Strengthening Your Sales Team

Our fourth installment in the “You Can Always Sell More” series covers how to evaluate and improve your team’s ability to communicate a stronger message of strategic competitive uniqueness. (You can download full versions of earlier articles in this series for free. Use your e-mail address to register and enter “issa” as your password. If you encounter any problems, please call Paul Pyle at 800-526-0074.)

Now that you and your team have completed your free 20-question sales evaluation (see “Evaluating Your Sales Team” in April’s “ISSA Reports”), you’ll notice that the last six questions focused on “strategic” skills. Strategic selling skills are defined as the ability to communicate a company’s competitive market position. These skills also involve your personal philosophy and commitment to ongoing training and your desire to improve.

To begin strengthening your team, let’s review those strategic questions:

Question 15: Your ability to communicate your competitive uniqueness and value is…? This query really centers on how each member of your sales team answers a customer or prospect who asks, “Why, based on all the competitive alternatives available to me, would I want to buy from you?”

Question 16: Your knowledge of your competitor’s strongest “value points” used to sell against you is…? How will you know you have a strong message of uniqueness if you don’t first understand what all of your competitors are already saying?

Question 17: Your ability to win business at a higher price/margin by communicating your stronger value is…?

Question 18: Your ability to represent yourself in a professional, truthful, and ethical manner is…?

Question 19: Your ongoing commitment to grow and improve your selling skills and awareness is…? How many books on selling have you read? What selling skills or awareness have you changed or improved in the last 12 months?

Question 20: Your ongoing use of one or more coaches or mentors to help you get better is…? How open are you to new ideas and suggestions — especially ones that require changing the way you have always done things?

IMPROVING YOUR MESSAGE
Next, you should ask yourself, “What is my current message of competitive uniqueness?” The lack of a strong strategic message of uniqueness is one of the most common sales skills lacking in the vast majority of salespeople today. Successful strategic selling is based on your ability to communicate a brief, consistent and organized customer-focused message of how and why you offer more long-term value than your competitors.

Ask each sales team member to write down the three or four strongest key answers they would tell a customer or prospect asking the No. 15 question above, i.e., “Why, based on the competitive alternatives available, do I want to buy from you?”

Write all answers on a flip chart or white board. You will most likely notice everyone has different answers (unless they’re all delivering the generic “our high-quality products, strong level of support and competitive prices” responses). You’ll also notice that most answers focus only on the team members, instead of their customers.

To help your team members redefine their answers to this “Why buy?” question, start off with the list you built of the team’s answers. Develop another list of your toughest competitors’ strengths and weaknesses. Eliminate any common answers between the two lists.

After creating your best-attributes list, brainstorm how you can organize this into a simple message that includes why you, when compared with the competition, are best.

After defining this message of uniqueness, test it out on your most loyal customers. Continue testing by presenting it to more customers, until you feel ready to teach your new message to all employees that communicate with your customers.

This article is adapted, with permission, from You Can Always Sell More — How to Improve Any Sales Force, John Wiley & Sons. Copyright © 2007, Jim Pancero, Inc.

Regulatory News

NEW OSHA GUIDELINES FOR FLU PANDEMIC
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has unveiled Guidance on Preparing Workplaces for an Influenza Pandemic to help employers prepare for an influenza pandemic. Developed in coordination with the Department of Health and Human Services, the document provides general guidance for all types of workplaces; describes the differences between seasonal, avian and pandemic influenza; and presents information on the nature of a potential pandemic, how the virus is likely to spread and how exposure is likely to occur.

To help employers determine appropriate workplace practices and precautions, the guidance divides workplaces and work operations into four risk zones, according to the likelihood of employees’ occupational exposure to pandemic influenza.

Recommendations for employee protection are presented for each of the four levels of anticipated risk and include engineering controls, work practices and use of personal protective equipment, such as respirators and surgical masks and their relative value in protecting employees.

The guidance also encourages employers to prepare a plan to deal with a depleted work force during a pandemic and includes links to helpful Web sites with additional information and a list of technical articles and resources, including a history on flu pandemics, symptoms and outcomes of various strains of the influenza, and details on the transmission of the virus.

It’s important to note that workplace safety and health guidance may evolve and change over time as new information becomes available. For instance, the characteristics of the specific strain of influenza virus ultimately responsible for the pandemic may affect the way in which the disease is spread, and therefore additional guidance would be tailored to that information. Up-to-date information and guidance are available to employers, employees and the general public.

Welcome New ISSA Members!
ABH Services, Inc.
WINCHESTER, VA

Andrews & Co.
NEWTON, NJ

Bee Clean Building Maintenance
EDMONTON, AB, CANADA

Beyond Clean, LLC
PALM BEACH, FL

CleanNet of West Florida
TAMPA, FL

Commercial & Industrial Cleaning Services
GRAND HAVEN, MI

Control Building Services, Inc.
CRANBERRY TWP., PA

Corporate Cleaning Systems, Inc. (CCS, Inc.)
CINCINNATI, OH

Country Rose Carpet Cleaning
ATKINSON, NH

Cross City Janitorial Corp.
RED DEER, AB, CANADA

D & B General Cleaning
Contractor, Inc.
BROWNSVILLE, TX

Division One Commercial Cleaning Co.
LOUISVILLE, KY

Dries in Minutes, LLC
KENNESAW, GA

Floor Care Specialists
ROSWELL, GA

GBM Services, Inc.
BOHEMIA, NY

Gemini Group Service Corp.
GAITHERSBURG, MD

Genesis Service Co.
JACKSON, NJ

Goodwill Contract Services Hawaii, Inc.
HONOLULU, HI

Goodwill Industries of KYOWVA Area, Inc.
HUNTINGTON, WV

GR8 Carpet Cleaning
CONCORD, CA

Grosvenor Building Services
ORLANDO, FL

Heaven's Best Corporate Office
REXBURG, ID

Imperial Commercial Cleaning, Inc.
W. BABYLON, NY

J4K Cleaning
LINCOLN, NE

Jay Dee Cleaning &
Restoration, Inc.
LAKEWOOD, CO

Liberty Building Maintenance & Services, Inc.
BURBANK, CA

 

Loretta Maintenance Services, Inc.
MISSISSAUGA, ON, CANADA

MC Cova Services, Inc.
SAN DIEGO, CA

Medi+Clean Environmental Housekeeping
SAGINAW, MI

Miller-Norris Services, Inc.
OKLAHOMA CITY, OK

Noble Janitorial Services
ST. CATHARINES, ON, CANADA

Pivot Building Services
GRAPEVINE, TX

Pro One Janitorial, Inc.
MENASHA, WI

Professional Building Maintenance
HARRISBURG, SD

Quality Cleaning, Maid to Order
FREMONT, CA

Dr. Barry Ruck
FOLCROFT, PA

Sanitor Services, Inc.
MEMPHIS, TN

Servpro
CALGARY, AB, CANADA

Sparkling Klean Services, Inc.
OMAHA, NE

Sunshine Building Maintenance, Inc.
BURLINGTON, ON, CANADA

Sunshine Maintenance Services
MT. JOY, PA

Topnotch Building Maintenance Ltd.
MISSISSAUGA, ON, CANADA

Triangle Town & Country Services, Inc.
PITTSBORO, NC

TTB Cleaning, LLC
TIPTON, MI

Unibar Maintenance
ANN ARBOR, MI

University of California, Los Angeles
LOS ANGELES, CA

University of South Florida
ST. PETERSBURG, FL

USA Carpet
CHANDLER, AZ

Washburn Maintenance, LLC
OBERLIN, OH

Yorkshire Building Service
POMPANO BEACH, FL

Individual ISP Members

Kevin Mooneyham, City of Eugene, Facility Management Div.
EUGENE, OR

Lloyd Smee, Hall County Board of Education
GAINESVILLE, GA

Don't Miss
MAY
 30-31, 2007
Eighth Antimicrobial Workshop.
Hyatt Regency, Crystal City, VA
SEPTEMBER
 13-14, 2007
Cleaning System Design.
Hotel Orrington, Chicago, IL
OCTOBER
 23-26, 2007
ISSA/INTERCLEAN® North America 2007. Orange County Convention Center,
West Concourse, Orlando, FL
All information in "ISSA Reports" is furnished by ISSA. ©2007. All rights reserved.




POSTED ON: 5/1/2007