by Art Waskey | Aug 21, 2024 | Art of Sales Weekly, Featured
As I consult with distributors around the country, I hear a lot of discussion and concern about employee turnover. One executive noted that she felt like she was experiencing the Great Resignation of 2021 all over again. I decided to look into the issue to see if her experience was widespread. Here’s what I learned.
The data on desertion
In her recent article in USA Today, Sara Chernikoff discusses the likelihood of another big wave of resignations in the US. She writes, “The trend of employees resigning en masse has slowed down in the past two years, but some experts forecast another by the end of the year.”
In 2021, 68.9 million workers left their jobs, 70% voluntarily according to Grant Thornton Consulting. The firm also found that over 20% of American workers took a new position in 2021 — and 40% of those are already looking for new jobs. Xactly Corporation, a leading provider of sales performance management solutions, reports that sales organizations experienced 58% higher voluntary turnover in 2021 than in 2020. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics found the professional and business services industry (which includes B2B sales) had the fifth-highest employee turnover rate in 2021.
How to Get Them to Stay
Where are workers going and how can you get them to stay? It appears that job hopping plays a big role in employee turnover. Distributors need to recognize this issue and take responsibility for retention. Employee attitudes have shifted. Millennials and Generation Zs are comfortable with job hopping. Also, they are not afraid to change jobs often to advance. Managers need to work on incentives and use fresh approaches to retain employees.
Provide a career path
One of the surest ways to retain employees is to provide a solid career path. Make sure you offer internal opportunities for job growth. Without clear career paths, employees feel like there’s no room for upward mobility. Address this issue by providing meaningful time for them to communicate personal career goals. Lastly, offer and invest in training to fill the gap in their growth. These measures will stem the tide of employee turnover.
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by Art Waskey | Aug 14, 2024 | Art of Sales Weekly, Featured
Togetherness breeds success. In their book, Who Not How, Dan Sullivan and Benjamin Hardy discuss how to use teamwork to your advantage. They describe how bringing the right person or persons — referred to as Whos— into your sales process helps you achieve faster and better results.
Commitment to results
You need to team up with the right Whos. These are people committed to and invested in results, according to Sullivan. One of my Whos was invaluable in making my dream of earning a Master of Ministry degree a reality. He was the Adult Ministries Pastor at my church and recognized my passion and ability to teach. As a Doctor of Theology, he became my teacher. He challenged me, helped clarify my goals, and got me committed to results.
Produce a return on investment (ROI)
Sullivan emphasizes that it’s important to focus on Whos as an investment, rather than a cost. When examining How to achieve your goals people tend to base their decisions on cost avoidance. You can create transformational relationships in which all parties give more than they take by looking at your Whos as an investment.
As an example, I work with a client who developed two analytical software products. He recognizes the value of his products to produce a significant ROI. He is a Who. One of his clients noted this and rather than trying to solve needed penetration into one of his customer sectors as a How, he invested in my client as a Who. This produced results faster and with greater profit.
Build relationships that work
For collaboration to succeed you need to build meaningful relationships that are transformational, rather than transactional. According to Sullivan, “Collaboration transforms the initial intent of the project into something surprisingly better and more impactful than you would have planned on your own. By expanding your vision, your Freedom of Purpose also expands.”
Succeed Together
As Hellen Keller said; “Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.” Every time you encounter a roadblock, ask yourself the question, “Do I need a Who, who can help me with my How” to move me forward? Remember — togetherness breeds success.
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by Art Waskey | Jul 31, 2024 | Art of Sales Weekly, Featured
Leadership involves the ability to communicate a vision that is both compelling and clear. In their book, Who Not How, Dan Sullivan and Benjamin Hardy discuss how Whos can help leaders do this.
Benefits
Here are some of the ways Whos can help you be more efficient and successful, as described by Sullivan and Hardy.
- Multiplication of time – Whos can free up hundreds of hours of your time, which you can then spend in other productive ways. I Zoom with one of my Whos weekly. When we have finished a one-hour session, he often then sends me a plan for an undertaking we developed during the call. These plans are big time savers and often create new opportunities.
- Reduce procrastination – Procrastination leads to a sense of decreased well-being, frustration, and loss of ambition. It is often the by-product of only looking at how you can complete a project by yourself. To avoid stalling, tap into your connections and colleagues. Look for a Who that has the wisdom to help you complete your project more effectively. When I find myself procrastinating on a project, I look for a resource that will inspire me. That can be a book, an article, a webcast, and/or a call to one of my friends or associates.
- Eliminate decision fatigue – Sullivan suggests, “Eliminating decision fatigue from your life should be one of your primary goals if you want to be a high performer.” Decision fatigue occurs when you can’t make up your mind on a required resolution. This is a stress inducer and an energy sapper. By adding a Who to the decision making process you can eliminate fatigue in that area.
Be a better leader
Whos help leaders lead. By cultivating more Whos, you boost your ability to communicate and to get the job done in timely and efficient manner.
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by Tera Jewell | Jul 24, 2024 | Art of Sales Weekly, Featured
Getting unstuck
I work with distributors that know they need to move forward on their digital journey but can’t seem to get to the next step. Others want to add another branch store. They can’t decide on a location, when to add additional personnel, or where to find the right people. How often have you wasted time on a big project that never got completed?
It is often a problem to move forward, before you identify the “Who” you need to make sure you are invested in achieving well defined goals. Dr. Benjamin Hardy, an organizational psychologist and bestselling author, states: “Who can help me achieve, may be a stretch, if you’ve never truly committed to huge goals.”
Choosing a Who
In their book, Who Not How, Dan Sullivan and Benjamin Hardy suggest the formula for achieving bigger goals is to aggressively use teamwork. They ask, “Do you have “Whos” that give you the perspectives, resources, and ability to go beyond what you could do alone?” To reach a higher level of achievement you need many people in your life to help solve problems.
Recently, a third-generation distributor/owner contacted me for help. His grandfather and father had built a successful small business but their expertise and age was limiting their future growth. His goal was to continue to build the distributorship. He was looking for insight from someone who had a track record of growing businesses in his particular vertical. But, having just retired from a much larger business in that industry, I was a natural “Who”, that could provide him with a “How“.
Cultivating more Whos
“Whos” can help. To achieve your goals and meet project deadlines more efficiently, identify helpful individuals and actively cultivate those relationships.
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by Art Waskey | Jul 11, 2024 | Art of Sales Weekly, Featured
Just sit there
Today’s consumer wants to buy. They do not want to be sold. If you want to succeed in 2024’s marketplace, your sales team needs to reflect on the difference between what was successful in the past with what works now.
The new sales reality changes how the conventional, independent distributor approaches his customers. The old adage, “Don’t just sit there, do something,” has been flipped. Now to do something we actually do just sit there in front of our digital devices. Furthermore, digitalization has made it easier and faster to purchase products without consulting an actual sales person. Customers can go online and buy goods at a reasonable price and are doing so with greater frequency.
How to adapt
How does the independent distributor adapt his sales strategy to the consumer-wants-to-buy digital marketplace?
Here are three positive steps you can take.
- Invest in technology – No matter where you are in adopting technology, continue moving forward. Your digital options are rapidly expanding. Most distributors I consult with started their product information management by adding customer relationship management (CRM) software. If you are CRM enabled, continue to invest in technologies. Tools such as enterprise resource planning (ERP), e-commerce, content management systems, warehouse management software, and AI tools are all examples of this. Once you have an ERP installed adding more technology is easier as it becomes more intuitive.
- Increase product offering – Today’s distributors must optimize sales strategies by leveraging omnichannel sales to diversify their operations. Distributors can widen their reach and engage larger audiences by supplementing existing processes with informative webpages, digital marketplaces, and self-service applications.
- Grow Customer-Centricity – Your customer’s seek quick, hassle-free access to robust support before and after a sale. Steer clear of an Amazon-like model where you can wait for literally hours to get a person on the phone. Satisfy your customers’ needs with excellent service and foster ongoing relationships. Also, distributors have the advantage of meeting buyers where they are in their journey. They are equipped to identify a customer’s pain points and provide customized solutions that address each client’s unique challenges.
Opportunities
In conclusion, think of technological challenges facing our distribution industry as representing opportunities. Remember, consumers want to buy. By investing in technology, increasing your product offering, and growing customer-centricity you provide the right platform for success in today’s digital marketplace.
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by Art Waskey | Jul 3, 2024 | Art of Sales Weekly, Featured
The customer experience
The digital transformation has radically changed the Customer Experience. To stay competitive the independent distributor must find new ways to reduce operating costs, improve pricing effectiveness, transform evolving marketing methods, and meet other disruptors head-on. For example, focusing on building and sharpening your sales team is one way to do this. Sales enablement expert Mike Kundle’s recent article in Distribution Sales Strategy describes how to build a Customer Success Team.
Customer retention and loyalty
For handling customer issues and complaints in today’s business environment customer service needs to be reactive and transactional. In high-tech and software-as-a-service (SaaS) verticals, new product implementations are common. Additionally, to ensure recurring revenue and growth it is essential that customer retention and loyalty are developed by the sales team. This is especially true in subscription-based business models. The objective of today’s Customer Success Team is to expand this approach to customer service to other sectors. In brief, you need to provide proactive and personalized solutions to meet customer expectations and needs as they evolve.
Consultative outside sales
The digital transformation has significantly impacted the customer experience. Independent distributors must discover ways to reduce costs, improve pricing strategies, adapt marketing methods, and address other challenges to stay ahead in the market. Thus, customers in this sales model are typically looking for solutions, outcomes, and partnerships.
How to help
Your Customer Success Team for an engineered solutions business can help customers by:
- Understanding the customer’s challenges, opportunities, impacts, needs, outcomes and priorities (COIN-OP).
- Designing and delivering customized and effective solutions that meet or exceed customer expectations.
- Providing ongoing support, training and education to ensure customer adoption and satisfaction.
- Monitoring and measuring customer outcomes and demonstrating value and ROI.
- Identifying and creating opportunities for upselling, cross-selling and referrals.
- Building long-term and mutually beneficial relationships with customers and stakeholders.
Best practices for team success
To build a Customer Success Team effectively, distributors need to follow best practices.
Here are some important steps:
- Create a customer experience strategy that aligns with business goals and values.
- Define a clear customer experience vision that guides the customer’s journey and interactions.
- Broaden services and offerings to meet diverse and evolving customer needs.
- Be proactive and anticipatory in addressing customer challenges and opportunities.
- Invest in tools and technologies that enable customer success, such as CRM, ERP, e-commerce, analytics, AI tools, and automation.
- Monitor customer experience metrics and KPIs that track customer satisfaction, loyalty, and value.
- Train and empower staff to deliver customer success across all functions and departments.
- Collaborate and communicate with customers and partners to foster trust and engagement.
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