Selling Above The Line

Is your sales team consistently working Above The Line? Are they working on the precise activities you know will turn prospects into customers, customers into partners, commodities into solutions, nice to have in to need to have? None of your sales people purposely work below the line – on activities that don’t impact sales and increase margins. So how and why do we often miss our budget numbers?

Whether a seasoned veteran who has been there done that. Whose read the motivational books, been to the overcoming objections seminars, is well networked. Or a young fresh keen upstart ready to take on the world. Limited in experience, no connections, but with unlimited energy. There is a very good chance both groups are operating a percentage of their day, week, month on below the line activities.

Below the Line activities include, servicing or order taking instead of managing relationships and exploring opportunitinities, checking-off to do lists without thinking about the impact of those activities, being reactive to the environment instead of influencing the environment. Above The Line activities include, building up a network of inside coach’s inside client/prospect organizations, understanding what’s most important to key decision makers and making suggestions to them on how to get it, and always focusing on what’s possible for your company, your client’s and yourself vs the conditions of the day.

Selling Above The Line is a process and belief system. It does not produce dramatic change in your people or their results. It does produce incremental improvement – over time. People do more of the right activities day-to-day, in the right way, realizing the quarterly numbers you’re looking for.

The process of Selling Above The Line relates to the technical aspects of selling. What to do when. It involves working through a sales process like the 8 Step Professional Selling Process (PSP). 1. Funnel & Filter 2. Proflie & Politics 3.Create a Value Proposition 4. Strategic & Tactical Plan 5. Present Value Proposition 6. Present Solution 7. Close Deal 8. Implement.

The belief system of Selling Above The Line relates to the motivational aspect of selling. And is determined by the individual sales person’s ability to think through the Performance Improvement Model and answer the questions below. The fuel needed to drive any good process.


So how do we get every person working on Above The Line activities, to produce Above The Line Results?

First everyone must be working from the same play book. That means having the same sales process. Our firm helps organizations institutionalize our 8 Step PSP. There are others sales processes out there. Whichever you choose, make sure every person on your sales team understands each step, the benefits and is using the process consistently.

Then every person must understand the Performance Improvement Model (Fig.1). Once able to answer the questions at each level in the pyramid, they’ll possess the knowledge to drive their own behavior and that of the client/prospect.

Purpose:

What is our organization’s purpose, what is our propsect’s client’s purpose, what is my personal purpose?

Culture:

What beliefs do each of these groups hold about our product/service? What processes exist to align customer needs with our org’s needs. To align my personal activity to the org’s purpose?

Behavior:

What specific measurable activities does my organization expect me to do, does my prospect/client expect from me? What behaviors do I need to stop, start, improve? What are the best practices for selling in my industry?

Results:

How do we know if we are making progress, what’s the scoreboard for the client/prospect, my org and for me pesonally?

Overlaying the Performance Improvement Model on top of your Sales Process ensures your sales people are working on the right things, at the right time, to the right degree. Giving sales people the knowledge & ability to shift gears, long before your next quarterly sales meeting – crucial to your survival and long term success.

How to get started.

1. What: Workshop the four levels (Thinking, Culture, Behavior and Results), for each of the three groups (your organization, the client/prospect’s organization, and your individual sales people).
2. Approach: Split the sales team into three groups. Keeping them in their real teams as much as possible. Each group will identify one client or prospect they would like to run through the performance model. With a focus on identifying which behaviours the entire sales team needs to engage more in, to increase number of services/products, and meet budgetted numbers.
3. Outcomes: A clear definition of your company’s purpose, the processes that exist to turn strategy into action, a list of key behaviors the organization’s most successful sales people demonstrate, a review of your scoreboard and any new metrics you might like to add.
4. Follow-Up: Training, coaching and readings, to support sales people in doing the identified behavior(s) and doing it more frequently. Please see potential development tools on the following page.

We train sales people on the following competencies, behaviors and tools:

1. Networking Savvy – wide, deep and diagonal
2. Radiate Influence and Persuade
3. Presentation POWER
4. Belief Re-engineering – Creating a New Reality
5. Overcoming Resistance
6. Dealing with Difficult Customers – using HEAT
7. The Four Sales of the Sale
8. Developing a Winning Value Proposition
9. Strategy Over Brawn – Creating a Powerful Political Map
10. What to do When – Using the Buying Stage Indicator
11. Question Bank – The person with the best questions wins.
12. Are We Positioned to Win – The Sales Opportunity Analysis
13. Emotional Mastery – The key to managing your greatest asset.
14. Developing Your Personal Strategic Plan – outsell over the long term.
15. Performance Pressure – the Power of Pain and Payoff and overcoming FEAR
16. Getting Things Done – Organizing around Priorities