Build Trust with Sales Teams

Walter Rogers joins Lin Fisher and host Kevin Price on The Price of Business to discuss build Trust with Sales Teams.

Kevin Price: Welcome back to the “Price of Business.” I am your host Kevin Price. Talking to you about you and your business. And it’s your business to really make sure that you’re taking good care of your customers. That’s exactly what the folks there at Baker Communications do. They’re customer relationships management. Mr. Walter Rogers is not with us here today, but he has his VP of sales transformation. What a neat title. Sales transformation. In that same vein, I have on our panel here Mr. Burt Martinez. Burt Martinez is with Burtmartinez.com and he is a sales and marketing expert. That ought to be a great compliment on today’s program. Lin, welcome to today’s program.

Lin Fisher: Thank you very much.

Kevin Price: Glad to have you with us. And Burt, good to see you.

Burt Martinez: Great to be here Kevin. Lin, good to meet you.

Lin Fisher: Absolutely.

Kevin Price: Lin, real quickly, tell us about your role with the folks at Baker Communication.

Lin Fisher: Sure, my role as the VP of Sales Transformation is to help organizations understand how to get the most out of their sales and marketing efforts. Really, the whole point about transforming is really to get more potency out of the organization, to drive more revenue. So my job is to ensure that we’re helping our clients reach maximum ROI from their CRM implementation as well as their sales processes and the skills that are used to actually drive those revenues from their sales team.

Kevin Price: Okay. So, you help people go from previous programs to new programs. You help by making sure that is a cohesive effort and not done in a piecemeal sort of way.

Lin Fisher: Absolutely. The only constant, as we all know, is change and because of that, transformation and managing change is incredibly important. A lot of times companies will move from, as you said, one system to another simply for upgrade purposes or they’ve got some new strategic plans that they want to enable. And change is the one thing that people naturally resist. A lot of times our clients ask us to come in and give them some fresh perspectives around how to get the sales organization to adopt the new strategy and quite often the new toolset.

Kevin Price: Let me ask you Burt. You’re talking to clients all the time. You hear their concerns. How big of a problem is change and implementing change, especially when it comes to the sales teams efforts.

Burt Martinez: Well, you know, kind of what Lin said. I agree with everything. Change is the constant in the universe. If you’re not changing, you’re being left behind. Bottom line is I don’t understand why people fear change. But that’s what they do. They fear change. Now, through surveys, this is what we did discover, that the fear of change, comes from the way it’s implemented. If I offer you a piece of cake, but the way I offer it to you is I throw it on you and it splatters all over you. Well, you’re not going to like that piece of cake very much. But if I offer it to you and present it to you in a nice way, like maybe a nice restaurant might, it becomes very palatable.

Kevin Price: Presentation is everything!

Burt Martinez: Presentation or implementation is everything and it’s got to be a lot of training like Lin was talking about and it has to be over a period of time and bottom line is people feel confident about the new toolset, about the new program. They see the benefit of the change, they’ll do it in a heartbeat.

Kevin Price: What are the factors in determining how long it will take to implement a program? What costs are involved? Kind of give us a rundown of what kind of considerations decision makers have to make.

Lin Fisher: So, the first thing you want to do is take a look at the psychology of the organization. How ready is the organization for change? I think building on, you know, the couple of points we’ve put out there so far, the one challenge that most of have is building trust with the sales organization and, you know, a sales organization is a very delicate organism. You can really empower it or you can really destroy the moral and momentum. So, what we look for is to create transformation based on “What’s In It For Me,” right? You always want to start with what’s in it for the people that you’re really trying to get to make the change. So, you know, what’s in it for the sales makers in these organization is driving revenue. When we look at the overall time it takes to effect change, we’ve really got to look at how broad the change is, how systemic it is. What’s the impact on a daily basis? And really where’s the psychology of the organization around this change? If you don’t take an inclusionary type of approach, then you’re often going to create a high degree of lack of trust. And what I mean by inclusion is that the easiest way to kill a CRM implementation or Salesforce automation implementation is to not include the sales makers from the very beginning. Give them the opportunity to have a voice. Include them in the overall process. Another aspect of this is that when we create organizational alignment, it’s really from the executive team to the middle management down to the actual front line users. If you’re not looking at creating alignment from top to bottom both in the key performance indicators that they’re interested in and also the activities that they’re engaged in, you’re going to have a much longer deployment and a much more challenging time getting people to adopt.

Kevin Price: Let me ask you Burt. What’s your thoughts in terms of the biggest hurdles that you face when you try to transform the way the sales team operates? The way customer relations are conducted? What do you see as the biggest challenges?

Burt Martinez: The biggest challenges that we come across is how poorly it is implemented. What Lin was talking about is the buy-in. You have to get the buy-in really from the bottom up as well as from the top down. That inclusion that Lin was discussing, is absolutely necessary to avoid fear and insecurity, and to stop the rumors, the hostility, the stress. Everybody already has enough stress and they like going to the office, really they want to break away from of that stress. It’s a different kind of stress at the office and if it becomes too chaotic, that’s where you get that disassociation, people start shifting jobs. That’s where the rumor mills come in and really that moral hits that bottom and the implementation is poor or it’s not accepted. It’s just takes a horrendously long time. So, that buy-in is crucial. If you’re not going to get the buy-in you’re not going to succeed very quickly or very well.

Kevin Price: How do people get in touch with Baker Communications, Lin?

Lin Fisher: Actually, they can simply reach out to www.BakerCommunications.com and we’re ready to speak to any individuals or companies that are looking to really work at a core level to affect change and we’re happy to help in any way we can.

Kevin Price: Very, very good. BakerCommunications.com is the website. You need to check that out. Very, very important discussion, this whole issue, this whole conversation when it comes to transforming your sales operation is really crucial for the long term, not only survival, but really, hopefully the thriving of your company true?

Lin Fisher: Absolutely. You know, the one aspect that I would encourage everyone to take who has responsibility for managing sales organizations and also for deploying these types of systems is to become an enabler vs. a manager. Management, in my opinion, is a passé approach to organizational effectiveness. Being an enabler is really where the forefront of management is going towards. As you become an enabler, you’re looking for roadblocks, you’re looking to support, you’re looking to create momentum. The challenge is really understanding the psychology behind that and as a leader, being an enabler vs. a manager.

Kevin Price: Yeah, there you go. What about you Mr. Burt? How do people get in touch with you?

Burt Martinez: The fastest way to get in touch with us is burtmartinez.com at burtmartinez.com

Kevin Price: That’s kind of easy. It’s too easy. C’mon, you need a little challenge there. I love it. Great conversations. Great information. People need to check out a great series of articles done by Walter Rogers over at Houstonbusinessdaily.com Very thoughtful, very thorough. I tell you, that guy is in the process of creating a book of knowledge, if you will, when it comes to Customer Relations Management. This is important stuff and I think now more than any time. Your thought Lin?

Lin Fisher: Absolutely. Now more than any time. Right now, when the economy is challenged most people are thinking it’s a negative opportunity. It’s actually a really positive opportunity. The faster you get behind understanding the dynamics of what’s happening in your industry, in your area, and in your scope the faster you’re going to be able to find that solution and get to the point where you’re able to take your organization to the next level.

Kevin Price: When it comes to this Customer Relation issues, what are people asking you the most in your case Burt?

Burt Martinez: You know, what we try to strive with our customer management is get the management to realize that customers, you know, are not a thing. They are obviously people, but it’s how you make those customers feel. If the customers have that trust with you then you do in fact have a customer. To me a customer is somebody who not only trusts you and is loyal, but is referring their friends. That’s a customer. Now, anybody can have a one time buyer or maybe a repeat buyer, but not a customer, but bottom line is it’s trust and making those customers feel like they’re important. That is developing that relationship whether you do it on a social basis, or you do it interacting when they’re doing the buying process. It’s trust and making them feel comfortable dealing with you or your company.

Kevin Price: Yeah. You know the real question becomes does your client see you as merely a vendor or as a trusted advisor. A lot of that has to do with relationship development. Does a sufficient or a quality CRM system help facilitate that as well? Lin?

Lin Fisher: Yeah, absolutely. It sure does. The reason, or the way it does this is quite effectively around the frequency of communication. You know, we all have, generally speaking, a lot of sales reps have hundreds of customers and often, you know, maybe even in the thousands. What’s important around CRM is that if you properly use it to schedule your activities and your tactics you can keep a nice level of frequency around communication and that’s really what relationships are built on, right Kevin?

Kevin Price: Yeah.

Lin Fisher: It’s the discussion that you and I have on a periodic basis around the value that you’re looking for and the opportunities that you’re looking to capitalize on. So, if I keep a good frequency of communication and that’s done by not only the voice, and not only by, you know, email, but by any means and mode of communication—

Kevin Price: Lin…

Lin Fisher: Yes sir?

Kevin Price: Yeah, I’m sorry. Dude, they’re playing that music. They’re going to pull a net out for both of us. Lin, thanks for being with us. Lin Fisher, he is with Baker Communications as well as Burt Martinez of burtmartinez.com. You’re listening to CNN650. Contact Us Phone: 1-713-627-7700 Fax: 1-713-587-2051 Email: service@bakercommunications.com Address: 10101 SW Freeway Suite 630 Houston, Texas 77074, USA $(document).ready(function(){ //When you click on a link with class of poplight and the href starts with a # $('a.poplight[href^=#]').click(function() { var popID = $(this).attr('rel'); //Get Popup Name var popURL = $(this).attr('href'); //Get Popup href to define size //Pull Query & Variables from href URL var query= popURL.split('?'); var dim= query[1].split('&'); var popWidth = dim[0].split('=')[1]; //Gets the first query string value //Fade in the Popup and add close button $('#' + popID).fadeIn().css({ 'width': Number( popWidth ) }).prepend(' '); //Define margin for center alignment (vertical + horizontal) - we add 80 to the height/width to accomodate for the padding + border width defined in the css var popMargTop = ($('#' + popID).height() + 80) / 2; var popMargLeft = ($('#' + popID).width() + 80) / 2; //Apply Margin to Popup $('#' + popID).css({ 'margin-top' : -popMargTop, 'margin-left' : -popMargLeft }); //Fade in Background $('body').append(' '); //Add the fade layer to bottom of the body tag. $('#fade').css({'filter' : 'alpha(opacity=80)'}).fadeIn(); //Fade in the fade layer return false; }); //Close Popups and Fade Layer $('a.close, #fade').live('click', function() { //When clicking on the close or fade layer... $('#fade , .popup_block').fadeOut(function() { $('#fade, a.close').remove(); }); //fade them both out return false; }); }); View our entire archive of podcasts on iTunes here . Integrated Solutions Customer Acquisition Customer Win-Back Customer Reactivation Rapid Lead Response New Product Launch Account Penetration Territory Management Sales Talent Onboarding From Manager to Coach Personal Productivity CRM Adoption Salesforce CRM BaseCamp Industry Solutions High-Tech Financial Media Energy Public Sector Coaching Sales Coaching Service Coaching Training Public Workshops Sales Training Negotiations Training Presentations Training Management Training Customer Service Training Time Management Training CloudCasts™ Performance Tools CloudCoach HomeRun! Rapid Rx Q Delivery Methods Classroom Workshops CloudCasts Coaching in the Cloud About Us Our Leaders Testimonials News & Press Employment Partners Resources Contact Us Baker Communications Inc. © 1996-2012 Phone: 713 627-7700 | Fax: 713 587-2051

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