B2B Sales: Tools
with which the
executive can
influence & control
sales results

B2B sales and how the executive can influence sales results

The sales of a company on the B2B market are usually dependent on a very small number of sales persons.

These sales experts are the source of new income and with them, the fortunes of the company fluctuate up and down.

A good week or a month brings the sales up, a bad one down.

The executive faces many problems with sales, problems to which there seem to be few remedies... namely that at times sales slow down. Not only the sales but the obtaining of sales leads... and the rate at which these are closed into a sale.

So it's a never-ending roller-coaster ride for the executive... or that's how it often feels like.

The same problems persist throughout, changing only in intensity.

Sometimes they're almost invisible and things go great... and we hope (against hope) that NOW, finally, this thing has been licked and it's plain sailing from now on... and then the flow gets stuck again.

So, what's the problem here in reality?

What's the top-dog of barriers that, if alleviated, would also make the problem of sales reduce in size, frequency and intensity?

Tools for controlling sales — the kingpin of tools for the executive

When you use a computer, you have various tools for controlling what happens to a document on your screen.

When you drive a car, you have controls to start and stop it, change its direction and keep it going where you want at the speed of your choice.

But what about SALES? As the executive, you're supposed to control the company's direction and speed... but how on earth do you control its most important engine... SALES?

It can be quite painful NOT to have controls to change things for the better in sales.

Control over sales would mean that you had tools to INFLUENCE sales in many ways.

The obvious and perhaps most desirable way of influencing sales would be to INCREASE results at will.

A second point on the executive's wish list might be to have a way to increase the number of prospective clients or sale leads that are obtained.

Just imagine if there was an effective way to do that without spending a lot of money for an advertising / marketing campaign...

Another desirable way of influencing sales might be to improve the quality of sales.

This could mean increasing the success ratio and possibly ensuring that the sales talk will not promise anything that's not possible to deliver.

But perhaps most desirable tools of control on sales is if you could do away with the SCARCITY of sales experts and instead, gain the ability to hire "reasonably priced" people to do sales and have these produce results within a week or two.

This would greatly lower your dependency on any single one or two sales persons.

You could FIND new sales people much more easily because the qualifications required would be just the basics needed from a sales person — an extroverted personality with good quality of communication. You could quickly employ new girls or boys at perhaps significantly lower cost.

Above all, you could get these new boys and girls PRODUCING RESULTS WITHIN DAYS, thus minimising your risk of taking on the wrong guy, simply because the proof of whether to continue their continued employment would be in the pudding... in whether or not they get results within a week or two.

And you could easily remedy any downturns in the sales because you can DO something effective about starting an immediate uptrend in acquiring new prospective clients and obtaining sales from these... and secure the first results within hours (on part of new sales leads) and acquire the first sales within days!

Now, let me pretend that I'm psychic and predict that two things have occurred to you by now.

One would be a tremendous upsurge of how absolutely desirable it could be to possess such tools for controlling your sales. Another might be a consideration that it simply isn't possible.

The biggest barrier to sales: "It cannot be done..."

The human mind concerns itself with the concept of "impossible" in many ways. As the executive, this is what you come across frequently when supervising your marketing & sales personnel.

If we start a new venture, something we've not done before, then we brace the concept with utter confidence, disbelieving anything that tries to tell us that what we are about to attempt is not possible.

Once we acquire some experience in our project, we begin to come across failures. Things that were planned on the drawing board don't always pan out the expected way in practice.

There's nothing new about that, of course... there's always a learning curve when turning an idea into reality.

Every practical application of a plan involves some to-and-fro.

We have to adjust this bit, tweak that element, try out another aspect, find out if some required intermediate step was missing in our plan, locate where more skill or power or enthusiasm is required... things like that.

Now, a human being is built around one single concept... he must believe himself right and, all appropriate modesty and chitchat aside, he always believes HIMSELF to be the cleverest person in the world.

That's our basic survival mechanism and it's easy enough to see that people who give up on these secret self-appreciating considerations are in a sorry shape.

Now, I'm stressing that this is the most secret inside thinking, not what we would tell anyone else... and definitely not the guideline of acceptable behaviour or manners with our environment.

The way this innate and utter certainty of one's own abilities manifests itself in sales is that we believe we are the best person to solve the problem.

Inasmuch as authority and lines of communication (and command) go, it is also true.

ONLY YOU can solve the problem of sales in the company you're running, that's for sure.

But DATA, knowledge, outsider viewpoint, unknown causes... in terms of observation and "research and discovery" operations... the person himself is not the best one to sort these things out.

It's sort of asking too much. Whatever is awry is not so because you WANT it to be that way. Whatever is causing the problem does so because it remains HIDDEN and out of your view.

We are not born with all the data.

We have no way to ascertain that we FIND all the information that's necessary to the solution of our problems.

It's so easy to confuse the two issues here. You DO have the ability to solve the problems of sales. But do not assume that you have all the DATA required to do it. That's not necessarily so.

In fact, if a problem does NOT resolve then it's DATA that's missing, NOT ability or power.

But before we can see this subtle but important distinction, we are easily led to believing IT CANNOT BE DONE.

In essence, there's really nothing that cannot be done IF it concerns your own life, profession, future and survival.

The impossible things are those that concern someone ELSE'S life, profession, future and survival.

I'm not saying this to force the issue upon you. It just happens to be a fact of life.

There's always something that can be done about it.

SOMETHING can be done about it always. It might not be possible to wave a magic wand to make all problems disappear instantly.

But it is possible to start a GRADUAL upward trend of improving one's control over sales.

It is possible to alleviate problems little by little.

If you do then you'll find that the pace of improvement will soon accelerate, making those "unavoidable" problems very avoidable very quickly.

And all you need is KNOWLEDGE.

Knowledge, the tool for controlling the sales

What's actually happening in sales? It's really a set of actions, isn't it, with one step following another?

These few actions can be divided into smaller parts that make up each action.

Each smaller part can be divided into a set of steps, "atoms of sales" if you wish, the smallest little parts that make up the bigger parts that make up each major action.

Now, let me assure you that knowledge is the key to understanding sales... and understanding is the key to controlling it.

Knowledge of what?

Well, for one, knowledge of the anatomy of sales — the whole structure that makes up the end result divided into its smallest parts — and awareness of the sequence of these parts... this knowledge alone would solve many problems.

Or knowledge of what steps are REQUIRED to create a path which the prospective client can travel easily enough to make the grade and "graduate" on the other side of the sale.

Which parts are needed? What's the importance of each part compared to the others? What's the correct sequence of these steps?

How do you make them each low enough so the prospect will climb the staircase out of his own willingness?

How do you keep the prospect in the right direction, progressing upward the staircase so he arrives where a sale CAN be made?

How do you ensure that the prospect has enough knowledge about the item of sale and the terms of the sale in order to be ABLE to commit to your solution?

How do you make the client participate in the sales process so he CREATES the deal with the sales person, making the project his own which would guarantee that he wants to sign the contract?

And how do you monitor the work of your sales people?

How do you know if they do what they're supposed to do... how do you find what went wrong and correct it... how do you help them to keep on the right track and produce sales continually and reliably?

Oh, there are lots of questions one could ask.

Of course, you would have answers to each question but are those answers correct beyond shadow of a doubt... or are they your opinions?

Perhaps the most revealing question would be this one: "How much of this knowledge do you know for so certain that you would bet your company on its accuracy... and how many data are conclusions arrived at because something didn't go the way it was planned?"

If all your data are correct and accurate then you CANNOT HAVE A PROBLEM.

A problem can only persist for as long as something about it remains unknown or inaccurate.

A problem with sales is really just like any other problem, albeit more complex and one with many far-reaching consequences.

But it's like this:

Something must be unknown about it, some datum must be wrong there. Or it might be that some datum's importance is wrongly evaluated. Or there might be some data missing... or some that doesn't actually belong to this problem.

If any of the data is misaligned, wrongly evaluated, not belonging to the problem, false, not totally accurate, missing, assigned wrong importance... then the problem will persist.

The unfailing manifestation of such a state of data is CONFUSION at first. If confusion persists long enough (and the attempts to solve the problem keep failing as they will without the underlying data correctly evaluated), then the next step is...

...to create certainty on that the problem cannot be solved.

The birth of this self-created certainty is unavoidable because the human mind cannot tolerate failure. Thus, by labelling the problem as an unsolvable, we bring about great relief to ourselves.

NOW, when someone comes to you and tells you IT CAN BE SOLVED... well, the self-created certainty of it being unsolvable loses some of its strength and the CONFUSION RETURNS.

It "feels bad" and thus we reject the suggested solution.

But that doesn't change the facts.

The fact is that you CAN influence anything that influences you and governs your future success.

The fact is that a problem cannot persist if all data underlying (causing) it are known.

Not unless you actually planned it that way and want to have those problems, which you'll have a hard time convincing either of us!

Well, be that as it may, I suggest you don't get too hung up about any problem's "unsolvability" at this point. Just for a while, imagine the problem of sales could be solved... and now let's look at HOW it has been solved in many B2B companies.

Tools of sales

Every trade has its tools.

A carpenter has his saws, knives, chisels, mallets and whatnots.

An engineer has his calipers, calculators, CAD programmes and so on.

The car mechanic has a wide selection of tools for diagnosing and mending the motor vehicles.

Each tool has its purpose of use, designed to perform a specific task successfully, tested and piloted for years, improved with the experience gathered from its use... until it produces the expected end result every single time if used correctly.

Every trade has a set of tools... except sales, of course.

In sales, we rely on the experience of the sales person. We hope he or she knows how to handle prospective clients and carry them through to the finalisation of the sale.

We hope the salesman is able to do all the steps required to educate the prospect into understanding the benefits of our service and/or products. We hope the salesman knows how to ferry the prospect through the steps necessary for him to trust us sufficiently to commit to the solution we offer.

We hope the salesman can unearth those objections, considerations, fixed ideas and preconceptions (of which even the prospect isn't usually aware) and HANDLE each of them so that all the stops are pulled off from the way of success.

We hope the salesman doesn't promise anything we cannot deliver... and we hope he doesn't let the client remain with some expectation which our product cannot fulfil.

We HOPE.

HOPE is an undying thing in the human mind. Against all odds we hope. Hope keeps us alive. Hope keeps us trying.

Now, there's nothing wrong with hope, of course. Hope is the essential ingredient of positive thinking.

But IMPRACTICAL hope is what occurs when we cannot control something which we must control to control our success and/or survival.

Suffice to say that the emotional charge we can feel about sales is a good indicator on how much of our hope is impractical.

The degree of emotional charge in any subject is reversely proportionate to the degree to which we actually have control over it.

The more upsets there are in your mind about sales, the less you feel in control of it... and the more you are forced to depend on hope that someone somewhere knows what they're doing...

Not a nice thing, I know... and from bitter personal experience, I might add. I'm definitely NOT speaking from a lofty position of superiority here, merely from experience.

Now, the antidote to lack of control over sales comes with creating SALES TOOLS.

Admittedly, sales tools are a rarity. Oh, they do exist but not widely.

The reason is simple. The action of selling is SO complex and extensive, the function of sales contains SO many parts (of which many are unknown and few are known fully) that the very IDEA of there being any way to organise all this into a doable list of actions... appears folly.

And it's not just a "doable list of actions" we need. It's a list of exact but SHORT things to SAY that form the whole long chain that covers the sales cycle from start to end.

As discussed elsewhere in these articles on our site, there are about one hundred separate actions to do in any sales cycle that involves B2B acquisition of a new client... and in each of these 100 steps there are a multitude of alternatives, of which only one is correct.

So it's a very extensive aggregate of things whose underlying causes are not known to most companies.

Yet, for those who understand these elements and possess the experience of having created sales tools for B2B companies, it is not that difficult to do.

Sales tools can be built only with accurate data

It's relatively simple to create a successful set of sales tools whose results will be both predictable and in a highly viable range.

All we actually need is accurate data from TWO sources.

Firstly, we need data from YOU on what you want to achieve with your sales and about your services and/or products and their benefits. That data you have and it is accurate.

Secondly, we need to survey your TARGET GROUP on what THEY want, expect, like, dislike, and feel about your line of services and/or products. It's a lot more complex than this but suffice to say this data can be acquired and, if done right, it will be accurate, extremely so.

It's much like geographical surveying, establishing two points with which you can determine the location of the third with pinpoint accuracy. Nothing mystical about that per se.

Then all that's needed is some considerable work in planning all the required little steps in form of ready-to-use tools, such as...

-	telemarketing script & direct mailing letters for finding prospective clients (and any other medium you wish to use for it, such as a web site, newsletters, a brochure, etc.)
-	interview(s) with ready-made questions to be done with found prospects, increasing their interest and making THEM invent the benefits of your service (instead of making any claims)
-	detailed "how to" step-by-step descriptions of actions for the whole chain from prospect to sale
-	instructions for sales closing, down to detailed scripts on how to handle each of the common objections
-	an added-value service concept built exactly on the survey results of what the target group wants (and using the exact wordings), giving uniqueness to your service and/or product and creating "fear of losing the opportunity" in the prospect
-	possible contract model (the part which will act as a sales tool)

...and so on, just to name some of the most usual ones.

Doesn't sound too impressive, does it?

It's NOT, really... not when you see it defined with words or on a few sheets of paper.

But to see it in ACTION, to receive the RESULTS acquired by using such tools... that may well impress you.

You may be fascinated by the EASE with which extroverted people will achieve sales, REGARDLESS OF PRIOR SALES EXPERIENCE.

You may feel slightly optimistic about the SPEED with which sales are made and prospects are found.

And it could be that, once you find out how such tools make it easy to CORRECT sales people and get them succeeding quickly, you may feel quite enthusiastic about them.

It all comes to you gradually, really. The control returns little by little, but it will return with absolute certainty. It only takes weeks to gain control over sales though.

In the final analysis it comes down to whether or not you want to gain better control over your sales, to acquire the power to influence its results more directly.

If yes then the only way that's achievable is by sales tools.

If the idea of gaining more control over sales interests you, please read the presentation of our Marketing Analysis introductory service which will offer you much more knowledge and insight into sales tools and how to influence sales.

If web site presentation is more important to you at this point in time, click here to read about our Internet Marketing & Search Engine Optimization Analysis.

Whatever you do, keep believing that it is possible to influence sales. When all is said and done, it is YOUR personal power that keeps sales occurring so never disparage your own power!

Best wishes,

Harry Kafka
HDK Consultants Ltd
32 Manning Close
Richmond Square
East Grinstead RH19 2DR
West Sussex, United Kingdom
Tel. 01342-328 116
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