Colleen’s Blog

This is one of the topics I will be covering at the Sales Summit Oct 4th at Dreamforce this year as I dive into the topic of Sales Acceleration. Want to create and sustain a top-performing sales team and get the steady growth you need for your business? Rethink the relationship your sales team has with the money you pay them for what they do. Conventional commission plans are at the heart of a problem that’s shockingly widespread in sales organizations today: underperforming salespeople remain employed far too long the the same workplace. Even worse: there remains a stubborn unwillingness to do anything about it. Let’s look at how this happens, the reasons why it remains a problem, and how you can solve it.

It's been an exciting weekend at the Olympic track this week and no one better displays the Olympic spirit than the two middle distance runners Mo Farah from Great Britain (Gold medal men's 10,000 meters) and Ethiopia's 3000 metre steeplechaser, Entensh Diro. In a true to life Chariots of Fire moment, Farah went down hard  half-way through his race, picked himself back up and went on to win. The last 2 laps are some of the best racing I have ever seen and (disclaimer, Farah is a track idol of mine) it's no surprise I was yelling at the TV.

What's the easiest way to lose control of the sales process? I'm sure you've noticed, many salespeople hold off on presenting their price to a prospective client until the final written proposal. They don’t bring up pricing in person or before a written proposal is sent because they’re afraid to scare away their potential client. Ironically, by following this methodology, they end up scaring away the prospect anyway. If you avoid discussing pricing options until the very last moment, you make it too easy for the prospect to ignore you. They may love everything about you and what you have to offer, but if the amount they see in writing is not something they’re comfortable with, chances are they will simply avoid discussion rather than initiating it and trying to come to a solution. In their mind, it’s much easier to ignore you than to reach out to you for a chance at a better price. Your buyer fears rejection too! When this scenario unfolds, you lose complete control over the sales process and you make it very difficult for yourself to recover from it.