Increasing Your Organizational Influence

There have been many situations throughout my career when decisions get made without the benefit of getting input from everyone affected. Inevitably, after making a policy decision, I would hear things like, “How did that decision get made? Why didn’t anybody ask me? I have some input that would have been valuable.” As leaders, we do our best to communicate as frequently as possible to keep surprises to a minimum. But, there are those instances when we leave employees out of the loop and make decisions without them. In those instances, employees can feel less valued and somewhat helpless. But there are those select employees who are frequently relied upon to validate strategy and influence decisions. If you want to know how to increase your organizational influence, read on.

In a previous post, “How and Where to Focus Your Energy”, I wrote about the importance of committing fully to situations that you can control (sales activities, quality of your work, hours worked, industry knowledge, etc) and avoiding committing to situations where you have no control (the weather, traffic, Libya, etc). By committing, I don’t mean that you do what’s expected of you; I mean that you go above and beyond. If you are expected to make 50 calls per day, you make 60. If you are accountable for seeing three customers a day, you see five. You spend your downtime reading every industry journal you can get your hands on. You become an expert in your business and in your customers’ business. (See “Lessons from a Top Rep”.)

Blog continued below . . .

If you like my blog, you’ll love my book, Click Send and Sell! Three Unconventional Emails with Extraordinary Sales Results.

If you have ever had a prospect “go dark” this book is for you. It has proven email techniques to “wake up” your prospect. While unconventional, these emails are authentic and professional, and almost always work. And , for only $3.99 you can put them to work for you today.

Also included are email techniques for following up on leads (these emails typically get a 20% response rate!) and for planning your next prospect meeting. Proven through years of use and honed for you, these emails will help you stand apart from the crowd.

The book is available at just about every electronic outlet, including Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Sony, and Kobo. It’s also available for your iPad at the iTunes store.

No eReader? No problem! Click HERE to download and print the book in any format you want.

What are you waiting for? Those deals won’t wake up on their own!

So what happens when you have fully committed to the things that you can control? Success – maybe even great success. You may blow-out quota and earn more than you ever have. You may make President’s Club, Circle of Excellence, or whatever they call it at your company. You may become the top rep and get a promotion. Whatever the outcome, when you fully commit to the things you can control, success will follow.

But that’s not the only upside. It is possible, and even likely, that as your success grows your influence will increase as well. Success will put you in a position to influence things over which you previously had no control. Why? Because you have now become very valuable to the organization.

My career has not only included positions in sales leadership, but also general management. I mention that because I can vouch for the influence that top reps can have on key decisions. As decisions are made that impact aspects of sales like territories, compensation, administrative workload, leads, etc., it is typical that top reps are consulted before the decision is made and/or implemented. Top reps may even be consulted for very strategic decisions. Just today at an industry conference the CEO of a large insurance company was discussing a major shift in company strategy. One of the things he mentioned was validating this shift with – you guessed it – his top producer. The very last thing any organization wants to do is implement a strategy that could derail the efforts of the sales organization. Who better to consult with than the top producer? It’s similar to a football coach checking with the franchise quarterback before changing an offensive scheme. You keep your top producers happy and producing!

In 1989 I joined a very small Austin, TX based company focused on providing component-level computer repair services. We were also a distributor for a few tier-two printer manufacturers. Working from my home, I started selling our services to large companies in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area. It was a tough way to learn sales, but we quickly grew to a point that required us to open a local repair facility to better service our customers. We landed significant business from some notable companies like Rockwell International, Northern Telecom, JC Penney, and several major banks. As the office grew, I added sales and service staff and we became a very profitable organization. I had the ear of the president of the company, and as the office continued to have success, my influence grew. Over time I moved to the company headquarters and became its general manager. Because I had fully committed to building a profitable office, my influence grew to the point where the company president handed me the reins and I was responsible for the day-to-day operations of the entire organization.

Another relevant, though extreme example is Oprah. She was so successful with her show that she began to influence entire markets. Her book recommendations immediately propelled titles to the NY Times Best Seller list. Gadgets that she featured on her “Favorite Things” episodes immediately sold out everywhere. Her influence even grew to a point that she was able to impact the latest presidential election with her endorsement of Obama.

As a seller your goal should be to make quota and become the number one rep. But maybe you want more – to get promoted or move in to a sales leadership role. The path to getting there starts with increasing your value to the organization through success and getting noticed. Focus on what you can control and over time you’ll find that your organizational influence will increase. Your boss may be calling you for input on decisions. You’ll be asked to chime in at meetings to let the group know what you think about important issues. And when you do chime in, you will be listened to.

Contrast that with the always vocal yet chronically underperforming rep that seems to chime in all the time, asking the questions that are crafted to help them justify their non-performance.

What rep would you rather be?

Note: The right hand part of the page has information about my book, Click Send and Sell. Below that are the most popular posts from the last 30 days. But no post has seen more traffic, comments and emails than the January post, "On Being Authentic".

Contact me at lorimers@sbcglobal.net

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My website: www.samlorimer.com

Sales from a Customer Viewpoint - The Three Buckets

Recently, our VP of Sales had the unique opportunity to speak candidly with a strategic sourcing executive at one of our very large customers. Before you dismiss this as just another article on dealing with purchasing managers, consider that this sourcing executive is responsible for managing vendor relationships where his company spends tens of millions of dollars annually. This is not a typical purchasing manager. This is a seasoned professional who has seen just about everything, so getting some time with him was a real treat. And what he said changed the way we view our customer relationships.

In his view, there are three “buckets” in the strategic vendor/customer relationship.

The first bucket represents the existing business that the customer transacts with the vendor partner. What are they buying now? What kind of money is being spent? Is it good business for both parties? Do the problems that originally drove the decision to buy the products or services still exist? Is the product or service still relevant to the customer? Are the customer’s users still happy with the existing products and services? These are questions that should be addressed in an ongoing dialogue with the customer to ensure that they remain a loyal and satisfied customer.

Blog continued below . . .

If you like my blog, you’ll love my book, Click Send and Sell! Three Unconventional Emails with Extraordinary Sales Results.

If you have ever had a prospect “go dark” this book is for you. It has proven email techniques to “wake up” your prospect. While unconventional, these emails are authentic and professional, and almost always work. And , for only $3.99 you can put them to work for you today.

Also included are email techniques for following up on leads (these emails typically get a 20% response rate!) and for planning your next prospect meeting. Proven through years of use and honed for you, these emails will help you stand apart from the crowd.

The book is available at just about every electronic outlet, including Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Sony, and Kobo. It’s also available for your iPad at the iTunes store.

No eReader? No problem! Click HERE to download and print the book in any format you want.

What are you waiting for? Those deals won’t wake up on their own!

You can and should spend time with the customer talking about their current relationship with you. Growth can easily occur here. Maybe they want to add incremental business. Staff can turn-over. Maybe there is a training opportunity and chance to increase overall satisfaction. You might discover an under-utilization issue that can also increase revenue and/or customer satisfaction.

The second bucket represents the customer’s current initiatives that involve your products or services and may have near term sales cycles associated with them. Maybe they are expanding and need to duplicate existing products and services from an existing location to a new location. Or maybe they have asked you to speak with them about an upcoming project where your products or services may have a strong fit. Whatever the case, bucket two is the customer’s “today” priorities where they may be able to leverage your existing relationship. If you are delivering on bucket one, you may be invited in to discuss these new initiatives.

The first question you should ask yourself here is whether or not you know what your customer’s current initiatives are. Here’s how I found out recently while speaking with one of our customers. He had asked us about our product direction and we had obliged by providing him with a product road-map presentation. Towards the end of the presentation and after some great dialogue I asked him the following, “Brian, you’ve been great about hearing where we are headed from a product standpoint, but none of that really matters unless that matches up with your key initiatives for 2011. Can you give us a quick overview of what those are?” He was happy to oblige and told us all about their focus for the year. There were several projects underway and a few where our services were a perfect fit.

More importantly, there was a particular initiative where Brian had no idea that we had a product that was an exact match for his requirements. Without asking, we would have never been invited to participate in the project and could have lost out on a very lucrative deal. Your customer has a view of what your company does that may not always be 100% accurate. By listening and understanding what their key initiatives are, you have a chance to insert yourself where there is a fit – even though the customer may not have known there was.

The third bucket represents the products and services that you, the vendor, want to present to the customer. While these may not be a strong fit with customer’s current initiatives, there is a great match from your perspective. For example, maybe you have been providing payroll services and now you’ve got a new offering around dental benefits. While they may not have an initiative focused on that, it is a natural extension of your services and would be a great fit for the customer. Or what about a creative ad agency that now provides web design services? Whatever the offering, bucket three are those product offerings that you can’t wait to tell your existing customer about, even though they haven’t shown a demand for the product or service in the past. As a sales rep it is your responsibility to sell new products and your existing customer base provides the most fertile ground. Bucket three is obviously critical to your success.

In the mind of the purchasing executive, if you spend all of your time on bucket three, you’re out. You have to earn the right to talk about bucket three by delivering on buckets one and two. If all you do is pound your existing customers with new product offerings that may or may not matter to them, you have undermined your credibility. This is the rep that spends more time talking than listening. Customers don’t consider them a business partner because they are constantly bugging them about all their new stuff and seem to care less about how the existing business is performing. And if you think about it, it makes sense. What currently dissatisfied customer is interested in hearing all about your new products and services when you’re not delivering on your current commitments? The same question can be asked about bucket two – why would they include you in their key initiatives if you’re not delivering in bucket one? Again, you have to earn the right to talk about the bucket three initiatives because they are your initiatives at the moment, not your customers’.

Now that you have a better understanding of the customer/vendor relationship from the customer’s viewpoint, make it actionable. Here’s how.

Contact one of your best customers – maybe one that you take for granted. Ask for a one-hour meeting. Tell them that you want to start having quarterly business reviews. Here’s a high-level agenda:

1. Our current business.
2. Your key initiatives and how we may fit.
3. New products and services.

My team has tried this approach recently with great success. It provides a framework for a conversation that is very meaningful to the customer, provides great insight in to their top priorities, and gives the rep permission to talk about new product offerings. We have seen some really great opportunities emerge as a result.

Good reps are all about bucket one; great reps are all about buckets one and two; top reps are about all three. Manage buckets one and two well and earn the right to talk about bucket three. From there making your numbers will come much easier.

*NOTE* Many of you participated in a poll regarding a backpack or a briefcase. The results of the poll can be found in the post, "I'm Going on a Sales Call and I Don't Know What to Carry."