Sales modelling project - Neil Shorney

Sales modelling project - Neil Shorney

by Michael Beale on 2-Mar-07 5:43pm

Sales Modelling Project - Neil Shorney - Telesales Manager at ESI

This is the first of number of modelling projects that I'm carrying out with a number of people that (I think) are excellent sales people and managers.

The purpose is to identify some top level skills and capabilities which will then be modelled in more depth. I'd be interested if anyone added any further skills and capabilities that they think are important in good telesales.

Neil is telesales manager at ESI. ESI is the world leader in project management training. Neil and his team of six sell into the UK and Stockholm with a mix of telesales and face to face selling. See Neil's LinkedIn profile.

Customers range from global players like Shell who are looking for a global consistency for their training to smaller clients looking for a one off training.

About 30% of their activity is cold calling for potential new business.

What do you think makes a good sales person?

Listening, enquiring, having credibility, matching response to the answers from elicited questions. Being 'real' rather than 'scripted'.

Where and when do you sell?

Mostly office based although I and my team visit customers for an average of one day a week. The atmosphere in the office make a difference - I like to keep it light hearted and fun.

It's important to start making calls early - If left, momentum can be lost and it can take most of the day to get it back.

What do you actually do?

Plan the day the night before, normally a mix of activities from following up previous course participants, researching and cold calling new potential clients (sometimes from seeing billboards or alerts from Google news) and keeping in contact with larger customers.

I'll always have an outcome for a call whether it's for a sale of referral or being put on a preferred supplier list. I always aim to explain the reason for the call within 15 seconds, be polite and gain agreement to continue with the call.

If I don't get agreement I'll always find out the reason.

How did you learn to be good at this?

8 years experience, good training, reading books, subscribing to relevant email newsletters.

Learning from sales that go wrong. Always ask the reason - It can be the start of another sale.

What do you believe about yourself when you sell?

I'm good at what I do and never stop learning to do it better. What do you believe about your customers? That they will benefit from the right course - I've left jobs in the past where I didn't believe we were genuinely helping our customers.

Who are you when you do this?

Myself!

How to you measure your performance?

Activity, conversion rate, customer response and success of team against targets.

What do you think are some of the biggest challenges sales people now face?Keeping motivated through the bad times as well as the good and being positive about ever increasing targets.

How is selling changing in the 21st Century?

In our market many of the 'rules' of selling have are the same. What has changed is the development and use of technology and information on the web. For instance many of our ongoing customers prefer using email where in the past they would have used the phone. We now use the web for prospecting and customer research.

The continued drive to respect customers' time.

If you had to describe your relationship with your customers as a metaphor what would you say?

Not sure about a metaphor but the words 'friendship' and 'partnership' come to mind.

Who in your customers do you contact?

Initiator, gate keepers, users, decider, influencer, purchaser.All of them and we treat all of them with respect.

Rate the following elements of a sales cycle out of 10 for importance in your market?

Element Max 10

Prospecting 07
Making contact 10

Identifying needs 10
Qualify and plan approach 06
Develop offer and value 10
Present solution 09
Negotiate and handle objections 08
Close 07

Implement 10
Track value 05

Closing is a seven because when you get the other key steps right the customer will want to buy.

Improvement in which area do you think would give you the biggest gain?

Identifying needs.

Rate the following sales competencies out of 10 for importance in your market?

Element Max 10

Market knowledge 07
Proposition knowledge 10
Attitude 09
Influencing skills 07
Problem solving skills 09
Buying / sales cycle knowledge 08
Taking action 10

Improvement in which area do you think would give you the biggest gain?

Problem solving skills

Rate the following influencing skills out of 10 for importance in your market?

Element Max 10

State 10
Appearance / image 09
Breaking / making rapport 10
Eliciting values 08
Agreeing outcomes 08
Questioning 10
Presenting 09
Storytelling 04
Belief change 03
Profiling (and reaction to culture) 05

Improvement in which area do you think would give you the biggest gain?

State

Your key values

Security, freedom

Your profile (metaprogrammes)

Active / reactive
Mostly active

Towards / away from
Mostly away from

Internal / external
Mostly internal

Options / procedures
Mostly options

Independent / proximity / co-operative
Mostly independent and proximity

People or task
Task but through people

Sensory preference: visual / auditory / kinesthetic
Mostly visual and auditory

What else do you think is important?

Being flexible and not having too formal a structure
Appreciate difference
Make it easy for your customers to buy!!

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