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12
Aug
10

Throughts on Successful Sales Management – Friday at 11:30

By Dave Stelzl's Blog Leave a Comment
Categories: Channel Management and Wise Counsel
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Preparing for this week’s upcoming Teleseminar on Successful Sales Management, a few random comments from things I see almost every day… (sign up at http://www.stelzl.us/business_strategy_TeleS.asp)

1. Good sales people are entrepreneurs.  They can’t be managed like a team of factory workers.  Keep in mind – high risk, high reward.  Let let the compensation plan do most of the managing.

2. Building on No. 1 – high reward means you are willing to pay them when exceedingly great things happen, so don’t manipulate the pay plan, claiming they are making too much.  High risk (required to receive the reward part) means, when things don’t go well, they don’t make money.  It’s not your problem.

3. Complex compensation plans drive sales person into hours of meaningless research and number crunching.  They lock up the entire selling process.  Keep it simple.

4. Smart sales people are going to sell things that pay well.  Stop telling people what to sell – instead, design your compensation to drive the behavior you need.  This requires focus and a clear understanding of what needs to be sold.

5. Quota is not a tool for controlling how much people make.  It’s a gauge, letting you know if people are hitting the number required to stay.  Compute quota based on necessary performance, then design compensation to pay big on the things that are worth paying for.  E.g. Accelerators are great – but set them above quota if that’s where they need to be.  Don’t raise the quota just to make this year harder than last, instead raise the accelerator.  If people don’t make quota – send them on their way.

6. Don’t create two goals for any one person.  Selling is hard and requires focused effort.  Give a person one thing to aim at that will then drag many things.  That one thing becomes the strategic objective around which the compensation plan hinges.  This leads to successful selling.

7. Most meetings are a waste of the sales person’s time.  On the other hand, you need to know exactly where the sales are, the timing, the numbers, etc.  Let your CRM tool manage this and require your sales people to keep it up to date.  This is one area where micro management and penalties may apply.

8. Sales people are consummate negotiators.  Stability is required to create a strong sales team.  Set your “well thought out” plans in place, have a great, well constructed compensation plan, and hire people a great character.  Set things in motion and stick to them.  If a sale person isn’t making enough money, advise them to sell more or move on.  (This assumes that you really do have a well thought out plan).  Change leads to more thrashing.

9. Don’t accept a personal plan that compensates you more for selling then managing.  This leads to failure as a sales manager and is destined to lead to your own termination.  Negotiate your plan up front to focus on multiplying the sales of your team by working alongside them and relieving them of any and all distractions from selling.  Most sales people spend a solid 90 minutes a day selling.  Imagine if you could help them double this!

10. When new hires come on, ride with them, mentor them, and make sure they really know how to get started. Most won’t, but a little direction will go a long way.  If you’re too busy for this, it’s the wrong time to be hiring.

© David Stelzl, 2010

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09
Aug
10

Raising Entrepreneurs: WSJ Writer Is Missing Something…

By Dave Stelzl's Blog 2 Comments
Categories: Wise Counsel
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Interesting article today related to my ongoing theme and future book on Raising Entrepreneurs.  Writer Jeff Opdyke (so close to John Updike he was destined to write!) comments on his thirteen year old getting a job.  Actually it’s a great write up as he contemplates the reality of teaching his young ones how to work and instilling some kind of work ethic.  The disconnect comes with thinking work is somehow a deterrent to having a great childhood!  Nothing could be farther from the truth.  The problem here is that we’ve associated work with jobs at a fast-food restaurant or blue collar operation.

Sure, not every child comes from a family where opportunity is readily available (although many can make it happen if they really try – most won’t)  But certainly John’s do.  Stop thinking about work as something a teenager goes out to do and start thinking more in terms of the entrepreneurial experiences available along side a parent or sibling.  The writer actually comes close to making the right connection when he references the traveling and learning experiences his thirteen year old is already engaged in.  Think outside the box.  What can he do to incorporate this child in his own work in a more profitable way?

We’ve created worldview that assumes all well-off families have children that will follow suite without experiencing the work we did to get here.  That’s just wrong.  From there, we assume that teen years should be spent playing ball, and then somehow, magically, one is transformed in their college years, into a hard working, creative entrepreneur.  This is also not true.  The time to start is now!  In those early years, finding exciting ways to make money.  My kids are bee farming, building things, creating jewelry, building blogs and websites, and writing books.  They are making money through their own creative efforts, and daily, they consider how else one might creatively start a new line of business.  It’s a game in a way.  What need can I meet, and how can make it a win/win that produces profit for me and value to my clients?  Are they somehow missing out on a great childhood?  I doubt it.

You can read John’s article here (and I do recommend reading it): http://online.wsj.com/article/SB128121678189825407.html?mod=iGoogle

06
Aug
10

ATM Hacker – a System Most Assume Safe, but they’re wrong

By Dave Stelzl's Blog Leave a Comment
Categories: Sound Bites and Video
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IT people continue to say they are covered while SMB business owners continue to operate with little to no security.  In many cases there isn’t even a tested back-up in place, yet they assume there is no immediate risk.  They are wrong – this demonstration of the recent Blackhat ATM hack is just one more example of how the “good guys” build systems that should be safe, only to find that hackers can eventually puzzle their way into the most secure systems.  If Barnaby Jack can do this, what can a worldwide network of cooperating hackers put together?

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04
Aug
10

Creating Sales: Harnessing the Power of Assessments Keynote

By Dave Stelzl's Blog Leave a Comment
Categories: Sales Strategy and Video
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Just coming back to my hotel after delivering my keynote at the Ingram Micro Event…several asked if I recorded it, which I did not…however, here is a 10 min recap on some key concepts:

© 2010, David Stelzl

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03
Aug
10

No time for boondoggles

By Dave Stelzl's Blog 1 Comment
Categories: Wise Counsel
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No one has time for boondoggles, or for attending far away meetings, events, or sales calls without real purpose in mind.  However, many will attend conferences like the one I am speaking at tomorrow (Ingram Micro’s Network and Security Symposium) without taking full advantage of it.  Some things to keep in mind when making these trips:

1. This is not your vacation.  If it is, you made the wrong choice.  Take vacation with  your family, leaving your business concerns to those still “on the clock.”  True refreshment does not come from this type of vacation.  Even if it’s a great destination, you are better off planning a real vacation, totally focused on recreation and cultivating family relationships.

2. There’s value here at the conference – don’t miss it.  Set up your automated attendant and change your voice mail to let people know you are largely unavailable for the next three days.  There is no value in spending your session time or  break time on the phone.  Periodically check in, but plan to use free time to build your business.

3. Study the schedule.  Not every session will have value, so figure that out ahead of time.  Make sure you are ready to go on the sessions that matter to you most.  Spend time outside of these sessions reviewing notes, networking, and preparing for your next session.

4. Speaking of notes…why do so many people just sit there.  I hope this is not you.  Take notes! Don’t bother writing it all down, but when idea stimulating comments are made, write them down.  Stay focused, write, and prepare  to review.  You’ll be amazed at how many ideas you can come up with in a great session.  If you don’t write them down, they are gone forever.

5. One major distraction comes as you start thinking of all the tasks waiting for you at home.  I keep a separate list of to-do items.  Every time one pops into my mind, I write it down and forget about it.

6. If the speaker is great and is willing to give out cards, has a book or audio program, or provides electronic media, get it.  I always buy the book if the speaker is good.  Usually they have only touched the surface and I’ve invested 3 days and thousands of dollars in opportunity cost.  Another $25 dollars isn’t going to kill me – but it may turn into millions of dollars down the road.

7. Meet people!  Don’t be shy – most of the people attending this event are here alone and ready to engage in conversation.  If you came with a group, get a plan together on who is there and who you need to meet.  Reconvene periodically and exchange insights.   If you hang out together, chances are you will miss one of the most important opportunities these events hold.

© David Stelzl 2010

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29
Jul
10

Raising Entrepreneurs – Understanding risk and investment

By Dave Stelzl's Blog 1 Comment
Categories: Wise Counsel
Tags: , , , , ,

It’s that time of year – time to rob our bee hives!  If you’ve seen me speak you know I am in the process of raising entrepreneurs.  Avoiding traditional learning programs that tend to produce “worker bees”, while searching out ways to develop my children’s creativity and business acumen.  Seth Godin writes about this in his latest book, “Linchpin” – urging us to move beyond the #2 pencil, to develop our problem solving skills and creative abilities.

Yesterday we suited up in our “almost” bee proof uniforms, and headed out to the bee hives.  They’ve been working all summer to make enough honey to survive the winter, and hopefully enough to support my apiculture team through the winter as they sell their honey.  But, like all business ventures, there are no guarantees.

The bees do most of the work.  They begin by building up the hive in the early spring.  We start to really see some activity in March as the queen is mating and recreating to build up her team.  As the first flowers appear, nectar flows and the bees collect pollen.  Comb is then built on frames, first in the lower brood boxes, then in “supers” which are added as the brood chambers are filled with both brood and honey.

But there’s a risk.  As the hive builds, the bees know its time to multiply.  They’ve been created with an instinct to raise up a new queen, and so some of the brood are targeted for this new role in the hive.  Royal jelly is applied to several eggs to raise up this new queen.  A queen cell develops from this application, and two-thirds of the hive members prepare to leave with the old queen!  That’s right, most of our hive will try to flee the hive, hunting for a new home somewhere out of our reach.  If we don’t find a way to stop them, they’re gone.  The new queen will then emerge and begin repopulating the hive.  All of this is natural, however it completely disrupts the honey production, leaving the bee farmers with only a small amount of honey at the end of the season.

There are other problems as well. Mites may infect the hive, killing it off.  There are other pests that may disrupt the hive, weather conditions such as drought or a freeze may disrupt the nectar flow leaving us empty. Or perhaps an animal will get into the hive and completely destroy it as they help themselves to the honey.

It turns out that this was one of those years.  After faithfully caring for the hives through the summer, we incurred a few swarms (this is how the bees take off with the new queen), one of our hives died last winter, and for some reason the hives just didn’t produce.  In fact, only one hive had enough honey to actually harvest.  The rest only made enough for next winter.

Of course the kids were disappointed!  But let’s not miss the important lesson here.  For the Stelzl family, keeping bees is less about profit and more about learning (at least that’s how I see it).  I don’t expect any of my kids to actually support their future families on bee farming, however I do want them to learn about investments, overhead, gross profit, marketing and selling, and the work required to produce their product.  This year we’ve learned a lesson on risk – there is no guarantee.  They’ve put in a great effort, however the pay plan is pure commission.  In fact, they’ve even spent their own money buying bees to replace past failures, purchasing equipment and hive repairs, and purchasing jars to sell the honey in.  Who will make up for their loss?  No one.  There are no bail-outs for this type of failure.  Instead they will have to rely on their other business ventures to support their coming year’s expenses.  And of course, there’s always next year’s honey if all goes well.  But there are no guarantees.

28
Jul
10

Note to Star Alliance Partners…

By Dave Stelzl's Blog Leave a Comment
Categories: Sound Bites
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Star Alliance – you know, USAirways and associated partners that make up the Star Alliance…a few comments for those involved:

1. If your website advertises online booking, it should work.

2. If you provide a phone number, in case of an issue, the customer should not be on hold for 45 minutes or more before just giving up.  Is there anyone actually there?

3. When the customer enters their information in and presses save – the information should be saved, not just 10% of it.  This would allow the customer to recall it once you actually get your website working again.

4. Don’t advertise “easy/fast booking” unless you can provide it – it only irritates the customer to read this while things keep crashing or hanging.

5. If you only support Explorer – you should state this on the website, but this is short sighted.

6.  When you finally do get through to the customer service people, they should be able to process the ticket right there.  The current process of having me send an email, wait on an email back, and then make another phone call in several days is ridiculous.

Customer service really is important!  Make a regular habit of seeing your business processes from the customer point of view!

27
Jul
10

SMB Sound Bites – Crime Targets SMB Businesses through The Web

By Dave Stelzl's Blog Leave a Comment
Categories: Sound Bites
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Preparing for my workshop with Kaspersky today, I came across this great article on SMB cyber crime targets.  Some great sound bites as you speak with business owners who don’t feel like they need your help (the following are sound bite quotes from the linked article below):

1. Hackers and computer criminals have lately been turning away from the impenetrable security systems of large corporations in order to reap the fruits of the vulnerable small business sector.

2. A hefty portion of small business owners have little to no cybers ecurity at all… 1/5  of all small businesses don’t use anti-virus software, 60% have unencrypted wireless networks, and 2/3 do not have a proper security plan in place.

3. cybercrime is undergoing a new phase by switching its focus to the susceptible assets of small businesses…85% of all business fraud occurs in small to medium-sized businesses.

4. Web-based threats are emerging as the most common form of cybercrime…total online theft for 2009 alone totaled over $1 trillion.

5. …only 60% of Level 3 businesses (just one level above mom-and-pop shops) have complied with the Payment Card Industry’s Data and Security Standards

Here’s a link to the entire article: https://www.infosecisland.com/blogview/5760-Small-Business-The-New-Target-for-Cybercriminals.html

23
Jul
10

Notes from My Ingram Micro Presentation

By Dave Stelzl's Blog Leave a Comment
Categories: Channel Management and Marketing
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Just returning from my Dallas event with Ingram Micro…what a great trip and event!  Ingram Micro always does a great job hosting these types of programs for it’s reseller community…a few follow-up notes on my talk for those who attended and even those who did not…

There is a time to charge for assessments!

1. When the fee is commensurate with the sales effort

2. When the scope includes stake-holder level people who can see it through to remediation

3. When an assessment is required by law or internal policy

There is also a time to give it away…While some people hesitate to provide anything complementary, this may be short sighted…

1. Demonstrated by three assessments I was personally involved in, I showed one that sold for $125K – no remediation work followed, however the GP was extremely high given the efficiency of the deliverable.  In sample 2, I sold the deal for $36,000 – however, given my inexperience at the time (this was over 15 years ago), we disengaged from the buyer and produced a report that did not meet his expectations.  They never paid, and we took a loss.  In the third sample, the assessment was done for free, however it landed $32,000 in remediation and $7000/month in recurring managed services work with a three year contract.  Which would you choose?

2. For smaller assessment opportunities – SMB level business, it often makes sense to perform the assessment at no fee.  If your opportunity will sell for $2500 or $3500, an experience had by more than half of my audience, I showed that the amount of GP in the deal is not worth the trade off in control of the process.  While I do make somewhere in the range of $1500 to $2000 in GP (if I really know what I’m doing), the client controls the process simply because they’ve paid for it.  If I do it for free, I can demand time with any asset owner in the organization, both as part of the discovery as well as in the delivery, where I sell the remediation and managed services.  At any point, if management disengages, I can stop the process.  It’s free, so it’s my call.  In this case, the profit does not justify the sales time unless follow-up work is sold.

3. Finally, never give the assessment away – it’s not really free.  Not to contradict point 2, but to require a trade of services.  In the case of an event, executive attendance justifies a complementary assessment.  There may be other situations that do the same.  But don’t devalue your service by advertising free assessments.  Put a price tag on it and perform it as a gift for those willing to invest the time and energy at the right level.  Discernment is required – but in the end, you’ll create the justification needed.

4. Finally, the deliverable must sell the next step.  This is never a technical paper.  Data supports the case, however the measurement of risk must be delivered in a compelling business case document.  It’s like going for angel investor money.  You’ll need the support of economic buyers to move forward, so treat this as a marketing process and remember, it is your job to convince management if there’s a serious risk at hand, not IT’s.

20
Jul
10

Creating Business

By Dave Stelzl's Blog 2 Comments
Categories: Wise Counsel
Tags: , , , , , ,

Tomorrow I’ll be presenting the opening Keynote at Ingram Micro’s vertical symposium – health care and finance, in Dallas.  As I’ve prepared for this, I’ve recounted numerous conversations over the past year concerning the economy, cloud computing, business struggles, and managed services.  What’s working and what isn’t.  The majority would say, not much is working…

Creativity might be defined as approaching a task or idea from a different or unique perspective.  It’s a simple concept, but often misunderstood at the deepest level.  We have creative teams, creative people, creative software, and Adobe’s creative suite…but what’s so creative about these things?  Most of the time, nothing.  I see thousands of websites, data sheets, and even resumes sporting the same meaningless esoteric language.  I love how Goden, author of Lynchpin describes the education system of our country – we learn to use #2 pencils, dress the same, write the same, follow instructions, take notes, take tests, forget the material and move on.  Failure is not an option, and so the idea of creating and trying new things is not permitted.  Being a home educator I can really see this in the materials offered to us.

Instead, I’ve opted to largely ignore traditional books in place of creative problem solving, team oriented learning, and building entrepreneurial enterprises with my kids.  Business is getting harder to conduct, competition is greater, and price pressure is killing us (and of course taxes will finish us off).  Going the traditional route is not going to succeed on average.  In fact, history shows us, of the thousands of companies that start, only about 4% (according to a recent business conference I attended) make it to ten years, and this says nothing about profitability.

So what are we going to do differently to stay in the game?  Creating business has to to be part of it.  Understanding how to build effective messaging and move people from prospect to client, is fundamental.  Finding more efficient ways to buy and sell, and delivering greater value through discontinuous innovation, is needed.  Intellectual capital is important, but those who tend to be risk adverse are destined to fail – the entrepreneurial spirit has been stripped from us.

I’m just coming off of a 4 day planning and strategy sabbatical with lots of ideas and enthusiasm.  Hopefully you’ll be in Dallas tomorrow to hear about it.  Either way, start thinking outside the box – start practicing creativity.

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