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We focus on the needs of companies and individuals with technical, high-value propositions who sell to businesses and organisations.

How to Assess Work MotivatorsUse this method to assess your own intrinsic work motivators or those of anyone whom you kn...
28/08/2020

How to Assess Work Motivators

Use this method to assess your own intrinsic work motivators or those of anyone whom you know well.

Simply distribute 100 points across each of the motivators listed. Award points according to how strongly you feel motivated by the factor described:

Position - Doing things to gain a higher position to fulfil ambition or gain influence.

Wealth - Doing things to increase financial independence.

Achievement - Doing things to reach personal goals and objectives or to fulfil dreams.

Duty - Doing things because you perceive them to be your duty.

Recognition - Doing things to have people acknowledge your contribution, effort, and results.

Safety - Doing things to maximise a sense of certainty and security.

Autonomy - Doing things to maximise freedom and liberty.

Life Balance - Doing things to protect personal or family time.

Relationships - Doing things to retain goodwill, develop friendships, and maintain associations.

Interest - Doing the things that are personally inspiring or exciting.

Challenge - Doing things because they are difficult or because few others have succeeded.

Make sure that your total adds up to 100 points.

This document may help:

How Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivators are DifferentThings that people want to do are driven by intrinsic motivation.Tas...
25/08/2020

How Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivators are Different

Things that people want to do are driven by intrinsic motivation.

Tasks that they must do or need to do to fulfil obligations or conditions set by others are examples of extrinsic motivation.

Money, for most people, is extrinsic motivation.

With money, people can do what they want to do. Without money, people must do what they have to do.

For how long after a raise in pay, does it remain motivating?

Extrinsic motivation stops as soon as the motivating factor ends or disappears.

When people do things because they want to, their motivation is intrinsic. They are acting for their own reasons.

Intrinsic motivation is entwined with personality and nature. Much recent neuroscience suggests that the things people are motivated by are properties of their genetic makeup.

True or not, intrinsic motivators are deep-seated and hard to change.

Do you know the things that are most motivating for you?

What is it Inside Us that Makes Us Do Things?What makes you do things?Like to, want to, should do, need to, have to.Can ...
20/08/2020

What is it Inside Us that Makes Us Do Things?

What makes you do things?

Like to, want to, should do, need to, have to.

Can we choose what motivates us to do something?

There are extrinsic motivators like hunger, cold, loneliness, and physical pain.

For most of us, most of the time, these things don't have much impact on our motivation. The first level needs of Maslow's hierarchy are met.

It is the things we value that are the source of intrinsic motivation.

What are the intrinsic motivators that drive action?

Safety is certainly important for most people but not everyone.

Money might be an obvious answer yet if people were money-motivated wouldn't they hang on to more of it?

What are the other labels that we might consider as intrinsic motivators?

Share your thoughts.

Is Your World Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, and Ambiguous?These terms were used by Warren Bennis and Burt Nanus in the l...
19/08/2020

Is Your World Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, and Ambiguous?

These terms were used by Warren Bennis and Burt Nanus in the late nineteen eighties.

The acronym, VUCA was used by the US Army War College to describe the situation surrounding the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s.

Volatile - a time of rapid change.

Uncertain - it is difficult to predict what will happen.

Complex - the interplay of many people and events, clouds understanding.

Ambiguous - conflicting advice and consequences undermine decision-making.

This seems a very fitting description of the circumstances that most businesses find themselves in now, in the wreckage of the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic.

Is your world VUCA?

Many would answer yes in any recession or business downturn.

What should leaders do to minimise the damage and maximise the opportunity?

Here is a guide:

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/your-world-vuca-clive-miller/

Project Sprints - How They Help Get Things DoneProject sprints are associated with agile project management techniques y...
10/08/2020

Project Sprints - How They Help Get Things Done

Project sprints are associated with agile project management techniques yet the principles can be applied to almost anything.

ACTION ORIENTATED

The term, 'Sprint' prompts immediate action.

TIME BOUND

Sprints should last for a short span of time in relation to the work that must be completed.

If more than five days are necessary, break up the sprint into sections lasting five days or less.

A sprint could be a short period of time such as one hour.

Sprints can be used to get things done by individuals or teams of people.

COMMITMENT

The name and allocated time prompt immediate commitment.

DECISIVE

Sprints demand rapid decision-making.

FOCUS

Committing to a sprint sets purpose and creates focus.

PRACTICAL

Sprints inspire practical solutions that can be applied immediately.

MEASURED

Measurement and follow up is an inherent part of the action.

Take cold outreach as an example. It must be done. The hour is allotted. The desired number of contact events determined.

Preparation must be completed in the time available.

Need is the mother of invention.

What sprints have you participated in?

What was your experience?

SalesSense B2B Sales Training in Bite-Sized Posts 5.6Connecting with suspect executives via their webinars.Since the Cov...
24/07/2020

SalesSense B2B Sales Training in Bite-Sized Posts 5.6
Connecting with suspect executives via their webinars.

Since the Covid19 pandemic 2020 lockdowns, webinars have become increasingly important as a marketing method.

Most webinars are a means of finding out who is interested in the subject of the webinar. Those who register are added to a suspect list that is followed up by marketing or sales.

One of the ways that webinars can be made appealing is to have high profile speakers or panellists.

Often this includes senior executives for the organisation sponsoring the webinar.

Seek out webinars that are being held or sponsored by organisations on your suspect list.

Check the agendas to determine if any of the people whom you want to reach will be speaking or amongst the panellists.

Register to attend the selected webinars.

Prepare three questions that will help the speakers get their message across. Be ready to ask one or more of your questions during the webinar.

Your questions will be remembered and can be used to start a conversation with the executives, after the webinar.

After the event, call or email the executive that you want to reach to continue the interaction that you initiated in the webinar.

Email [email protected] to join the course.

How to Improve Forecast Accuracy 5 - Confidence.There are four important sales opportunity status indicators.We have dis...
23/07/2020

How to Improve Forecast Accuracy 5 - Confidence.

There are four important sales opportunity status indicators.

We have discussed the first three in posts 2, 3 and 4.

The information is incomplete without an indication of confidence.

There may be circumstances that increase or decrease the likelihood of success that are not reflected in the other three indicators.

For example, sometimes it is necessary to bid for a contract that cannot be won, simply to gain an opportunity to bid for the business next time around.

In other circumstances, the combination of personal and business benefits may ensure a win against a stronger competitor.

So for a complete 'at a glance' picture, each opportunity should be accompanied by four numbers:

The current sales stage.
The sales stage historical win percentage.
The qualification checklist score.
The salesperson's confidence.

These four indicators together, provide an instant summary of progress with any sales opportunity.

They prompt salespeople to reflect on the realism of their sales forecast and provide managers with the intelligence necessary to ask the right questions in pipeline review meetings.

So now that you have the complete picture, can you make inaccurate sales forecasts, a thing of the past?

How to Improve Forecast Accuracy 4 - Qualification ChecklistIf you were sitting on an airliner waiting to take off and t...
22/07/2020

How to Improve Forecast Accuracy 4 - Qualification Checklist

If you were sitting on an airliner waiting to take off and the pilot announced that he was skipping the pre-flight checklist to save some time, would you be concerned?

Would you want to get off?

Why don't salespeople use pre-flight checklists?

I recommend a quantified qualification checklist.

This is a list of statements that you can score according to their truth.

As you work on a sales opportunity, the score should improve. If you can't increase the score to a satisfactory level, it may be time to qualify out.

You can construct your own and base it on the critical qualification questions that determine if you are likely to win any particular sales opportunity.

Mine has 14 statements.

You can try it out here:
https://salessense.co.uk/sales-lead-qualification

In addition to sales stage identification, every forecasted sales opportunity should have a current quantified qualification score.

How to Improve Forecast Accuracy 3 - Stage PercentageOut of the box, most CRM and pipeline management software comes rea...
21/07/2020

How to Improve Forecast Accuracy 3 - Stage Percentage

Out of the box, most CRM and pipeline management software comes ready configured with sales stages and stage close percentages, as in the graphic.

The percentage close rate for each stage is supposed to be based on historical data.

Almost no one has such data readily recorded and so the percentages are often guessed.

A more reliable guide can be constructed from historical stage-related data.

To do this, identify measurable criteria that are aligned with each stage of the sales process.

Possibilities include:

Contact events.
Discovery calls or meetings.
Preliminary business case proposals.
Agreed evaluation plans.
Proposals approved for funding.
Qualified opportunities.
Formal proposals.
Proposals shortlisted.

The number of sales won can be expressed as a percentage of the number measured for each criterion, thus providing a data-driven indication of the close percentage in each stage.

So if you are using a sales process and want to improve forecast accuracy further, reconstruct measurements for stage-related criteria.

Do you want some help or someone to do this for your organisation?

[email protected], 01392 851500.

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EX43SR

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