In the complex world of B2B sales, understanding the Decision-Making Unit (DMU) is crucial for success. Recent studies have shown that the number of stakeholders involved in a B2B purchase decision can range from 5 to 10 in small to mid-sized companies, and up to 20 or more in large enterprises. Each member of the DMU has unique priorities, concerns, and influence, making it essential for sales professionals to navigate these diverse perspectives effectively.

In the complex world of B2B sales, understanding the Decision-Making Unit (DMU) is crucial for success. Recent studies have shown that the number of stakeholders involved in a B2B purchase decision can range from 5 to 10 in small to mid-sized companies, and up to 20 or more in large enterprises. Each member of the DMU has unique priorities, concerns, and influence, making it essential for sales professionals to navigate these diverse perspectives effectively.

In a challenging, modern B2B sales landscape, it’s tempting to fall into a feast-or-famine mentality. When your pipeline is overflowing with qualified leads, prospecting might fall by the wayside. But here’s the secret: consistent prospecting isn’t just about filling immediate needs, it’s about building relationships and laying the groundwork for long-term success.

In the realm of digital communication, email remains a powerful tool for businesses to reach out to potential clients and customers. However, not all emails are created equal. Particularly in the B2B sector, the distinction between cold emails and marketing emails is stark, and understanding this difference is crucial for any business looking to optimise its outreach strategy.

GAMIFIED SALES TRAINING: LEVEL UP PERFORMANCE Feb 15, 2018 In this post I will show you what happens when you take the modern approach to sales training and combine it with some of the latest technology the world has to offer. While this type of training is not for every business, I certainly see it as the future of sales training (and training in general), and everyone who has anything to do with sales or training should be aware of this. Modern Training Methods   Traditional training methods don’t work because the training delivered is not relevant to all delegates, and for those it is relevant to, the information doesn’t stick. To overcome these common challenges, you or your training provider need to create training content that is specific to your salespeople’s needs. For example, if you have a salesperson who is the master of negotiation, but can’t create new opportunities, don’t make them sit through hours of negotiation training. Help them with prospecting content. “Modularised” Training With this approach to each team member, as opposed to “one size fits all”, you can “modularise” your sales training, specific to delegates’ needs. This way, the training becomes relevant to each member of your sales team, and the the training becomes more impactful on their daily lives (provided the content is solid). It takes a little know-how to understand the unique needs for each of your sales team, but it can be done easily enough, and is quick to gauge. ***Pro Tip*** There is a good chance you have the information you need already. The long term benefits will be worth it. Imagine if you could not wait for your next “dose” of training? Enter Gamification! It’s a buzz word at the moment, that’s for sure. Ask any strategy Guru for what the next big thing could be for a company and gamification will come up several times. But when you go past the buzzword, what is gamification, what does it really mean, and what is the true potential in our daily lives? As a born and raised gamer myself, I can go on about this for weeks. But to do it justice, I need to refer to and give credit to the godfather of gamification himself, Yu-Kai Chou. He developed the system called Octalysis. If this is new to you, it’s most worthwhile checking out his ground breaking Ted Talk where he reveals his vision to the world. To sum it up, gamification is about taking day to day tasks, both in our personal and working lives, and turning them into games. The benefits of doing this successfully are off the charts. Laborious tasks become entertaining, performance can be truly incentivised,  and we gain more knowledge into some of the psychology behind human performance. And that’s not even scratching the surface. Gamification is not limited to gamers, nor is it gender specific. More and more people are starting to play games. Want to see how and why? Check this out. Below is the Octalysis model, which I will summarise below: In order to make gamification successful, personally or in the work place, Yu-Kai points out that there are 8 key elements (Octalysis – above), of which at least one of the key elements needs to be done well. And there in lies the challenge with gamification. Very few people know how to create games out of mundane work tasks. Even though there are amazing platforms that allow you to create games in the workplace, most of them don’t teach you how to tick the Octalysis boxes. Making Magic With the background set, and having given a brief overview of modern training methodology and gamification, we are now able to make magic happen in the training space by combining the two! When you take the various training modules devised by using modern training methods and convert the curriculum to a gaming platform, you can now reinvent the training space! Modules created will have different levels, ranging from novice to adept. All modules will be available online in the gamification platform. Players (in this case, salespeople) will be able to access the modules at any time. Some modules will need to be accessed by passing other modules with certain criteria. Tasks and quizzes at the end of each module will rate the player’s performance for that module, along with other aspects, such as how many times they have attempted to pass the module before, and overall time taken. Each player receives a score for each of the modules they have taken, and those modular scores roll up to an overall score for each player. Based on their engagement in the game, and their performance in each of the modules, each player will receive a level. To level up, they need to do more training and perform better in the training. All performance indicators are shared with all players, which will be available at all times via the web and mobile. Players can form teams, or compete solo to challenge each other to new modules and race for the ever elusive highest ranking player or team. The Result This method of training gamification ticks the scarcity, empowerment, ownership, and meaning blocks of Octalysis. The effects are also ongoing and everlasting, because your training game will evolve with your business. When done correctly, you will see a direct correlation to the person’s gaming level and their performance in their job role. This is because essentially, by playing the game, they are learning to be more effective at their job. That is the whole ideology behind gamification. LATEST NEWS
and PRESS LOST REASONS THAT AREN’T IN YOUR CRM: TRUST NOT ESTABLISHED READ MORE May 25, 2022 BEFORE YOU CAN EARN A PROSPECT’S TRUST READ MORE Feb 22, 2022 POST LOCK-DOWN REMEDIATION READ MORE April 25, 2020 BLOG

THE MODERN MARKETING HANGOVER April 15, 2018 I welcome the idea that technology has changed and continues to change the way business is done, and that we need to harness this technology and governing methodologies to improve the way we sell. But the first ones onto the “digital bandwagon” were marketers, and many of them exploited their prime mover position. Everywhere you look now, there is a digital marketing company that will promise “all you can eat leads”, and “never cold call again.” And they are all experts on sales. Suddenly, there are so many sales experts, its actually mind boggling!  The message coming from a lot of them is that digital marketing methods promise leads like you have never seen before, that will be so good for your business, you must consume or be left out in the cold. Inebriate Ecstasy This industry has boomed to such an extent that there are now businesses being built on the back of the work being done by digital marketing agencies. Their sole purpose is to help you manage the leads you are receiving from the digital-sphere, and you need their help because you are having to work your way through hundreds, if not thousands of leads. The modern marketing talk has lead us to believe that there are suddenly so many more leads in the world – for everyone. And so we consume leads like we do a good mead on a night out with our mates… Because it feels like the right thing to do, it’s euphoric and nothing can go wrong! But it’s just as easy to get carried away. The Hangover Now, many years down the line we are starting to see the aftermath of empty promises – the hangover that comes from eating “all the leads we like”. Most of these leads are junk (they will never convert to paying clients). That is the toxicity we are putting into our businesses, like the mead on that night out with mates. These toxins seriously dilute our focus and distract us from doing what we do best! Then end result? A woody pipeline that cost you an absolute fortune. And now your business is under massive pressure to make up for the sales you have not been getting while investing in the “all you can eat leads” and you need to cover the money spent. It’s a double whammy, and an easy trap to fall into. So what does this all mean? Are all digital marketing methods toxic? No, not at all. I already said we need to use technology and it’s ensuing methodologies to increase sales performance. It’s how you harness this technology that really matters. Digital marketing in the business to business space is more complex than business to consumer, and we need to be realistic and logical about it. If you are selling a slick product to engineering companies in your area, would it make sense to be getting thousands of leads every month? Are there that many engineering companies in your area? It sounds really silly, but it’s actually that simple. Rather get these modern marketing people to provide you with 5 to 10 leads a month that are really relevant and likely to close. As simple as this sounds, the next question is how much work would be involved in getting you these 5 to 10 proper leads a month? My guess would be that it will probably take the same amount of effort as it would to get you the thousands of rubbish leads. Which means the cost will be pretty much the same. The Remedy Unfortunately, there is no cure for a hangover, you just have to ride it out. You can only prevent a hangover. No one can argue that prevention in this case starts with the client. And in the business to business space, who knows your clients better than your sales people? Get your sales people to work with your marketing people to profile your clients. Find out what makes them good (or bad) for your business, and what traits they have in common. Think about their challenges, their industry, the number of employees they have, their turnover, and where you can reach their decision makers. Then come up with a unique marketing plan to target your prospective clients. Even when done right, getting these leads through modern marketing methods will take some time. If you don’t have time and need sales, pick up the phone and call your prospects.. LATEST NEWS
and PRESS LOST REASONS THAT AREN’T IN YOUR CRM: TRUST NOT ESTABLISHED READ MORE May 25, 2022 BEFORE YOU CAN EARN A PROSPECT’S TRUST READ MORE Feb 22, 2022 POST LOCK-DOWN REMEDIATION READ MORE April 25, 2020 BLOG

THE POWER OF REAL- TIME RECOGNITION Aug 10, 2018 According to the most recent report by Aon on Employee engagement, over 30% of employees are disengaged from their jobs. This means that they show up for work, but either their minds are not there, or they outright cause disruption in the workplace. Aon also state that as little as an increase in 5% of employee engagement can increase bottom line by as much as 3%. That is significant, and that’s why companies invest millions to increase the stats in their favour. But are some of the simplest solutions overlooked? 5% Increase In Engagement = 3% Increase In Bottom Line! One of the challenges that drives this employee disengagement is lack of recognition for the work that they do. Most managers believe they do recognize their employees for their good work. This is done in the form of feedback in their monthly one on ones; bonuses; annual incentives, etc. That as well and good, but it creates another obvious problem when it comes to recognition; how are managers going to know how many good things are done in a week, a month or a year? It’s almost impossible to track. So a lot of the good work being done is overlooked! Wouldn’t it be great if we could give and receive this feedback in real time? Imagine if your employees received real time recognition for their efforts! All the extra little miles they are going for their clients, and their colleagues being recognized not only by management, but peers as well – in real time! Jane just won a new client, or Peter just closed his tenth case for the day. When these real time examples are pushed to the rest of the team, via screens or mobile devices have two massive impacts on employee engagement: Dopamine kick: Firstly, the employees receiving the real time feedback, get a kick out of the recognition. These examples of real time recognition are like a dopamine hit, they feel cool, and you want more – Kudos.  FOMO: Secondly, to those who are not getting these hits feel inspired to do so. If Jane can do it, so can I! Game on! So not only does it provide motivation for those receiving real time recognition but inspires others to work harder and compete for theirs. Different Strokes for Different Folks But there is one little trick. You can’t have the same people receiving recognition all the time. So to counter this, you need to ensure that you recognize various different leading indicators or KPI’s, so that everyone has something to aim for – in line with their strengths. For example, if you were dealing with a support call center, rather than only rewarding the most amount of calls taken, reward your team with different areas that impact overall performance. Like the type of calls dealt with, or the amount of calls resolved with the first call. Know Your Leading Indicators! Figuring out these leading performance indicators or KPI’s also does something else that improves employee engagement… It empowers them to work to their strengths, and empowerment is also a massive part of employee engagement. So by looking at introducing real time recognition into the workplace, you not only have a direct impact on motivation, but you are also empowering your team to “play” their way! LATEST NEWS
and PRESS LOST REASONS THAT AREN’T IN YOUR CRM: TRUST NOT ESTABLISHED READ MORE May 25, 2022 BEFORE YOU CAN EARN A PROSPECT’S TRUST READ MORE Feb 22, 2022 POST LOCK-DOWN REMEDIATION READ MORE April 25, 2020 BLOG