Summer 2006
CONTENTS
JSMAM VOLUME 6, SUMMER 2006
5
From the Editor
By Dan C. Weilbaker, Ph.D.
ACADEMIC ARTICLES
6
Sales Force Training: What Is Needed Versus What Is Happening
By Al Pelham
The Portal Promise: Community and Value for Salespeople
20
By Mary E. Shoemaker
APPLICATION ARTICLES
Recruiting New Salespeople From Universities: University Sales
Centers Offer a Better Alternative
30
By Dan C. Weilbaker and Michael Williams
Strategies and Tactics to Tackle Voicemail: Ten Top Voicemail
Blunders
39
By Jim Domanski
Earn the Right to Get the Highest Price
45
By Gerry Layo
The Roles of Focus and Leverage in a Successful Sales Career
48
By Bill Brooks
Mission Statement
The main objective of the journal is to provide a focus for collaboration between
practitioners and academics for the advancement of application, education, and
research in the areas of selling and major account management. Our audience is
comprised of both practitioners in industry and academics researching in sales.
©2006 By Northern Illinois University. All Rights Reserved. ISSN: 1463-1431
Vol. 6, No. 3
Journal of Selling & Major Account Management
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Summer 2006
Manuscripts
1. Articles for consideration should be sent to Editor: Dan C. Weilbaker, Department of Marketing Northern Illinois University,
DeKalb, IL 60115 USA or by fax: 001 815-753-6014 or by Email to dweilbak@niu.edu
2. Articles in excess of 6000 words will not normally be accepted. The Editor welcome shorter articles, case studies and reviews.
Contributors should specify the length of their articles.
3. A manuscript copy of the contribution along with four (4) copies should be submitted if possible with a copy on 3.5"
diskette in Microsoft Word format, author's name(s) and short title of the article. Alternatively, the contribution may be emailed to
the above address as a Microsoft Word document; however contributors are advised to check by telephone that submissions have
been received. Neither the editor nor Northern Illinois University, Department of Marketing accepts any responsibility for loss or
damage of any contributions submitted for publication in the Journal.
Biographical note - supply a short biographical note giving the author(s) full name, appointment, institutions or
organization / company and recent professional attainments.
Synopsis - an abstract not exceeding 100 words should be included.
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References - should be cited using the Harvard method. No footnotes should be used for references or literature citations.
Wherever possible, full bibliographic details (e.g., volume number issue number or date, page numbers publisher year of
publication) should be included.
Footnotes - for clarification or elaboration should be used very sparingly - they may be indicated in the text and at the
beginning of the footnote by the use of asterisks and / or daggers.
4. Any article or other contribution submitted must be the original unpublished work of the author(s) not submitted for
publication elsewhere.
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Font style should be Times New Roman in 12 pitch. Footnotes should be typed at the bottom of the page and numbered
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7 An address for correspondence (including Email address) should be supplied as well as a telephone and fax number at which
the author(s) may be contacted. .
8. Authors undertake to check proofs and to return them within the specified date. They should be free from grammatical,
syntax or spelling errors. Failure to return proofs will result in the publication of the article at the editor’s discretion in which
event the editor does not accept liability for any changes made to grammar syntax, spelling or other changes deemed necessary.
The editor reserve the right not to accept any alterations or corrections made.
PERMISSIONS
The copyright owner’s consent does not extend to copying for general distribution, for promotion, for creating new works, or for
resale. Specific written permission must be obtained from the publisher for such copying.
Subscriptions
To subscribe to Journal of Selling & Major Account Management, please go to www.cob.niu.edu/jsmam/subscription.asp or mail
the subscription form to The Journal of Selling & Major Account Management,. 128 Barsema Hall, Northern Illinois University,
DeKalb, IL 60115. Subscription prices are: U.S. Individual-$50; U.S. Corporation-$60; Foreign Individual-$70; Foreign
Corporation $80.
EDITORIAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE STAFF
EDITOR—Dan C. Weilbaker, Ph.D.
McKesson Pharmaceutical Group
Professor of Sales
Department of Marketing
Northern Illinois University
dweilbak@niu.edu
EUROPEAN EDITOR—Kevin Wilson
Sales Research Trust
Peyrenegre
47350 Labretonie
France
Kevin@sales-research-trust.org
ASSISTANT—Ieva Engel
Professional Sales Program Secretary
Department of Marketing
Northern Illinois University
iengel@niu.edu
Vol. 6, No. 3
Journal of Selling & Major Account Management
EDITORIAL BOARD
Rolph E. Anderson
Drexel University
Mark C. Johlke
Bradley University
Ramon A. Avila
Ball State University
Eli Jones
University of Houston
Sonke Albers
Christian-Albrechts-University of Kiel
Buddy LaForge
University of Louisville
Terri Barr
Miami Unviersity—Ohio
Terry W. Loe
Kennesaw State University
Jim W. Blythe
University of Glamorgan
Daniel H. McQuiston
Butler University
Richard E. Buehrer
University of Toledo
Pete Naude
Manchester Business School
Steven Castleberry
University of Minnesota—Duluth
Stephen Newell
Western Michigan University
William L. Cron
Texas Christian University
Nigel F. Piercy
University of Warwick
Laura Cuddihy
Dublin Institute of Technology
Richard E. Plank
William Paterson University
René Y. Darmon
ESSEC Business School
Gregory A. Rich
Bowling Green State University
Dawn R. Deeter-Schmelz
Ohio University
Rick Ridnour
Northern Illinois University
Bill Donaldson
Aberdeen Business School
Elizabeth Rogers
Portsmouth Business School
Sean Dwyer
Louisiana Tech University
Jeffrey K. Sager
University of North Texas
Paolo Guenzi
SDA Bocconi
Charles Schwepker, Jr.
Central Missouri State University
Jon M. Hawes
University of Akron
C. David Shepherd
Kennesaw State University
Earl D. Honeycutt
Elon University
William A. Weeks
Baylor University
Thomas N. Ingram
Colorado State University
Michael R. Williams
Illinois State University
Northern Illinois University
Summer 2006
From the Editor
This is the third issue of the re-launched Journal of Selling & Major Account
Management. There are many challenges that are associated with putting
together a quality journal. This is especially true of a journal that is
attempting to serve two masters. The first is providing a quality outlet for
original sales faculty research that can contribute to improving the sales
profession. The second is providing useful and insightful articles that
salespeople, account managers, and sales managers can put to use to
improve their performance.
It is our firm belief that there are many things that the academic can
learn by listening to the practitioner especially in terms of what needs to be
researched. In addition, there are many things that the practitioner can
learn from the academic researcher, which can help them be better by applying results of specific
research. The Journal of Selling & Major Account Management strives to make it the premier place to
find this knowledge.
In this third issue we provide two academic articles and four practitioner articles.
The first academic article focuses on sales training and identifies the gaps that need to be addressed. The second academic article deals with the use of portals and the value it provides to
salespeople.
The four application articles have a wide range of topics. The first deals with improving the salesperson recruiting process for new hires. It focuses on the value of building relationships and recruiting from schools in the University Sales Center Alliance. The second article focuses on how
to increase margins when selling. The third deals with helping salespeople do a better job of leaving voice mails. The last article provides some insight into how salespeople approach the position,
and the impact it has on success.
It is our hope that every reader can find one “pearl” that can help them improve their performance
or become more efficient in their quest to become a better professional salesperson.
Our continued thanks also go to The MBA Program at Northern Illinois University and the University Sales Center Alliance for their financial support, which helps support the journal while we
build our subscriber base. Our thanks also go to the dedicated members of the Editorial Review
Board and our ad hoc reviewers.
Dan C. Weilbaker, Ph.D.
Editor and
McKesson Pharmaceutical Group
Professor of Sales
Northern Illinois University
Vol. 6, No. 3
6
Journal of Selling & Major Account Management
Sales force training: what is needed versus what is
happening
By Al Pelham
The business-to-business environment has experienced significant recent changes which have altered selling firm’s
competitive requirements. These changes impact selling and sales management, but there is evidence that salespeople
and sales managers have been slow to adapt to the new competitive realities. The purpose of this article is to provide a
comparison of the key changes that need to be made in business-to business selling and sales training versus the
current state of selling and sales management practices. The author argues for greater emphasis on listening, problem
diagnosis, and problem solving in industrial sales training and argues for increasing efforts to measure the impact of
sales training in order to justify the costs of that greater emphasis...
Introduction
Many organizations are realizing that changes
will have to be made to sales force activities and
sales management programs to respond to
dramatic changes in the general and business-tobusiness selling environment. Among the general
influences are globalization, shorter product life
cycles, enhanced communication technology,
and blurred competitive boundaries. With
heightened competitive intensity and the
reduction in product differentiation, sellers have
to move outside the buyer’s office to interact
with more functions to develop better
relationships and develop a deeper knowledge of
their customers to seek other sources of
differentiation and competitive advantage.
Among the business-to-business influences are
trends toward greater seller responsibility for
reducing buyer logistics costs, higher standards
of quality control, greater mass-customization
potential, and demands for sellers to be
problem-solvers and not just pushers of standard
problem solutions. Many buying firms, such as
Motorola, Xerox, Ford, and General Motors, are
involved in vendor reduction programs to
achieve their logistics, quality control, and other
value enhancing objectives. As a result, many
buyers are influencing salespeople to move from
transactional selling to relationship selling and
Northern Illinois University
influencing relationships to move toward a
partnership relationship, as opposed to an
adversarial relationship. Figure 1 provides the
results of studies indicating the influences of the
environment on selling and sales management,
and a conclusion by Cespedes (1995) that sales
management practices tend to develop the sales
force in the image of the previous generation.
Given these changes in the selling environment,
sales managers should recognize that extensive
product knowledge and selling on price is no
longer enough to survive. They should recognize
that their products, which they thought were
sufficiently differentiated to provide a
competitive edge, may be viewed by customers
as commodities. They should recognize that
extensive product knowledge is no longer
sufficient to be considered competent by buyers.
They should recognize that traditional sales
training emphasis on feature-to-benefit
translation skills, objection-handling skills, and
closing skills are no longer enough to gain and
keep customers who now require skills once only
associated with experienced consultants.
Wilson (1993) argues that, given the changes in
the selling environment, salespeople should
emphasize the roles of market analyst and
planner, selling team coordinator, customer
service provider, information gatherer, sales
7
Summer 2006
Figure 1: The Importance of Adapting Sales Programs to the Changing Environment
What is Necessary
What is Happening
Common sales management practices tend to
develop the sales force in the image of the
previous generation (Cespedes, 1995).
In most business-to-business firms there needs to be a
significant re-orientation of sales management programs
toward sales force consulting to cope with changes in the
environment (Manning and Reece, 1992)
Accelerated product life cycles, vendor reduction programs,
supply chain requirements should involve salespeople in a
consulting role. (Cespedes, 1995)
As sources of product differentiation dry up, the relative
value of a high quality sales force increases (Shapiro et al.,
1998)
Salespeople who actively learn new ways of doing things
reap the benefits of their willingness to learn in a changing
environment (Henderson, 1999)
When Accenture asked executives to rate the value of
corporate functions in terms of their worth to the overall
company, sales received the highest rating (Calabro, 2005).
Demanding customers and aggressive competition have left
companies more reliant on sales productivity than ever
(Calabro, 2005).
forecaster, marketing cost analyzer. Anderson
(1996) points out that the fundamental goal of
salespeople in this environment is to develop
long-term, mutually profitable partnerships with
customers. In doing so, salespeople should
especially build good internal relationships with
the company's "support team", devote more
attention to intelligence gathering, take
responsibility for customer profitability and
create added value. Marshall et al. (1999)
compared the list of sales activities performed by
salespeople in 1986 and in 1999. He finds that
forty nine new sales force activities emerged that
were not represented in the 1986 list of one
hundred and twenty one. Such activities can be
divided into five broad categories:
communication, selling, relationships, team
selling, and information gathering/database
management.
The changes to the selling environment seem to
underscore the need for industrial firms to
53 percent of those executives said their sales
forces perform only as well as or worse than
the competition's. The problem: inability to
effectively manage sales opportunities (Calabro,
2005),
Another study also found that sales forces are
largely underperforming against company
standards and goals (Calabro, 2005),
increase their market orientation. That
orientation requires the selling firm to gather
appropriate market information and transform
that information into actions that provide
superior value to the buying firm. Firms with
high levels of market orientation have superior
performance (Kohli and Jaworski, 1990).
Pelham’s (2000) study of industrial firms found
that the customer satisfaction orientation
dimension was the dominant dimension of
market orientation, compared to customer
understanding and competitor understanding.
He concludes that the latter two dimensions of
market orientation are necessary to enable the
firm to pursue efforts to increase customer
satisfaction. Sigauw et al (1994) found a positive
influence on a firm’s market orientation and
salesperson customer orientation and Williams
(1998) found a positive influence of salesperson
customer orientation and positive customer
relationships. Despite the necessity of industrial
Vol. 6, No. 3
8
Journal of Selling & Major Account Management
firms to increase their extent of market
orientation, a study by Avlontis and Gounaris
(1997) indicated that only 24 percent of
industrial firm were market oriented.
Some firms have responded to these changes by
re-structuring the sales force from the traditional
territorial design to organization by customer
groups. Other firms have embraced the national
account manager structure to seek to develop
and maintain relationships with key customers.
IBM and Procter and Gamble are two examples
of large firms who have made these changes.
These changes are expensive and many firms are
not happy with the return on the investment.
The disappointing return on investment might
be due to a corresponding lack of changes in
sales training, evaluation, or compensation
programs.
There are indications that business-to-business
sales management programs are not keeping
pace with these environment influences. Figure 2
presents the results of studies indicating the
critical importance of understanding customers,
compared to the results of studies indicating low
salesperson understanding of customers.
Marketing managers are recognizing the key role
of quality of service to existing customers as a
driver of profit. PricewaterhouseCoopers
measured the importance of post sales
interaction servicing in an interview of 400
CEOs of fast-growing businesses. Their results
indicated that quality of customer service was a
far more important determinant of profitability
and growth than product improvement,
information technology, advertising, or new
product development (Anonymous, December
2001).
Sales Management Programs:
Needed
What is
There is ample evidence of the critical
importance of spending time and money to
adequately and appropriately develop sales force
skills. George Hartmann, V.P. of Sales for the
Commercial Products Division of the Fort
Howard Corporation was asked about the cause
Figure 2: The Importance of Understanding Customers
What is Necessary
What is Happening
The role of relationship manager requires a transition
from selling to advising, from talking to listening, and
from pushing to advising (Pettijohn et al, 1995)
Salespeople ask for what they need to know to
obtain an order (Clancy and Shulman, 1994)
A sales force engaged in a relationship management/
partnering role must have a higher level of customer
knowledge than previously required in the traditional
selling role (Weitz and Bradford, 1999)
Low accuracy of salesperson’s perceptions of
customers, (Sharma and Lambert, 1994).
Accuracy in identifying the buyer’s performance rules is
related to high sales performance (Dalrymple et al.,
2004).
Salespeople’s estimates of the customer’s expected
performance levels are inaccurate- average of 50%
error.(Lambert et al.,1990)
Selling firms can gain a competitive advantage by
knowing and understanding the needs of customer’s
customers (Smith and Owens, 1995)
More experienced salespeople tend to be less
accurate in buyer performance expectations
(Sharma and Lambert, 1994).
Inaccurate salesperson perceptions negatively impact
performance (Lambert et al., 1990).
47 percent of salespeople admit to not having a clue
about their customer’s biggest concerns.
(Cummings, 2002).
Northern Illinois University
Summer 2006
of the growth of his division from $300 million
in 1981 to $1.5 billion in 1994. He replied: “If I
had to point to one single resource that had the
greatest impact it would be training (Keenan,
1995).
A survey by Sales and Marketing Management
magazine and Equation Research (Anonymous.,
December 2003) led to the conclusion that there
is “a critical need today to move a sales force
away from its traditional focus on selling
individual products and services and more
toward selling complete solutions. Such a
strategy can lead to a deeper engagement with
customers. This strategy also calls for more
emphasis on salespeople acting as consultants.
Baber (1997) defines a sales consultant “as both
a consultative salesperson and a consultant. As a
consultant, the salesperson’s objective is to
develop industry, customer, and/or technical
knowledge, become an expert in some area of
value to customers, and then look for and solve
customer wants, needs, problems, and
opportunities related to that knowledge and
expertise” (p 162). He contrasts sales consultants
with “pitch sellers” who start with their product
or service and tell their story in a pushy way. He
argues that it was never professional and no
longer effective, especially for larger sales or long
term sales. An example of a sales consultant was
illustrated by Morgan (1992). He cites a nominee
for Purchasing magazine’s top sales
representative award who saved his customer
$1.4 million over five years though various ideas,
such as showing how changing from stainless
steel to cast iron pipes and valves saved money,
with no loss in quality and showing the customer
methods to significantly reduce inventory.
There is evidence for increased emphasis in sales
programs on skills commonly associated with
consultants. Hugh Montgomery, President of
HMS Design Inc., argues that “Good
salespeople look to sell solutions rather than
handle transactions…Eighty percent of our
business is in ongoing relationships.” He cites
his experience selling to Danaber Corp., a
9
manufacturer of craftsman branded tools for
Sears. He noticed a row of mismatched package
and marketing materials in the tools section of a
Sears store. He offered a solution and a design
overhaul of the Sears tool department, but this
caused Danaher to rethink their relationship with
HMS and began soliciting bids from larger
branding firms. He asked research firms to join
in bidding for the business and won the deal.
Ralph Klein, of Landmark Ventures, in an article
by Cummings (February 2004), suggests that:
“What you want to become is a trusted advisor.
Salespeople who truly want to sell more to a
current client should focus on deeper
relationships within a company, developing a
network of contacts in positions above and
below the salesperson’s initial connection.” To
become a trusted advisor, many salespeople need
to upgrade their knowledge of the customer, the
customer’s industry, and the customer’s
customer. They need to develop skills associated
with consulting in order to diagnose hidden
customer problems and be able to suggest
appropriate solutions. An example of the
positive impact of consultative skills training is
Aramark’s experience with this type of training
(Strnad, 2004). Aramark, a food service supplier,
exposed their sales force to consultative selling
skills training from Richardson, Inc. a provider
of consultative skills training. Those who
participated in both the classroom training and
on-line training sold an average of sixty percent
more across product lines. The senior
salespeople who participated in the on line
component sold an additional forty percent.
These trends are especially pronounced in
industries noted for complex/expensive
products and services with high value-added
potential where the purchase is of strategic value
to the customer. But, even in the consumer
products industry there are examples of
successful firms shifting selling models. Procter
and Gamble is a good example of a firm who
moved from transactional selling to the
relationship mode, utilizing the team approach
Vol. 6, No. 3
10 Journal of Selling & Major Account Management
with key customers to solve inventory
replenishment systems, resulting in improved
customer turnover by 20 to 30 percent (Evans,
2004). According to a study for McKinsey
(DeVincentis and Kotcher, 1995), the greatest
opportunity for packaged goods sales forces lies
in building capabilities in category and account
management.
Another example of the benefits of consultative
selling is cited by Cohen (2003). Mark Angelino,
Senior Vice President of Sales and Service for
Nextel, helped to add three million new
customers and more than $3 billion in new
revenues. Angelino is changing the attitudes of
the sales force by training them on how to solve
their customer’s problems, as opposed to trying
to peddle phones. He changed sales training
efforts to focus on consultative selling and
building customer relationships. He shifted the
sales compensation plan to reflect a need for
long term revenue generation. He reorganized
the sales force to allow a better knowledge of
their customers in each industry. He states that
“As we call on customers now, we can easily
identify their pain points because we have an in
depth knowledge of how companies like them
operate. That’s unique in our industry…We had
to penetrate deeper into organizations and try to
find out how we could solve problems for our
customers”
John Beystehuer (2003), Senior Vice President of
Sales and Marketing at UPS, stated that “early
on, we decided that our entire sales function
would emphasize a new ‘solution-selling’ model
based on customer needs, not on our products
and services. We needed to get our sales people
comfortable asking business leaders ‘what are
your business objectives?’ and not ‘how many
packages do you ship?’”
Tom Snyder, of Huthwaite, a sales force
improvement firm, suggests that “salespeople
need to probe for problems, needs, and
opportunities that are top-of mind for the buyer.
But don’t jump right in with a solution, but ask
questions that you know the answers to, trying
Northern Illinois University
to expand in the mind of the buyer an awareness
of how broad the problem is, Then ask about
the benefits that they envision, which allows the
client to help you tailor the solution” (Brenner,
2004).
Strout (2003) reports that IBM executives asked
customers what it lacked. The answers were lack
of expertise, namely depth of industry
knowledge that customers needed. Now
salespeople are trained to be industry experts and
able to respond to needs more quickly and
without consultation from above. They work in
teams, organized by customer segments, and can
offer IBM’s entire portfolio of products and
services.
There is a consistent theme of customer focus in
the selection of the 25 best sales forces selected
by Sales and Marketing Management (July 2000).
Examples include: Baxter International Inc. who
“excel at delighting their customers” with a
customer-driven sales approach, Cisco whose
market “stronghold comes from a corporate
culture… that is obsessed with pleasing
customers,” “DHL Airways, whose “consultative
approach is building sales in a hot industry,”
First Consulting Group who work to cultivate a
long-term relationship, International Paper who
succeed by creating long term partnerships with
customers, Johnson controls, whose
effectiveness is getting close to customers while
selling commodity products, and Medtronic,
whose success is driven by its highly trained,
consultative sales force.
Key requirements for a long term relationship
are creating value, meeting expectations, and
building trust (Wilson, 1996). Buyers place
greater trust in those whom they feel have good
listening skills. A study by the Volper Group,
reported in a story in Fortune magazine
(November 11, 1996) concluded that the biggest
difference between top performers and poor
performers was listening skills. CEO’s of selling
firms are recognizing that the sales force needs
to be more responsible for profit generation and
not just revenue generation. But making the
11
Summer 2006
transition from product to “ solution sell”
consultative selling is now the most frequent
mentioned challenge (69%) faced by sales forces
(Anonymous, 2002).
Baber (1997) quotes Rick Conrad, executive vice
president/chief operations officer of Bell
Atlantic Mobile, who led his sales force to
increase sales by 300 percent: “Your prospects
will tell you what you need to do to sell them in
the first few minutes-if you’ll just shut up and
listen. The fatal mistake is to assume you know
what your customer wants.” He also quotes Dr.
Carl Rogers, an expert on listening: “the biggest
block to personal communications is one
person’s inability to listen intelligently,
understandably, and skillfully to another
person.” Research results (see Figure 3) provide
evidence of the critical importance of developing
listening skills as a source of sales force and firm
performance as opposed to the traditional
emphasis on product knowledge and selling
product benefits.
Sales Management: What is Happening
Procter and Gamble was cited above as an
example of a consumer products firm who
successfully moved from transactional selling to
the relationship mode. Evidence was provided
indicating that this transition is appropriate for
this industry. But few packaged goods
companies have taken the tough steps that are
necessary to build these new skills (DeVincentis
and Kotcher, 1995).
Despite the evidence of the benefits of a sales
force oriented toward building profitable
relationships with customers and the benefits of
listening, problem diagnosis, and problem
solving skills, there is evidence that practice is
not following these imperatives. In a recent
survey by Sales and Marketing Management
Magazine and Equation Research (Gilbert, April
2004) these were the self admitted mistakes
made by sales managers: 1. Sixty five percent
indicated that they focused on building volume
rather than wooing profitable customers, 2. Sixty
Figure 3: The Importance of a Listening Component in Sales Training
What is Necessary
What is Happening
There is a relatively small gap between the top and bottom
groups in their use of the traditional competencies of selling
skills and relating benefits to product features. The largest gap
was between listening beyond product needs (Rosenbaum
(2001).
Sales training that improves listening skills leads to greater firm
profitability (Ramsey and Sohli, 1997).
Higher levels of listening skills lead to higher salesperson
performance (Castleberry et al., 1999)
The biggest difference between top sales performers and poor
performers was listening skills (Volper Group, Fortune,
November 11, 1996).
An average of 10 percent of industrial sales
training is devoted to development of
questioning/listening skills (Pelham, 2002).
Forty percent of sales training is designed
to increase product knowledge (Galea and
Wiens, 2002).
88.5% of surveyed firms provided
product knowledge, but only 51.5%
provided communication skills training
(Galea and Wiens, 2002).
Poor listening skills was ranked by sales managers as the top
factor leading to salesperson failure , while inadequate product
knowledge was ranked sixth(Ingram et al., 1992).
There is “a critical need today to move a sales force away from
its traditional focus on selling individual products and services ...
(Anon., December 2003)
Vol. 6, No. 3
12 Journal of Selling & Major Account Management
three percent indicated that they neglected
personal skills development, and 3. Fifty two
percent indicated that they prioritized revenue
over profit.
Despite the evidence, cited above, arguing for an
increase in the emphasis on sales consulting
skills, only twenty eight percent of executives say
that their sales representatives are not adequately
focused on solution selling and too focused on
selling products (Anonymous, December 2003).
A re-orientation of salespeople away from
transaction selling to consultative selling depends
on appropriate investments in sales training for
new and existing salespeople and appropriate
content in that training. Figure 4 provides the
results of studies indicating the critical
importance of sales training and an appropriately
trained sales force as determinants of firm
performance, compared to actual sales
management practices.
Figure 4: The Importance of Sales Training
What is Necessary
The V.P. responsible for the 500% sales increase of a
division of Fort Howard Corp. attributed the cause to
sales training (Keenan, 1995)
There is a positive relationship between sales training
expenditures and share price (Hall, 2004)
A toothbrush manufacture credits sales training for a
$30 million sales increase (Chang, 2003)
However, a survey by Peterson, reviewed by
Training magazine (Anonymous, 1990) indicated
the top five obstacles to introducing sales
training programs. They are:
1) Top management is not dedicated to
sales training,
2) Sales training programs are not
adequately funded,
3) Salespeople are apathetic about sales
training,
4) Salespeople resent training’s intrusion
on their time,
5) Salespeople resist changes suggested
by training programs.
Figure 5 provides evidence of the need for a
shift of emphasis on identifying customer needs,
rather than focusing on product benefits, and the
need for developing salespeople’s customer
What is Happening
Sixty three percent of sales managers indicated that
they neglected personal skills development and
indicated that they prioritized revenue over profit.
(Gilbert, April 2004).
Only 47% of surveyed sales managers indicated
that sales training was very valuable (Galea and
Wiens, 2002).
37% of surveyed industrial firms did not train
their salespeople (Puri, 1991)
In another survey by Learning International, 43%
of industrial sales managers indicated that they did
not train their salespeople (Anonymous, 1989)
The right sales training can produce significant increases
in sales (Klein, 1997; Zoltners et al., 2001)
A Dartnell survey indicated that the sales training for
industrial products ($9,893) and services ($9060) is higher
than the $7079 average sales training cost (Anonymous,
1999a)
Northern Illinois University
60% of firms do not formally evaluate the financial
impact of sales training because of perceived
difficulties and expense (Galea and Wiens, 2002)
Problems faced when introducing sales training
programs: top management is not dedicated. Not
adequately funded, salespeople apathetic,
salespeople resent intrusion on time, and sales
people resist changes (Anonymous, 1990a)
Summer 2006
13
Figure 5: The Importance of Emphasis on Understanding the Customer and Customer’s
Industry in Sales Training
What is Necessary
What is Happening
A study by Xerox of more than 500 sales calls
revealed that successful sales calls contained three
times more identified needs than failed call
(Dalrymple et al., 2004).
80 percent of the selling process focuses on
discovering and matching customer needs
(Brooksbank, 1995)
There is a consistent theme of customer focus in the
selection of the 25 best sales forces selected by Sales
and Marketing Management (July 2000).
Successful salespeople focus on customer needs and
less successful salespeople focus on product benefits
(Dwyer et al., 2000)
focus, compared to the actual emphasis of sales
training. Puri (1993) quoted salesperson
complaints about the questionable content of
much industrial sales training, including
exhausting memorization of product details, but
no discussion of what the products will do for
customers. He also quoted another salesperson
that enjoyed the entertaining nature of a training
session but wondered why management didn’t
invite customers to talk to the salespeople
regarding what buyers want from a salesperson.
Puri concludes that the two main reasons for
ineffective sales training:
1. The lack of assessment of training
needs
2. Ignoring buyer preferences
regarding the salesperson’s
knowledge and skills.
Figure 6 also provides evidence for the scarcity
of industrial firm market orientation, the brief
life of strategic partnerships, and the scarcity of
sales training time devoted to enhancing
customer service and internal relationships to
improve customer service, the lack of
salesperson follow-through, and the high
deterioration rate of a typical firm’s customer
base.
Sales managers placed far more importance on the
sale training topics of company information, product
information, and sales presentation skills as a means
of improving performance, compared to customer
relationship skills (Jantan et al., 2004).
An IBM executives survey of customers indicated
that salespeople lacked depth of industry knowledge
that customers needed (Strout, 2003)
35% of firms are making changes to sales training,
but the most likely change was to focus on product
training (Wotruba and Rochford, 1995).
Only 24% of all industrial firms are market
oriented, while 30 percent of firms exhibited
ignorance of the market orientation concept
(Avlontis and Gounaris, 1997)
If sales force programs, especially sales training,
don’t improve the ability of the sales force to
listen, probe for customer problems, and
provide incentives to improve value for
customers there is also likely to be a lack of
urgency in providing superior service after the
sale. This would result in poor performance,
given studies (see Figure 7) indicating the
relationship between customer service, customer
retention, and profitability. Despite the critical
importance of post sales interaction servicing
cited in the PricewaterhouseCoopers study cited
above, J.D. Power and Associates research
indicates that satisfaction with customer service
continues to remains low.
Managerial Implications and Conclusion
Sales managers, like all human beings, are
resistant to change and model their organization
on the practices that seemed to work for them
when they were in the field. Olson et al., (2001)
argue that sales managers tend to adopt specific
techniques or policies, that, when deemed
effective, become part of their modus operandi.
Vol. 6, No. 3
14 Journal of Selling & Major Account Management
Figure 6: The Importance of a Problem Diagnosis/Solving Component in Sales Training
What is Necessary
What is Happening
Sales training needs to more strongly feature consultative or
problem solving skills (Chonko et al, 1993)
Salespeople responsible for implementing a partnering buyerseller strategy must have high levels of analytical skills to
understand productivity goals, identify problems and prove
appropriate solutions (Napolitano, 1997)
“Not only does a consultative approach afford a competitive
advantage, but it also makes a more honorable seller ..but it
requires a culture change and organizational
commitment.”(CEO of Sales Performance International,
quoted in
Anonymous, 2002)
“Finding problems and opportunities to solve is more
important and more difficult than solving them (Levitt, 1983)
Most sales managers surveyed cite frustration with sales force
consultative and value selling (Anonymous, 2002).
Consultative skills and relationship management skills are
among the top skills needed by salespeople implementing a
relationship marketing strategy (Golterman 2000)
There is “a critical need today to …move toward selling
complete solutions. (Anon., December 2003)
Aramark’ salespeople who participated in consultative selling
skills training sold an average of sixty percent more across
product lines (Strnad, 2004).
The Senior V. P. of Sales and Service for Nextel trained the
sales force to solve customer’s problems, as opposed to trying
to peddle phones, resulting in three million new customers
and more than $3 billion in new revenues Cohen (2003).
Purchasing managers consider salesperson problem solving
abilities to be more important that sales presentation skills or
industry knowledge, and almost as important as product
knowledge (Puri, 1993)
A key skill that differentiated top performing salespeople was
extent of consultative problem solving (Rosenbaum (2001)
Companies such as Motorola and Owens Corning teach
salespeople how to provide solutions to customer problems to
facilitate development of lasting customer relationships
(Melone and Summy, 2002)
Northern Illinois University
An average of 13 percent of industrial
sales training is devoted to development
of problem diagnosis/solving skills
(Pelham, 2002)
38% of industrial firms report that
problem-solving abilities are sales
training topics only some of the time,
rarely, or never (Puri, 2001)
28% of executives say their sales
representatives are not adequately
focused on solution selling and too
focused on selling products
(Anonymous, December 2003b)
Industrial salespeople may not be
equipped to deal with customer
personnel like production engineers,
quality assurance personnel, design
engineers, and other technical staff in
the buying organization (Puri, 2001)
15
Summer 2006
Figure 7: The Importance of Developing Account Management Skills Sales Training
What is Necessary
What is Happening
Profitability requires greater account management skills, fundamentally
different from current skills (McKinsey 1995 study)
Few companies have taken steps to build
account management skills (McKinsey 1995
study)
Customer retention is a critical determinant of higher profitability
because of the higher profitability of existing customer, compared to
new customers (Clancy and Shulman, 1994)
Only 24% of all industrial firms are market
oriented, while 30 percent of firms exhibited
ignorance of the market orientation concept
(Avlontis and Gounaris, 1997)
Manufacturers that set explicit targets for customer retention and make
extraordinary efforts to exceed these goals are 60% more profitable
than those without such goals or fail to track loyalty (Deloite & Touche
Survey, 2001)
If a company can retain only 2 to 5 percent more customers, the effect
on the bottom line is the same as cutting costs 10% (powers et al.,
1992)
It takes an average of seven calls to close a first sale but only three to
close a subsequent sale ((O’Connell and Keenan, Jr., 1990)
28% of business-to-business customers contribute a median 75% of
sales volume (O’Connell and Keenan,1990)
Satisfied long term customers are likely to buy more frequently, in
greater volume, and purchase more goods and services, compared to
new customers (Reicheld and Sasser, 1990)
Deluxe corporation credits sales training with improving client
retention rate from 85% to 95% in less than two years (Anonymous,
2003a)
There is a link between relationship marketing, customer satisfaction,
and customer retention strategies (Bryne et al, 1993)
Sales managers say that customer service and relationships with other
areas of the firm are essential for effective selling (Kerr and Burzynski,
1988)
Quality of customer service is, by far, the more important determinant
of profitability and growth (Anonymous, December 2001).
The link between customer satisfaction and loyalty is clear (Anderson
and Sullivan, 1993).
There is a documented higher relative rate of return for companies
such as 3M that have earned an enduring reputation for customer
service (Phillips et al., 1990).
55% of all strategic partnerships dissolve within
3-5 years, and the rest have a further life
expectancy of only 3.5 years (Sperry, 1998)
Only 1 % of sales training time is devoted to
these customer service and developing internal
relationships to improve that service (Kerr and
Burzynski, 1988).
An average company loses 20-30% of its
customer base every year (Frankwick et al.,
2001)
Failure to follow through after the sale was the
buyer’s second biggest complaint about
salespeople, while talking too much was the
number one complaint (Anonymous, 1990b)
Sales Managers do not consider establishing
relationships among their company’s senior
management or other functional management
and their customers’ management as an
important toll in selling their company (Puri
(1993)
37% of firms indicate that customer relations
are sales training topics some of the time, rarely,
or never (Puri (1993)
J.D. Power and Associates research indicates
that satisfaction with customer service remains
low.
In a Learning International study, the topic least
desired by sales managers was teaching
salespeople follow-through skills (Anonymous,
1989)
Sales managers say that customer service and relationships with other
areas of the firm are essential for effective selling (Kerr and Burzynski,
1988).
A H.R. Chally survey of 15,000 buyers indicated that customer
satisfaction is determined by factors that depend largely on the sales
force (Anonymous, 1999b)
Purchasing managers rate salesperson follow-through skills as the most
desirable attribute (Puri, 2001)
Vol. 6, No. 3
16 Journal of Selling & Major Account Management
So the driving emphasis of sales management
policy is historical success rather than an analysis
of evolving market conditions. This article
presented evidence, from academic and nonacademic publications, that this failure to adapt
sales organizations to marketplace demands for a
shift to a more consultative selling approach will
result in increasingly ineffective sales forces. This
failure to adapt sales management programs to
the demands of today’s marketplace is a
significant component in the high failure rate of
attempted strategic partnerships
Across a wide variety of industries, buyers are
becoming increasingly impatient with the old
school model of the salesperson as a walking
webpage, spouting features, benefits, and a price
list, with no clue as to how to discover the
unique needs and problems of their customers.
Customers who are under pressure to reduce
costs and improve quality are demanding skilled
salespeople-consultants to diagnose and solve
problems. If a firm cannot provide such
salespeople, they will either be eliminated as
suppliers or put into the “vendor” category,
where their products are treated as commodities
and price is the only issue. Given today’s
accelerated product life cycles and the
increasingly difficulty of maintaining product
differentiation, the sales force is one of the few
areas left to develop a competitive advantage and
avoid being lumped into the vendor category.
Increasingly, success is being determined by the
ability of firms to implement a relationship
marketing strategy to increase customer
retention.
The changes to the sales organization that are
required to implement a more relationship
oriented/consulting approach are not easy or
obvious. If they were easy and obvious, more
firms would have made those changes. But, as
this article indicates, few firms have made those
changes. These changes require training
salespeople on difficult to acquire skills, such as
listening, problem diagnosis, and problem
solving. It is far easier to just train salespeople on
selling techniques and discussing product
Northern Illinois University
features. Since the need for these content areas
are obvious, the need for sales training evaluation
is not obvious. But, unless sales managers
measure the productivity of sales training by
evaluating outcomes, and not just trainee
evaluations, there is little likelihood that senior
managers will support requests for increases in
time and money to train salespeople in
consultative selling skills.
Sales managers need to increase their efforts to
sell top management on the return on investment
in consultative sales training. These efforts will
require more discussion of what is appropriate in
sales training content, more involvement of
buyers to provide feedback on sales-force
deficiencies, and more measurement of sales
training outcomes. This measurement would
include behavioral changes, customer retention
rates, and customer feedback, in addition to the
more traditional measures of sales results. If the
results of these efforts are similar to the results
cited in this article, sales managers and senior
managers will see justifiable returns on increased
investments in additional sales training content
designed to enhance sales-force consulting skills.
Sales managers who pursue these efforts will also
have to modify the remainder of their sales
programs to reinforce such sales training. This
will require modification of evaluation systems to
measure customer satisfaction and extent of
value enhancing efforts by the sales force. This
will also require modification of the reward
system to ensure adequate motivation of the
sales-force to expend efforts on consulting with
their customers, since the value of those efforts
may not be apparent in the short term.
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Vol. 6, No. 3
20 Journal of Selling & Major Account Management
The Portal Promise: Community and Value for
Salespeople
By Mary E. Shoemaker
In recent years, many companies have adopted portals to support their sales activities, often as an important part of
their Customer Relationship Management strategy. Little information is available in academic journals about the use
and success of portals in sales applications. This paper defines and describes the various types of portals. The Von
Campenhausen and Lubben (2002) framework for developing a virtual community is applied to examples of how
companies actually use portals to support their salespeople, and their key accounts. Some of the Knowledge
Management challenges in the sales organization are discussed, focusing on how the Portals enable salespeople to build
a community that permits them to use information more effectively and be more customer oriented.
Businesses continue to apply the newest
electronic technology available to boost the
competitive advantage of their salespeople
(Leigh and Marshall 2001). Currently, Enterprise
Information Portals (EIP) or specific Sales
Portals are being developed to support, inform,
and empower salespeople.
Portals are
considered the “killer app” for businesses facing
Knowledge Management (KM) challenges,
where the company has difficulty distributing its
tremendous information resources to the right
people, including its salespeople (Brizz 2001).
Several trends are driving companies to deploy
portals.
First, customers demand the
salesperson add value to the sale.
The
salesperson is expected to be knowledgeable
about their own company’s products and
capabilities, the customer’s organization and
needs, and increasingly the customer’s markets.
Smaller sales organizations are often also
expected to meet escalating customer demands
(Piercy and Lane 2005). “Sales reps must now
be able to dive deep, answering specific technical
questions, and fly high, providing purchase
justification arguments, solid business cases, and
assessments of overall performance
impact.” (Trailer and Dickie 2006 p.51)
Second, escalating customer demands force
salespeople to seek expertise throughout their
Northern Illinois University
company and partner companies. Team based
sales, using intracompany connections, and
alliance based sales, using partner contacts,
require knowledge of and access to a larger
community and efficient networks (Ustuner and
Godes 2006). Strengthening social alliances
among employees and between partners has
significant benefits for a firm (Berger et al 2006).
Coordinating and informing the community is
stage one in creating a customer focused
organization (Gulati and Oldroyd 2005).
Third, the conventional sales organization is
being transformed. The emergence of Internet
sales channels has encouraged companies to reexamine strategic decisions and choices in how
to manage sales and account management
resources to best serve the customer. The sales
organization strategy is re-focusing on building
long term relationships with a selected portfolio
of customers. Resources are shifting to key
accounts, requiring more tightly integrated
information sharing (Piercy and Lane 2005).
For these reasons, companies are increasing
deploying sales portals.
Very little information exists in the academic
sales literature about these powerful resources
for salespeople. This paper will introduce a
discussion, by defining portals and by listing the
functions of EIP or Sales portals that impact
Summer 2006
21
sales professionals. This paper will also explain
and provide examples of the Knowledge
Management challenges faced by salespeople.
Finally, the value of community participation,
and how portals can support the four pillars of
community is developed with company
examples.
portals when the information and application
needs of the sales force are significantly greater
or more complex than that of other employees
(Olim 2003). Three features, relevant to the
sales force, that distinguish an EIP or Sales
Portal, are single point of entry, personalization,
and integration.
What is a portal?
Single Point of Entry
A portal is a web based gateway that allows
access to electronic information. Most familiar
are Internet or public portals, such as Yahoo or
Google, which provide salespeople or anyone
else the ability to tap into the immense resources
of the World Wide Web. Companies employ
several additional types of portals in order to
control access to company resources. An ebusiness or extranet portal extends the company
information and services to customers (B2C) and
business partners (B2B). These portals can allow
e-commerce services such as ordering, billing,
and customer service as well as more
sophisticated supply chain management
capabilities. Some types of extranets are 1)
marketplaces, like Covisint, where buyers and
sellers of automotive equipment and services can
connect,
2) Application Service Providers
(ASPs), such as salesforce.com, where
applications can be rented, or 3) personal portals
including those found in cellular phones and
O n S t a r
i n
a u t o m o b i l e s
(www.portalscommunity.com 2004). Intranet
portals, internal to the company, with access
usually limited to the employees of a company
(B2E) are now being brought together on a
desktop. Most salespeople employ multiple
types of portals daily.
An EIP can provide a single point of entry to an
employee that accesses and possibly integrates
the many disparate intranets, databases,
applications, and information sources needed to
perform that individual’s job. The single sign-on
includes access to Internet and extranet sites as
well. Salespeople no longer need to create or
recall dozens of passwords, nor navigate through
multiple layers of security in front of a customer.
What is an Enterprise Information Portal
(EIP) or a Sales Portal?
EIP’s are usually accessible to all employees,
while a Sales portal is accessible primarily to
salespeople. Many companies are including the
sales force’s needs in the corporate wide EIP
while others are building a specific Sales Portal.
Companies are choosing to deploy separate sales
Personalization
Another distinguishing feature of EIP portals is
the level of personalization (Plumtree 2003).
Some content is available to all employees such
as company newsletters, employee policies, or
job postings. At Henkels Consumer Adhesives,
everyone in the company sees the financial data
every morning (Barlas 2003a). Some content can
be role based or pertaining specifically to the
individual’s job position. Sales managers would
be able to view their sales teams’ reports, and
connect with other managers on task forces.
Salespeople would be able to view new product
training or connect with other salespeople who
faced similar challenges.
Both could access
inventory and pricing information. While a
market researcher might be able to look at the
individual data of a study, the sales person might
only be able to read the overall findings report.
Finally, some content is only for the individual.
This content could range from e-mail, personal
and human resources files, news about current
customers to individual order status reports. An
EIP can support personalization at the employer,
department, position, and/or individual level.
Vol. 6, No. 3
22 Journal of Selling & Major Account Management
Integration
Portal vendors can provide some pre-packaged
integration solutions (Gruden and Strannegard
2003), allowing data to be used easily in multiple
applications without additional programming.
This is similar to importing Excel graphs into
Word documents. The integration between
disparate applications enhances salesperson
flexibility and speed.
A salesperson can
“contextualize” data by pulling customer data
from the ERP system and transferring that data
into a campaign manager or a data mining
application. Large global companies often have
multiple ERP and/or CRM implementations
where all the data is not available on all of the
implementations and must be imported. A sales
manager may wish to run analysis on data from
another division with a separate ERP
implementation (Rose 2003).
This ability to consolidate and integrate the
information, applications, and services needed in
one personalized access point is the promise of
the EIP. By 2001, relatively few companies had
deployed an EIP (KM Editors 2001). Currently,
employee portals are one of the highest priorities
for IT investment. It is estimated that by 2004,
85% of the global 2000 had embarked on a
portal project (Roth 2004) and employee portals
will be a $7.3 billion market by 2010 (Phifer
2006). Companies are looking to these portals to
enhance the competitive advantage of their sales
force and drive revenue growth.
Why Portals? The Knowledge Management
Challenge in Sales
EIPs are emerging as a response to the
increasing complexity and the dramatic
proliferation of information and information
technology in the workplace. Sales organizations
deal with the challenges of widely dispersed
information, isolated employees, huge numbers
of employees to reach, and the difficulty of
identifying the crucial information for
individuals.
The following describes some
examples of these challenges. Jeff Immelt, as the
Northern Illinois University
new chairman of General Electric Co., was
dismayed to find that the GE Power sales team
in 1991 spent far more time in front of their
computers than in front of their customers. It
seemed that the information required to sell
multi-million dollar turbines, and turbine parts
and services was scattered in many unconnected
applications and databases. Salespeople spent
much of their time pulling the information
together to quote and service their customers
(Anthes 2003).
Honeywell determined that employee knowledge
was not being widely shared across the
corporation. Business networks were often
small, informal, local and based on personal
relation shi ps.
These “islands o f
communication” left the vast reservoir of
employee knowledge untapped( Kaneshige
2003).
At Sun Microsystems, the global sales
organization consists of 10,000 people in sales,
pre-sales, and field marketing.
The sales
organization’s challenge was to disseminate and
share information, expertise, and applications
with these 10, 000 people around the globe,
across departments, markets, and product
offerings (Intraspect 2003).
In 2001, Siemens, the German manufacturer of
mobile phones, computers and electronic
equipment, faced an information nightmare.
With 430,000 employees in 190 countries using
3500 intranets and 2500 Web servers, there was
a lot of information. A Siemens IT executive
described it as “too much information in too
many places”. Managing that much information
was expensive, ineffective, and insecure
(Westervelt 2004).
Watson et al (2002) suggest that conscience
attention may be a scare resource. As more
information is made available, there is a greater
need to supply attention freeing interactions.
These authors are referring to consumer
attention, but the same scarcity may apply to the
salesperson’s attention. Salespeople can be
Summer 2006
23
Table 1. Examples of Knowledge Management Challenges
General Electric – Information in unconnected
applications and databases
Honeywell – Knowledge not shared beyond
local, personal, relationships
overwhelmed by the resources available and
need consolidation and single point access to
maximize their selling potential.
Virtual Community
A Portal can be valuable in building the
interconnections, experiences, and trust that
create a sales community. In the past, most sales
people were geographically disconnected and
functioned fairly independently from their peers.
However, not only has the sales position become
increasing collaborative in nature, but even
salespeople who are not officially part of a sales
team need to interact with other salespeople and
other business functions
to serve their
customers well. Salespeople are finding that
customer expectations, partnership relationships,
and business complexity are forcing participation
with a sales community. The strong companywide sales community may help a company deal
with an important strategic issue -- ensuring that
the culture and behaviors of the sales force is
consistent with the organization’s marketing
orientation and strategy (Leigh and Marshall
2001). A stronger sales community provides
more resources and support for a salesperson
than a group whose members are disconnected
and isolated. The early value of a virtual
community is its ability to address the needs of
its members.
Casciaro and Lobo (2005)
uncovered that people will choose who they
work with for two reasons: competence and
likability. Liking can be influenced by familiarity
and cooperative experiences. As salespeople
participate in the virtual community,
opportunities for familiarity and cooperative
experiences expand. As more members use the
portal, the more valuable is becomes. More
usage begets more content, more sharing, and
more interconnections.
Leveraging the
Sun Microsystems – 10,000 salespeople across
the globe need access to information
Siemens – Huge amount of information, very
widely dispersed.
interactions with customers, sales forces will be
able to refocus from selling to managing and
serving their accounts (Armstrong and Hagel
1997). Ustuner and Godes (2006) indicate that
salespeople can create significant value by using
organizational networks effectively, particularly
by being able to access the right network at each
stage of the selling process.
A sales portal has the ability to facilitate
collaboration by supporting a virtual community.
Von Campenhausen and Lubben (2002) indicate
that a virtual community is formed and
connected by four components:
content,
communication, context, and commerce. A well
built sales portal strengthens these four pillars.
The following describes how companies are
using these four pillars to create a successful
virtual sales community.
Content
Content refers to the information available
through the portal. Company data bases, training
materials, company news, reports, and
documents, as well as access to external news
feeds, and data bases, are all examples of
content. The portal includes the tools the
salesperson needs to manage the content: to
search, filter, index, and archive the information
(Watson and Fenner 2000). As content is the
first pillar in building community, early portals
(circa 1998) primarily provided content (KM
Editors 2001). Many companies have found
portal provided content has increased sales
productivity. Dow Corning manages 2 million
active materials-based sheets available to
salespeople and customers through its portal.
Faster access to and delivery of these sheets
speeds a number of company processes
(Ericson 2003b).
Wells Fargo was able to
Vol. 6, No. 3
24 Journal of Selling & Major Account Management
Figure 1. Impact of a Portal on Knowledge Management, the Sales Community and
Competitive Advantage.
Content
Knowledge
Management
Communication
Context
P
o
Competitive
r
Advantage
t
Sales
Community
Commerce
reduce 10,000 pages of content to 2000 by
lowering duplication within their portal (Ulfelder
2004).
G.E Power provided their 2500
salespeople with access to details about every
installed G.E. turbine and customer master files
for 65,000 customers. Previously unconnected
databases, from parts pricing to dates of planned
customer outages, feed into G.E.’s sales portal.
Feedback from the salespeople about the
information available was obtained by making
access to the prototype portal available at the
company’s annual sales conference.
G.E.
wanted to emphasize the power of getting the
portal into the hands of salespeople. Sales
productivity has risen 25%, attributed to faster
information searches (Anthes 2003).
Communication
Content alone does not build community.
Communication or collaboration tools increase
the value of the content. These applications
range from familiar e-mail, calendar and
discussion tools such as Instant Messenger and
Northern Illinois University
Lotus Notes (Raol et al 2002) to net meetings,
on-demand presentations, and indexed expertise
that allows salespeople to identify the company’s
internal experts easily. The use of the more
sophisticated collaboration tools is in its infancy.
Getting salespeople to embrace the new
technologies is still a challenge (Speier and
Venkatesh 2002)). However, those companies
that pioneered the use of these tools are pleased
with the results.
Frito-lay, an $8.5 billion division of Pepsi-Co,
developed a portal, known as the Customer
Community Portal, to share information among
its geographically dispersed sales teams.
Expertise profiles were created on the portal so
that field sales staff could easily identify who in
headquarters had expertise in areas such as
promotional planning, pricing or particular
products. This was especially valuable for new
salespeople. The portal fostered a sense of
community by including birthdays and sales
presentations developed by individual
salespeople. Frito-Lay salespeople are expected
Summer 2006
to analyze retail sales and behavioral data for the
retail category managers to persuade them of the
value of additional shelf space for Frito-Lay
products. Salespeople who share the same client
in different cities can share documents
concurrently, and develop best practices for all
customer sites. Client information could be
easily shared within a team while password
protection allowed only team members dealing
with a particular client to view confidential
information.
Not only did the portal spur sales and
profitability growth, but an unexpected benefit
appears to have been reduced sales personnel
turnover. Before the portal was introduced,
salespeople had complained about feeling
disconnected from the team. The first group of
salespeople to use the portal, which had been
experiencing high turnover, had no turnover the
first year after the portal was deployed (Shein
2001).
Rock-Tenn, a $1.4 billion packaging solutions
firm, had been mailing printed reports with sales
and other data to their business units. Often the
information was stale and obsolete by the time it
was received.
After they began sharing
information via a sales portal, one sales team
discovered that while their division that had
been attempting to sell to a potential customer
for years, another division was already doing
business with that customer. The relationship
quickly moved forward (Microsoft 2002).
Sun Microsystem’s sales portal allows sales and
marketing to work together easily on sales
proposals and presentations. Salespeople build
on each others work and less time is wasted
developing projects from the beginning. The
MySales Portal allows the formation of
collaborative communities organized around
vertical markets, geography, product family, or
individual account. Sun is able to replicate the
best practices of their sales teams across
geographies and industries (Intraspect 2003).
Reynolds and Reynolds, a $1 billion provider of
25
documents to car dealerships, developed a sales
presentation portal that allows account
executives to prepare presentations for proposals
that can include dealer specific competitive
factors, pain points, and deal size. By sharing
sales collateral across the company, Reynolds
was able to create a more uniform sales process
and ensure that proposals focused on areas
where the company could provide the best
solutions. Proposal creation time dropped by
more than 30%, while proposal quality improved
(Compton 2005).
Concerned about the tendency of their
employees to only share information with the
people in their local network, Honeywell also
developed a searchable directory of experts,
which is currently being deployed to a few
thousand employees. The goal was to capitalize
on Honeywell’s strong knowledge-sharing
culture and expand employees’ “tribal network”
of trusted associates across divisions and
geography. Despite concerns that salespeople
may unintentionally reveal confidential client
information, participants indicate the directory
has expanded their network and anticipate some
real returns (Kaneshige 2003).
Context
Context refers to the ability of the portal to be
personalized either to an individual’s needs or to
their role-based needs. Personalizing the portal
to an individual’s needs, for example, occurs
when the portal displays the latest news about a
salesperson’s own accounts.
Ideally, the
corporate portal opens to resources and
applications that are frequently accessed by the
individual user.
If the salesperson checks
CNN.com everyday, that site would be available
on the portal page, reducing the salesperson’s
need to check multiple sites with multiple wait
times and sign-ons. The portal will not display
resources the salesperson does not have
authorization to access (Bannon 2002).
An
example of role based personalization is
providing all salespeople the ability to check
current pricing, inventory and delivery schedules,
Vol. 6, No. 3
26 Journal of Selling & Major Account Management
or to download sales presentations. This
information would not be available to everyone
in the company.
At Northwestern Mutual Life, each of the 7800
independent agents has a customized portal as
part of Northwestern’s customer portal. Each
agent is able to modify their portal to provide
personalized and one-to-one services to their
clients, while being able to include research,
tools, and calculators from Northwestern in their
own portals. Content varies as the market
served varies. For example, one agent’s clients
might be families interested in college planning
tools, another agent’s clients may be primarily
interested in retirement calculators. Each agent
decides which information is displayed on their
own portal.
A key advantage of the
Northwestern umbrella portal is the ability to
maintain compliance on the individual portals.
All content changes are checked for compliance
issues before it appears on the agent’s portal
(Ericson 2003a).
This customization is still a work in progress at
most companies. However, the future holds
some interesting possibilities. An executive from
IDC posits that portals will someday include a
“process manager”. This process manager will
learn and manage business/sales processes. The
process manager would understand what needs
to happen to a new sales lead and would provide
each person involved in the lead management
process with the current information needed to
correctly handle the lead. The portal would
change daily based on the new information
provided each individual (KM Editors 2001).
on-line, primarily to either free up salesperson
time or to reduce process time. Reynolds and
Reynolds found that their salespeople worked
with their clients more efficiently when they
were freed up from order entry tasks (Barlas
2003b).
Toyota Motor Sales USA has
implemented a portal called Dealer Daily that
allows all 1200 of U.S based Toyota and Lexus
dealers to manage vehicle deliveries, order parts,
process warranty claims, and even swap
inventories with other dealers before the cars are
shipped from the factory. Dealer employees
reported saving an average of 1.8 hours a day
(Yamada 2004).
After attempting and having problems with
selling directly on-line to their customers,
Northwestern Mutual Life uses their sales portal
to drive web surfers to its distribution network,
to bring leads directly to its independent
salespeople. While some account transactions
can occur through the Northwestern sales portal,
its primary function is to increase the
effectiveness of the live sales transaction
(Ericson 2003a). Office Depot serves their B2B
customers by selling them an extranet
connection that allows individuals at a company
to purchase authorized materials through the
portal from a pre-negotiated contract.
Salespeople sell the extranet contract, not the
individual office supplies (Roberts-Witt 2003).
The synergy between the portal and the
salespeople in these examples suggests that many
sales situations may be enhanced by having both
a salesperson and an on-line commerce
capability.
Commerce
Managerial Implications
Commerce is the ability to complete a buying or
selling transaction through the portal. This
extends the community to the channel or
customer through an extranet, a business to
business (B2B) portal. While most B2B sales
transactions still require the services of a
salesperson, some of the lower level and tedious
order entry processes have been made available
At most firms today, employees endure an
avalanche of new IT initiatives. When the portal
initiative is announced, sales managers may be
tempted to regard the portal as not relevant to
their objectives. A key pitfall in creating portals
that increase productivity is lack of executive
support (Rudnick 2004). The sales manager
needs to be aware of the potential value of a well
Northern Illinois University
Summer 2006
27
designed EIP or Sales Portal.
The sales
organization should be able to provide input into
the objectives and specifications of the portal
design.
Some knowledge of how other
companies have met sales and knowledge
management challenges with a portal would
enable the sales managers to lobby for a portal
of value to salespeople. As a portal is a
complement or an enhancement to existing
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and
Sales Force Automation (SFA) systems, sales
managers need to understand the portal’s
functions and features as well, to maximize the
value of the existing applications. Managers
need to identify the most valuable applications to
include from both the salesperson’s and the
customer’s viewpoint. Enabling salespeople to
maximize the effectiveness of the use of the
portal is a new management challenge that
requires a basic understanding of portals.
a faster response allow a salesperson to meet
these demands. Deploying a portal is a major
investment for a company. A portal may need
to be viewed as a crucial sales support resource,
rather than a revenue source. Being able to solve
customer problems more effectively and
efficiently than the competition is a key
advantage.
Managers should also be aware of how a portal
can build community within an organization. As
networks become increasingly necessary to
successful selling, salespeople should be
encouraged to participate in the portal-supported
community. Not only is training in accessing the
content useful to salespeople, but also some
training and encouragement in using the
communication tools. Sales managers could
model the portal tools to communicate with
their salespeople.
The connections of the
salesperson with the company may be
strengthened as well as the relationships with the
customer.
Some discussion of how portal
communities supported sales efforts might
increase participation. Managers should solicit
feedback from salespeople as to what the
salespeople would value. Salespeople frequently
perceive more technology as allowing less faceto-face selling time. Portal interactions need to
provide salespeople with real value.
As
participation rises, the usefulness of the portal
rises.
The second stream involves connecting portals
with the network, community,
and social
alliance literature. What do the sales people
value? What do the customers value? How
much and which information should be available
to whom? How connected is too connected?
Does a portal-based connection reduce or
increase the need for face-to-face connections?
Does a portal accelerate the trend towards
salespeople building stronger relationships with
fewer customers?
A portal can enable a salesperson to deal with
the ever increasing demands of the sales role.
More information, more access to expertise, and
Research Implications
There are several streams of research that
improve sales-oriented knowledge of portals.
The first involves a better understanding of the
effect of the technology.
Will use of this
technology result in more time face-to face with
the customer, or more time in front of the
computer?
How will the impact of this
investment on productivity be measured? Which
applications build community most effectively?
Which applications are most widely used?
The third stream would examine how portals
affect existing sales structures and processes.
What is the effect on the sales process, the
buying process? How will the sales organization
be affected? Would increased portal usage allow
a flattened sales organization or a decentralized
organization?
Will current sales activities
change? For example, would a library of
presentations available reduce the time a
salesperson spends preparing presentations?
The potential for research questions is wide
open. Portals are a very new and powerful tool
for salespeople. How much and in what
directions this tool will change the sales
environment is mostly unexamined.
Vol. 6, No. 3
28 Journal of Selling & Major Account Management
Conclusion
Well designed portals have the potential to meet
the knowledge management challenges facing
salespeople. The virtual community supported
by a portal allows a salesperson to connect with
and utilize needed resources, both database and
human, in a timely fashion. The portal provides
easy access, suitable guideposts, and filters for
the overwhelming supply of information
available to salespeople. The portal promise is
that the salesperson that uses a well designed
portal effectively is participating in a community
that enhances their ability to create value for
their customers. Portals are still fairly new, but
early evidence suggests they may fulfill their
promise.
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Mary E. Shoemaker is an Associate Professor of
marketing at Widener University.
E-mail: meshoemaker@Widener.edu
Vol. 6, No. 3
30 Journal of Selling & Major Account Management
Recruiting New Salespeople From Universities:
University Sales Centers Offer a Better Alternative
By Dan C. Weilbaker and Michael Williams
Over the years many businesses have vacillated between hiring new salespeople from the pool of recent college
graduates and hiring salespeople with experience. Companies hiring new graduates have also debated over whether to
hire students with business degrees or those with a liberal arts degree. Recently another factor has been injected into
the decision. There are now eleven universities that have sales programs that offer employers graduates with business
degrees and also offer employers’ graduates who have prepared themselves to enter and excel in business to business
selling. This article provides some insight into the benefits associated with hiring graduates from a personal selling
specialization. This article also discusses the development of university sales programs along with the creation of the
University Sales Center Alliance (USCA). Finally, the article also provides a report on the benefits of hiring graduates
from any of the USCA schools.
Introduction
Personal Selling has long been viewed by most
academics and some practitioners as a trade
school profession. However, the growth of
business-to-business selling has produced
significant changes in attitudes about
professional selling as a career (Wotruba,
Simpson and Reed-Draznik 1989; Weeks and
Muehling 1987; Castlebery 1990a). In line with
this changing perception, there has been a recent
trend toward developing a personal selling
specialization within marketing departments
across the country. Several universities have
been ahead of the curve in pursuing professional
selling as a valuable academic curricular
component of a marketing program. This article
provides some insight into what prompted some
schools to pioneer and champion the sales
curriculum while others schools have taken a
wait and see attitude. In addition, the paper
provides the results of a study of the sales
centers comprising the University Sales Center
Alliance and how these findings could help
companies benefit by recruiting graduates from
these sales programs. This article is designed to
help corporations become more effective and
productive when hiring new salespeople from
the pool of new college graduates.
Northern Illinois University
The recent formation of the University Sales
Center Alliance (USCA), as well as increased
student interest in a sales career and increased
demand for sales program graduates, are all
indications that the sales focused programs are a
viable option to consider when hiring new
salespeople from colleges and universities. This
article will provide more detailed information on
the benefits of a sales curriculum as well as some
of the issues relevant to the quality of graduates.
Issues like: number of professors, number of
courses, class sizes, use of role playing, the cost
of development (faculty, equipment, teaching
loads, etc.) have a major impact on the quality of
the program and graduates. Information from a
recent survey of the USCA schools illustrates the
benefits when companies are interested in hiring
the best available talent for sales positions.
Historical Perspective
University level selling classes are nothing new.
There have been personal selling courses offered
at the university level for decades—Illinois State
University offered a course in Salesmanship as
early as 1914 as a required course in its
Department of Commercial Education.
However, most of the early sales courses were
single courses offered as electives and often
Application Article
avoided by students due to the unpopular
perceptions a career in sales held by many
students. These single sales course offerings
were traditionally a course that combined
personal selling and sales management. It
seemed that having management as a part of a
course provided some academic legitimacy to the
offering and allowed the sales course a foothold
into the curriculum.
As far back as 1911 there has been a specific
textbook for salesmanship classes (Sheldon
1911).
Today, the number of textbooks
developed specifically for personal selling has
expanded to include over 18 different academic
textbooks.
The personal selling process in both academic
research and the classroom has gone through
several phases over time that seem to mirror the
changes in the business environment. Initially
most of the personal selling academic literature
was focused on retail selling or business-toconsumer selling. This has given way to an
emphasis on business-to-business selling.
Business-to-business selling involves selling to a
company in which the decisions may or may not
be made by a group of people (depending of the
type of product or service being sold). The use
of buying centers shifted the selling process and
content of selling to a more logical rather than
emotional decision-making. The use of logic and
analysis in the business-to-business arena placed
a burden on the practicing salespeople to acquire
new and more complex skills in order to
effectively communicate and sell to the business
buyer. These new skills required a person who
was more educated than previously needed.
Thus, more and more companies required
salespeople to have a college education rather
than just a high school diploma (the norm in the
1950’s, 1960’s and in some industries into the
1970’s). This shift has been one of the drivers
influencing the growth in university sales courses
over the past 16 years.
Initially, corporations were happy to get new
college graduates (from any discipline). They
Summer 2006
31
would spend time and money training them on
product knowledge as well as some basic selling
skills. However, as training costs escalated and
customer demands on salespeople increased,
companies found that they needed better
educated salespeople in order to compete
effectively. One option was to continue hiring
the same type of people and spend much more
money training them. A second option was to
reduce training costs and time by hiring
graduates of sales programs who understand
selling and who have developed basic selling
skills. Even though both systems are in use
today, more and more companies are looking to
universities to prepare new hires by giving them
an initial understanding of the selling process,
developing basic selling skills, and teaching that
selling careers have many benefits as well as
challenges.
The University Sales Center Alliance (USCA)
The first two schools to adopt a collegerecognized specialization in professional sales
were Baylor University and Northern Illinois
University in 1988 (Castleberry 1990b). With the
success of these two programs, other schools
soon initiated their own sales programs. By the
end of 1996 there were six schools that had
recognized sales programs. They were: Ball State
University, University of Memphis, University of
Akron, and University of Toledo, Northern
Illinois University and Baylor University (Sales
and Marketing Magazine 1996). By 2002 this
number had increased to nine schools having
established sales programs. These schools were:
Ball State University, Baylor University,
Northern Illinois University, Illinois State
University, University of Toledo, University of
Akron, Kennesaw State University, and
University of Houston, and Ohio University.
The faculty from these schools would
consistently meet at conferences to discuss
situations at their universities and what their
programs were doing to improve the education
of their students. At the National Conference in
Sales Management (NCSM) in 2001, a special
Vol. 6, No. 3
32 Journal of Selling & Major Account Management
students in the sales program, activities to assist
students, scholarly activities of faculty,
involvement in professional organizations,
operational budgets, fund raising, and use of
advisory boards.
session on “how sales centers had been
developed” was presented by three schools
(Northern Illinois University, University of
Akron, and University of Toledo). At the next
NCSM (2002) meeting, the nine schools that had
sales programs in place were invited to sit down
to discuss issues and how they might work
together to encourage other schools to develop
sales centers and how to move the sales
profession forward. This was the birth of the
University Sales Center Alliance (USCA). The
alliance members agreed upon the following
mission statement: The USCA mission is to
advance the sales profession through
academic leadership in research, teaching
and outreach. William Patterson University
became the tenth member in 2003 and Indiana
University the eleventh member in 2004.
Benefits of Recruiting at Sales Center
The two primary stakeholders related to sales
centers are: (1) the students (both current and
alumni) and (2) companies/recruiters. Each of
these two stakeholders will be discussed
separately.
Student Benefits
Findings support a number of benefits in terms
of job opportunities and placement, starting
salaries, training-to-job cycle time, and
promotability for students completing the
multiple courses comprising sales programs.
Responses documented a dramatic difference in
the percentages of students having accepted a
job at the time of graduation between three
categories (1) general marketing students, (2)
students completing only the basic sales class,
and (3) students completing the sales program
(multiple courses in a sales sequence or major).
As seen in Table 1, the students completing the
sales program had a substantially higher hiring
rate than those of the general marketing group
or those only completing a single, basic sales
class. In fact, both the current year and the
average yearly rate (due to fluctuations in the
economy, the average rate is probable a better
measure) both showed the students graduating
Sales Center Research
At the conclusion of an annual USCA meeting,
the authors took it upon themselves to survey
the existing sales centers to profile each of the
recognized programs and identify specific
characteristics about the programs that might be
of interest to companies considering or currently
using college new hire programs.
The questionnaire was developed by the authors
to obtain information on a variety of topics
related to a sales center. Specific coverage
included breadth of curriculum, number of role
plays used, faculty resources, funding, class sizes,
use of technology, student placement, number of
Table 1: Placement Rates at Sales Centers
Job Placement Rate
Current Year
Average in
Previous
Years
Student Category
%
Difference
%
68%
Difference
General Marketing
50%
Completing only Basic Sales Class
53%
+ 3%
72%
+4%
Completing Sales Program
82%
+29%
93%
+19%
Northern Illinois University
Application Article
33
Summer 2006
from the sales program with about a 20 percent
higher placement rate than students in the
comparative categories.
A second benefit for students is in terms of
significantly higher starting salaries. Similar to
the differences seen in the job placement rates,
the study found that starting salaries were much
higher for those who completed the sales
program than for students in the other two
categories. As illustrated in Table 2, average
starting salaries for general marketing majors
ranged from $29,750 to $38,000. This compares
to the average range of $30,250 to $39,750 for
students completing the first basic course in
selling and $33,750 to $49,250 for students
completing the sales program sequence. In
relative terms, this translates to students
completing a single, basic selling course receiving
starting salaries ranging from 1.7 to 4.6 percent
higher than general marketing students.
Students completing the sales program receive
starting salaries ranging from 11.6 to 23.9
percent higher than those students completing
only the basic course in sales and from 13 to 29
percent higher than general marketing students.
Anecdotally, some of the salary differences are
due to the level of position being accepted. The
students who completed the sales course work
typically obtained higher level jobs in b-t-b
selling while those general students seemed to
take sales positions in retail or transactional
selling situations.
Finally, respondents referenced anecdotal
comments from recruiters representing a variety
of companies that hire sales graduates from
USCA schools. These anecdotal comments
indicated that hiring companies report that
students completing multi-course selling
programs tend to learn quicker in their sales
training, have higher levels of sales skill
understanding and mastery, and are productive
faster than their counterparts from other areas of
study. Although not tested in this study, these
findings could logically be extended to conclude
that these students are likely to receive better
salary increases and faster promotions based on
performance in the future.
Company/Recruiter Benefits
Comments from companies that recruit and hire
sales students from the sales center universities
agree that they are able to reduce their training
costs due to the education and practical (handson) training the students received while in
college. The fact that students have already
covered much of the material in the companies’
training programs allows them to concentrate
more on developing and perfecting the skills and
not on initially acquiring the knowledge. This in
turn makes them more productive or faster to be
productive than other recent hires from nonsales center universities.
Another benefit for companies is that sales
students have realistic expectations regarding the
specific tasks and activities along with
responsibilities and challenges of selling jobs.
This means that there is less likelihood that they
will leave the position during the development
phase of the job. This assists the company in
reducing turnover and thus the cost of hiring
and training.
Considering the costs of
Table 2: Average Starting Salary Ranges
Average Dollar Range
Student Category
From
Difference
To
Difference
General Marketing Students
$29,750
$38,000
Completing only Basic Sales Class
$30,250
+$ 500
1.7%
$39,750
+$1,750
4.6%
Completing Sales Program
$33,750
+$3,500
11.6%
$49,250
+$9,500
23.9%
Vol. 6, No. 3
34 Journal of Selling & Major Account Management
international business-to-business, or conflict
resolution classes.
salesperson turnover run from 1.5 to 2.5 times
the departing employee’s annual salary
(Hinchcliffe 2003; Bliss 2004) this is a significant
and tangible benefit for company stakeholders.
Finally, anecdotal information received from
sales graduates indicates that they are more
satisfied with their position which leads to higher
levels of motivation. All of which helps them be
better salespeople and generate more revenue for
the company.
A look at the number of students in the basic
sales course for the USCA schools found that
the range was from 24 to 100 students with a
median of 26 students. The number of sales
role-plays also varied in the basic sales class from
one to four with an average of 2.1 role-plays.
The small class size is particularly important
since the use of role-plays takes considerable a
large amount of class time and thus fewer
students can be accommodated than in a
traditional lecture format marketing class.
Issues Specific to Sales Centers
Curriculum
Schools with sales centers have placed a
considerable amount of emphasis on the sales
curriculum in that 75 percent of the schools
require marketing majors to take the basic sales
class while only 25 percent have it as an elective.
The practical nature of the education is evident
in that 100 percent of the schools have
practitioners actively involved in the classroom.
The number of different sales classes provided
ranged from 4 to 7 with an average of 5.5 (mode
was 4). Beyond the basic sales class, all of the
respondents offered a sales management class,
62 percent offer an advanced sales class, 25
percent offer both negotiations and purchasing
with 12.5 percent offering either key account
management, persuasion, technology,
Another issue that might be important for a sales
program is the number of sections offered in the
basic sales course. The range was from 3 to 12
sections per year with the average being 9. Thus,
the number of faculty needed to staff just the
basic course ranged from 1 to 2 full time
equivalents without consideration of the other
classes being offered. Thus, initiating and
supporting a sales program requires a significant
commitment to staffing.
Faculty
There are two ways to approach the staffing
issue. One is to use only academically qualified
professors and the other is to supplement the
academically qualified with adjunct faculty who
Table 3: Lead Sales Faculty Profile
Teaching Tenure
Range
(Years)
9-20
Average
15
Years Sales
Experience
Teaching Load
Different Courses
Taught
2-12
(% time teaching)
30-100%
7
82%
2.4
University
Committee
Academic Journal
Subscriptions
2-3
Table 4 Lead Sales Faculty Profile (Continued)
Refereed Journal
Publication
Refereed
Proceedings
Publications
Range
6-60
8-70
Per year
1-7
1-3
Average
21.1
25.8
4.6
1.1
Northern Illinois University
Application Article
35
Summer 2006
satisfy accreditation requirements with an
advanced degree and relevant sales experience.
Respondents to this study indicated that the
number of tenure track faculty (full time
equivalents) ranged from 1 to 3 with an average
of 2.3 tenure track faculty per program. The
profile of the lead faculty member for each
school (See Table 3 and Table 4) illustrates that
they do more than just teach (although this is a
major contribution). They have been teaching
sales for a considerable length of time (average
15 years) and have the business background
(average 7 years) to provide credibility in the
classroom. This is enhanced by the fact that
seven out of the eight (87 percent) faculty do
consulting outside of academic work. They also
publish many refereed journals and proceedings;
serve on several college and university
committees as well stay current with new
knowledge and trends in the academic journals.
All of this means those knowledgeable faculties
are important in providing top notch classroom
experiences for students.
Supportive Activities
The last area has to do with having a specific job
fair organized for sales. Sixty six percent of the
USCA schools that responded to this question
have a dedicated sales job fair. The earliest one
started in 1993 and the latest one started in 1997.
They attract between 20 and 75 companies to
attend with the average being 40 companies.
They also attract between 175 and 300 students
to attend the event with the average being 200.
Another major issue is the amount of resources
needed to run a quality sales program. This
seems to be one large barrier to entry for other
schools (even if they were interested in providing
sales education). These resources consist of
special rooms and equipment as well as the need
to have smaller class sizes to accommodate the
use of role-plays in the sales classes. In a
semester system it typically takes about eight
weeks to do one role- play of about 20 minutes
in length with some feedback for about 24
students per class. Thus, it is imperative that
classes be kept smaller than normal which means
that more sections may need to be offered. This
means that more faculty members are needed to
cover the classes.
The second resource issue deals with acquiring
the money to buy and install audio/video
equipment needed for student feedback. That
brings us to a facilities issue: electronic
equipment. The use of audio/video recording
and playback is essential in providing quality
education in the sales program. Neither the
classroom nor electronic equipment will be a
small investment. The electronic equipment,
although available, is relatively expensive.
Depending on the number of cameras and video
playback systems, the costs could range from as
little as $5,000- $8,000 to as much as $200,000.
It is important for the faculty in charge of the
development of the sales center to identify ways
to obtain the money needed. Is it to be from the
university or does it needs to be raised from
corporate sponsors?
The final obstacle to overcome is the student’s
attitude toward selecting a sales career and thus
sales courses. Even though there has been a
positive change in student attitudes towards sales
as a career (Murray and Robinson 2001;
Table 5: Financial Issues Related to Sales Center
Number (n)
Donation to Initiate Sales
Program
5
Annual Financial Support from
University
3
Range
$20,000-$550,000
$9,000-$20,000
Average
$182,000
$13,000
Vol. 6, No. 3
36 Journal of Selling & Major Account Management
Swenson, Swinyard, Langrehr and Smith 1993;
Castleberry 1990a; Bellenger, Bernhardt and
Wayman 1974; Wotruba, Simpson and ReedDraznik 1989; Weeks and Muehling 1987,
Weilbaker and Merritt 1992), even today there is
still resistance on the part of some students to
take sales classes. That is one reason that some
schools have started requiring one sales course
for all marketing majors and minors. It is evident
by the increase in the number of sales students
that this introductory class is a turning point for
many students.
Once some critical mass has completed the sales
course and found their attitude changed
regarding careers in sales, then they talk to others
and soon there is even a desire to take the sales
classes.
When students find out that
professional selling is not telemarketing, that
they can make a significant amount of money,
and that they can get jobs, they begin to take it
more seriously.
How to Obtain the Benefits of Recruiting
from USCA Schools
The first decision has to be where you want to
spend the resources to recruit new sales hires. If
that decision has universities as part or all of the
focus, then you need to decide how you will
approach the hiring process. Companies can
either cast a wide net (go to a large number of
schools) or they can be focused (select a few to
concentrate on) in their selection of schools.
Even if the choice is selected schools, most
recruiters and sales managers have an affinity for
their alma mater. If the decision is made on
results of previous hires and not just on school
loyalty, then the investment is worth while. An
advantage of using a focused recruiting strategy
is that the resources used can be more
effectively. That is, companies have finite
resources and what ever resources are used at
the selected schools can be larger than if spread
over many schools thus it can have an impact
and attract students to the company.
All of the USCA schools use practitioners in
parts of the classroom experience. With many
Northern Illinois University
companies recognizing that classroom exposure
is critical to attracting the right candidates, when
focused recruiting is used it is more likely that
the faculty will allow your people into the
classroom.
Another way to gain access to sales center
schools is through involvement on a sales
advisory board. This board would be comprised
of sales managers/sales directors/ sales VP’s, or
even owners. The make up of the board is
ideally weighted toward alumni from the school
who have been successful in their sales career. It
is also important to ensure that diversity within
the types of industries selected along with
diversity in the people selected to participate on
the board. Another valuable opportunity
provided by the sales advisory board is the input
they provide on the curriculum and other
activities provided by the sales center. These
sales professionals have access to information
about successful salespeople within their own
organization and can share best practices in
training that can be applied within the sales
center.
The sales advisory board can be instrumental in
helping graduates gain sales positions. The
board members can provide a valuable link to a
company’s recruiting and hiring practices. If the
board has a number of high visibility companies,
then this will also help attract high quality
students to enroll in the sales program.
Finally, participating in the sales specific job fairs
hosted by the USCA schools will also help
improve the return on investment for recruiting.
The fact that students know that the companies
are there to hire sales professionals allows for a
self selection process for students. That is, only
those students interested in sales will attend and
thus reduce the necessity to screen students’
interest in sales.
Conclusions
In a highly competitive marketplace, it is
important to find key suppliers for the raw
material needed for success. In this case we are
Application Article
talking about key human resources for
salespeople. Just as a company would not
consider buying raw material that need extra
processing when other sources are available that
do not require extra processing, companies need
to consider the same for hiring new salespeople
from universities. We are saying that if a
company is serious about hiring the best people
that can become productive faster, be more
satisfied with their sales position, have lower
turnover and be the future leadership of the sales
organization, then recruiting new sales hires
from University Sales Center Alliance schools is
an obvious choice. The various sales centers
across the country are not viewed as competitors
but rather as allies in the struggle to make
professional sales a valued area of study with a
marketing degree. A list of the schools and their
main contact person is listed below.
University Sales Centers
Richard Canada
Business 428C / IUB
Executive Director of Center for Sales Studies
and Market Intelligence
Lecturer of Marketing
Indiana University
1309 East Tenth Street,
Bloomington, IN 47405
rcanada@indiana.edu
Kenneth L. Hartung
Executive Director, The Sales Centre
Marketing Department
Copeland 630
Ohio University
Athens, OH 45701
hartlung@ohio.edu
Jon M. Hawes
Professor of Marketing
Director, Fisher Institute for Professional Selling
CBA 310
University of Akron
Akron, OH 44325
37
Summer 2006
jhawes@uakron.edu
William A. Weeks
Professor of Marketing
Director, Center for Professional Selling
One Bear Place 98007
Waco, TX 76798
Bill_Weeks@baylor.edu
Eli Jones
Professor of Marketing
Director, Sales Excellence Institute
C. T. Bauer College of Business
University of Houston
Houston, TX 77204-6021
eli-jones@uh.edu
Ramon Avila
Professor of Marketing
Director, H.H. Gregg Center for Professional
Selling
Miller College of Business
Ball State University
Muncie, IN 47306-0355
ravila@bsu.edu
Michael Williams
Professor of Marketing
Director, Professional Sales Institute
College of Business
Illinois State University
Campus Box 5590
Normal, IL 61790-5590
mrwilli@ilstu.edu
Terry W. Loe
Associate Professor
Director, Center for Professional Selling
Kennesaw State University
1000 Chastain Rd. #0406
Kennesaw, GA 30144
terry_loe@coles2.kennesaw.edu
Vol. 6, No. 3
38 Journal of Selling & Major Account Management
Richard Buehrer
Professor of Sales and Marketing
Director, Edward H. Schmidt School of
Professional Sales
College of Business Administration
The University of Toledo
Toledo, OH 43606
richard.buehrer@utoledo.edu
David Reid
Director, Russ Berrie Institute for Professional
Sales
William Paterson University
P.O. Box 920
Wayne, NJ 07474-0920
reidd@wpunj.edu
Dan C. Weilbaker
McKesson Pharmaceutical Group Professor of
Sales
Director, Office for Selling Effectivenes
Department of Marketing
Northern Illinois University
Barsema Hall 128 R
DeKalb, IL 60115
dweilbak@niu.edu
REFERENCES
Bellenger, Danny N., Kenneth L. Bernhardt and
Wilbur S. Wayman (1974), “Student
Attitudes Toward Selling As A Career:
Implications for Marketing Education,”
Combined Proceeding, Ronald Curhan
ed., Chicago: American Marketing
Association.
Bliss, William G. “Cost of Employee Turnover,”
The Advisor, Accessed April 28, 2004
<http://www.isquare.com/turnover.cfm.
Castleberry, Stephen B. (1990a), “The Importance
of Various Motivational Factors to
College Students Interested in Sales
Positions,” Journal of Personal Selling and
Sales Management, 10 (Spring), 67-72.
Castleberry, Stephen B. (1990b), “The Sales
Program at Northern Illinois University,”
Journal of Personal Selling and Sales
Northern Illinois University
Management, Vol. 10 (Summer), 77-79.
Hinchcliffe, Raymond H. (2003), “The Cost of
Turnover,” Recruiter: A Newsletter for
Field Managers, LIMRA International.
Murray, Sharon and Harry Robinson (2001),
“Graduates into Sales-Employer, Student
and University Perspective,” Education
and Training, 43, No. 2/3, 139-144.
Sales and Marketing Management (1996), ‘Where
to Scout for New Salespeople,”
September, p.26.
Sheldon, Arthur F. (1911), The Art of Selling: for
Business Colleges, High Schools of
Commerce, Y.M.C.A. Classes, and Private
Students, Chicago: The Sheldon School.
Swenson, Michael J, William R. Swinyard,
Frederick W. Langehr and Scott M. Smith
(1993), “The Appeal of Personal Selling as
a Career: A Decade later,” Journal of
Personal Selling and Sales Management,
13 (Winter), 51-64.
Weeks, William A and Darrell D. Muehling (1987),
“Students Perceptions of Personal
Selling,” Industrial Marketing
Management, 16 (May), 145-151.
Weilbaker, Dan C. and Nancy J. Merritt (1992),
“Attracting Graduates to Sales Positions:
The Role of Recruiter Knowledge,”
Journal of Personal Selling and Sales
Management, Vol. 12 (Fall), 49-58.
Wotruba, Thomas R., Edwin K. Simpson and
Jennifer Reed-Drazkin (1989), “The
Recruiting Interview as Perceived by
College Student Applicants for Sales
Positions,” Journal of Personal Selling and
Sales Management,”9 (Fall), 13-24.
Dan C. Weilbaker is McKesson Professor of Sales
at Northern Illinois University.
E-mail: dweilbak@niu.edu
Michael Williams is a Professor of Marketing at
Illinois State University.
E-mail: mrwilli@ilstu.edu
Application Article
Summer 2006
39
Strategies and Tactics to Tackle Voice Mail:
Ten Voice Mail Blunders
By Jim Domanski
It is not surprising that so many salespeople
complain about not having their voice mail
messages returned. Judging by the dozen and
half voice mails I have received from sales
people over the past couple of weeks the reason
is obvious: they’re lousy.
You have about 5-8 seconds to catch your
listener’s attention and keeping it is even
tougher. Understand this: about 15% of your
message is communicated by the actual words
you use i.e., the message you leave. The
remaining 85% of the message is communicated
by the tone of your voice. This is vital! If you
sound lifeless, unsure and hesitant or if you
speak too fast or too slow, or if you are too loud
or too soft: you will loose the prospect’s interest.
numbers. Next, come into the office early and
start by calling them right away. You may
typically work 9 to 5 but many of your prospects
(especially directors, executives and owners)
don’t. They get in early before the day starts on
fire. Start your dialing at 7:00 or 7:30 a.m. Begin
at the top of the list and start dialing. Third, if
you get voice mail hang up. Don’t leave a
message. Move on to the next number on your
list, then the next, and so on. If you complete
the list without an answer start at the top and
work you way through it again. Finally, continue
to cycle the list for the next hour or two.
Blunder #1: Leaving a VM too soon
Try following this process every day for about
two weeks. You’ll discover that you will reach
one or two or three decision makers during this
time. And because the day hasn’t heated up, you
will also discover that they have more time and
more patience. In a similar manner, you can try
the same experiment later in the day, from 5:00
to 7:00 p.m. Decision makers often stay late and
are not expecting salespeople to call after normal
hours so they tend to answer their phone if they
are there.
The first tip in managing voice mail is NOT to
leave a voice mail message.
Blunder # 2: Not Understanding the Impact
of Call Display
The trick is to get a live prospect and that often
means trying different times. Prospects aren’t
typically sitting at their desks hoping that a
vendor will call to sell them something. They are
often in meetings, or traveling or simply getting a
cup of coffee. Think of your own day. Are you
riveted to the desk or are you up and about from
time to time?
Sometimes the real culprit is not voice mail but
rather voice display. Voice display is a phone
feature whereby your number and often your
name (or company name) is displayed on the
prospects telephone set. In other words, the
prospect can see who is calling and simply
choose not to pick up the phone and let voice
mail do the rest.
Your objective is to get a live prospect. Here’s
how you do it. First, prepare a “Master List “of
at least thirty or so prospects. Put them on a
spread sheet or a legal pad with their phone
You will never know for sure if the prospect has
call display but chances are they do and that’s
why you need a few little tips.
Salespeople complain about the impact of voice
mail on their selling success but often they are
their own worst enemies. If you are interested in
improving your success when calling your clients
or prospects, here is a list of common voice mail
blunders and how you can manage them.
Vol. 6, No. 3
40 Journal of Selling & Major Account Management
One of the best ways to deal with call display is
to call the extensions numbers on either side of
your prospects number. For instance, if your
prospect is at extension 208 try calling 209 or
207. If the extensions are sequential, chances are
the offices are next or near to one another.
When you call an alternate extension, be candid.
Simply ask, “Oh yes, I am trying to get a hold of
Krista. Do you know if she is around?” People at
neighboring extensions will often stand up and
look around for you. In effect, they act as your
eyes and let you know if they are in. Now here’s
the neat thing: when they transfer the call, the
call display will often show “internal transfer” or
will show the name and extension number of
their neighbor and NOT your number. (This is
not always true. Sometimes your name and
number will follow you around but it is worth a
shot).
Another technique is to call another department
such as sales or customer service or better yet,
the executive office. When a call is transferred
from these departments people tend to take
notice.
From time to time, I will use my cell phone or
my home phone to make calls to prospects if I
suspect that the prospect is dodging my call.
Perhaps one of the best tactics is to make a call
from a pay phone. This is not always convenient
but when your prospect sees “pay phone” on the
call display, they will invariable answer it.
Don’t be shy about using these techniques. You
are, in effect, fighting fire with fire or in this
case, technology with technology.
Blunder #3: Not Listening
When you do encounter voice mail LISTEN to
what the prospect has to say. Some have bland
generic messages (“I’m not in. Leave a message”)
but others might give you some clues about how
to approach them. For instance, suppose the
message says this:
“Hi this is Peter Backus. Today is Monday,
May 16th and I will be out of the office until
Northern Illinois University
Thursday May, 18th. If you’d like to leave your
name, number and a detailed message I will get
back to you as soon as I can.”
Note that Peter provided the date. It implies he
interacts with voice mail so that when you do
leave a message the chances are pretty good that
he will listen to it. Because the message is
detailed, one also gets the impression that Peter
is a detail person. This suggests you might want
to be equally detailed in your live approach
(when you reach him) or in your voice mail
when you leave a message.
But more significantly, Mr. Backus is out until
Wednesday. There is no point in leaving a
message at this stage because there are probably
thirty other messages waiting for him. Even if
you leave a good message there is a pretty good
chance that it will be lost in the chaos of
catching up. Be smart. Don’t get lost in the
clutter.
Finally, and this is so critical, don’t call Peter on
Thursday! His day will be hectic after having
been gone for three days. Think about it. Call on
Friday when things have calmed down. If you
have to leave a message, do so but again at least
you increase your chances of it being heard. So
learn to listen for clues about the prospect and
when you should time your call.
Blunder #4: Failure to Research
Over the last month or so, I have received voice
messages from salespeople who assumed I was a
long distance company, a service bureau, a
telephone manufacturer, and a high tech firm.
Simply clicking onto my web site will tell you
what I do…and it’s none of the above.
The salespeople wasted my time and theirs. But
the sad thing is they are probably leaving dozens
of other similar messages to the wrong targets.
Of course, when they do not get a reply they get
discouraged. They become victims of their poor
preparation.
Learn a little about your prospect. It does not
have to be a lot but enough to craft a message
Application Article
that is relevant. In fact, too much research can
be a waste of time. Apart from visiting the
prospect’s web site, here is a fast and highly
effective approach to gathering information.
Instead of calling and speaking to a receptionist
and secretary (who will probably give you very
little information anyway) call the sales department
of your prospect. You will ALWAYS get
someone to answer the phone in a sales
department because they are looking for the low
hanging fruit (the prospect who wants to buy).
And you will ALWAYS get them to talk.
Explain to their salesperson that you a
salesperson and that you are trying to get an
opening into their company. The vast majority
of salespeople you speak with will understand
your plight and sympathize. They’ve been there
and done that. So they tend to help. Ask about
the decision maker: who it is, what the company
does, and anything else that might help you out.
But above all ask for the prospect’s extension
number, their e-mail AND the best time to reach
him/her. Again, the idea here is get the prospect
live and avoid voice mail. However, if you
cannot reach the decision maker, at least you will
be armed with information that might make your
voice mail more effective.
Blunder #5: Providing Infomercials
One of the greatest voice mail tragedies is
leaving an infomercial i.e., a grotesquely long,
delirious message that tells the prospect
everything and anything. In effect, it’s like a
radio commercial over voice mail.
Think about this for a moment from the
prospect’s perspective: they are inundated with
voice mails all day long. The last thing they need
is your product diatribe. I assure you that the
prospect will tire by the third line and quickly
erase your message. So, while you may have
gathered information by calling the sales
department, don’t use that information to lather
the client with a voice mail speech. It’s a
complete and utter waste of everyone’s time.
41
Summer 2006
Blunder #6: Poor Delivery
As if infomercials were not bad enough, some
salespeople compound the problem with poor
delivery. I am talking about the “…
aahhhs….ummmmms…errr… duhs…” that are
liberally peppered throughout the message. And
I am especially talking about monotone
deliveries that put the prospect to sleep and
about messages that are delivered at machine
gun like speed.
So here’s what you need to do: Jot down what
you want to say. Write it in sentences or point
form; whatever works for you. Then practice
delivering it a few times before dialing. The
message should flow trippingly and convincingly
from you lips. There is no excuse for a poorly
delivered message.
What’s important to remember here is that your
prospect has probably received half dozen
messages already from other salespeople who
drone on and on. Your prospect is already jaded.
Don’t give him an opportunity to hang up
simply because you were not prepared and did
not deliver your message well.
Blunder #7: Insipid Messages
Customers are floored by the messages that are
left on their voice mail. These messages leave
them stunned, shocked or dismayed. Sometimes
they are amusing but rarely are they impressed
much less interested.
What causes this reaction? The messages don’t
grab them by the collar and say “Listen.”
Instead, they are drab and lifeless recitals about
their product or their company. Borrriiinnng! .
A good voice mail message
fundamental components:
has
four
o your name,
o your company,
o a message that must intrigue and entice
o a call to action
Vol. 6, No. 3
42 Journal of Selling & Major Account Management
Here is just one example of an intriguing
message:
Mr. Wallace, this is Vic Basehart calling from
Altace Inc. Mr. Wallace, I have a question on
extended learning programs that I am told only
you can answer. Could you please give me a call
at ____?
This is a very powerful voice message. Note how
the rep uses the prospect’s name a couple of
times. Using the name gets the prospect to
listen more carefully to the words. Next, the
salesperson creates intrigue and mystery with his
message about being the only person who can
answer the question. This flatters the prospect at
some level and creates curiosity. It is one of the
better messages for getting your calls returned.
Of course, you MUST have a question prepared
that only the prospect can answer.
Referrals can also be used to develop an
intriguing message. For instance:
“Kathy, this is Sara Price calling from CSI Inc.
in Las Vegas. I was speaking with Horatio
Caine and he suggested that I give you a call
with regard to some ideas we have on reducing
costs on production sites. Please give me a call at
…”
The referral creates curiosity and credibility. Also
note that the salesperson did not get into details
about her product or service. Instead a reference
is made to the reduction of costs; a benefit.
Referrals work well. Use them when you can.
Here is message that’s a little different and
because it is different it tends to get heard:
“Most consultants are not using the internet
effectively to market their product and services
…and are consequently losing clients and
prospects.
(Pause)
Ms. Van Buren, my name is Jack McCoy and
I am with L&O Consulting. I have some ideas
I would like to share with you that can help you
get and keep more clients. Please give me a call
at…
Northern Illinois University
This voice mail template begins with a statement
of a problem. It is unusual because it does not
start with the rep’s name and company like you
would normally hear. This is bound to catch the
attention of the prospect. The message goes on
to suggest that the salesperson, McCoy, has a
solution to help. It might be intriguing enough
for the prospect to pick up the phone and call
back.
Blunder #8: Not Integrating Other Mediums
If there is more than one way to skin a cat, there
is more than one way to leave a message. Make
your voice mail part of an overall contact
strategy.
Voice mail should be just one of the tactics you
use to garner interest and stand out from the
crowd. Supplement your voice message with an
old fashioned letter. Consider sending a fax. If
you have the e-mail address of your prospect,
send a brief message. (Remember, you can often
get an e-mail address by calling your prospect’s
sales department).
Use these mediums in combination. For
example, you might leave a message telling the
prospect to expect a “package” in the mail. This
alerts her to keep his eye out for “something”
which, in itself, is intriguing. Perhaps you could
use a fax as a follow up message to the package
rather than another voice mail.
The point is you have to be creative. Some
prospects respond better to e-mail than voice
mail, others to fax versus mail.
Blunder 9: Lack of Persistence
Simply put, one of the BIGGEST blunders is a
simple lack of persistence. Of the all the voice
mails I received over the last two weeks not one
salesperson…not a single, solitary salesperson…
has called and left another message!
Statistically, about 87% of salespeople give up
after s single half hearted attempt. About 95%
give up after a second message. Personally, I
rarely listen to voice mails from salespeople
Application Article
because I figure if it is important enough they
will call back. They rarely ever do. That tells the
whole story.
The real problem is that most salespeople don’t
have a process or a system for follow up. I
recommend that salespeople leave four voice
mail messages spaced three business days apart. I
call it the 4/3 strategy and it is a process;
something that can be repeated over and over
again without much effort and time. This makes
you more effective.
Four messages might seem like a lot but when
you do the math you will discover that this
incorporates about two calendar week’s worth of
follow up. Spacing the messages three days apart
politely gives the prospect enough time to get
back to you but it also allows a comfortable
cushion for you to make your follow up call
without the appearance of stalking. (See Blunder
#10)
Here’s how the 4/3 works. Your first message
can stem from one of the templates listed above.
Your second message is virtually the same as the
first. You simply add the words, “I am following
up on my message from a few days ago
regarding increasing traffic at your restaurant.”
But it’s the third message that’s key. When you
get to the third message here is a trigger phrase
that can sometimes get your call returned:
“Mr. Batali, it’s Bobby Flay calling from
Chefcom Inc. I have left you a couple of message
on how we might increase traffic at your
restaurant but as of yet we haven’t been able to
connect. Please give me a call…”
The operative phrase is “…but as of yet we
haven’t been able to connect.” This little phrase
is absolutely marvelous because it gives the
prospect a way to call you back without feeling
awkward. I call it “grace.” Believe it or not,
many prospects feel embarrassed that they did
not take the time to return your call. It’s almost
as though they feel they were being discourteous.
If we know this, then we can make it easier for
the prospect to call you back because it implies
Summer 2006
43
that the prospect may have tried to return the
call but simply didn’t leave a message.
The last message is the “drop dead message.” It
goes like this:
‘Mr. Batali, it’s Bobby Flay calling from
Chefcom in New York. I have left you a few
messages but we have been unable to connect
however, it would seem to me that now is not the
time to discuss how we could increase traffic at
your restaurant. If things should change please
give me a call at _______. In the meantime, I
will schedule you for a call next quarter. Again,
this is Bob Flay and my number is…”
Flay is telling the prospect that this is the last
message and he is doing so graciously. But Flay
has also left the door open for contact later on.
In the short term, if Batali has any interest at all
in the benefit stated by Flay, he knows that he
must call now otherwise the opportunity is lost.
Sometimes, it works.
Blunder #10: Stalking
The last blunder is not nearly as common as a
lack of persistence but it does exist and it is
sinister and frightening in nature. It occurs
when salespeople call and leave a voice mail
message (or messages) every day for days on
end. Not long ago at a training seminar a
salesperson bragged that he left 38 (yes, thirty
eight) messages to a prospect.
That is not persistence, it’s stalking. It’s
obsessive. It’s a waste of the salesperson’s time
and energy …and you can bet it was not
endearing to the poor prospect. (I’d be calling
the police).
Summary
Voice mail is part of the business landscape
today. Well over 70% of dials end up in a voice
mail box. If you do not have a strategy to deal
with voice mail, your career in selling is going to
be long and uneventful. Set yourself apart from
most salespeople by avoiding these blunders.
Do your homework by gathering information
Vol. 6, No. 3
44 Journal of Selling & Major Account Management
and listening to your prospect’s voice mail. See
what, if anything, you can gather. Next, try
calling at different times and bear in mind that
the real problem might not be voice mail but call
display. If you have to leave a voice mail
message, make it short and intriguing. Avoid the
infomercial. Be persistent by having a strategy
for follow up. This tactic alone will set you apart
from your competitors.
In conclusion, the harsh reality is this: leaving
messages does not have a high return on
investment. However, by being more effective in
your approach to voice mail it will give you an
edge and sometimes an edge is the difference
between failure and success.
Jim Domanski is president of Teleconcepts
Consulting, a training and consulting firm that
specializes in B to B tele-sales applications. Visit his
web site at www.teleconceptsconsulting.com or call 613
591 1998
Northern Illinois University
Application Article
45
Summer 2006
Earn the Right to Get the Highest Price
By Gerry Layo
What is it that you bring to the table that your
competition cannot or will not? What is it that
you offer that your prospects, customers, and
clients would be willing to stand in line and/or
pay a premium to have? What value do you
bring to the equation that creates a greater
perception of value for your product or service
and thus commands a higher price?
Would you buy from you at premium prices? If
the answer is yes….and I hope to high heavens
that it is….Why?
We are selling in a marketplace today that
demands more from sales professionals.
Communication tools such as cell phones, email,
and I/M are creating a level of expectation from
our customers that is getting harder and harder
to meet. The internet is leveling the playing field
as far as access to information. (Everyone can
Google you and your competition before you
walk in the door.). What does this mean for
salespeople? Buyers that have a higher degree of
sophistication (or at least a higher level of belief
of their sophistication) than ever before.
Historically, where there is mystery there is
margin and the internet has removed much of
the mystery about you, your company, your
products and services, along with your pricing.
If salespeople keep selling into the marketplace
the same way that they have in the past, they will
get passed up by SMART competitors and
passed over by SMART customers.
What can salespeople do to keep up? What can
salespeople do to get ahead?
What can
salespeople do to earn the top margins in our
ever changing and competitive marketplace?
This article offers a list of 15 things that you can
start to do today to stand out from the crowd,
differentiate yourself (and thus your product/
service), and command the respect and attention
of prospects, customers, and clients which can
gain you a higher price:
1. Start a strict
preparation.
regimen
of
pre-call
Do your homework before making that call on
any executive or decision maker. Google them,
research their industry, read their industry
magazines, learn about them and their company.
The things that you learn will help you build a
platform from which relevant questions and
conversation can begin. In order to have
something relevant to offer, have something
relevant to ask and something relevant to say!
2. Decision maker or decision influencer?
Clarify who it is that you are dealing with will
help you build the appropriate value proposition.
If you are developing a “champion” or a “flagbearer” in an account, make sure that the value
of your offer speaks to their needs. Typically,
the decision maker is motivated by, and thus will
act upon a much different set of criteria than
those you met on the way in—sell accordingly.
Never assume what a person’s motivation .
Always dig, probe, and listen before you
diagnose.
3. Make a few phone calls in advance.
I suggest calling anyone who may know anything
about an account before actually attending a
meeting to get a flavor for what you are about to
face. Knowledge is power—power can be
leverage. In addition, if there are to be several
people in the session, I suggest calling as many
of them as possible in advance to discover or
uncover any issues or expectations.
4. Speak the customer’s language.
Salespeople have a tendency to present value
propositions in a language that is filled with
industry words.
That may lead to a
Vol. 6, No. 3
46 Journal of Selling & Major Account Management
problem. The customer doesn’t always know
your industry like you do so a “disconnect” or
confusion can occur. I suggest that you record
your value propositions, presentations,
conversations, and questions as often as
possible. Get these recordings in the hands of
non-industry people and get their opinion. You
might be surprised that the reason you are not
closing enough sales is that the door to
understanding has never been opened due to a
language barrier.
for those who can and will say YES!
5. Read, learn, grow!
Commit to reading a book every month on how
to be a better sales professional. You will be
amazed at the new moves that you will adopt for
your sales success. In addition, read at least 2-3
business or industry magazines every
month. You will learn things that you did not
know. This can add to your confidence and, if
you figure out ways to use this knowledge to
differentiate yourself from the crowd (adding
value to your customers) it will help you attain
your quota and add to your commission or
bonus check!
Don’t let the “closing” part of your sales cycle be
a surprise to your customer. Don’t shy away
from it either. Your customer should know that
you are there to do business. In order to earn
their business, you will have to learn to ask in
such a way that it is less painful for both you and
the customer. Right now, sit down and write
five (5) closing questions that might help you
transition from the presentation and negotiation
phase to the action phase of the sales
cycle. When you have them written, ask them
each aloud 100 times until they become less
mysterious and thus, natural.
6. Be the quarterback of your sales efforts.
10. Talk Benefits rather than Features.
Someone has to call the plays. Make sure that
on every interaction with prospects, customers,
and clients you clearly define the purpose of the
call and stick to it. When the call purpose is met,
clearly identify the next steps as well as who is
responsible for what. You guide the timelines,
you run the plays, and you call the shots. The
result will be getting to yes faster. (as well as
getting to NO faster…see next item.)
The customer does not buy quality, service,
reliability, innovation, integration, knowledge,
experience, teamwork, or the other features that
you are tossing out there in an attempt to
differentiate your company. They only buy what
those things can do for them or help them do
what it is that they want to accomplish. The
sooner you start talking about what they GET
rather than what it does, the sooner you begin to
earn greater margin.
7. Ask for the “yes” once you’ve earned itbut don’t be afraid of the "no".
Get out on occasion driving your pipeline
business further along towards a yes knowing
that the result will most likely be a few fresh
"no’s". This is absolutely no a bad thing? Stop
wasting your time on those who can not or will
not buy from you. A full pipeline of "no’s" is
worse than no pipeline at all. The time you
invest on qualifying OUT the non-buyers will be
well spent once it’s re-invested in prospecting
Northern Illinois University
8. Get a coach or a mentor.
This sales game can be tough. If you have
someone to bounce ideas off and to strategize
with, you will have a leg up on the competition.
If you think you are good enough to fly solo,
think again! Even Tiger Woods has a coach or
two on his team.
9. Make the CLOSE a natural conclusion to
your professional sales process.
11. Ask them what will happen if they
don’t…..?
Attempt to attach a cost or a price to in-action
or status quo. When your prospects and
customers say they are “staying the course with
the way they currently do things” you need to
help them understand that continuing to do
what they are currently doing will only get them
more of what they are currently getting. If (and
this is a big if) you have attached a PAIN to their
Application Article
current situation (from their point of view), then
you can attach a FEAR of the future. Your
product or service at that point becomes the
cure to the PAIN and thus, a peace of mind to
the FEAR. By providing a solution not just a
product/service, it is worth more than what your
competitor is selling.
12. Don’t lie—PERIOD!
The word character is not used enough in
professional sales and it should be. This world
of the internet has opened all of our kimonos so
there are very few secrets anymore. Often your
customer will ask a question that they know the
answer to just to qualify your character. You
must succeed the 1st time they ask because you
won’t get a second shot. (Remember, they are
more aware of their options today) Customers
pay more for character and trust—count on it!
13. Quid-Pro-Quo
This Latin term that means “something for
something” or “this for that” and it should be
paid close attention to in your dealing with
customers. It works both ways. If you are
looking for forward movement in the sales cycle
or an introduction to others to help you get it,
practice quid pro quo from your end first. That
means give to get. Give a referral, to get
movement. Give an introduction to a lead; get
an introduction further into the customer’s circle
of influence. Add value first; if you want to get
things you value in return. On the flip side we
need to understand that when a customer asks us
to jump through hoops for them (put together a
demo, draw me up an analysis of the benefits,
etc.) it is only fair that we now can ask for
something in return from them. Example: “We
will put together a demonstration of the
software, customized to your needs as you
requested. If the software performs and meets
all of the specifications that we discussed, will
you be prepared give us a commitment to move
ahead with the purchase that day?”
14. Never make a call without a purpose!
In order to be the most productive with your
time and the time of your prospects, customers
Summer 2006
47
and clients, have a clear purpose for each of your
calls. Don’t visit the customer without the
express purpose of bringing something of value to
the table or moving the sales cycle
forward. Don’t make a call to “just check in” or
some other nonsense. If you don’t take your call
seriously, why should they? By being able to
clearly state the purpose of your call and sticking
to it, you will become a professional worthy of
investing time and money with.
15. Look sharp!
If your product / service is similar to that of
your competitions, the little things will often be
the deciding factors when determining who to
go with and how much to pay. Don’t
underestimate the fact that people initially form
a perception about you and your professionalism
based upon your appearance before you ever get a
chance to open your mouth. If you want a
higher price, you need to look the part! (Use an
iron…it’s becoming a lost art!)
The use of these 15 points are a good start to get
you headed towards attaining quota, selling at
higher margins and thus, better commissions /
bonuses you can expect. You can see that there
are no tricks and no shortcuts. Simply applying
yourself in these areas along with, self discipline,
commitment, and a customer focused approach
will change the customer’s perception of value
regarding you and thus, your company, product
or service.
Gerry Layo is one of the nation’s most dynamic and
sought after speaker, trainer, author, and coach. Gerry
delivers energizing and innovative world-class keynote
addresses, seminars, and workshops. As Head Coach
and visionary for Sales Coach International, Gerry is
instrumental in using his unique approach to
dramatically increase growth and profits for companies
throughout North America. He is the author of top
selling book: “Smart Selling-Strategies to Reinvent the
Sales Process”. For more information visit:
www.gerrylayo.com or call 866-979-LAYO (5296)
Vol. 6, No. 3
48 Journal of Selling & Major Account Management
The Roles of Focus and Leverage in a Successful
Sales Career
By Bill Brooks
“I’m here to meet your needs.” It’s as old as
hills and is the way old-school salespeople have
been taught to open the sales interaction for
years. The problem? It’s all wrong.
Over twenty-five years of research has provided
us with an interesting reason why. People don’t
always buy what they need. However, they
always do buy what they want. Some examples?
Do more people buy whole grain bread or white,
starchy bread? Do more people buy food from a
health store or go to the frozen dessert section
of the supermarket?
How about your customers? Do they always
buy what they need? Most don’t. In our case,
for example, organizations need sales training.
However, they just don’t want to go through the
pain that’s so often required to make the training
effective.
What’s the difference between what people need
and what they want? People are generally overtly
aware of their needs. Needs are often related to
a specific product and are factually oriented. On
the other hand, people have low levels of
awareness of their wants. Wants are emotionally
based and are unrelated to any specific product.
Now, let’s take a look at a salesperson’s world.
Salespeople obviously need to make sales. They
definitely need to make money. They may need
to generate income to support a family.
However, they may not want to prospect, face
the embarrassment of rejection or the sting of
failure. Their customers may need their product.
However, they’ll only choose to buy the product
(that salesperson’s or their competitor’s) that
satisfies a want that they may have. It could be
that they want independence, freedom from
detail, recognition from their peers, a sense of
Northern Illinois University
security in dealing with the salesperson, etc.
That’s precisely why salespeople should start
their presentation with “My job is to help you
get what you want” rather than the old-school
example given above. There is a big difference
between what someone needs and what that
person really wants. Smart salespeople know
that difference and use it to their advantage.
It’s All About Focus
Focus is a sharp, clearly defined center of
interest or expenditure of time, energy, or dollars
coupled with one’s capacity to sustain this
targeted expenditure over time.
A salesperson can place his or her focus on only
one thing at a time. And there are 4 possibilities
for that focus. What are they? Salespeople can
focus on themselves, their product, their
organization or their prospect. However, it is
possible to refine this choice of focused
attention even further. And this refinement has
a lot to do with sales success.
Salespeople are really selling only two things, no
matter what their product or service might be.
They are selling trust and value. They’re not
selling the ability to be a likeable person who
sells things at the lowest price. That creates a big
difference between highly successful and only
marginally successful salespeople.
Now, let’s look at how this works across the
whole universe of salespeople. Take enough
salespeople, anywhere, and you’ll get a normal
distribution that looks something like this:
20% - Selling enough to barely get by or
less
60% - The majority of average or slightly
Application Article
above or below performers
20% - The top performers delivering 7580% of the sales
What drives this distribution? Is it skills,
attitude, product knowledge, luck? No, it’s none
of these. The major driver is where a person’s
primary focus is directed most of the time. And
the bottom 20% have a far different focus from
the top 20%. They pay attention to different
things.
You could be heading for the bottom 20% of
sales performers if your primary focus is on
yourself, your own survival or just having a
quota relative to phone calls, hours on the job or
any other short-term measurement. The bottom
20% have a focus on themselves that says, “I
don’t know if I can do this,” or “Sales isn’t right
for me” (survival), or “If I just make enough
calls” (quota), or “If I can do enough to get by,
I’ll keep my job” (income).
The middle 60% have a focus that dictates that
they pay most attention to their product,
personal income or even their own ego. Ego
focus means that their goal is to be the top
salesperson, win awards, recognition, etc.
The top 20%, however, have a very different
focus. It’s all about the prospect or customer.
The top 15% focus on what their prospects
need, while the top 5% focus on what their
prospects really want.
They’re all about
49
Summer 2006
satisfying needs in the way that their prospects
want to see them satisfied. The focus is very
different.
Changing Focus Endangers Your Customer
Base
It’s extremely easy for one’s focus to change
based on circumstances or situations that occur
daily in the course of a sales career. Let’s look at
some examples. How could these circumstances
force one’s focus to move from the customer’s
needs or wants all the way back to one’s own
survival or a sales quota?
•
Rumors of
department.
•
A long sales slump and their very job is
threatened.
layoffs
in
the
sales
•
A sales manager who demands rigorous
reporting relative to phone calls, call
reports, etc.
How about driving focus to product, income or ego?
•
A new product that you are told to push
but you have no knowledge about how
well it will perform.
•
A bonus placed on selling a certain
product that customers don’t need or
want.
•
Needing to make 2 more sales by the
end of the month in order to win a
cruise.
Figure 1: What defines your focus and where you fall relative to top sales performers looks like this:
Vol. 6, No. 3
50 Journal of Selling & Major Account Management
Nobody said it would be easy. The irony?
Focus on the customer and all of the situations
described will easily resolve themselves.
Clarifying Your Focus
In order to stay at the top, two things are
necessary. First, a philosophical understanding
of customer focus and, secondly, a sales
methodology that allows salespeople to
implement this philosophy on a day-to-day basis.
That process should be a principles-based,
customer focused, strategic one that empowers
salespeople with the selling skills necessary to
keep their focus where it needs to be.
Each step of this process should have a very
clear and carefully defined goal or purpose. All
the salesperson needs to understand is the
purpose of each step and then accomplish that
purpose before they move to the next step.
Again, the most important part of the process is
to be sure that each step is totally customer
focused.
If a salesperson follows a sound process on
every sale and with every prospect they ever
contact and sustains that focus throughout the
sale, they will be more successful. They must be
taught, however, to avoid the fatal trap of
focusing on themselves (survival, quota, income
or ego) or their organization (product) and to,
instead, stay focused on their prospect’s needs
and wants. That will separate them from 80% of
all other salespeople.
Building Your Sales Philosophy
If a salesperson is going to have a great career in
sales that person will have to develop an overall
direction or philosophy of selling.
That
philosophy will then guide them through the
good and bad times that any profession offers.
There is no doubt that professional selling can
be a great career.
However, top sales
professionals understand that sales is all about
three specific things. And here they are:
•
Being consistent
Northern Illinois University
•
Selling at the highest margin
•
Selling significant volume of your
product or service
Put simply: top salespeople CONSISTENTLY
sell HIGH VOLUMES of their product or
service but also do so by selling at the
HIGHEST MARGIN. Doing these things
guarantees a long-term sales career.
A salesperson who constantly aims for
consistency will be a step ahead of many other
salespeople. That means consistent prospecting,
consistently making high quality, impact-driven
presentations, servicing accounts and being a
person who can be counted on to deliver on
time, every time.
Selling large volume at high margin is what can
also differentiate a salesperson from others and
their competition. A successful salesperson
cannot cave in at the first mention of price.
Also, they can’t be so rigid that they would
rather walk away from a sale than to work with
their prospect on terms, conditions, or, at the
last resort, price. There is a fine balance between
the two types of salespeople.
Leveraging Your Time, Talent, Resources
and Advantage
The following three-part strategy can help a
salesperson grow their territory, book of
business or overall sales. In fact, it is so
powerful that it can completely redefine a sales
career
There are only three ways for salespeople to sell
consistently at high margin and in high volume.
But to achieve that goal, they will need to
prospect consistently, sell regularly and
persistently and service those accounts they win
with great zest and vigor.
In order to implement this strategy, however,
they’ll need to disregard some old ways of
thinking. Like the old belief that you should
“under promise and over deliver.” Instead, they
should learn to “promise a lot and deliver even
more.” However, that requires working a little
Application Article
harder, longer and smarter than most people.
It would certainly be easier if it were possible to
have twice the income with half the work.
Unfortunately, however, sales positions aren’t
like that – at least not at first and without a great
deal of work.
Here is the 3-part strategy that will guarantee
that salespeople won’t spend their days working
on the wrong things.
The Three Part Sales Success Strategy
•
•
Work to win more customers at high
margin on a consistent basis.
Work to service those customers at a
level that exceeds their expectations.
•
Work to build sustained loyalty to
vertically integrate those customers and
earn strong referrals from them.
This 3-part strategy can fail salespeople in a
number of ways. Here are some examples:
•
•
What happens to this strategy if the
salesperson doesn’t get enough
customers in the first place?
What happens if the salesperson
establishes a threshold of accepting no
less than full margin when someone
becomes a customer for the first time?
•
What happens if the salesperson over
promises and under delivers?
•
What happens if the salesperson can’t
build customer loyalty?
•
What happens if the salesperson can’t
vertically integrate those customers he or
she earns (sell them more)?
•
What happens if disappointed customers
won’t serve as a referral source?
•
What happens if the salesperson is not
willing to work hard enough to make all
of this happen?
Here’s the bottom line, if this three-part strategy
fails, it’s ultimately the salesperson’s fault. It’s
not the fault of the strategy.
51
Summer 2006
There are only 4 things a salesperson can do
with his or her time. It can be (a) invested; (2)
spent; (3) wasted; or (4) abused. The problem?
For sales professionals, time is their only real
inventory. It is their greatest asset if they invest
it wisely and it can be their greatest enemy if they
waste or abuse it. Lots of salespeople just spend
it, believing that there will always be more.
However, that’s false logic. Because no one can
manufacture, trade or buy more time. You get
all there is. Let’s agree now that salespeople
need to leverage their time as best they can…
prospecting, selling and servicing accounts.
Now, let’s take a look at some ways a
salesperson can waste or abuse your time:
•
Failing to prospect
•
Talking to too many people superficially
•
Complaining about their manager, job or
product to other salespeople
•
Spreading rumors and gossip
•
Taking too much time getting ready
• Being disorganized
To be successful, salespeople should concentrate
on doing all the right things and avoid doing any
of the wrong things!
The Personal Sales Talent Audit
To maximize talent, salespeople also need to
identify what talents they really do have. The
most successful salespeople in the world are
those who are most aware of their strengths.
They also know what their shortcomings are and
work very hard to (a) recognize them, (b)
improve them, and (c) avoid relying on them
until they have improved them to the point that
they became an asset.
Here is a short, self-scoring audit. Salespeople
taking it must be as honest as they can about
themselves. The only way to improve at
anything is to have a baseline that says, “I’m
good at this and not so good at that.” People
who refuse to face the truth rarely improve at
anything. And professional selling is all about
Vol. 6, No. 3
52 Journal of Selling & Major Account Management
continuous improvement. Here we go:
I consider the following to be a strength that I
have:
Yes
No
Not Applicable
1. Prospecting for new business
2. Positioning myself as an expert
17. Delivering more than expected
18. Selling existing customer more
19. Gaining referrals from customers
3. Pre-Call Planning for calls
4. Product knowledge
5. Effective travel planning
20. Sustaining a meaningful relationship with
customers
21. Feeling good about being a salesperson
6. Developing internal support with accounts
22.
How Did You Do?
7. Building & Sustaining Trust
8. Listening
9. Asking strong questions
10. Not interrupting prospects
11. Making targeted presentations
12. Creating and selling value
13. Presenting my product with confidence
14. Being persuasive without being boring
15. Finalizing transactions
16.
Satisfying customers
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Let’s take a look at the score and its meaning. A
salesperson with between 18-21 yes answers is
well on the way to sales success. If a salesperson
scored less than 14, they might need some help.
Leveraging resources and advantages is all about
how a salesperson maximizes the tools they have
at their disposal. Resources include such things
as sales aids and tools, digital equipment and
their product knowledge. Advantages deal with
other products’ superiority, organizational or
product branding, market penetration,
positioning and all of those issues that make
selling their product or service for their
organization easier, better or more attractive
than their competitor’s.
Identifying Your Advantage
Effective salespeople are extremely
knowledgeable about the resources that they
have available to them and maximize the
application of these resources in their day-to-day
sales activity. What resources do salespeople
have available to them and how effectively are
they using them? Do they need more? What are
they? How will they get them?
Application Article
What are the advantages that they have in the
marketplace? Is it their products? Delivery?
Service? Warranty? Strong brand? Pricing?
Technical Support? One stop shopping? Their
expertise? Are they leveraging these advantages?
If not, why not? How could they do it better?
Sales is all about leverage. Salespeople must
learn to leverage what they have and they will
experience greater and greater sales success.
Sales is not about worrying about the things that
can’t be controlled. Great salespeople don’t
invest a lot of their valuable time dealing with
those issues over which they have no control.
Instead, they learn how to create a career that is
based on those things they can control and
taking action with the tools and advantages they
do have.
Takeaways:
•
Customers don’t buy what they need,
they buy what they want.
•
Salespeople are really selling only 2
things: Trust & Value
•
The bottom 20% of sales performers
focus on their own survival or achieving
a quota; the middle 60% focus on their
product, personal income or their ego;
the top 20% of sales performers focus
on their prospects or customers.
•
Salespeople must have a customerfocused, solid sales methodology,
process or system in order to sell
successfully.
•
The 3 specific things that will help build
a sales philosophy: Being consistent,
selling at the highest margin, and selling
significant volume of a product or
service.
•
The 3 part sales success strategy: work
to consistently win more customers at
high margin; work to service those
customers at a level that exceeds their
expectations; work to build sustained
Summer 2006
53
loyalty to vertically integrate their
customers and earn strong referrals from
them.
•
Honestly scoring a personal sales talent
audit will help a salesperson determine
their strengths and weaknesses as a
salesperson.
Bill Brooks has been a sales consultant, speaker and
trainer for over 25 years. He is founder and CEO of
The Brooks Group, a sales and sales management
consulting firm based in Greensboro, NC.
The author of 18 books, he is a former college football
coach, dean and faculty member. Bill is a Certified
Management Consultant and member of The Speakers’
Hall of Fame.
An honors graduate of Gettysburg College, he holds a
masters degree from Syracuse University. Bill is also a
military veteran with 23 months of duty in Southeast
Asia. He is the author of literally hundreds of articles
on sales and sales management.
Three of Bill’s books have been national bestsellers. He
is the former CEO of a firm with more than 3,500
salespeople and has worked with over 2,000 firms from
450 industries during his career in consulting and
training. He can be reached at:
The Brooks Group
3810 North Elm Street
Greensboro, NC 27455
800-633-7762
bill@thebrooksgroup.com
Vol. 6, No. 3
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NAME ______________________________
TITLE
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Check enclosed
Domestic Corporate $60
Foreign Corporate $80
Bill me later
Mail this form to: Dan C. Weilbaker, JSMAM
128 Barsema Hall
Northern Illinois University
DeKalb, IL 60115