Probably not.

In fact, most of the sales messaging that I see or receive are overly “me” centric and are focused on what companies and their sales people want to sell versus actually caring about what buyers want and need.

Unsolicited messages that are ill conceived, generic, boring, use jargon that means
nothing to your prospect and are not tailored to the needs and interests of the people receiving them. These messages are so commonplace that it seems that sales people, marketers and the companies that employ them just don’t care. If I could point to one thing that I think needs immediate attention and correction in sales and marketing orgs globally…this would be it!

I’ve shared examples before of the types of emails that sales people must stop sending. I had one all cued up when another jewel of a message arrived in my inbox that I just had to shine some light on. Sort of sad really that I have so many to choose from!

The twist is that it comes from a competitor and it reads like this…

“Barb – I’m sure you know a salesperson or two that could use a good selling tip from time to time (whether they know it or not).  Is there anyone in your network that’s recently mentioned prospecting or networking as a challenge for their team?  Or, maybe they’ve mentioned not getting good leads from marketing?  If so, how would I go about connecting with them?

I appreciate our connection and the value it brings!  By the way Barb, any connections I can help you with?

Regards, Your Competitor”

Clueless never takes a day off!

I am loosely connected to this guy at best. We sell competing services…in the same geographic market, I might add. Yet, he still asks if I know people who have mentioned prospecting and networking in today’s business environment as a challenge. He must know that I do; otherwise why is he reaching out to me?

Or, does he? Listen to what some colleagues on LinkedIn have to say.

I did a little crowdsourcing today to find out what some of my colleagues thought. Here are just a few of the comments:

“So much stupid. Where to begin? a) Mass emails are a bad idea if you want actual customers. (If you just want to show your boss you’re doing some “work,” then sure, go ahead and send out emails blindly.) b) Take time to develop a qualified list. Research the companies and individual targets. Find contacts that can introduce you and get you in the door. c) This isn’t rocket science.”

“I get so tired of people looking for the quick-easy fix. If they had invested some time developing or establishing a professional relationship with you, they could have gotten somewhere. Looking forward to reading your post.”

“Unfortunately, some are now using LinkedIn to build “suspect lists” for unrequested prospecting rather than an introduction process. I’ve had the same happen to me. Sure we all do it to some extent, but blatantly is both annoying and disrespectful. We have a growing number of members who have a different set of values.”

“I seriously doubt the sender KNOWS you’re a competitor. They harvested your email somewhere and sent unsolicited, un-targeted email. I get stuff from competitors all the time and occasionally, I write back and say, “Hello? Do you not have any idea what I do?” But that’s cuz I’m a redhead and think it’s my mission to beat the stupid out of people sometimes.”

Should I do the competitor’s job for them?

Though I’m the first one to make referrals, as they make sense, I’m certainly not going to do my competitor’s job for them. Am I wrong to believe that this guy should cultivate his own relationships with the decision makers he wants to reach?

The irony is that this sales person is so naïve that he probably doesn’t even realize how stupid his email sounds.  If you are blatantly going to approach a competitor to try and gain access to their list, perhaps you should be more creative and interesting.

Doesn’t this seller understand that what he sends is a brand killer?

More importantly, what if I’m the prospect for what he is selling? You can see the problem, right? Why would I send people from my sales team to your sales training when you can’t even sell worth a darn yourself?

Buyers are assaulted with emails from sales people who use this type of unthinking approach all the time. Yet, sales people and marketers continue to complain that decision makers are harder to reach.

Well, of course they are.  Stop confusing ACTIVITY with EFFECTIVENESS. They are not the same thing!

Change your message, change your approach and maybe you will finally get somewhere!

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Join me on April 24th, along with colleagues Trish Bertuzzi, Nancy Nardin and Lori Richardson to learn how to make your sales approach more interesting and get more sales!

Did you know that roughly $15.9 billion dollars are invested in sales training each year?

And, did you also know that by most accounts that investment is pretty much gone in the first 30-days following any specific sales training event? Ouch.

Let me say it again…ouch. Double and triple ouch. Am I the only one bothered that so much money is wasted needlessly? Don’t get me wrong, an investment in sales development is critically important but the statistics would certainly suggest that there is a bigger problem. Wishful and short-sighted thinking and very little thought put into the strategy needed to affect mass change for the better.

Any client that has worked with me or anyone who has ever talked to me about my passion for people development knows that I believe that learning, which leads to any type of sustainable change in an organization, is a journey and NOT an event. Through experience I know that learning initiatives only succeed when they are tied to a strategy that considers the end goal; the actual outcome you want to achieve.

As I’ve been writing and speaking for the last 7 years about how sales needs to evolve to adapt to changed buyer behavior, it still comes back to one key point. If you keep trying to sell the way that you’ve always sold, you lose most of the time.

In keeping with my belief that salespeople and their leaders need to shift how they think about selling in today’s business environment, it is not unusual for companies to approach me asking to deliver a “social selling” training that puts their salespeople back on track.

The problem though is that the training – regardless how good that training might be – in and of itself, will likely go nowhere. If you have no accountability, either in the process or the tools, how can you possibly expect to affect any type of serious sales change?

To that end, in this special edition of my Sales Mastery Interview Series, I sat down with Rini Das, CEO of PAKRA to have a conversation about the world of gamification and how it applies to that crucial factor in learning and development – the accountability that leads to demonstrable results.

Maybe you’ve heard the term gamification and think you – soft of – know what it means. Or, perhaps you have no clue as to the power of this particular strategy as it relates to learning, change and the accountability needed to get there. As you listen to my conversation with Rini, you are sure to benefit from insights that you’ve not previously considered.

I’m biased to be sure, but I have to say that it is another great interview with a thought leader who has amassed years of experience helping organizations affect real change. Oh, and she has the hard core data to back it up!

Let me tell you about Rini…

A serial entrepreneur, Rini has led PAKRA since its inception in 2008. She brings more than 20 years of experience and passion as a consultant in enhancing customer experience, generating customer value, implementing Lean and Six Sigma and large-scale organizational change, and integrating core and support functions after an M&A event. She specializes in sales, customer service and upselling processes; KPI and analytics; change management; business-process management; and operational-maturity assessment.

A thought-leader in change management, disruptive innovation and Lean and Six Sigma, Rini has authored numerous articles and has served on the adjunct faculty for the business schools of University of Notre Dame and the Ohio State University. She holds an MA in economics and game theory from the State University of New York, an MS in applied mathematics and decision sciences from the University of Iowa, and a BS in mathematics from St. Xavier’s College.

When you listen to the interview, you’ll learn:

1. Where the gap is in sales training, onboarding, management, CRM, tools purchase versus the return?
2. Why there should be accountability and why it is important for you to focus on accountability to the process in the beginning.
3. How what you do with technology as the enabler is most important than the tool itself.
4. New skills needed for salespeople among them critical thinking.
5. The definition of the term “gamification” – what it is and what it is NOT!
6. How integrating a gamification strategy into a sales learning strategy actually delivers sales results.
7. What management can expect to see – and benefit from – when they make the financial investment in a strategic approach to changing sales behavior.

And more…
Enjoy the interview!