The Right Book at the Right Time

So many people start a business, buy a franchise or an existing business with no previous sales experience. Add to that the fact that they don’t realize they’ll have to sell and you have a situation where they struggle to succeed.

Lemonade Stand Simple, Accelerate Your Business Growth by business development coach Diane Helbig is a straightforward, common sense guide through the sales process. Diane’s goal was to write a book that provided the reader with actionable information about sales.

We live in a time when more and more people are starting businesses. In order to be successful they must be able to sell their product or service. “People pour their heart, soul and life savings into their business. Then they struggle, or fail, because they simply do not understand the sales process. They don’t sell effectively, and therefore don’t succeed. It’s really hard to watch and completely unnecessary,” says Helbig.

“The message in the book is that simple,” Helbig explains. “Lemonade Stand Simple provides the clarity that business owners need to be more successful without trying so hard. It breaks down common scenarios, step by step, into techniques just about anyone can employ.

Think back to your own lemonade stand days and the simple pleasure of selling refreshing drinks to family, friends and neighbors. You were certain of your product and you knew your client base, Helbig reminds us. You didn’t get bogged down in the process, and you weren’t afraid to be yourself. You knew what you were selling and who you wanted to do business with.

Lemonade Stand Simple resonates with business and sales professionals as well, who praise Helbig for her straightforward, back-to-basics method to selling.

“Diane provides the reader with a no nonsense approach to the sales process that is based in common sense. This book is essential for every small business owner who has to sell and provides a workable sales plan that gets results simply by reading these pages,” said nationally-read author Hal Becker, one of the top sales speakers and consultants in the country.

The book works because Helbig understands those salespeople and small business owners who think they need to fit their sales strategy into a methodology that is not authentic. She’s here to remind us that we’ve all known how to sell since we were about five years old. It’s simple—lemonade stand simple.

Diane is a business and leadership development coach, speaker and author who provides a matter of fact, basic understanding of the sales process to her clients and workshop attendees.

Lemonade Stand Simple, Accelerate Your Business Growth is available on Amazon.com and BarnesandNoble.com. Order yours today!

About Diane

Diane is an internationally recognized business and leadership development coach, speaker, and author. As a certified, professional coach and president of Seize This Day Coaching, Diane works with people starting their own business, salespeople who need and want to improve their skills, and business owners who want to master challenges and realize greater success. She is also co-founder of Seize True Success, a coaching practice dedicated to helping franchisees grow and prosper.

Diane helps businesses and organizations operate more constructively and profitably. She evaluates, encourages, and guides her clients. Working with as few as one person to as many as 100+, Diane creates an environment that is cooperative and interactive.

Diane is a COSE Mindspring editor and a member of the Top Sales Experts panel at www.topsalesexperts.com. She offers workshops, speeches and seminars on the subjects of sales, business development, and leadership. Diane is the author of Lemonade Stand Simple, a sales book for small business owners and is also a contributing author to Chicken Soup for the Soul: Power Moms. To learn more about her coaching practices please visit www.seizethisdaycoaching.com or www.seizetruesuccess.com

Can Value Propositions be Generic?

Was the subject of a debate I recently followed on LinkedIn. The person asking the question was of the opinion that value propositions work best if they are customer specific.

However a well known expert of the subject was of the opinion, that they need not necessarily be customer specific to be effective. They must though be concrete. Statements like “our solution reduces cost” do not work. However “Customers using our solutions have reduced their operating expenses by 10%” should work.

I teach the concept of the Unique Value Proposition, which must answer the questions:

• What do you deliver?

• What is the business outcome ?

• What makes it unique?

• What assurance can you give that you can deliver?

There is also no doubt in my mind that it should be customer specific, actually to be exact, it should be expressed from the customer's view point.

So here is a much better known expert than I stating that a Value Proposition need not necessarily be customer specific to be effective. Was it time for me to revise my opinion on the subject? The short answer is no. Here is why:

The sales world is full of experts contradicting each other. The search for the silver bullet to success is still a very common trend for people working in sales. Such differences of opinions lead thus to heated debates about who is right or wrong. In my experience this is most often the wrong question. The answer depends on the context.

For this question about the value proposition, the context to consider is the customer buying cycle.

This lead me to the concept of the dynamic value proposition In this concept there is room for generic and customer specific value propositions. Using both of them at the appropriate moment while facilitating the customer's buying process will increase your chance to success.

II have explained my thinking in a recent masterclass If you scroll down on the blog you can find a copy of the slides used therein. VIP members of Top Sales Experts can listen to the replay here.

Compare Apples to Apples…

when using sport’s teams analogies to coach sales teams.

A Sales Team is a Sales Team or not?

There are at least two definitions that come to mind:

• A group of sales people reporting to a sales manager
• A group of specialists (an account team) all facing a particular customer orchestrated usually by an account manager.

How are they different? An account team is a work group, whereas a team of sales people reporting to a sales manager is not.

What is a Work Group?

I came across the term reading “The Skilled Facilitator” by Roger Schwarz. Schwarz defines a work group as follows: ” A work group has a collective responsibility for performing one or more tasks and the outcome of the task can be assessed” He goes on explaining that a work group is a social system with boundaries distinguishing members from nonmembers. To qualify as a work group, its members are interdependent in producing their work.

While both two types of sales teams fit to a large extent to this definition, there is though a key difference; the interdependence of the members to produce their work. In an account team, the interdependence is a prerequisite to success.

The team of sales people reporting to a sales manager however is a set of individuals each pursuing his/her own goal. They are primarily paid on making their quota. There is though a team goal. But there is no collective responsibility for that goal; it is primarily the sales manager’s. It is reached if all sales people make their individual contribution. So only the sales manager is dependant on the performance of the individual team members and can achieve his/her goal if he coaches the individuals to maximum performance. For some it might help to define a workgroup by describing what it is not. In the words of Schwarz “A set of people working on similar but essentially individual tasks is not a work group”.

Why is this relevant?

Examples how sport coaches lead their teams are of little help unless we the equivalent types of sport’s teams. To the above defines types of sales teams.

A set of sales people, reporting to a sales manager, resembles more a team of individual athletes such as swimmers or skiers. The result of the individual matters most and the performance of the team (e.g. the numbers of medals won at the Olympics) is merely the addition of the performance of the individual members.

An account team however resembles more to a soccer or baseball team. Here the sum of the individual contribution does not necessarily make up the performance of the team. There are many examples of well coached and motivated teams having been more successful than a team of uncoordinated stars.

What are the consequences?

While work groups can be coached similar to team sport’s teams, a set of independent specialist has to be coached on a one to one basis. Using the wrong approach is a waste of time and causes frustration as the hoped for success cannot be had.

The productivity of the respective team meetings is a good indicator if the approach is matched to the characteristics of the team. For example if a sales manager has to declare attendance to sales meetings mandatory is an almost sure indicator for unproductive meetings. Sales managers confusing their own goal with the team’s goal as described above are more likely to have mandatory meetings.

There is more advice available how to run meetings for workgroups.

Understanding the different characteristics of teams is also essential for promoting the right people. Sales managers and account managers are distinguished roles requiring their own set of skills. Star account managers do not necessarily make good sales managers.

The most demanding sales manager’s position is probably leading teams of account managers. The dimension of work group leadership must be added when coaching account managers. In this role sales managers must though be well aware that “do as I do” is not a recipe for success.