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Hammer Consulting is a professional recruiting firm delivering superior sales reps, sales engineers and sales leaders nationwide to the Information Technology and Healthcare Technology industries since 1991.

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November 30th, 2009

Discipline is the Key to Success

What’s the one trait that almost all great technology sales reps exhibit? It’s not people skills, not brains, not presentation ability, it is discipline. Every sales person knows what it takes to make or exceed their quota number, but few have the discipline to do so. There is a famous quote that I like – it goes something like this:

“In order to have the things you want, you must do the things others won’t do.”

When most won’t take the time to plan, make those extra calls, do the extra product or solutions sales training, and take care of their bodies, there are a select few who will make those things a priority in their day. This is often the difference between missing your quota by 20% versus exceeding it by 20%.

So how does a person become more disciplined? Try this: Pick out an area in your career in which you’ve had weak discipline in the past. Set an objective relating to this area – try it for 30 days. During the trial period, keep a journal and each time you fail to meet your objective write down what activity or activities took a higher priority. From this you will realize that failing to meet your objectives, regardless of what they are, is a choice. This is because you chose something else as a higher priority. If you fail, it is because you choose to fail – simple as that.

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Kent Hammer

November 30th, 2009

Cold Calling Tip from a Sandler Black Belt

I was working with a long-time client and very senior sales executive who has ended up back in the trenches making cold calls to get another company off the ground. He’s a sales turn-around guru, so he’s done it several times. In setting up the cold call script he had a light bulb I thought I’d share with you.

He said, “A good cold call question is one that is crafted so that the mere question indicates an inside knowledge of their (the buyer’s) world and lends instant credibility to the call.”

Point number 2 is that whatever you come up with in the initial ’script’ – it will never be as good as what you end up with after making a lot of calls, the way we suggest, and then plowing that information back in to the ’script’ to make it better.

Finally, as always happens – he found a way to use the humorous approach we suggest (sales call – do you want to hang up?) which he initially hated. It worked even when his pain probes didn’t. In other words, people laughed and even if they weren’t prospects for his services, they would in the end try to help him by referring him to others who might be interested. He is getting sincere referrals form cold calls. Of course, those people he is referred to tend to be very good prospects because (1) he was referred to them by an associate and (2) because of the simple principle of six degrees of separation.

Good Selling!

Steve Kraner
Sandler Sales Institute
www.hightechguru.com
skraner@sandler.com

Steve brings his dynamic leadership skills, honed by his training at West Point and experience as a paratroop commander and entrepreneur. A risk taker with a track record of successes and a taste for breaking new ground, Steve can walk the talk and sales teams buy in to his innovative approach to selling. He is a nationally published author on the topic of sales, sales management and negotiating.

November 15th, 2009

Timing is Everything

As we enter the fall of 2009, we’re beginning to see signs of economic recovery, which, though small, are clear indications that the recession is lifting. Companies in the United States will respond in different ways to these signs. Some will be proactive, and start to hire sales people before they actually see revenue growth; others will be reactive – waiting until they see very specific revenue growth numbers on their bottom lines.

The companies that are proactive (especially software and technology companies) will achieve some crucial advantages over their reactive counterparts. First, as we all know, the sales cycle in software/technology tends to be 6 – 9 months, so if a company is looking for revenue growth from a new sales staff in 2010, they need to hire by the summer or fall of 2009.

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Second, for many smaller or mid-sized companies it is very difficult to attract “A level” or “superstar” sales personnel. In a recession it may be a bit easier, but there is a limited supply of these top performers, and the window on their availability will be very short.

Two things happen to the reactive companies: They miss much of the economic recovery and quickly fall behind their competitors; and when they do start the hiring process, they discover that a lot of the “A level” talent is already engaged in making money for other companies.

Last month we reposted the largest 15 markets in the country to sell software and technology (determined by the number of Fortune 1000 companies in each market). So for those companies that are taking advantage of the economic recovery, these are the typical number of enterprise sales reps we see in various sized companies. Keep in mind this excludes inside, business development and channel reps.

(1) 0 – 25 million, 3- 7 reps

(2) 25- 50 million, 7-10 reps

(3) 50-200 million, 10 -15 reps

(4) 200-500 million 15-25 reps

(5) Billion + 25- 100 reps

November 6th, 2009

The End of the Sales Funnel?

The End Of The Sales Funnel?

By Dick Davies

For more than 40 years, the Sales Funnel has been the dominant model to chart how a prospect transforms into a customer. Originally a measure of what information had been released to a prospect by a sales person, the Funnel has been tweeked to predict sales volume, timing, required size of initial prospect class, and closing ratios. It is the Swiss army knife of sales management.

Today citizens have other sources of information about you. They can find your customers and competitors without alerting your organization. They are educated elsewhere.

If the Funnel is ending, you would be getting more off-funnel, bluebird, untracked sales. If you are, are your salespeople present when your prospects are learning about you and making their decisions? What is your next model?

To get this information a month in advance, register to be apart of the Hammer Letter.

Dick Davies is the President of Sales Lab Incorporated, and is found “Through The Browser” at http://throughthebrowser.blogspot.com

Dick Davies – Desk (202) 331-4386, Cell (202) 255-0102
Dick.Davies.dc@gmail.com

November 6th, 2009

Economic Turnaround and Good News!

As we head into fall of 2009, I have been asked a numerous times, “Kent do you see or sense a turnaround in the job market?” The fall is typically a very busy time for companies adding sales talent in order to ramp up their sales force to drive revenue for 2010. Although I have yet to see an actual turnaround, we are sensing a change in client attitudes and in the market overall. As stated above in a “few good things,” the amount and frequency of good news and positive economic signs are increasing which is usually a leading indicator to a recovery. So what does this all mean as I gaze into my crystal ball? I do think we will see a marketable increase in hiring in 2010 and an official economic boom between 2011-2016.

A few good things:

(1) The volume of goods shipped from the West Coast is on the rise. In August the equivalent of 281,000 filled 20-foot shipping containers left the ports of L.A. and Long Beach, up from 247,000 in July and a 3 year low of 193,000 in January.

(2) Five IPO’s are set to launch this week, which would be the most activity since late 2007.

(3) Intel CEO says PC sales may grow this year. The worldwide personal-computing market is pulling out of its slump and could quickly defy predictions by growing this year.

(4) General Motors will go to 24 hour operations at factories in Kansas, Michigan, and Indiana to handle an expected increase in demand. About 2,400 production workers will be recalled as a result of added shifts.

(5) The Dow came within 82 points of crossing 10,000 for first time since October of 2008

(6) The number of newly laid-off workers seeking unemployed benefits fell for the third straight week, evidence that layoff are continuing to ease in the earliest stages of economic recovery.