I am trending toward 70 live events/engagements this year, focused predominantly on the drivers of business performance (Leadership/Sales/Innovation) during this incredible time of transformation and change.

Each engagement is a little different.  We go the route of customization and focus on delivering a consistent experience.  That keeps me on my toes.  Where I like to be.

Occasionally we’ll insert an engagement into the lineup that is a departure from the conference or corporate event that challenges us to think different.

Going back on to a college campus next Thursday qualifies.  In partnership with premiere technology solutions provider CDW, Delta Sigma Pi, Pi Sigma Epsilon and the American Marketing Association I will be presenting Sales Shift: Accelerating the Transition from Campus to Sales Career.

This one is personal.  I want this evening to matter.  I recognize that sacrificing a Thursday night a few months before graduation is tough call for any college senior.  That fact that a few hundred have decided to do just that and join us at NIU is inspiring. I wouldn’t have done it.  That’s the honest truth. I would have been doing the Court Street Shuffle and that makes these future sales stars a little different from me.  Good for them.

It is also precisely why in making my own transition from campus to sales career I was 7 months into the shift with a goose egg on the scoreboard.  I couldn’t close.  I couldn’t even open.

I came dangerously close to making the transition back to my parent’s basement.  Selling baseball cards for beer money wasn’t the game plan but it was exactly where I was headed.  I had a little natural talent.  I had absolutely no sales skill.  Talent alone isn’t good enough.

Jim Rohn saved me.  He delivered an epic seminar that I still count as the single most transformational moment of my career. One night. Three hours. Jim opened the door.  He gave me permission and some powerful tools to jump-start my success.

I read Think and Grow Rich and the The Greatest Salesman in the World in the next 3 days.  (my homework from the seminar…I still have the notes).

That was the beginning.  I never looked back.  It’s funny how once you become good at something that begins to fuel your passion.  That is how it was for me.  I wasn’t passionate about sales or leadership until I was good.  That is also the truth.

Today it is even more important to be good.  Scratch that.  Today any VP of Sales is searching for the extraordinary.  Every spot on the roster counts.  Today you need to be better than good.  Average is over.  I know this because I asked.  I asked 5 of the strongest sales executives in my network what they want from new hire graduates.  What they expect.  What they need.  I will shed more light on that Thursday night.

Bottom line, they are looking for an edge. They are all very impatient when it comes to results.  They all are facing enormous pressure to hit a number.  They have no choice but to demand sales excellence and high impact performance out of the gate. That is also the truth.

In looking back today I was lucky.  That night with Jim proved to be transformational.  The decision to change happens in a moment.  That was mine. In preparing to go back to campus I plan to bring some of his timeless insights with me.

My Alma Mater has an Alumni Gateway at the corner of Court and Union Streets where Ohio University and the City of Athens meet.

The Alumni Gateway greets all who enter the campus with an inscription that reads:

So enter that daily thou mayest grow in knowledge, wisdom and love.

The inscription over the alumni gateway for those departing the campus reads:

So depart that daily thou mayest better serve they fellowmen thy country and thy God.

Beautiful words I have always remembered.  Today I am reminded of the significance in their meaning.

I am very grateful for the opportunity to connect and share next week.  I hope my words can serve to inspire.

I know these students will most certainly inspire me to continue to grow in knowledge, wisdom and love.

Posted in Sales, Uncategorized

Tags: Campus, Career, CDW, College, Graduation, Jim Rohn, NIU, Ohio University, Sales, Sales Training

“21 appointments next week” I proudly offered before ingesting a large amount of a very cold tap beer at our Friday afternoon happy hour to close the week.

“Incredible! You are going to have a huge week!” my friend replied.  He understood.  He also made his living making sales.

Another round.  After all it was time to celebrate.  That was a record.  A new personal best. 21 new business meetings in 5 business days.  Each one of those appointments was secured via good, old fashioned cold calling.  You smiled, dialed, pushed and pressed until a 60 minute face to face was locked or you didn’t pay the bills.  Simple.

I planned to head out that Sunday evening and make the two hour drive from Cincinnati to Indianapolis.   I covered the whole state of Indiana and my trunk would be full with the required 21 presentation kits.  Armed with a map of Indiana I was “prepared” to hustle and win.

My friend was right.  I had a huge week.  I called on and closed BMG Music.  Remember BMG Music Club?  12 CD’s for the price of one?   At the time their business was booming and they became a very big client.

That was selling then.  This is now.  Not much of what I did then would pass as sales competency now.

The world changed. BMG Music?  Out of business.  That old school approach to professional selling? Dead end.

The best sellers are making the sales shift, gaining a huge competitive advantage and exploding past plan.

Unfortunately this is the week that a lot of sales professionals part company with their organization for missing plan the previous year.  I had a CEO just say this to me directly, “show me a sales organization where a bunch of sellers who missed plan the previous year are still employed and I’ll show you an executive team that doesn’t know how to establish and adjust targets and plans.” That is tough.  That is sales.

Missing plan isn’t an option for the best sellers.

The best sellers today are experts.  They rigorously prepare for every prospective client encounter and customize solutions to fit for the specific opportunity {TIP:  You cannot do that 21 times in one week}.  The best sellers know how to deliver value first, earn a reputation and wield influence. Yes, they still hustle.  The difference?

I don’t cold call anymore.  I don’t enjoy it and more importantly the effort/outcome equation doesn’t compute.  Time is a precious commodity and there are simply more efficient/effective ways to end up with a calendar full of quality meetings with qualified decision makers eager to do business.

I prefer warm calling and social selling (click the enclosed link for my Social Selling Keynote).

More effective.  More fun.  Makes it a whole lot easier to make plan.  New techniques, tools and technology give the more progressive sales pro an abundance of opportunity and huge advantage in competitive selling situations.

Knowing that the way we connect, communicate and ultimately make decisions has changed means knowing that professional selling requires a new and improved approach.

One constant does remain.

Sales drives the business.  All of the ideas, innovation, strategy, interpersonal relationships and process initiatives don’t matter much if you don’t have the revenue to turn on the lights.

Sales success today requires a shift in approach, strategy, skill and competency.  Are you ready?

Posted in Performance, Sales, Social Media, Uncategorized

Tags: Sales, Sales 2.0, Sales Expert, Sales Training

I had my shopping list:

-A device to keep my MacBook Pro and iPhone charged during a long flight
-A presentation remote
-A hands free wireless microphone
-A new digital camera

I could have purchased all of this online.  However, I am essentially inept when it comes to electronics.  I need support, guidance and expertise.  I am willing to get into my car and drive for that expertise.  I am even willing to pay more for that expertise (and generally to avoid buyers remorse).  I am inclined to get excited about the notion that the expertise and technology could possibly be available in one place. I am excited about what this technology can do for me.  I have dreams!  I just need a little support to make them come true.

I will also embarrassingly acknowledge that my DVD player died 6 months ago.  I have no idea what model/make to replace it with.  Installation is another issue.  If there is an easy solution and support then sign me up!

Enter Best Buy.  The electronics superstore that offers customers Dream Support!

I entered.  With my shopping list.  Ready to spend.  I was a very engaged potential buyer.  They could have easily had the full inventory on my list and sold me a new DVD player with an up-sell for installation. Let’s keep going.  It has been 8 years since I purchased a television. I could also easily add a television to the home office. Why stop there?

Instead I walked out of the store with nothing.  No sale closed.  Why?

Dream Support is a tough business (a very worthy aspiration no doubt and I absolutely love the enclosed video and positioning).  To consistently execute dream support is a challenge.  In a stalled economy with new competition that takes skill.  That takes expertise.  That takes sales competency.  That takes ongoing training and development.  That mandates preparedness, competitive intelligence and all around sales excellence.

After 30 minutes and 3 mediocre conversations I walked out of the store.  I wasn’t angry.  I was perhaps a bit unsure,  a little overwhelmed and not having an in store experience consistent with my expectations.   I was never asked about my dreams.  I love to talk about dreams.  I was directed to aisle 6.

At the end of the day this has very little to do with what Best Buy does and much more with how they do it.  Dream Support requires an upgrade in the “How“.  Increasingly, so will growth in the new economy.

One stand alone sales expert could have carved out a very nice sale and likely added layers of upside to the transaction.  The difference between several thousand in revenue and the no sale that resulted was skill.  Not attitude. Not desire.  Everyone in that store was perfectly polite and I am certain they would have been more than happy to take my money.  However, in this era of increasingly elevated expectations that often isn’t enough to make the cash register ring.

Multiply this over 1,400 stores and you might have an incredible opportunity to ring the cash register a lot more often through some elevated sales skill and strategy!

When you deliver an experience that meets or exceeds expectations consistently, you can build customer loyalty.  If the experience is differentiated and compelling enough people will keep coming back, pay more and spread the good word.

Often, that comes right down to skill.

(Note:  To my friends working for Best Buy…I am rooting for you!  I am also going back to shop Saturday and you’ll have another opportunity to separate me from my $ and make my dreams come true!  Sales 2.0 TIP:  Start with an effective, open ended question that immediately connects me to my dreams…you will have me at hello!).

Posted in Sales, Social Media, Uncategorized

Tags: Best Buy, Dream Support, Sales 2.0, Sales Training

Increasingly, when a client partner has a meaningful, high impact experience they feel compelled to share.  They want the world to know. Smart sales leaders recognize this opportunity and invite their best customers to share their experience with the world. For example:

Simply stated your own customers are your best brand ambassadors.  If your customers aren’t telling your story, evangelizing the experience and sharing the outcome perhaps you need to consider:

1.  Are you delivering enough value?  Value your customers simply cannot live without?

2.  Are you developing real, meaningful relationships?

3. Are your customers invested in your success?  Are you invested in their success (or just making sales)?

4.  Are you really listening to your best customers?

5.  Are you Social Selling?  Do you have the platforms and requisite participation to create an impetus for your customers to socialize your brand experience?

Writing and sharing takes time.  It is hard work.  It is also the work that makes sales easy. It sure beats the hell out of cold calling.

For example:

As a seller your own opinion of the value, differentiation and impact of your solution is increasingly insufficient. Invite your best customers to share their experience with the world.  Make it easy for them.  Flip the sale.

You might soon find yourself spending a lot less time time doing the thing that sellers dread the most (cold calling) and more time in business development meetings that matter.

Posted in Sales, Social Media, Uncategorized

Tags: Sales, Sales 2.0, Sales Training, Social Selling

I was on a conference call with a prospective customer this week.  We discussed an engagement for the sales organization.  They are experiencing the challenges of the ‘Sales Shift‘.  Lengthening cycles, discount competition, margin pressure, anxious buyers and less budget all together.  Tough landscape for the sellers.  The world has changed. It isn’t going back.

What was good enough to get us here isn’t going to be good enough to get us there.

They know this.  That is the reality of their reality. So they are making moves.  Upgrading talent (firing and hiring). Improving process.  Investing in development. Solidifying strategy.  Socializing best practices.

During our discovery call we discussed the outcome objectives of the event.  In addition to sound process and core sales competency they are hungry for a little bit of the sales passion:  competitive spirit, hustle, attitude, persistence, follow up, accountability, relationship strategy and a ferocious commitment to making plan…to exploding past plan.  Some sellers have it. Some don’t.

So, she asked me the big question: “Can you really tech this to our people?”

My answer:  YES.  I can.  I will.  If I don’t?  Don’t pay me.  That simple.

What I cannot do is MAKE THEM DO IT.  I cannot put inside them what was left out.  If the pilot light is out we have a problem. That is why I was excited to learn they are focused on getting the right people on the bus.  They recognize the shift.  Not everyone is up for making the transition to what is next and new.  That is why the people strategy comes first. Get the right kind of sellers in the seats and we’ll put the process in place to accelerate performance and move them past plan.

We spent a little time talking about what kind of person is making the shift.  Wants to make the shift.  Wants to put in the work to make plan.

We agreed.

Focus on the people strategy first.  Once you have the right kind of people in place you can teach them to sell more.

Included is content from our keynote at the ACA Convention, Sales 2.0 & The Social Shift:

Posted in Recruiting, Sales, Social Media

Tags: Sales, Sales 2.0, Sales Shift, Sales Training, Social Selling

I was fortunate to spend a couple days this week working with a world class talent acquisition team.

The group at CDW is lead by Melissa McMahon, SMA Chicago’s 2010 Staffing Professional of the Year.  This team knows talent.  The business recognizes that talent will be the disruptive competitive advantage. They need to achieve growth goals and this group is going to deliver the people that deliver on the business plan.  These are People Who Get IT!

I can tell you the focus of our training and time together wasn’t spent on tactics like Boolean Search, Recruiter ready Linked In profiles or source effectiveness reporting.  Nope.  We actually spent our time on Recruiter Effectiveness.

What constitutes Recruiter Effectiveness on a world class talent acquisition team?  Have a look at the Rock Star Recruiting skill and competency list as defined by CDW in session (picture enclosed).  A pretty good self assessment for anyone concentrating on the practice of people.

Our training emphasized the competitive decision cycle – from Recruiter point of contact to conversion.  Where the real recruiting happens. This is what Team CDW had to say about the experience:

The session content resonated because they buy into a fundamental principle – Recruiting is Sales (and Marketing).  That is a conversation we’ll continue next month at the SHRM Talent & Staffing Management Conference & Exposition in my Tuesday morning keynote.

If you completely disagree with what I have to say know that Dan Pink is keynoting Monday and Susan Packard is on Wednesday.  That alone is worth the price of admission and the all star sessions and networking in San Diego is never a bad thing!  Hope to see you there.

Enclosed is a video preview of our Sales & Recruiter Effectiveness training.  Feedback is always welcome!

Posted in Communications, Recruiting, Sales, Uncategorized

Tags: Keynote Speaking, Recruiter Effectiveness, Recruiter Training, Sales Training, SHRM, Sourcing, Staffing, Talent, Training

I assume you want to grow your business?  Find a solution to the stalled economy?

We’ve all seen and heard the standard solution set to these challenging times: Map headcount to revenue; right size; cost containment.

This is one approach.  You can make short-term gains and improve the balance sheet by playing defense and hoping your category improves.  If you’d rather play offense and focus on long-term growth, sustainable advantage and bigger and better returns here is the answer:

SELL MORE!

You can sell your way back to performance and even prosperity.  And that is something you can control.  The competition, economy, customer expectations and the accelerated pace of change, you simply cannot.

The sale is the solution to so much of what ails many companies.  New customers.  More revenue.  More opportunity to invest and innovate.  Growth.

Sounds simple?  It isn’t.   Professional selling has evolved.  Gone are the days of the easy order and the 20 closing techniques that really work.  They don’t.

Professional selling today mandates new foundational skills and competency, elevated expertise and sophisticated business acumen that most organizations have been hard pressed to develop or acquire in the preceding 24 months.  And its increasingly evident that what was good enough to get us here isn’t going to be good enough for what is next and new.  Professional selling has evolved.

If you are struggling to make the Sales Shift consider if these 5 essential elements are embedded into your enterprise sales strategy:

PROCESS:  Selling today requires a disciplined process founded on best practices and key performance indicators.  The individual contributor should be able to map quality activity through each critical inflection point in the sales cycle.  And mapping process to buying behavior is an essential element of being well positioned to the outcome objective.

URGENCY: Selling today requires driving an elevated sense of urgency into the sales cycle.  If you are experiencing stalls, stops and longer cycle times it is likely you aren’t building any urgency into the decision cycle.  Urgency is a function of value escalation and experiential visioning in close collaboration with the potential customer.

LEARNING:  Selling today requires constant evaluation, assessment and investment to improve.  When the expectation is expertise learning is a mandatory.  And when you achieve expert status and are well informed then will you be appropriately positioned to add increasingly more value to a customers business.

SOLUTIONS:  Would you rather be a strategic advisor or a sales rep?  We all know the customer prefers a consultant and trusted advisor.  Customers don’t want your stuff.  They want to solve problems and accelerate opportunity.  Know enough to know how to help.  Partner in a way that improves their business and deliver consistently. You’ll build relationships for life.

EXPERIENCE:  Sell a vision of the experience.  And deliver more.  The only acceptable experience is extraordinary.  Here is the key:  WHAT you do isn’t all that special.  What you do is available from ten competitors and likely a commodity.  I can probably buy it for less and find it to be quite the acceptable alternative.  HOW you deliver is yours alone.  Make HOW something you cannot get anywhere else. Make HOW something the customer covets and cannot live without.  Differentiate and win with HOW by delivering an experience that people never forget.

If you are an executive or sales leader that wants to put your team in the best position to perform…if you are and individual contributor and want to accelerate past plan to new levels of performance and compensation…. join us this October.

We will be presenting the first PULSE Selling Open Workshop founded on the 5 core principles outlined above.  The PULSE Selling Methodology was developed through 20 years of enterprise sales application combined with innovative ideation around what will be required to sell amid this time of unprecedented transformation.

I personally believe this is the single greatest time to be in professional sales.  The skills gap is widening, providing the proactive, strategic and prepared seller an abundance of opportunity to explode past the competition.  On October 28, 2010 we will demonstrate HOW.

If you want to talk about how this seminar fits with your sales performance objectives email me directly at ryan@ryanestis.com.

Register for the PULSE Selling Open Workshop here.

See what others are saying about our Sales Training & Transformation events:

Posted in Sales, Social Media

Tags: Sales 2.0, Sales Shift, Sales Training

During our Sales Shift Seminar yesterday we had a conversation about the characteristics of a Rock Star Seller.  You know the type…always makes plan…is a step ahead of the competition…builds deep and meaningful relationships….is an informed expert…puts in the time…listens and adds value…is constantly improving and competes to win…the total package.

You can see our list from yesterday’s session.  What is on your list?  Sales Leaders, what are you benchmarking against?

Something interesting landed at the very top of our list in yesterday’s session:

Switched On.

What does that really mean?  After a deeper dive discussion there was consensus that someone ‘Switched On‘ is both deeply engaged and fulfilled by what they are doing. Focused for sure…..Confident no doubt….Prepared, always.  And the output often looks effortless…because when someone is Switched On they are purposeful and passionate about the work. I’ve heard this referred to as “in the zone” or “flow”.  I am going with Switched On.

Are you Switched On everyday by 9 am?  Are you aligned, purposeful and passionate?

Important considerations…(hint: that place is where you will do your very best work).

I read a quote of the flight home last night in Minnesota Business from Bruce Lambrecht, “Find something you love to do and don’t look for immediate or short-term financial rewards.  Be passionate, persistent, work hard and understand the financial rewards will come later.”

Good advice.  Get Switched On..

Posted in Employee Engagement, Sales, Uncategorized

Tags: Sales 2.0, Sales Shift, Sales Training

I was fortunate to have the opportunity to speak at the 2010 Hospitality Sales & Marketing Association International  Resort Business Summit this week in W. Palm Beach, Florida.  It was an Association event filled with an extraordinary amount of community and camaraderie, evidence of a leadership commitment in an industry that is defined by customer service and quality relationships.

Although I was brought in as a Subject Matter Expert to present Sales 2.0 & Social Media Strategy I am quite certain I learned as much as I shared about networking and connections.

In speaking about Social Selling I am quick to point out several key considerations:

-Define your objective and determine the right strategy

-The trend is more important than the tool

-Social Media is not a replacement for relationships but rather an acceleration and expansion platform that can aid in sharing your unique story with your audience (you need to have a story….and an audience).

The Social Secret is that it’s still all about the quality of the relationship.  That hasn’t changed.  And that is something that HSMAI and its membership get straight away.

I was welcomed by a group of open sharers who have fostered strong relationships built around a common interest in identifying best practices and earning more business through delivering an experience consistent with expectations.   That builds trust and loyalty.  And drives Word of Mouth that can accelerate and advance growth in spite of revenue pressure that is surely a sign of the times.  This week would serve as an excellent case study in how to run a best practices forum for other industries.

I was also able to enjoy an invaluable research/trends report by industry linchpin Cindy Estis Green and an exhilarating keynote from Futurist Micheal Tchong.  Bravo!  I suppose the notion that I am authoring this post 40,000 feet above the ground on a Delta flight with WiFi is consistent with the trend of accelerated innovation and change that was such a theme this week.

I always embrace the opportunity to make new and meaningful professional connections.  I hope my contribution this week offered as much value as I received.

Having an abundance of awesome options to consider for my next R&R get away is never a bad thing either!

Here is my preso on Social Selling:

Posted in Sales, Social Media, Uncategorized

Tags: Hospitality, HSMAI, Sales Training

HR industry consultant and thought leader Mark Stelzner at Inflexion Advisors recently authored a fabulous blog post on ‘5 Ways to Torpedo Your Next HR Sale‘.  As someone who has sold into HR and managed a team of sellers doing likewise I have seen it all.  And made and learned from some of those very same mistakes Mark calls out in his post.

Selling into HR is unique and can afford the consultative sales professional with the right solutions portfolio a fabulous career.  I would offer those developing business in the space the following key considerations for success:

Relationships: Earn them.  Over time.  Through expertise and experience. By being a trusted adviser.  By getting there first.  By giving more. And nurture, protect and covet them at all costs.  In sales they are your career.  HR professionals value strategic support and counsel.  They give it daily inside their own organization.  They are domain and subject matter experts.  And they will become quickly frustrated with the Seller who has zero insight into practice of HR.  I have my Human Capital Strategist Certification for a reason.  And I had some  trusted clients help shape my understanding along the way.  Selling today requires subject matter expertise.  And that is far from exclusive to your product or service.  You better understand your customer.

Customization:  Its ALL about the buyer.  The HR professional has needs, expectations, objectives and increasing demands and pressure.  Consultative Sellers conduct thorough discovery and involve the HR professional in the buying decision.  Its a collaborative process.  And every sale, cycle, interaction and conversation should be customized for that unique selling situation.  Seller’s need to recognize today’s Buyer increasingly could care less about your stuff.  They care about their stuff.  That is where you need to focus your time.  Ask and listen.  Learn and solve.  Partner and contribute.
Differentiation:  If you don’t offer something different (or better) than the incumbent or multitude of alternative options then you are wasting everyone’s time.  You need to KNOW enough about the market, competition, customer and opportunity to establish a clear point of view on the specific differentiation your solution delivers.  This is a challenge for many vendors in the HR category whose products and services are lacking in  compelling differentiation.  But the very best sellers can still rise above.  Because in sales YOU can be the difference maker….if you are good enough.  In our Sales Training we challenge Sellers with two very critical questions:

• Why do customers buy from your organization?
• Why do customers buy from you personally?

A Rock Star seller has clear and compelling answers to both questions.

Value:  Today’s HR organization demands increasingly more value from their vendor partners.  The sales organization that can monetize their value proposition has an advantage.  Of course there is often a gap between perceived and achieved value.  To improve closing ratio’s a quality seller establishes clearly defined outcome expectations with the buyer and works tirelessly to create a “vision of the experience”.  When you can deliver client experiences that meet or exceed expectations with consistency, you will drive loyalty.  And customers for life.  You rarely lose a sale over price.  It’s much more likely you lost the sale because you didn’t create enough value.

Evangelism:  The most powerful sales strategy you can deploy is the authentic voice of your client partners.  HR services and solutions is a crowded, confusing marketplace with vendors making next to identical promises.  The smart sales organization doesn’t leave home without ‘Proof of Concept’…and knows that the most loyal customers are more than happy to be brand ambassadors.  Case studies, testimonials, co-presentations, client advisories and open referencing and referrals are the mainstay of a quality solutions provider in this category.

Selling is a process.  But process alone isn’t enough.  That is the science.  The best sellers understand the art of relationships, passion, purpose and performance – most importantly performing for their customer each and every day.  Deliver what you promise plus 1%.  That makes all the difference to the next customer.

For more information on our sales process (PULSE Selling) and training/consulting solutions download our eBrochure.

Posted in Sales, Uncategorized

Tags: Human Resources, Sales Training