The Truth About Sleep & Productivity

Working overtime doesn't increase your output. It makes you stupid.
By Margaret Heffernan

Arianna Huffington talks often about how the key to her productivity is sleep.

It's a smart suggestion, not least because so many of us still imagine that the more we work, the more productive we are. For over a hundred years or more, this has been deemed nonsense.

The first productivity studies were conducted by Ernst Abbe at the Zeiss lens laboratories in the 1880s. They indicated what every other productivity study has shown since: that, up to around 40 hours a week, we're all pretty productive but, after that, we become less able to deliver reliable, cost-effective work. Why? Because when we get tired, we make mistakes—and the extra hours we put in are absorbed by correcting our errors. This is demonstrably true in industries like software coding, in which mistakes can cost a lot of time to put right. But it is equally true in manufacturing where more units of production also mean more flaws and waste.

Even though the data around productivity has proved pretty remorseless, humans have found the message hard to accept. It seems so logical that two units of work will produce twice the output. Logical but wrong. The critical measure of work isn't and never should be input but output. What matters isn't how many hours your team puts in, but the quality and quantity of work they produce.
Which is where sleep comes in. Although we might all like to imagine that we can work happily through the night, once again the data's all against us. Lose just one night's sleep and your cognitive capacity is roughly the same as being over the alcohol limit. Yet we regularly hail as heroes the executives who take the red eye, jump into a rental car, and zoom down the highway to the next meeting. Would we, I wonder, be so impressed if they arrived drunk?

The reason sleep is so important is because fatigue isn't simple. When we are tired, our performance doesn't degrade equally. Instead, when you lose a night's sleep, the parietal and occipital lobes in your brain become less active. The parietal lobe integrates information from the senses and is involved in our knowledge of numbers and manipulation of objects. The occipital lobe is involved in visual processing. So the parts of our mind responsible for understanding the world and the data around us start to slow down. This is because the brain is prioritizing the thalamus—the part of your brain responsible for keeping you awake. In evolutionary terms, this makes sense. If you're driven to find food, you need to stay awake and search, not compare recipes.
After 24 hours of sleep deprivation, there is an overall reduction of six percent in glucose reaching the brain. (That's why you crave donuts and candy.) But the loss isn't shared equally; the parietal lobe and the prefrontal cortex lose 12 percent to 14 percent of their glucose. And those are the areas we most need for thinking: for distinguishing between ideas, for social control, and to be able to tell the difference between good and bad.
I've sat in many boardrooms through the night, at the end of which seriously bad deals were done, I've seen the cost of sleep deprivation. Not just in bad tempers, bad diets, and bad decisions. But in the loss of truly productive work and discussion that could have been less heroic but a lot more valuable.

What is Inside Sales? — Our Definition of Inside Sales

The most pragmatic definition of Inside Sales is simple:

Inside Sales is “remote sales,” most lately called “virtual sales,” or professional sales done remotely. Where Outside Sales or traditional Field Sales is done face-to-face.

Taken in this context, the majority of all sales is done remotely, and the numbers are growing. A recent study done by SKKU and MIT, in conjunction with infoUSA, found that over the next three years, Inside Sales is growing at a fifteen times higher rate (7.5% versus .5% annually) over Outside Sales, to the tune of 800,000 new jobs.

More evidence: if you don’t believe it, grab a list of 10 traditional or “Outside Sales” people and call them. 7 out of 10 will be sitting in front of their computer, working in their cubicle, office, or home office—just like the Inside Sales people.

The term “Inside Sales” originally came about in the late 1980s as an attempt to differentiate “Telemarketing” (or “Telesales in the UK) from the more complex, “high-touch,” phone-based business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) selling practices.

Telemarketing is often believed to have begun in the 1950s by DialAmerica Marketing, Inc., reported to be the first company dedicated to telephone sales and services. By the 1970s telemarketing was a common phrase used to describe the process of selling over the telephone. It often included both outbound and inbound, but later became much more synonymous with the types of outbound calling we’re all familiar with—large-scale “blasts” to lists of names to try and drum up quick sales, usually while the family is sitting around the dinner table.

By the late 1990s/early 2000s, Inside Sales was the term used to differentiate the practice from Outside Sales—the traditional face-to-face sales model where salespeople went to the client’s location of business to engage in the sales process.

Companies found the new channel of Inside Sales to be undeniably effective, but often didn’t know what to do to solve the conflict between the younger, disruptive, more technically savvy upstarts who sold over the phone, and their more senior counterparts who wielded incredible political power in their organizations as the entrenched source of revenue for nearly a century.

For years Inside Sales has been relegated to generating leads for the more senior Outside Sales reps or merely closing the smaller accounts. This is now no longer the case. Many companies are already using a hybrid form of Inside Sales, with reps calling from their company’s home office, then traveling occasionally to client locations and merely calling it “sales.”

By Marc Benioff’s own admission in his book “Behind the Cloud, salesforce.com “grew their company for the first five or six years with a telesales or Inside Sales model.” They added Outside Sales or Field Sales to go upmarket when they wanted to sell to Enterprise-class companies, but the company still does a majority of their sales work remotely.

Another way of defining “Inside Sales” is to also state what it is not.

Inside Sales is not Telemarketing.

Let me repeat: Inside Sales is NOT Telemarketing. Telemarketing is a scripted, single-call-close, almost always targeting a small-ticket, business to consumer (B2C) model.

Inside Sales is not scripted. It requires multiple calls or “touches” to create a sales close, involves medium or large ticket goods and services, and targets business-to-business (B2B) or high-end business-to-consumer( B2C) transactions.

Inside Sales is professional sales done remotely. It is not the mindless “phone drone” that calls at dinner time and won’t hang up until you have said “no” seven times.

Inside Sales is also not Customer Service. Though Inside Sales frequently involves an element of inbound call handling like a customer service department, in its pure form it is not customer service.

Some companies erroneously describe their inbound call centers as “inside sales,” but this does not fall within the boundaries of our definition unless the agents’ primary function is selling.

Inside Sales is professional sales done remotely . . . it is remote sales.

Thanks to Ken Krogue for this article!

Team Building in 2012

It's a new year and for many organizations it's time to shake up your team building exercises. Push people outside of their comfort zone, give them an experience they will talk about for the rest of their lives, challenge them mentally,physically - let them find new boundaries to their resiliency.

Thinking this might be what your team needs? Check out Warrior Dash. MUD. SWEAT. BEER.

Races across the United States, Canada, Ireland, England and Australia.

Watch the video and decide if your team has what it takes to be a warrior.

How to maximize your field reps sales potential

Field Sales is a very different type of selling. It requires a unique type of rep who has no fear and can make a great first impression. Being organized on the road has its own challenges. Here are some of the best practices we have seen for being successful as a road warrior:


1) Marketing Tool Box. To avoid papers sliding all over your car, pick up a portable filing cabinet from staples or an office store and protect your contracts, marketing slicks and paper work from heat, cold, folded corners and being trampled. This will ensure you have all the paper tools you need and will make it obvious when your quantities are low. There is nothing worse than showing up and having to show a brochure with a boot print on it or a contract that looks like it went through a wash cycle.

2) Get a Tablet. Instead of relying on paper or to augment your paper requirements, invest in a tablet. Tablets still have wow factor and you can easily show products, services on a tablet without the pomp and circumstance of booting up a computer. Your prospects will think you are tech savvy, organized and credible. It doesn’t have to be an $800 ipad. An 8g anything will do. I picked up the Blackberry Playbook when it was on sale for $199 for one of my clients reps and it has helped them tremendously – even the simple stuff like email on the road becomes faster.

3) Use a CRM for field Sales. Not all CRM’s are created equally. Many of the CRM’s are great for in office sales or reps that go back to an office in between meetings but choosing the right tool for your road warriors is important. Front Row CRM has some very cool features for field reps. It has a mapping feature that shows you other prospects/leads/customers on a physical map so you can plan your route better. If the reps enter notes as they go, the Manager can see the actual route they took to coach them on better uses of time. It also has a CRM updating feature that can be used via TEXT in the event you don’t have a tablet. This is a stand alone or a bolt on to other CRM systems. CRM that works, is easy to use, simple to populate and actually facilitates sales is key to a field reps success

4) Keeping you office clean. I believe all companies with field reps should pay for an inside and outside car wash once a week. Keeping your car clean forces you to stay organized, helps you feel professional and in the event that a customer sees your car rolling up, it doesn’t look like it’s been off roading.

5) Fuel. Fuel is important. Your body and mind need good fuel to keep you at top performance which can be challenging when you are on the road. Drink lots of water and pack fruit & veg snacks. Apples, grapes, oranges, carrots, celery will all keep for days in a cooler. Don’t over think this. Just grab an apple on the way out or hit a grocery store between meetings. If you feel good, you will sell more.

And to state the obvious - you absolutely need a GPS!

It’s little every day changes that make a long lasting positive impact.

Happy Selling!

Objection Handling

It’s important that you have solid clarity of all the details in order to be able to truly overcome an objection. There are 5 steps to objection handling:



Acknowledge: Empathise and identify with their concern


Question: As for specifics including Who What Where Why and tell me more


Listen: Be patient and truly understand what the prospect is telling you


Position: Discuss the benefits and connect the dots to their business


(Here is where you could use the Feel, Felt, Found technique)


Check: Has the objection been addressed and ask for further feed back with a question


Here are some common Objections and some questions to ask that will help you uncover the true objection and position yourself to resolve the concern.


Happy with their current provider/service


• Perhaps you could clarify for me – Is it your service or your service provider that are happy with?


• What is it that you like about them


• When was the last time they did an assessment of your requirements or services?


• How do you feel your business would benefit from new technology? Cost Savings? Increased productivity? Efficiencies? Being more Competitive?


• It would be helpful if you could be specific about who your current service provider is and if you have more than one provider for one or more service


• How are you kept up to date on new technology, products and services?


• How proactive is your rep/provider?


• What features do you like about your service?


• Is there a specific feature or product you would like to see from your current service provider?


• Have you ever had an outage? How was that handled? What is your outage process?


Not Competitive


• Could you be more specific? Price? Solution? Product offering?


• Are you speaking with other providers regarding this service?


• I would like to confirm that we are truly comparing apples to apples. Can we move through the solution and truly understand the similarities and differences?


• Some line items may be included in the pricing where as with other suppliers they may be a separate item. Could I help you do a detailed comparison?


• Is there a specific part of the quote/pricing that jumps out at you?


• Was there anything noticeably different in the quotes?


• Do you have a budget?


• Is cost the most important factor in your decision?


• Where do you specifically feel we are not competitive? SLA? Price? Solution?


In a contract


• Is this a verbal contract or a signed contract?


• When was the contract signed? What is the term of the contract?


• If I could show you cost savings, and the numbers make sense, would you consider switching?


• Could I do a cost analysis of savings vs. any penalties?


• Could you share with me some of the main Terms and Conditions of the contract?


• Does it have an auto renew clause? Will your rates increase with the Auto renew?


• Were there any sticking points with the contract?


• What services are specifically contracted?


With the “In a Contract” clause the goal is to set a reminder to follow up 6 months prior to the contact expiry and note it in Goldmine and to offer them other Avega services including Conferencing and Social Media.


Not Interested


• Are you interested in New Technology? Better Service? Saving Money? Being Competitive? Educating yourself on communication trends? Getting a second opinion on solutions?


• What are you not interested in?


• Tell me something about your business that would help me understand what is important to you


• Are phone & internet a service that your business depends on daily to run your company?


• If your business depends on phone and internet, why wouldn’t you be interested?


• How do you communicate with Customers? Vendors? Other employees? What percentage do you use phone to communicate? What percentage do you rely on Internet and email to communicate?


• How critical is phone and/or internet to your business


• If Phone and internet are critical infrastructure, isn’t it worth looking at more closely?


• If I could demonstrate improved productivity and greater efficiencies by having the right solutions, would you agree to look at this service in more detail?

Be that active listener and truly seek to understand the objection. Take your time and be deliberate in your questions and finding the heart of the matter. Happy Selling!

The Trial Close

The Trial Close Separates The Sales Pros From The Amateurs

By: Nick Moreno

Too many salespeople never ask for an order. Obviously, these salespeople never last very long in sales. Others only ask for the order once they are convinced the prospect is ready to be closed. These salespeople are missing out on a very powerful sales tool, the trial close. It’s a key tool that will increase sales performance. Let’s look at why a trial closes work.


Trial Close And The Sales Process

The trial close is about asking for the order when you assume the prospect is probably not ready to be closed. Let me explain why you would ask for the order when you believe the prospect is not ready to hand you the order. Thinking about a trial close yet?
First of all, your assumptions may not be accurate. Some trial closes actually close the deal. You may have thought the prospect wasn’t ready but in reality the prospect was anxious to do business with you. So, congratulations! Your Trial Close resulted in success.

Trial Close Is A Compass

Most of the time, your assumptions will be correct and the prospect is not ready to be closed. The Trial Close is a great way to uncover why the prospect isn’t ready. The Trial Close is like a compass that allows the salesperson to discover where they are in the Sales Process.

Trial Close And Objections

When your prospect balks at handing you the order, you want to know why. At this point, you will surely get some questions, concerns or objections. Thanks to the Trial Close you now know what’s on your prospect’s mind. Your job is to successfully address all those questions, concerns and objections. Once you do, you absolutely must, once again, ask for the order.

When To Trial Close

The trial close should be used right after you’ve presented your product as the answer to your prospect’s problems, wants or needs. You’ve presented all the benefits your prospect will enjoy by using your product or service. You’ve also cost justified the purchasing decision. The only thing left to do at this point is to trial close. That’s when to implement an effective trial close.

Trial Close With Confidence

Since you may feel your prospect isn’t ready to be closed you may be hesitant about confidently asking for the order and that would be a big mistake. Whenever you ask for an order, you must do it with confidence and that confidence must be evident even during a trial-closing attempt.

As you can see, the Trial Close is a powerful sales tool and you now know when and how to implement it. As a sales strategy, you can’t ignore the usefulness of a solid trial-closing attempt. I hope you’ll use it often and I hope that this advice will have you earning more commissions with your Trial Close.
To your sales success!

Objection Handling using LACE

Objections happen. If you perform the sales or persuasion process well, you will succeed in seriously reducing the number of objections, but they may still happen.

Objections can be transformed into an opportunity. For example, you can increase understanding of the other person's circumstance and to get closer to them, building a more trusting relationship.

Listen

Before you can act on the objection, it helps a great deal if you can understand properly not only the objection but also the thought and emotion behind it.

Find the objection

First, listen some more. Ask questions that elicit the background and detail of the objection. Listen not only to the objection but to the emotion behind it. Seek to 'read between the lines'.
The objection as stated may well be a cover for the real objection. Probe for more detail. Ask 'what else' and 'how come'.
Find remaining objections

Find out whether there are any other objections. Ask 'Is there anything else'. Tip the bucket. This can cause you more work now and it may seem that it is better to let sleeping dogs lie. But if you do not do so, then when you get towards what you hope is closure, they may easily pop up to frustrate you once again.

Accept

Once you have discovered the objection, the next stage is to acknowledge not only the objection but the person, too.
Accept the person

First and throughout, accept the person. Accept that they have a right to object. Accept that you have not fully understood them.
You do not do this by saying 'I accept you' or anything like this. The simplest way is through your attitude. Objecting can be a scary act, and people can fear your reaction. By not reacting negatively, by accepting the objection, you also accept the person.
By accepting the person, you build both their trust and their sense of identity with you. You also set up a exchange dynamic where they feel a sense of obligation to repay your acceptance.
Accept the objection

Accepting the objection means understanding how it is reasonable, at least from their current viewpoint for them to object to what you may believe is an excellent offer.
It also means accepting the work that addressing the objection will require of you. Objections can be frustrating and if you object to the objection, you will have a mutual stalemate.

Commit

Now it is time to get serious. With the increased understanding and trust, you have an ideal opportunity for a trial close.
Get their commitment

Get a commitment from them such that if you can satisfactorily address their objections, they will agree with you and make the purchase.
This is also a good method of identifying further objections. If they say no, then loop back and elicit these. Eventually, they will run out of objections. If you can address these, it's in the bag.
Make your commitment

This is also the point where you may well be making a commitment to them, to resolve their objections. This may be difficult and cost you in various ways, from calling in favors from other people to putting in additional effort.
The decision you have here, is 'Is it worth it?' Persuasion is often an exchange, and you always at liberty to back out.

Explicit action

Now it is time to address the objections, to take explicit action on the commitments made.
There are two types of objection: real ones and accidental ones. Accidental objections are where the objection is due to a misunderstanding. Misunderstandings are usually easy to address, with an apology and an explanation.
Real objections take work, but if they can be resolved, you've got the sale!
Persuade your way through

Persuading your way through an objection means working to change the way they view the objections. You can wear them down such that they no longer view the objection as being worth pursuing. You can also change the way they view them more positively such that they have an 'aha' experience that leads them to perceive the objection as being no longer important.
Concede your way through

You can also concede your way through, giving in and effectively buying their commitment. If they object to the price, you can always lower it. If they don't want it now, you can come back next week.
Concession can be both a useful approach, especially if you are in a hurry, and a threat. If you give them an inch, then they may want to take a mile. But this is not necessarily so, and a prepared concession strategy can pay dividends.

Thanks to Changing Minds for this objections handling techniques!