments who will assist in you hitting the targets.

This I would suggest be facilitated where teams share strategies that commercial teams can use to build a pipeline of high-intent leads now during a time of crisis.

This is a new world for us. And we all need to find new ways to better our marketing and sales efforts.

Just to put the notion of acting now into perspective – THE WORLD HAS CHANGED. Here’s a look at St. Patrick’s Day in 2019 outside of Temple Bar in the centre of Dublin.

And, here’s a look at that same location in 2020.

Events and public gatherings of all kinds have been put on hold as we move into this new normal. And B2B selling has and is going to see further impacts on how we do business over the coming months.

A 2019 Events Marketing Benchmarks and Trends report interviewed 1000+ senior marketers at companies managing over $738 million in event spend a year from the software, services, and media industries. Here are a few highlights from that report that stood out to us:

  • 30% organise events to support lead generation + sales acceleration
  • 41% see live events as the most critical marketing channel in achieving business outcomes
  • 63% plan to increase their budget by 22% in 2020

As you can see, events play a significant role in marketers and sales teams’ lives. Businesses depend on events to generate sales.

To find out more contact the KONA Group 1300 611 288 | info@kona.com.au

SUMMARY

A sales pipeline can be compared to the beating heart of your business. That’s why its importance and value can hardly be overestimated. This means that if you don’t manage your pipeline successfully, then you risk losing out on new customers and your business could suffer.

With more than 60% of sales managers saying that their company does a poor job of managing their sales pipeline, chances are you need to improve the way yours works, too.

The best practices and methodologies we have developed over the past 20 years will help you keep your sales pipeline beating at a healthy pace, make your work more organised and structured, shorten and speed up your sales cycles, and reach your sales targets quicker, all the while bringing growth and profit for your business.

HOW DO YOU MANAGE YOUR SALES PIPELINE?

For a confidential assessment of your business and sales pipeline in a post-COVID world,

contact KONA: 1300 611 288 | info@kona.com.au

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Author – Garret Norris – https://www.linkedin.com/in/garretnorris/

Three Sales Strategies for the Post-COVID Business World

Posted on | by Sienna Anderson

30-SECOND SUMMARY:
  • Organisations must consider how the current crisis will also change long-term interactions, events, personal contacts and what products and services will better serve them in the new post COVID-19 world.
  • A Team Strategy Profile is an essential process that helps set a future for your business as well as ensuring you have set steps in place to determine how best to achieve it.
  • Smart companies will adopt a proactive approach to understand what changes will occur and be ready to adjust their products, services, and strategies quickly to meet current and future customer needs.
  • A Team Strategy Profile ensures you consider the business holistically, with a focus on:
    • Mission Identification– what is the purpose of your business
    • Vision Clarity – clearly outline in one sentence what you want to achieve
    • Plan and Do – what steps will you take to achieve your vision and action it

To find out more contact the KONA Group 1300 611 288 | info@kona.com.au

The question going forward is, when will customers come back? But even more important, what will your Sales team need need to deliver differently in terms of product and service or features and benefits? COVID-19 is dramatically changing consumer and business behaviours today. Undoubtedly, many of those behaviours will remain long after the defeat of the virus. Many people will certainly have higher sensitivity to germs and the risks of spreading infections. This behaviour alone will change many industries. Customers and workers will be more sceptical of close contact with others. Consumer travel, dining, entertainment and product preferences will be different moving forward. The list of changed behaviours and their impact will surely be long, though still to be formed as COVID-19 runs its course. The number of behaviour changes will grow depending on how many people are directly affected, how severely and for how long. Many new behaviours will be normalised as customers practice them repeatedly over months.

HOW WILL BEHAVIOURS SHIFT IN YOUR INDUSTRY?

Many customer behaviour changes will require new or modified products and services. New market leaders will emerge while some past leaders fade. Many companies will struggle post COVID-19.

A PROACTIVE BUSINESS APPROACH IS NEEDED TO SURVIVE COVID-19.

To find out more contact the KONA Group 1300 611 288 | info@kona.com.au

Knowing your customers needs is always the best way to meet market demands and win—but what you knew before may not serve you well in an altered tomorrow. Smart companies will adopt a proactive approach to understand what changes will occur and be ready to adjust their products, services and strategies quickly to meet current and future customer needs. THREE IMPORTANT STEPS TO TAKE NOW:

1) DEBRIEF

Have a Sales Strategy Session with key members of your team and debrief them on what they have been hearing from customers. Having a strategy session to identify what might be changing and importantly, what you don’t know about the “changes” will set the stage for the next step.

DO YOU HAVE A POST-COVID EVOLVE PLAN?

 2) GATHER INSIGHT Develop a plan to take to the marketplace. How can we validate new behaviours we are seeing and hearing, and gather the information we don’t know? Don’t assume anything. Your customers can tell you what they will need, but you must ask them. In this time of rapid change, it’s critical to conduct customer interviews, surveys, market research or customer feedback by other means. Gather the comments, attitudes, and data, then analyse. And be objective, that is, be open to things you may have never thought would occur, and to how it can impact your sales and targets! TIP: When interacting with customers during this difficult period, train your people to open conversations with, “How can we help you get through this?” rather than, “Here’s what we’ve got.” In other words, lead with empathy not competence. Try to be part of the solution to their crisis.

To find out more contact the KONA Group 1300 611 288 | info@kona.com.au

3) RE-PLAN YOUR SALES PIPELINE STRATEGY

You have your 2020 plans, but clearly COVID-19 requires forward thinking, new strategies and re-planning on many fronts. Armed with these new insights from the marketplace, re-plan and prioritise strategies and tactics in all critical areas. Understanding what your customers will value in the post-COVID-19 business world and acting on it will ensure your survival and success and put you ahead of major competitors. These points cannot be over-emphasised – knowing the customer will sort the post-COVID-19 business winners from the competition.

DOES YOUR TEAM KNOW HOW TO PROFILE THEIR CUSTOMER and DO THEY HAVE A CUSTOMER DNA ACCOUNT PLAN?

To find out more contact the KONA Group 1300 611 288 | info@kona.com.au

HISTORICAL POST-COVID-19 BUSINESS IMPACT 

History provides validation that major changes will occur. Look back at 9/11 or even the financial crisis of 2009. The post 9/11 world brought us tighter airport security and increased security measures at everything from sporting events and concerts to large office buildings in major cities across the globe. Behaviours changed, industries were changed and created, and they will be again. Many believe that COVID-19 will affect more people and businesses directly and will have a more far reaching impact on businesses of all types than any crisis in the past half century. BOTTOM LINE

On the brighter side, remember that change creates opportunity. Business leaders who act now, communicate with customers, and take a proactive approach to their changing markets will do much better than those who don’t.

DOES YOUR BUSINESS HAVE A STRATEGY?

For a confidential assessment of your business in a post-COVID world, contact KONA: 1300 611 288 | info@kona.com.au

RESILIENCE CAN BE LEARNED – AND IT MUST BE!

Posted on | by Sienna Anderson

Resilience in Sales can be Learnt

Surely having resilient sales staff would be of great benefit and value to any organisation, especially one undergoing major change and upheaval in a highly competitive market environment?

Commonly ‘resilience’ is used (sometimes overused) in the media only when natural disasters occur. And of course the individuals and towns involved have to very quickly learn or sharpen their resilience in the face of enormous emotional, environmental and financial upheaval and strain beyond what many of us could ever imagine.

The fact that disaster struck regions have developed a ‘resilient town strategy’ suggests that it goes beyond merely disaster management.

So how is this similar to your organisation?

If resiliency is only seen as for times of turmoil and natural disaster then one can see how it can often be seen as negative. But the true definition of resiliency is not about ‘waiting for a disaster to happen’ and then switching into ‘survival mode’.

Resilience is about an “individual’s capacity to manage stress, remain healthy, rebound and learn from unexpected setbacks, plus prepare for future challenges proactively”.

The key word being ‘proactively’.

Just look at how organisations have changed their HR Strategy in the last 10 years.

Move beyond surviving to thriving in adversity

We need to move beyond the concept of resiliency being merely surviving to actually thriving in times of change and uncertainty.

Building resilient sales teams requires a focus on forward thinking and a cultural shift.

Not just a disaster recovery plan or a one off workshop.

Develop resiliency as an ongoing development objective

It involves understanding what makes up resilient individuals and teams and then creating a sustainable plan to cultivate and develop resiliency as an ongoing development objective.

In this era where the topic of mental health and depression no longer holds the same stigma of past years, organisations have a responsibility to their people not just their bank balances and shareholders, so it is crucial they address the topic as part of their HR Procedures.

So don’t wait for a disaster or a major event to happen before you think about embedding resiliency training in your workplace.

To find out more about our Resilience Workshops contact us today at info@KONA.com.au or call 1300 611 288.

The KONA Group is Australia’s Leading Sales and Sales Management Training and Coaching company and provide Customised Training programs that include:  Sales Training & Coaching, Sales Pipeline Training, Key Account Management Training, Call Centre Training & coaching, Negotiation Skills Training & Coaching, Motivational Speakers, HR Consulting; and more.

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10 KEY FACTORS WHY HR IS IMPORTANT

Posted on | by Sienna Anderson

Human Resources in this day and age is a lot more than it used to be.

HR today plays a significant role in developing positive business culture and improving employee engagement as well as productivity – all of which work towards the growth of the business.

HR is an area of expertise many successful people do not have the skill for. Here are 10 Key Factors why HR is Important:

  1. They drive business success by attracting and developing the right talents and helping people to grow
  2. They influence the direction and leadership of an organisation
  3. They build and shape the culture and values of organisations
  4. They activate the most important gene in the DNA of organisations – the people
  5. They understand the business and how people add value
  6. They strengthen the human capital, the main asset of organisations today
  7. They balance the interests of organisations and people
  8. They have a two-way-focus considering both the people and the organisation
  9. They support new roles and new ways of working with people at the centre
  10. They translate innovative ideas into good working practices

Get HR right and you are well on track to business success.

Consider the consequences of no HR. When employees do not feel supported, are not being given opportunities, receive little or no training and educational growth – this results in poor motivation to perform and extremely low productivity.

Note HR has a serious knock-on effect on your bottom line.

Human Resources give employees a platform in business to want to do their best, and employees that celebrate their workplace have already won the marketplace.

HOW EFFECTIVE IS YOUR HR STRATEGY?

The KONA Group has a track record of developing and delivering the full range of up-to-date HR solutions, advice, and HR strategy support customised to suit your business.

For more information about how The KONA Group’s HR Strategies will help your organisation, contact: 1300 611 288 | info@kona.com.au

/blog

3 Ways to Help Your Sales People to Overcome Their Sales Fears

Posted on | by Sienna Anderson

As a Sales Manager we face many challenges on a daily basis, and none of them are more important than helping our sales people hit their targets and KPIs.

So, when you think of your sales team:

  • Are they winning enough NEW business?
  • Are they reluctant to pick up the telephone to call people they don’t know?
  • Do they struggle to make appointments with senior decision makers?
  • Are they unable to get past ‘the gatekeeper’ or overcome objections?

A core component of Sales Management Training and Coaching is helping Manager to drive the correct QDQ of their sales people’s activity –

  • The Quantity of sales meetings as if your sales people are not speaking with enough new customers and prospects, chances are that they have not learned to overcome their sales fears;
  • Their Direction of activity including ‘fishing in the right ponds’ and in the right market segments, industries and levels of Decision Making contacts;
  • The Quality of their conversations, and being able to discuss the customer’s’ business, not just their own products, problems and prices
Image courtesy of stockimages at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

They are different common sales fear that all successful salespeople must overcome – the fear of rejection, the fear of not making quota, the fear of being humiliated or embarrassed; call reluctance; imposter syndrome; positional or intellectual intimidation; or just a lack of knowledge, these are all real fears.

Just like any other type of fear, sales fear can be uncomfortable, crippling and limiting.

So as Sales Managers we need to be able to recognize when our sales people are exhibiting fear triggered behaviours and help them overcome it.

Archaic attitudes like telling them to ‘HTFU’ or “I was thrown in at the deep end and it didn’t hurt me” needs to be replaced with Sales Training and Coaching to help your people become successful

Sales people don’t have to wait to feel less afraid; they only need to learn how to work around it to their advantage. Successful people are not fearless people; they are people who have learned that courage is not the absence of fear but rather the judgement that something else is more important than fear.

According to Neuropsychologist and brain-training expert, Theo Tsaousides, “being fearless doesn’t mean eliminating fear. Being fearless means knowing how to leverage fear.” Sometimes the object of our fear is unfounded that’s why someone once defined fear as False Evidence Appearing Real.

There are many ways to help your sales people overcome their sales fears and following are 3 proven tips that participants in KONA’s Australian Sales Training programs have found to help them overcome their sales fears:

Identify and acknowledge the fear

It’s the first step to dealing with every kind of fear. Being in denial about the fears that comes with a sales role will only impede the process of learning how to overcome it.

So have an open and honest conversation with your people and share your sales fears experiences because by doing so bringing their fears into the open are an excellent starting point to change

Demystify rejection 

One of Thomas Edison’s famous light bulb quotes reads: “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” “…The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.”

Rejection can be a great learning experience. The fear of rejection in sales almost always leads to cold call reluctance —when sales people come up with excuses to put off calling a prospect.

What sales people need to understand is that when a prospect says no, it has nothing to do with who they are as a person.

Instead, for every time they get a no, managers should help them to analyse their call method and think of what they could have done differently or better and apply that in their next call.

Build confidence through sales training and practise sessions 

Image courtesy of stockimages at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

As a manager you can take note of the weaknesses and strengths of your team and ensure they are receiving customised Australian sales training that caters to them. This will ensure they are well-equipped with all the necessary tools and soft skills that can boost their confidence as they carry on with their sales activities.

With the right sales training your sales reps can develop confidence and conversational sales skills, overcome objections and ‘gatekeepers’, gain appointments, sales and commitments, and more.

The KONA Group is Australia’s Leading Sales and Sales Management Training and Coaching company and provide customised training programs that include: Sales Strategy, Sales Training & Coaching, Call Centre Training & Coaching, Negotiation Skills Training & Coaching, Motivational Speakers, and more.

So contact KONA today on 1300 611 288 or email: info@kona.com.au to discuss how we can help you to improve your business result.

Six Key Achievements of Planning

Posted on | by Sienna Anderson
KONA logo with two 'The art of war' books.

“The general who wins the battle makes many calculations in his temple before the battle is fought. The general who loses makes but few calculations beforehand. Thus, do many calculations and lead to victory, and few calculations to defeat; how much more no calculation at all! It is by attention to this point that I can foresee who is likely to win or lose.”

– Sun Tzu

Sun Tzu was a Chinese general, military strategist, writer and philosopher who lived in the Eastern Zhou period of ancient China. Sun Tzu is traditionally credited as the author of The Art of War, an influential work of military strategy that has affected both Western and East Asian philosophy and military thinking.

Full name: Sun Tzu Born: 544 BC Died: 496 BC            

Every Business must have a Plan

Regardless of your working situation, COVID or not, every business must have a plan.

Does your team know what success looks like?

A PR report has found in the current situation we are facing, only 10% of communication executives have done extensive planning.

Recent research has found that approximately 80% of business fail within their first year of operation, while 25% do not have a business plan. It is no coincidence that these two facts are linked – proper planning, budgeting, and forecasting are all an essential part of success.

How can you create a successful business when you do not know where it is going?

Thinking about the future means learning to think differently. Change is everywhere and pops up at any time, as COVID has proven.

How do you combat change in a business environment?

Change challenges all our current practices whether we like it or not. Change challenges:

  • Mindset
  • Decisions
  • Policies
  • Products                         

Implementing the The Three Horizons (3H) Growth Model.

This process when taught to your leaders and team correctly and rolled out immediately, re-frames your team’s thinking to produce results and hit every KPI set.

Three horizons growth model.

The 3 Horizons Growth Model is a learned process that bridges today to tomorrow.

Why Train Your Team and Yourself in the Three Horizons 3H Growth Model?

By implementing the 3 Horizons Growth Model across your business you instantly address and benefit from the Six Key Achievements of Planning:

1. Measured Improvement

What can be measured, can always be improved. A 3H business plan gives you direction and focus in Sales, ensuring you and your team meet KPI. It is only through improvement and growth that a business and employee can maximise profitability.

2. Projected Growth

With a 3 Horizon’s plan in place, you can meet goals ahead of target, which then allows you to think about – what to do next? In other words – GROW. By consistently monitoring and improving your business plan you begin to set achievable goals for growth. When change occurs, you are then able to evolve with the challenges.

3. Progressive Mindset

When you and your team start operating under a 3 Horizons mentality you all begin to operate from the same manual. The entire organisation’s thinking becomes focused on the wider scope and the impact the team’s current day activity has on future results.

4. Team Cohesion and Drive

What is the business’ value proposition?

Does the team agree on a set definition?

Are you all uniform in the eyes of the customer?

A business plan with 3H in place ensures the company’s philosophy is not only front of mind but also actioned daily.

5. Customer-Centricity

Customers are actually more attracted to a bespoke offer that connects them, rather than a one-size-fits-all agreement. Does your team know how to profile a customer? You must have a customer centric plan in place to be able to help the customer that comes knocking.

How will the business operate without a plan? Most businesses fail because of poor Sales Management. Consider the activities the team is going to perform in order to generate revenue in a month, three months and six months. A plan is only the start of the process – but everything has a start or it goes nowhere. Do you have a plan on how to deliver your goods or services on time and to the standards required?

6. Education

Employee knowledge base is the most essential part of a business. What tailored training and education support do you have in place to maximise the intellectual power of your team? Their knowledge is your ROI.

Planning is a crucial part of business life – without a plan for results you are simply left with a plan to fail.

The 3 Horizons Growth Model is being rolled out globally by the KONA Group. DOES YOUR TEAM HAVE A PLAN?

The recent changes in work from home situations globally has seen access to our R.E.A.L Academy (Remote Education Active Learning) skyrocket, so we will continue to fill the learning spots on a first in first scheduled basis. Call 1300 611 288 or email info@kona.com.au to secure a spot.

Call 1300 611 288 or Email info@kona.com.au

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What Kind of Listener are You?

Posted on | by Sienna Anderson

Effective listening is the key to understanding customers and providing exceptional customer service.

Listening is a Skill

However effective listening doesn’t just “happen” when delivering customer service, it is a skill. 

And the skill of effective customer service listening must first be learned and then practiced as it requires a change in the way we think and act.

Most of us have experienced “mental wandering”, especially on the phone and if there is a lot of noise around. The reason is most people speak at a rate of 125 words per minute.

However the problem for listeners is that the brain is capable of handling almost five times that number, giving us ample time to fill the space with other activities.

Customer service agents will usually use one of five common listening styles and each can be used in its functional and dysfunctional forms.   Each style has a time and place, but the use of one style in isolation can become dysfunctional

So ask yourself, how well do you use these listening styles?

Listening Styles

Directing Listening

The listener directs the speaker by establishing the focus and direction of their behaviour.

Judgemental Listening

The listener introduces their own opinions and value judgements into the conversation often in the form of advice or prescribed right and wrong behaviour.

Probing Listening

The listener asks questions in an attempt to get to the heart of the matter.  In the process he/she tends to lead the conversation to satisfy other objectives.

Smoothing Listening

The listener tries to make light of the problem and this person believes that conflict should be avoided at all costs.

Reflective Listening

The listener works to develop an atmosphere in which the speaker can express his/her problem easily.  The listener feeds back neutral summaries of what they hear ensuring that understanding has occurred and allowing the speaker to keep talking.

Understand the Time and Place

The key to effective customer service listening is to understand the time and place when to use these styles to get the best outcome from any situation for the customer and your company

For more information on how Sales Training in Australia brings these listening styles to life with real life examples and hands-on practice please contact us or 1300 611 288.

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