10 Simple Google Search Tricks

What is a sales funnel?

In the broadest sense, a sales funnel is the graphical representation of the sales process. It usually starts with “lead generation” and ends at the “sale close.” It is an internal tracking system that follows what happens at every stage — which prospects get qualified, which ones don’t make it past a first proposal, and so on, right down to “sale closed.”

The biggest benefit of a funnel for salespeople is that by showing them where they lose potential customers, it gives them a better understanding of where they can improve their techniques — and leverage their strengths. For sales managers, a funnel provides better control of the process and can help them make the best use of the time they spend training the sales force. But a sales funnel is valuable for other departments, too. It can help a company’s top managers — especially manufacturing and production executives?— plan better since it can shed light on future sales and production issues.

How do I build a sales funnel?

Below is an illustration of how a sales funnel for a consulting firm might look. There is no one funnel design that is right for every company, and many companies have more than one funnel because they sell through different channels. Direct sales, wholesaler/distributor sales, Internet sales and inside sales each dictate different processes. Different products or services also have very different sales processes and therefore require different sales funnels.

For example, compare the cases of Interfuse Media, a company that sells advertising space in magazines, and ChemCo, a specialty chemical manufacturer. Interfuse is selling a fairly simple, easily understood product — ad space — for a magazine that is targeting pregnant women who are 35 years and older. ChemCo (not its real name), on the other hand, sells a wide variety of chemicals to industries as diverse as hair care, food and automobiles. Some of its products are commodities and require nothing more than a price quote along with the specs.

Others require trials before a prospect will be willing to commit to buying, and still other products are sold through distributors. Because the sales processes that these companies (and even the various divisions of ChemCo) use are so different, these companies will, by necessity, need to construct sales funnels that look different.

Drawing up a sales funnel is a process that needs to involve the constituents who benefit from it. There are many software programs that can help you capture and display all of the relevant data, from Excel to more sophisticated customer relationship management packages. But a sales funnel can simply be a step-by-step description of the sales process, and a listing of which prospective clients are in which sales stages. It is the process of analyzing and defining the sales stages and defining what it takes to move from one level in the funnel to another that is critical. Equally important is getting buy-in from the sales staff and managers, who will have to make the time to record how prospects move through the funnel — and when and why they fall out.

An individual or small team from within sales should begin by drafting a model of the sales process. One effective method is to draw a model of the sales process using removable labels (such as Post-it notes) and to put it up on a wall or whiteboard. This emphasizes that it is a draft document and stimulates discussion among staff members. It is important to remember that estimates of timing and success rates throughout the process are crucial components of the funnel. With a completed model, it is time to bring in the rest of the sales organization and the other constituents to provide their comments. After all needed changes have been made; you can distribute it to the organization.

Once a funnel is designed, it’s useful to measure performance on both a “micro” and “macro” level. The “micro” metrics will measure each phase of a sale — such as the time needed to move to the next stage and the percentage of prospects moving to the next stage. Macro metrics include how long it takes to get through the entire funnel, the percentage chance of deal closure at each stage and the average deal size. The cost of sales can also be measured.

How have companies used a sales funnel to improve sales?

Once you have a clear understanding of the current sales process in your company — the time, cost and efficiency from one stage to the next along the funnel, and throughout the funnel as a whole — it is then possible to begin to pull levers to improve overall performance

The CEO and vice president of sales at Greenhouse IT, a fixed-fee provider of workstations, servers and network support in Manhattan, looked at the percentage of first meetings that turned into proposals and realized that it was too low. The company concluded that the screen it was using to define a “qualified” first meeting to its inside sales was not robust enough. Greenhouse altered the questions that inside sales asked and the responses required to schedule a meeting. This lowered the percentage of first meetings they were getting from inside sales, but dramatically increased the percentage of proposals (and contracts) from those meetings.  Overall, this reduced their cost of sales while also increasing their overall conversion rate. The same company is experimenting with another funnel, one where the lead generation source is a Google-targeted marketing campaign leading prospects to its website. The company is attempting to decide whether the investment is worthwhile and, if so, how much it should invest. By having a baseline from their other funnel, they will be able to compare the results and make an informed investment decision.?

Meanwhile, executives at ChemCo, measured each of the firm’s salespeople all along the funnel. They then looked at the top 10% of performers at each stage to find out why they were so successful at that particular stage. After identifying the factors that made those staffers successful and training the rest of the sales organization, ChemCo was able to increase the overall skill level of the sales force. Within six months, overall comparable year-over year revenue had increased over 30%.

A sales funnel is a powerful tool that helps companies bring some science to the art of selling. It enables you to see exactly where your process is working well, and where you need to improve. Armed with that knowledge, business owners can plug up leaks in the funnel – getting more bang for their buck.

Reality #1
Teams are increasingly critical for all types and sizes of organizations…

• Leadership teams that enable, manage, and sustain growth
• Project teams that develop and implement major business improvement or strategic initiatives
• Departmental teams that must perform complex functions flawlessly, often with fewer resources than ever.

Reality #2

Without mastering essential teaming capabilities, even your most talented individuals are sharply limited in what they can achieve as a team.

So what are essential teaming capabilities? 

1. Focused purpose

The team needs a compelling purpose and a reason why the purpose requires active involvement from each team member. 

2. Agree on and use a clear operating system to work and make decisions

The team must agree on how they will work together. Who does what, and how decisions will be made, including identifying which ones need to be made by the full team. 

3. Have the capability to communicate openly and effectively

There must be an environment of trust and the ability to foster dialogue which moves the team forward. Differences and disagreements must be dealt with head-on, not left to linger.

4. Make clear commitments to achieving team’s goals

With competing commitments pressing on each team member, including other team responsibilities and often a functional “day job”, it is critical that each team member be actively enrolled in seeing the team through to success.  This requires not just a one-time enrollment but actively balancing and rebalancing multiple commitments. 

5. Leverage each member’s abilities

Teams are at their best when they recognize that not everyone can do everything well.  If they could, a team would likely be unnecessary!  Teams need to identify needed skills and capabilities and map these to the people of the team. This holds true not just for functional skills like analysis or writing, but team role-based skills, like brainstorming or offering a critical eye.

6. Hold one another accountable.

Finally, team members don’t wait for the leader or boss to crack the whip. Team members make firm commitments to deliver X by day Y to quality level Z, and the group as a whole and each member is responsible for holding one another accountable. 

Master these six capabilities, and your team’s potential is limitless!

Written by Steve Schack  (Steve@erimo.com)

Your VP of Sales is from Pluto.

Do you remember the early nineties bestseller by John Gray, Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus?  That book introduced the idea that men and women have different communication styles, and that their relationships could benefit from an understanding of those styles and the ways they differ.

Guess what?  It turns out that (gender aside) each individual is a makeup of four different behavioral styles, and most of us function–and communicate–the majority of the time through one or two dominant styles among the four.  

So just as men and women started to examine their communication styles back in the nineties, it makes sense for today’s business practitioners to identify their own and their colleagues’. By looking at the way people most prefer to behave, both under favorable and adverse (read, stress) conditions, we can tailor our messages to them to be more effective. There are many ways to say the same thing.   Imagine you’d like one of your employees to speed up the timeline on a project.  You might say:

A.     Pat, I really need your help on this project.  There’s a lot of pressure to get it in on schedule, so anything you can do to keep things moving will really be appreciated by the whole team.  Let’s show the Director how good our Department really is.

B.     Pat, there’s a lot of pressure to get this project in on time.  I’m leaving it up to you–Use whatever strategies you think will work best to motivate the team.

C.     Pat, we’re under a lot of pressure to get this project done ASAP.  I know I can count on you to make sure we don’t overlook any of the important details in the rush of getting it in on time.

D.    Pat, it will be tricky to get all our team members to cooperate and get this project in on time.  We’re under a lot of pressure, but I know I can count on you to encourage everyone to work together.

As you read through the 4 examples, you may have found yourself nodding to one or more of them in acknowledgment of the appropriateness of that approach for you.  Unfortunately just because one (or more) of the styles might be your most preferred, does not mean that it is the most preferred for the person to whom you are communicating. 

So the next time you hit a roadblock when communicating to someone in your group, someone who reports to you, or even to your significant other, think about the way that person usually communicates with you; It might give you a clue to that person’s preferred style, and help you communicate better. 

And if you find this is an area you need assistance with in your department, there’s a great tool available.  In the late 1960’s, behavioral scientist Dr. Stuart Atkins identified four "Life Orientations", as he calls the four main behavioral styles, Atkins joined with Dr. Elias Porter to develop LIFO®, a product that allows individuals to understand their own most (and least) preferred styles as well as to assess the styles of others.

LIFO® assessment and training can help you become a better communicator, help your whole group interact more productively, and help them work together more efficiently.  Contact the author (http://erimo.com/contact-us) for more information on LIFO®, and how it can improve productivity in your business.

Immediately after being told by the boss that they have to make a presentation, most employees will open up Powerpoint and begin crafting it.  That’s a big mistake.  Best-case scenario, it will take much longer than necessary to create; worst-case, it will lead to a poor quality or misdirected presentation.  This article provides an easy to follow structure for developing your presentations so that the next time you have to go in front of a group, you will shine.    

In order to develop a winning presentation, the speaker must keep 2 key questions in mind:

1.     What is my objective for this presentation?

The first step in crafting an effective presentation is knowing what you, the presenter, want the audience to leave with.  All presentations fall within one of two categories:

• a call to action

• an information exchange

Do they need to make a decision about whether to continue with a particular clinical trial? Do you want to inform them about the upcoming equipment shutdown and get commitment on them feeding information back to you?  Is the meeting for a go/no-go decision and you want them to give you the go ahead? 

Knowing what you want the audience to do or understand at the end of your presentation is paramount – so much so that you should would write it down and keep it visible at all times as you develop the presentation.  

2.     How can I make it easy for my audience to understand what I’m trying to convey?

Now that you know what you want your audience to take away from your presentation you are ready to craft it.  This can be broken down into a 4-step process: 

a.     Outline

A good presentation is like a good story: it has a beginning, middle, and end, it has a thru-line or plot, and it’s easy to understand.  As with the essay you had to write for 7^th grade English class, you should begin the writing of your presentation with an outline.  One of the easiest and most widely used structures is the Tell ’em format.  First you tell ‘em what you’re going to tell ‘em, then you tell ‘em, and at the end you tell ‘em what you told ‘em.  This makes it easier for your audience to remember your key message by giving them 3 repetitions of what you want them to see and hear. 

b.     Storyboard

Storyboarding is a technique developed at the Walt Disney Studios in the 1930s and is still used for movie, animation, and even web-site development.  The way to use storyboarding for a presentation is to develop the key statements you want to get across for each part of your outline.  These key statements should be complete sentences and ideally should be no more than about 12-16 words in length.  When complete you should be able to read each of the sentences in order and have a compelling, cohesive story that achieves your written objective.  This is not an easy process and may take much iteration.  One trick is to write each sentence on an index card or post-it note, put them on the wall, and move them around, adding and subtracting to make the story flow.  This is the most critical step in assuring that you have a well-developed presentation.  Resist the temptation to start designing slides and take the time to get a really solid storyboard.  It will pay off.

c.      1^st Draft 

Each sentence of your storyboard will be the headline of its own slide.  Don’t waste the opportunity to tell the audience the key message of the slide in the headline.  A consistent format for the slides is another way to help your audience – it trains them to know where to look on each slide for particular items.  The body of the slide should support the key take-away, the headline.  This is where quantitative and qualitative information goes to back-up the point made in the headline.  A kicker box, if used, should provide the ‘so what’, the implications of the point that the slide is making.  Other items such as section titles or diagrams, or fact sources should be placed at the top and bottom of the slide respectively.  See Figure 1, below.

FIGURE 1

d.     Review and Edit

Now that the first draft has been completed, it’s time to dry run the presentation and make any changes.  Close your office door and rehearse the presentation out loud, so you can hear the flow the way your audience will hear it.  Does it need any adjustments?  The benefit of having spent so much time on the storyboard is two-fold: it makes the need for changes to the presentation minor, and by the time the presentation is developed you will already know the flow extremely well, which helps immeasurably when it comes time to deliver it.

The next time you’re asked to give a presentation, first make sure that you are absolutely - clear about what you want to achieve.  With your objective posted prominently in front of you, follow the 4-step process of Outline, Storyboard, 1^st draft, Review and Edit and relax, knowing you are ready to deliver a first-rate presentation. 

Step 1:        Let the emotionality out (venting)
Step 2:        Understanding your own and then other party’s POV
Step 3:        Getting commitment for the shared goal
Step 4:        Working on actions (and behaviors) that each party can take
Step 5:        Follow-up

Step 1:  Letting the emotionality out.  This is best handled in a private setting with a neutral third party or a sympathetic, neutral co-worker or boss.  Prior to a group session this can take the form of one-on-one interviews with the facilitator.  The idea is to allow for all parties to be heard, to have them feel that other people believe they have been aggrieved, and to find out some possible sensitivities when putting together the group meeting.

Step 2: Understanding your own and then the other party’s POV.  This is a good exercise early in the meeting to get each party thinking about their own actions, realizing that they have stresses and pressures that make them act/react in certain ways, and then trying to imagine how they are viewed by the other party.  The key watch-out here is to insure that each party is only commenting on itself and not on the other.

Step 3: Getting commitment for the shared goal.  This is a critical step as it establishes a basis for the parties to work together and gets them to agree upon a goal, without which there is no reason to work together.

Step 4:    Working on actions (and behaviors) that each party can take – agreement.  There are 2 parts to this step.  First having each party decide on very specific actions that they would like to see happen that would begin to build (rebuild) credibility.  The smaller, more specific, and more immediate the actions are, the better.  The second part is having each party accept or decline the activities the other party desires. The deliverable should be a next steps list with activities and dates agreed to by all parties. It is here that close facilitation is crucial.

Step 5: Follow-up.  After the mediated session, when the parties go back to their day jobs it is easy for the next steps to be forgotten or let slip.  There needs to be some agreed upon method for keeping all parties to their agreement, allowing for the relationship to heal and hopefully become strong.  Small, rather rapid steps that each party can accomplish begins the process of rebuilding the relationship.

Having a working relationship that is contentious adds unnecessary stress to the daily grind – something none of us need.  Instead of living with a slow, draining working relationship, take action and make the commitment to address the situation.  It may be uncomfortable to go through, but once it is fixed all team members on both sides of the relationship will not believe they let it go for so long.

T = (I * C) / R

With T = Trust, I = Intimacy, C = Credibility, and R = Risk

The first and most obvious correlation here is the inverse relationship between risk and trust - the higher the risk the greater the trust required.  Intimacy is how well you are known and Credibility is the believability of you doing what you say that you will do.

When we are looking to rebuild trust in a business context, the above formula provides a good framework for how to go about it.  First, take something where the Risk to the other party is low.  If you do not know the other party very well then trying to get to know them a little better, if possible, will raise the level of Intimacy.  Discuss with the other party what small, rapid action(s) you can take that will begin to have them believe that you will do what you say.  If you can gain agreement to a plan, then by completing the action(s) you will begin to build (re-build) Credibility.

By analyzing the situation through the lens of the Trust Formula, you can choose which action or actions to take to begin the process of building the trust necessary.

¹ - "The Trusted Advisor" by Maister, Green, and Galford

The answer to this question lies in the difference between Creativity and Innovation.  Contrary to popular belief, Creativity and Innovation are not interchangeable.  Creativity is the ability to come up with a new idea, process, or product.  The people and companies that are truly innovative are able to harness those creative ideas and bring them to market (for process innovations - have them impact the market) in a profitable manner.

To be innovative a company must:

·      Come up with (or find) creative ideas

·      Be able to select those with market potential

·      Turn the ideas into products or processes

·      Bring them to the marketplace in a profitable way

Creativity is the first and a necessary but not sufficient component of innovation.  Developing an innovative organization requires a wall-to-wall look at how business is done and what systems, processes, policies, unwritten rules, and ways of working are in place.   Five categories can be used to frame the shift toward innovation.  Their definitions can be debated, as there is some natural overlap between categories. The important thing is to have the framework to help capture and manage all of these interrelated activities:

Management Focus - This is just as it sounds: Actions to embed innovation into the routines of all layers of management.

Culture - The articulation of the behaviors an organization encourages in order to foster innovation as well as the structure put in place to incent that behavior and discourage the opposite behavior.

Process - The processes that touch innovation from idea generation to rapid prototyping and on through to the market can be huge impediments. From a change management perspective, this and Culture are arguably the most difficult areas to implement.

Resources - The money and time necessary to allow people to research and come up with ideas and then shepherd them to prototype and potentially to market.

Idea Generation - A process in place to allow for the generation of potentially innovative ideas and the organizational learning of how to be a more creative thinker.

In order for an organization to begin the journey to becoming innovative, a comprehensive look at individual behaviors and thinking, executive actions, available resources, process, and overall culture must be conducted. The creativity part of the equation, while important, is usually the simplest part. 

For more information about Innovation, please see my e-zine article "Getting Smart About Innovation - Readings, Videos, Web-sites" at http://erimo.com/innovation-suggested-readings-video-sites which provides suggested Innovation-related readings, web-sites and videos.  

Books:

The Innovator’s Solution by Clayton Christensen and Michael Raynor, This book comes as a follow-up to Christensen’s The Innovator’s Dilemma.   This business best seller is deserving of its accolades, as it provides a comprehensive, well written, and well researched examination of how organizations can break away from the success that they’ve had in the past that is ultimately holding them back from taking achieving that next step change in growth.

Driving Growth Through Innovation by Robert B. Tucker, I do not know why this book does not get more recognition. Tucker does an outstanding job of breaking down what is necessary for an entity to commit to, if it really wishes to become an Innovative organization. The writing and examples used are clear and easy to understand, making this one of the books on Innovation I find myself recommending more than most.

The Art of Innovation by Tom Kelley, Kelley the CEO of IDEO the design consultancy takes the reader down an enjoyable path of thinking creatively, getting groups/teams to think creatively, and then embedding the culture of creative thinking into an organization. Of course, all of this is from a product design perspective. The stories are a little self-serving, but quite enjoyable and got me to say, "That’s so cool." a couple of times.

Open Innovation by Henry Chesbrough, The seminal book on Open Innovation. It does a good job of describing what Open Innovation is, the benefits of pursuing an Open Innovation strategy, and providing examples of instances where it has been used successfully. It is written in a business style for business people, but don’t hold that against it. If you are interested in Open Innovation, this is the book for you.

Cracking Creativity by Michael Michalko, While written more for the practitioner, this book provides a nice overview of how to see what others can not and how to think what others are not thinking. Extremely similar to his other book from a content standpoint, the writing and examples are better in Cracking Creativity. The techniques, exercises, and group work presented here are excellent to skim through when looking for ideas to help run a workshop. Michalko has also put out Thinkpak, a deck of cards to help with all phases of brainstorming.

A Whack on the Side of the Head by Roger von Oech, I love this book! It is not your basic business text. Written much more for the practitioner, Whack, provides numerous exercises and ideas for how to unleash your own and others’ creativity. The final chapter speaks to the need to not only come up with great ideas, but also to take action and bring ideas to market. Von Oech has put out 2 decks of cards, Creative Whack Pack and Innovative Whack Pack to provoke and inspire creative thinking.

Made to Stick by Chip Heath & Dan Heath, Written by two brothers this book is not really focused on Innovation, but some of the concepts explored in this book on how to make ideas sticky are directly applicable to the development or rather refinement of Innovative products and services. It is one of those books that makes you think about how you communicate and present yourself. An excellent read.

How Breakthroughs Happen by Andrew Hargadon, The title of the book is pretty self-explanatory. And while the material in it is good, it seems doomed to suffer the same fate as many business books - being skimmed.

Fast Second by Markides and Geroski, The premise of the book is that it is not the inventors that get famous (and rich) but rather the innovators, the folks who are able to take the invented technology and get it to market in a way that consumers find valuable. The book uses examples as a way of proving its point and illuminating the keys for being the ‘fast second’ company and capturing the value.

Video: 

A.G. Lafley discusses Innovation at P&G. This 15 minute video clip is a good overview of how they view Innovation at P&G and where they are on their journey.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvIUSxXrffc&feature=related

Web-sites:

As their web-site says, www.moreInspiration.com lets you discover innovative products and technologies from all possible domains. It is easy to blow 30 minutes just surfing around looking at all of the really cool products from around the world.

www.lateralaction.com provides commentary on all things Innovative with a clear lean towards creative types. It has excellent links to articles across the web. This is definitely a place to go for a couple of very insightful short reads every week or so.

www.innocentive.com was the first and the leader in open innovation across the Internet. They post challenges from corporations with rewards for the best answers. Respondents from around the world work these mainly research but also development problems in hopes of solving them and getting paid for it.

Articles:

There are so many articles relating to Innovation that instead of trying to pick out 1 or 2 of special note, I would just suggest looking in Harvard Business Review and The McKinsey Quarterly for their 3 to 5 most recent articles on the subject.

 Overcommunicate, Overcommunicate, Overcommunicate – so says Jack Welch.

Not long ago, I had the pleasure of hearing Jack Welch speak and wanted to share some of my take-aways.

Jack, as you may know, heads an investment vehicle that has ownership interest in 11 companies.  During this time of extreme economic uncertainty he is telling the chief executives of his portfolio companies there are four key things they must keep in mind.

1.     Get your costs in line, because cash is king

a.     Assume your worst-case scenario.  Even if this is not the case then you will have out performed your expectations and be better positioned coming out of the economic crisis

2.     Overcommunicate – Frequently and Candidly

a.     Uncertainty and rumor are much, much worse than bad news.  If you keep them in the dark or provide them with sugarcoated information all you are doing in engendering paralysis.

3.     Take care of your best people – with cash

a.     If it is your people that make your organization, then they are the ones who are going to help you through this difficult time.  In times like this, nothing says that more than cash.

4.     “Buy-them or bury-them”

a.     If because of the difficulty in getting capital it is not possible to buy your competitor then go and steal their best employees.I wanted to spend a little time on Jack’s second point – overcommunicate.  It is always important to communicate with your organization.  The common excuse that I hear from executives for not communicating is that bad news will demoralize the troops.  While it may be true, very quickly your people, especially if they are good people, will incorporate the news and get back to the task at hand.  When people don’t know and can only surmise, they freeze.  Not being sure about what the priorities are, who will still be with the organization, or whether there will be budget for their projects logically makes people tentative. It is a natural human reaction to pull back when the possibility of failure increases; who wants to spend time and effort on a project that will go nowhere, lose its funding, or its resources? 

A well-executed communications plan will go a long way to keeping the uncertainty and rumors to a minimum.·      Message

o   What are the few (no more than 3) messages you want people to remember?  In times of uncertainty, what you say/write is scrutinized even more than usual.  This will increase retention, minimize confusion and reduce rumors.

·      Medium/Forum

o   A mix of one-way and two-way communications will allow you to get your message out, as well as to hear the concerns of your constituents.  Because everyone incorporates communications differently, a mix of media – video, e-mail, paper memo, face to face, blog, intranet, tweet, etc. will insure that you reach and impact the widest range of people.  

·      Frequency

o   In times of crisis, the void left by no information will quickly be filled with incorrect and potentially damaging information.·      Audience

o   Organizations have many stakeholders that all need to hear the message, but who may need to be communicated with differently.  Cast a wide net with your communications – don’t forget those in adjacent departments, customers, suppliers, etc.

Jack Welch made his career by understanding that it is not strategy alone that wins, but a talented, informed team of people.  In today’s extremely challenging environment, people become even more of a differentiator.   Use this time of uncertainty to keep your people informed and motivated allowing them to focus on positioning your organization for greater success.

Should you wish to discuss what Jack’s advice means for your organization, please do not hesitate to contact me at keith@erimo.com or +1 610 202 0579.

This article was published at http://ezinearticles.com/?Overcommunicate,-Overcommunicate,-Overcommunicate—So-Says-Jack-Welch&id=2362997