42 Rules To Increase Sales Effectiveness. A Practical Guidebook For Sales Reps, Sales Managers and Anyone Looking To... PDF

42 Rules to
Increase Sales
Effectiveness
(2 nd Edition)
A Practical Guidebook for Sales
Reps, Sales Managers and Anyone
Looking to Improve their Selling
Skills
By Michael Griego
Foreword by Mark Leslie,
Founder/CEO of Veritas Software
E-mail: info@superstarpress.com
20660 Stevens Creek Blvd., Suite 210
Cupertino, CA 95014
Copyright © 2009, 2013 by Michael Griego
All rights reserved. No part of this book shall be reproduced, stored in
a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without written
permission from the publisher.
Published by Super Star Press™, a Happy About® imprint
20660 Stevens Creek Blvd., Suite 210, Cupertino, CA 95014
http://42rules.com
2nd Edition: January 2013

1st Edition: September 2009
Paperback ISBN (2nd Edition): 978-1-60773-107-8 (1-60773-107-X)
Paperback ISBN (1st Edition): 978-1-60773-032-3 (1-60773-032-4)
eBook ISBN: 978-1-60773-033-0 (1-60773-033-2)
Place of Publication: Silicon Valley, California, USA
Library of Congress Number: 2009933797
Trademarks
All terms mentioned in this book that are known to be trademarks or

service marks have been appropriately capitalized. Happy About®,
nor any of its imprints, can attest to the accuracy of this information.
Use of a term in this book should not be regarded as affecting the
validity of any trademark or service mark.
Warning and Disclaimer
Every effort has been made to make this book as complete and as
accurate as possible. The information provided is on an "as is" basis.
The author(s), publisher, and its agents assume no responsibility for
errors or omissions nor assume liability or responsibility to any person
or entity with respect to any loss or damages arising from the use of
information contained herein.
ii
Praise For This Book!
"Mike simplifies the complex process of winning and keeping
customers and his anecdotes help personalize the advice. This book
is a must read for anyone involved with sales."
John Katsaros, CEO Founder, Internet Research Group
"Mike is a top sales expert and trainer who trained our sales team with
great results. I highly recommend this book to anyone who needs to
sell."
Michael Yang, Founder & CEO, mySimon.com, Become.com
"Griego's 42 Rules are contemporary, practical and really work.
Implementation in our company resulted in improved results and more
successful sales professionals. Mike is one of the best salesmen,
coaches, consultants and trainer in the business."
Wes Lawrence, Regional President, Key Bank
"Mike is a sales mensch. His book has numerous practical quick tips
and tools for sales and management."
Sathvick Krishnamurthy, CEO/President, Voltage Security
"Mike Griego has helped me focus on key areas of selling especially
in tough economic environments. As a result of these sales tools, I
have fine tuned my sales skills and completed one of my best
quarters, earning recognition as the #1 rep out of 300 in the U.S."
Leonard Asuncion, Sr Account Executive, IBM Software Group
"Mike has the ability to translate complex strategies into effective,
common sense, sales actions."
Len Ludwig, CEO, Vencore Capital
"Mike's book and rules to increase sales effectiveness are right on the
money! Every sales person and sales manager can learn from Mike's
experience and improve their sales results in a very short period of
time"
Al Powell, VP of Sales, Engate Technology
"Mike Griego fully understands that you never graduate from selling!
By following his 42 Rules, you will be educated on the best practices
of the sales professional."
Bryan Flanagan, Director, Corp. Training, Zig Ziglar Corporation
"Mike has a straight forward direct approach to sales. This book is a
'must have' for sales and sales management success!"
Karen Turrini, President, Turrini Associates
iii
"It's nice to see Mike put down in words the knowledge he's been
sharing as a trainer for so long. Even your best sales person can
benefit from this book."
Gregory Chagaris, Co-Founder, Outsell, Inc.
"Mike Griego is a gifted salesperson and sales manager who has
encapsulated one of the finest roadmaps I have seen for increasing
sales effectiveness. It's a must read for anyone interested in
increasing sales!"
Larry Ketchum, National Account Manager, 3M
"We adopted Mike's forecasting methodologies with a client's sales
team and it aided us in improving the accuracy of our sales forecast
by ten-fold."
Brenda Fox, Founder/CEO, Global Connexus
"This "no nonsense" book reflects Michael Griego's exceptional
insight into the art and science of selling; its prescriptive collection of
applicable selling principles will increase selling success at any level."
Craig A. Lewis, Partner, One Accord Partners
"This book may be the ultimate blueprint for constructing a successful
career in sales—it's that good. Buy it, read it, buy one for a friend. It’s
both motivational and instructive. It will be a classic."
Nancy Nardin, Founder, SmartSellingTools.com
"Mike's book is straight-forward and concise. Each rule builds on the
last to help the salesperson create a plan to "own" their territory and
productivity. For management it allows you to double check and
"fill-in-the-gaps" relative to tactics and process. Don't create a sales
structure without it!"
Chris Bartolo, Director Inside Sales, Contactual
"I've had the good fortune of experiencing the power of these rules
first hand under Mike's leadership and coaching. This book now
allows me to quickly motivate my own sales team to live and succeed
by these rules every day."
Stewart Elliot, VP Sales, Workshare, Inc.
"Mike’s sales coaching conveys processes I share with superstars like
Lisa Nichols, Bob Proctor, Jack Canfield, Mark Hansen and Tony
Robbins. They share them with Fortune 1000 executives. You made
the best business read choice of the decade in my opinion."
Berny Dohrmann, Chairman, CEOSpace.net, Radio Show Host
iv
Dedication
To Debbie, my wise, loving and encouraging wife of 30 years, and my
wonderful children, Brian, Lisa and Jason, all gifted, strong and highly
effective people in their own right. You've all been a blessing and a
much loved and appreciated foundation.
v
Acknowledgments
Thank you to all those people who have led, managed and mentored
me in life and business, as well as those whom I have led, managed
and mentored over the years. The accumulated experiences add up
to allow me enough content to offer back to others.
To some key people who have specifically helped me on this project
I am especially grateful. Thank you to Mitchell Levy, who pushed and
encouraged the dream and to Laura Lowell, who with grace and
competence helped guide the process.
A special thank you to Larry Ketchum and Larry Beckham, my first
sales manager role models at The Southwestern Company, and to
Skip Miller, a more recent sales manager role model who graciously
taught and inspired me.
Thank you to all my customers and clients over the years, for their
support, feedback and confidence in me and my company, MXL
Partners.
vi
C o n t e n t s
Foreword Foreword by Mark Leslie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Intro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3
Part I The Effective Sales Perspective . . . . . . .6
Rule 1 Rules Are Meant To Be Broken. . . . . . . . . . . 8
Rule 2 It's Not About You . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Rule 3 It's Not About Your Product . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Rule 4 It's All About Your Customer . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Rule 5 It's Also All About Revenue . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Part II The Effective Sales Process . . . . . . . . .18
Rule 6 Target Your Customer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Rule 7 Know How Your Customer Buys . . . . . . . . 22
Rule 8 Know How Your Customer Makes

Decisions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Rule 9 Develop Your Customer's Buying

Milestones. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Rule 10 Develop Your Optimized Sales Process . . 28
Rule 11 Create a Playbook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Part III The Effective Salesperson . . . . . . . . . . .32
Rule 12 Be a Superstar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
42 Rules to Increase Sales Effectiveness (2nd Edition) vii

Rule 13 Have a PAR Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Rule 14 Make a 10-5-2-Do List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Rule 15 Measure Activity Metrics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Rule 16 Develop Your Success Formula. . . . . . . . . . 42
Rule 17 Keep Score with a Scorecard . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Rule 18 Reading Makes Perfect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Part IV Effective Territory Management . . . . . . 48
Rule 19 Prioritize Your Accounts and

Opportunities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Rule 20 Develop a Territory Attack Plan . . . . . . . . . . 52
Rule 21 Develop a 360o Account Snapshot . . . . . . . 54
Rule 22 Upgrade Your Account Management . . . . . 56
Rule 23 Manage Your Channels. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Rule 24 Master Your 30-60-90 Day Forecast. . . . . . . 60
Part V Effective Sales Communication . . . . . . 62
Rule 25 Elevate Your Sales Pitch. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
Rule 26 Develop a 20 to 40 Second Speech . . . . . . . 66
Rule 27 Live to Sell Another Day . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Rule 28 Manage Your Sales Email . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Rule 29 Get Them to Call Back . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
Rule 30 Share a Great Testimonial . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
Part VI The Effective Sales Meeting . . . . . . . . . 76
viii Contents
Rule 31 Prepare the Call Box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
Rule 32 Become a Probe Master. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Rule 33 Qualify, Qualify, Qualify. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Rule 34 Make a Player Chart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Rule 35 Develop an Executive Whiteboard . . . . . . . 86
Rule 36 Present Your Solution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
Part VII The Effective Close. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .90
Rule 37 Become a Close Master . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
Rule 38 Map a Problem Chart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
Rule 39 Use a Customer Decision Plan . . . . . . . . . . 96
Rule 40 Propose Like a Pro. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
Rule 41 Negotiate to Close . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
Rule 42 These are My Rules. What are Yours? . . . 102
Appendix A Diagrams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
Author About the Author. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
Your Rules 42 Rules Program. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
Books Other Happy About Books . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .110
42 Rules to Increase Sales Effectiveness (2nd Edition) ix

x Contents
F i g u r e s
Figure 1 The Customer Buying Process ............23
Figure 2 A Sales Process and Buying Process 29
Figure 3 The Sales Superstar ............................35
Figure 4 Results of the Activity Metrics Study ..41
Figure 5 A 30-60-90 Day Forecast Report ..........61
Figure 6 A Call Box ............................................79
Figure 7 A Sample of a Player Chart .................85
Figure 8 A Sample Executive Whiteboard .........87
Figure 9 Mastering the Close .............................93
Figure 10 A Sample of a Problem Chart ..............95
Figure 11 An Example of a Decision Plan ...........97
Figure 12 A Documented Sales Process ........... 104
Figure 13 A 360 o Account Snapshot .................. 105
Figure 14 The Probe Master .............................. 105
42 Rules to Increase Sales Effectiveness (2nd Edition) xi

xii Figures
Foreword
Foreword by Mark Leslie

I got my first sales experience selling shoes in a
mall many years ago. I never forgot the funda-
mentals that went into the various aspects of a
fairly simple sales process: engaging suspects
and prospects (standing at the front door of the
shoe store), qualifying (escorting them to "my"
set of seats), questioning (size and style, offering
alternatives if out of stock), demonstrating ("Try
them on, and walk around. They look good—how
do they feel?"), closing ("Do you want to wear
them out, or should we wrap them?"). Over the
years, in more complex technology environ-
ments, I added experiences in hiring and
managing salespeople and building organiza-
tions that were high-performance selling
machines. The fundamentals never changed at
the field level, only got more complex. However,
the sustaining of sales quality, efficiency and ef-
fectiveness across the entire organization
became the greater challenge in achieving
revenue goals and company success. Indeed,
sales effectiveness at the micro and macro level
has been the elusive target for many companies
in which I have built, managed, advised and
invested.
I first met Mike Griego in 2005 in a Palo Alto café.
Having retired as CEO and Chairman of the
Board at Veritas, I was teaching courses on En-
trepreneurship and Sales Organization at
Stanford University's Graduate School of
Business. Mike, as president/founder of a MXL
Partners, a Silicon Valley sales process consult-
ing and training firm, and Stanford MBA alumni
himself, had contacted me and requested a
meeting to simply meet and compare notes. We
had a delightful first meeting and discussed a
draft article I was writing on "The Sales Learning
42 Rules to Increase Sales Effectiveness (2nd Edition) 1

Curve" which was published in the 'Harvard
Business Review' in the summer issue of 2006.
Mike agreed to review it for me and confirm its
conclusions. It was refreshing to discuss the
complexities of structuring and managing the
modern enterprise sales organization with
someone so well versed in all aspects of the
world of sales. Mike was as comfortable and ex-
perienced in the current trenches of the Silicon
Valley field sales environments as he was in the
executive management and board rooms of very
sophisticated organizations and the sales chal-
lenges that faced them.
While the world doesn't necessarily need
another sales book, it does need a modern, fresh
look at the tools, concepts and principles of sales
effectiveness at all levels of an organization in
today's marketplace. Mike's new book, '42 Rules
to Increase Sales Effectiveness,' is a powerful
and quick read for all parties involved in driving
sales revenue, from the executive team to the
sales and marketing organization. He has well
captured the keys to increasing sales effective-
ness with a crisp, practical and highly readable
book.
I wish this book was available when I started my
career. It would no doubt have improved my
selling prowess, but also would have developed
and guided me as an engineering-oriented
executive in validating my intuitive hunches and
managing and overseeing the sales side of orga-
nizations. I heartily recommend you pull up a
chair, grab a cup of coffee, read this book and be
ready to re-confirm and even re-think your views
of sales and sales effectiveness.
Mark Leslie
Mark Leslie is the Founder of Veritas Software (now
Symantec) and served as CEO and Chairman of
the Board. During his tenure he grew annual
revenues from $95,000 to $1.5 billion. He is
currently the managing director of Leslie Ventures,
a private investment firm. He is also a lecturer at
Stanford's Graduate School of Business where he
teaches courses in Entrepreneurship and Sales Or-
ganization.
2 Foreword
In tro
Who Should Read This?

If you are a professional salesperson, sales
manager or director, VP of Sales, CEO, any role
in Marketing, or anyone supporting selling
efforts, this book is for you. If you are a senior
executive, consultant, venture capitalist, board
member, entrepreneur or aspiring up-and-
comer, you should know the updated tools,
language and tactics of selling in today's market.
As a professional sales consultant and trainer to
Fortune 500 firms and leading Silicon Valley
technology firms, I have reduced the keys to
sales effectiveness to 42 rules. These rules have
been road tested over 28 years of personal sales
and management experience and close
observation of many salespeople and sales
organizations. These rules apply to all selling
efforts, from high-tech enterprise sales to
non-technology sales.
Why Should You Read This?

Sales isn't rocket science, but it's not ABC simple
either. While selling is often either over-
engineered or over-simplified, today even the
professionals are caught off-guard in a changing
world and marketplace. "Old school" is out; new
school is in, but with a twist. There are key sales
fundamentals that never go out of style but still
need a refresh. This book, '42 Rules to Increase
Sales Effectiveness,' upgrades and adjusts
foundational rules for today's business
environment to increase the overall sales
effectiveness of individuals or teams.
In '42 Rules to Increase Sales Effectiveness,'
you will learn:

• The Effective Sales Perspective - 5 rules that
will realign your thinking about the role of a sales-
person to the customer, product and company.
• The Effective Sales Process - 6 rules that will
clarify and present the correct way to build a
selling process from your customer's buying
process, your corresponding sales process and
tactical sales playbooks.
• The Effective Salesperson - 7 rules that lay out
the blueprint for the successful and effective
salesperson from their attributes, habits, metrics,
formulas, scorecards to even their reading lists.
• Effective Territory Management - 6 rules that
provide guidance for salespeople and anyone
managing salespeople to prioritize and strategi-
cally approach and manage territories, channels
and forecasts.
• Effective Sales Communication - 6 rules
applied to various levels of your sales communi-
cations, from phone and email actions to practical
best practices in structuring elevator pitches,
sales messages and talking points.
• The Effective Sales Meeting - 6 rules that break
down the requirements for your perfect and
optimal customer sales call, from power prepara-
tion, probing and questioning, to qualification and
executive white-boarding.
• Effective Sales Closing - 6 rules that get to the
heart of effectively bringing your deals to closure,
with sales cycle tactics and professional deal
management that stands out from discovery to
proposal to negotiations.
This book will challenge standard conventions
while reinforcing best practices that have gotten
lost in the recent advancement of new
technologies and modern tools. It's a great read
for any professional to confirm that their own
"salesmanship" is still on target and
appropriately current. Use this as your own
handbook to reset on key best-practices for the
new day or teach a new generation 42 nuggets
and practical applications of this fascinating
activity called Sales.
4 Intro
Part I
The Effective Sales
Perspective
Sales Effectiveness Begins with Proper
Perspective
Whether you run a company, a sales team or a ter-
ritory, it's time to look in the mirror and make ad-
justments to how you sell and what you think is
good salesmanship.
• Rule 1: Rules Are Meant To Be Broken

• Rule 2: It's Not About You
• Rule 3: It's Not About Your Product
• Rule 4: It's All About Your Customer
• Rule 5: It's Also All About Revenue
6 42 Rules to Increase Sales Effectiveness (2nd Edition)

Part I: The Effective Sales Perspective 7
R u l e
1 Rules Are Meant To Be

Broken
Use rules with Let's be realistic. This book presents rules that
your own applied really do increase sales effectiveness when
wisdom and applied. These rules are solid and proven over
discretion. the years in numerous organizations including
IBM, Sun Microsystems, Infosys, Gartner Group,
Cisco and many other leading technology firms
in Silicon Valley. But just as I allow for reason-
able flexibility in managing sales organizations
(no need to be as ruthless as Alex Baldwin in the
movie 'Glengarry Glen Ross') so it is with these
rules. Use them with your own applied wisdom
and discretion.
I wish I had this book at the beginning of my sales
career. In essence I almost did, as I was trained
well at The Southwestern Company and IBM
Corporation. Nevertheless the conciseness of it
all would have been helpful. Likewise, I wish I
had this book at the time I first became a sales
manager and before my first assignment as a VP
of Sales. Many pieces would have fallen together
in place sooner without trial and error or without
having to cobble together learnings from several
mentors, books, and raw experiences. Indeed
some of these rules would have made some
points in my life simpler and certainly increased
sales effectiveness.

Some of these rules will absolutely resonate with you, while others may
not. Don't fight that. I honestly believe that the majority will provide you
fodder to work with and initiate required readjustment to your own
thinking, process, tactics and strategies. In any event, run with what
works for you and disregard what does not. After all, in most cases,
rules are meant to be broken.
Rule 1: Rules Are Meant To Be Broken 9

R u l e
2 It's Not About You
There's nothing We spend much of our life focused on our

like a highly personal needs, wants and desires. From
effective and childhood dreams to target goals in academics,
productive sports and personal relationships, we pretty
salesperson with much spend a large chunk of time thinking about
ourselves operating in the world around us. It's
a heart and
natural to carry this self absorption over to our
sensitivity to professional lives. Of course, we think, we must
others. focus on ourselves to consciously and effectively
"get the job done."
In the Sales world, this pre-occupation with our
own concerns can impede our selling efforts.
There are potentially three areas where selfish
thinking can get in the way of your being at your
best. Think about it.
Me vs. my Product - Self-focused thinking plays
out in how we consider our product or solution in
the marketplace. If I care more about hitting my
numbers, enlarging my territory or boosting my
personal earnings than about bringing value to
customers, I risk coming across as callous and
cold to customers and partners and even others
inside my company. We've all seen the sales rep
who steamrolls the marketing team or support
team or speaks of his customers with disdain.
There's a fine line between caring for our
customers and looking out for ourselves. Learn
to see and believe the benefits your product
solution brings to customers with you as the
conduit. This big picture view brings a healthy
perspective to your daily sales effort.

Me vs. my Sales Pitch - Selfish thinking plays out literally in how we
approach our prospect or customer on the phone, email or
face-to-face. If I really don't consider the person on the other side as a
human being with their own wants and needs, I risk a distancing or dis-
connection in my communications. I may be repeating a script or
common sales pitch, but I must recognize that I'm ultimately dealing
with a real person with issues, dreams and desires of their own mixed
up with a potential need for my products or services (see Rule 4).
Approach your pitch with deft caution and a heart.
Me vs. my Customer - Once past the initial approach and now into the
sales call or meeting, self-centeredness can also play out in how we
personally engage with our customers and prospects throughout the
sales call. If I am too self-focused in a customer meeting, I risk
spending too much of that meeting on my own concerns; namely, my
product offerings rather than my prospect or customer (see Rule 3). As
we will find, the customers often cares not a whit about you. The vibe
of a self-serving salesperson becomes very clear to a prospect.
When one approaches sales with a healthy and balanced sense of self
and care for others, then this rule that "it's not about you" is easy to
swallow. Indeed, an effective salesperson carries him or her self with
strength, confidence and competence. But there's nothing like a highly
effective and productive salesperson with a heart and sensitivity to
others. It stands out and customers appreciate it. Even if they can't put
their finger on it.
A balanced salesperson (see Rule 12) with an understanding that it's
not only about him or herself will have a healthy sense of self relative
to their product offerings, selling approach and customer interaction.
Combine this perspective with some of the effectiveness tools and
rules in this book and you have a winning combination that produces
benefits for all parties.
Are you selfish in your sales efforts?
Rule 2: It's Not About You 11

R u l e
3 It's Not About Your

Product
For many reps The products sold in the marketplace, whether to

today, the strong businesses or consumers, are broad in scope,
tendency is to complexity and value. As salespeople we are
speak about their selling commercial and consumer products both
products too domestically and globally, including financial
products, real estate, home and personal
much and
products, hardware and software solutions, con-
too soon. sulting and professional services, to individuals
and businesses large and small and ranging
from tens to thousands to many millions of
dollars in value. In our selling jobs, the products
we sell are great, cool, fun, helpful, worthy, com-
prehensive, leading-edge, powerful and
awesome. We spend many hours getting trained
on them, learning their features and benefits and
being able to articulate use-cases and even
demonstrate them ourselves. It's very easy to
become focused on the value of our products.
While we've learned in Rule 2 that "It's not about
you," I can tell you with assurance that to be
effective in sales, it's also not about your
products. You might be saying, "But my product
really is helpful for businesses and streamlines
operations while cutting costs, and it comes in
blue." This may all be true, but it's really beside
the point. This is one of the toughest lessons for
us salespeople to learn.
Certainly we need to know and understand our
products and services, as well as articulate the
benefits and value they bring to our prospects
and customers. But as we will discuss further in
Rule 4, our customers have far deeper concerns

that are either on the surface clear for all to see, or hidden or even
stuffed beneath layers of covering. Of course our products may help
and come to the rescue, fixing issues of which our customers were
perhaps not fully aware. Again, while not irrelevant, they are only props
within a scene in a bigger play. Until we recognize that, we will consis-
tently fall into a trap of focusing our conversations too much on our
great products and services, to the detriment of fully providing prob-
lem-solving solutions to our customers.
Indeed, for many reps today, the strong tendency is to speak about
their products too much and too soon. Jerry, one of the better
producing reps on an enterprise sales team, was technically adept and
knowledgeable. He prided himself in quickly closing business and
moving on to new opportunities. His numbers bore this out. He was one
of the top reps in transaction quantity, if not in average deal size. In
listening and following Jerry on sales calls, it was clear that Jerry knew
his products well and got to them as subject matter quickly in his sales
calls and conversations. The customers didn't mind because the
product was one that when demonstrated rated a high "wow factor;"
that is it quickly impressed and interested customers. Jerry was adept
at following up with price quotes and moving the deal to closure. This
is all well and good except when one considers the opportunity lost in
his hurry to close business and move on. When Jerry was taught to
restrain from discussing and demonstrating the product too soon and
spend appropriate time (note, not necessarily too much time, mind you,
in his environment), but time well spent to explore the application of his
product to other departmental seats and broader implementation within
the IT environment, he increased his average deal size by almost 25%.
Likewise, with those selling less complicated products, while our
products are great, our focus still needs to be on the simple use or ap-
plication of our product. The point is that the product is not the focus,
rather it is the application of the product as it addresses the issues,
needs and problems of the customer.
Do you speak about your products too much and too soon?
Rule 3: It's Not About Your Product 13

R u l e
4 It's All About Your

Customer
The sun sets and So if it's not about you the salesperson, and it's
rises with not about your products, then what is it all about?
customers whose Well, who's left? It's all about your customer. In
purchase of sales, the customer is number 1. The customer
products pay rules. The sun rises and sets with customers
whose purchase of products pay the bills. This
the bills.
should come as no surprise. Then why do we
sometimes forget our focus? Because, of course,
it's easy to default to focusing on ourselves and
our products.
The best companies get this right. When I
worked for IBM early in my career it was
ingrained in all of us that the customer came first.
IBM is a world-class services, engineering and
manufacturing company. It's a world-class sales,
service and support organization. Across every
plant and field branch office, make no mistake
that all efforts evolved around ultimately
satisfying customer wants and needs. From my
perspective, at IBM, Sales is King, but the
Customer is Number 1. All employees moved
toward the fulfillment of keeping customers
coming in and staying in the fold and growing
their relationship with Big Blue.
I've never forgotten how that priority permeated
the culture of the organization. While there was a
healthy respect for our own products, sales
prowess and service reputation, there was an
almost reverential feeling toward our existing
customers and prospects. This carried over into
how we as salespeople approached, serviced

and sold to them. It wasn't always perfect, but the culture drove the
effort. Even our selling process (in the 1980s) carried the mantle
Customer-Oriented Selling.
With the correct focus on the customer, the foundation for sales
success and thus effectiveness is laid. If we respect our prospects and
customers as people rather than as objects of attainment, then we
approach, engage, discover, question, negotiate and close them with
competent humanity. We do not badger, insult, barrage, belittle,
disrespect, manipulate, or take advantage of those whom we, in
essence, should seek to serve. I daresay that when we approach our
prospects and customers with a servant's heart, a workman's ethic, a
quality product at a fair and reasonable price, we become a force to be
reckoned with in the marketplace.
I once joined a firm and took over a territory previously managed by a
rep who was fired for forging customer signatures on two deals. On my
second week on the job I had to go out and apologize to upset
customers for these egregious acts by a representative of my
company. On top of that, I found out that my firm already had a dubious
reputation among some customers in my new territory. Without
skipping a beat, I immediately went to work on my own systematic
90-day Customer Rejuvenation Program. I did not "approach and sell"
during that period as much as simply "reach out and touch" my
prospects and customers with a monthly personal campaign that
included letters (this was pre-email), postcards and phone call
messages. Every prioritized account (see Rule 19) was included in the
campaign that was personally managed by me, not by Marketing. I had
to control the turnaround effort and put a personal stake in the territory
ground as the new sales guy in town. My mailings and messages were
upbeat, positive and personal. I held my head high and did not issue
blanket apologies for past poor service. I approached prospects and
customers with the assumption that whatever concerns they had about
the quality of our service and support, those days were past. A new day
had come and it started with me and a professional and intelligent
introduction to the new team.
By the end of my first full year in the territory I was the #1 sales revenue
producer worldwide for the company. My customers loved me because
I loved them first.
Do you put your customers first?
Rule 4: It's All About Your Customer 15

R u l e
5 It's Also All About

Revenue
Without sales Taking care of customers goes hand in hand with

revenue, it all sales revenue production. And yes, it's also all
shuts down. about revenue. The best way to keep your job as
a salesperson or sales manager is to keep hitting
the sale numbers. Frankly, the only way that
anyone in an organization keeps their job is for
the company and salespeople to keep hitting
their numbers. Without sales revenue, it all shuts
down. A company can lower expenses or raise
capital, but if sales revenue is not ultimately
forthcoming, then all bets are off, or lost.
I had a sales manager/mentor communicate the
following quip to his sales troops whenever they
approached him with miscellaneous questions:
"Besides revenue, what else is it you wanted to
talk about?" He boldly and consistently instilled
across the team that it was indeed all about
revenue. This may seem so obvious to you, but
stop and consider how challenging this rule can
be.
There are many moving parts in a sales organi-
zation including: sales operations, forecasts,
quotas, compensation plans, CRM functionality
and utilization, lead generation, sales process,
collateral, sales meetings, sales and product
training, hiring, firing, territory assignments,
customer database, etc. This carries over to the
details of the jobs of individual sales contributors
and their managers including those mentioned
above and other issues relative to customer and
internal communications, presentations, demon-
strations, proposals, pricing, negotiations,

closing, contract administration and collections. Certainly much to
keep an individual and team talking and, even with good intentions,
easily distracted with important matters besides the ultimate goal,
bringing in sales revenue.
It takes a focused effort to do it all well. To care and know about the
customer while proficiently knowing your marketplace, products and
value proposition is a challenge unto itself. At the same time one must
know how to maneuver a deal, whether simple or complex, and appro-
priately weave in the right resources and support team. The effective
sales rep stays focused on all aspects of sales excellence toward the
end of closing the customer on an agreement to transact business and
purchase a product and service. The world keeps turning and the
revenues keep flowing only if the deals keep closing. So stay on it,
work it wisely by applying the rules reinforced here. But keep your pri-
orities, because after all, other than hitting your revenue targets, what
else is there you wanted to learn about?
Of course it's a fine line for both salespeople and managers alike. It's
why you're reading this book. We all want to be better and more effec-
tive, and these rules will clarify, remind and teach you the modern fun-
damentals of sales effectiveness. But the goal of sales effectiveness is
more sales. Success is hitting numbers. Success is bringing in the
revenue. In summary, the correct and effective sales perspective is
this: the organization or individual salesperson may be good, intelligent
and effective, but if the organization or individual does not bring in the
revenue, then something's got to change.
Are you focused on revenue?
Rule 5: It's Also All About Revenue 17

Part II
The Effective Sales
Process
Clarity of Sales Process Leads to Sales
Effectiveness
Every purchase involves a "Buy Cycle" and a
"Sales Cycle." Effective selling involves mapping
the two and managing the process.
• Rule 6: Target Your Customer

• Rule 7: Know How Your Customer Buys
• Rule 8: Know How Your Customer Makes
Decisions
• Rule 9: Develop Your Customer's Buying Mile-
stones
• Rule 10: Develop Your Optimized Sales Process
• Rule 11: Create a Playbook

Part II: The Effective Sales Process 19
R u l e
6 Target Your Customer
Broad targets First things first. Before we clarify the selling

yield general process, we need to understand our customers.
results; specific Who are they? Certainly we need to understand
targets yield the market segment we are addressing, specific
targeted results or audience, industry or vertical, and any further ap-
propriate delineation of our opportunity market-
even bulls-eyes.
place. At first blush we say we sell to people in
the healthcare industry, we sell to doctors, we
sell to the pharmaceutical industry, we sell to
people over 30 years old, we sell to manufactur-
ers, to lawyers, to IT departments, to the Fortune
500, to "the Fortune 2000," to anybody or every-
body. Of course we have to do better that that.
In effective selling efforts it's absolutely essential
to know who we are targeting and why we are
targeting certain market segments. Wise
companies conduct research and market
analysis and segmentation studies to hone in on
the sweet spot in the market that will be the focus
of their marketing and sales campaigns.
Marketing departments evaluate assumptions
and market information to determine a product
market opportunity in terms of market size,
growth, competitive landscape and viable
margin. These feed into overall marketing plans
for specific products.
Once this foundational work is complete, sales
and marketing leadership can start to understand
the buying and selling process. Without specific
targets, selling is random and not optimized, as
the sales process can only be fuzzy and arbi-
trary.

For instance, a web-based software service providing sales compen-
sation automation is a valued product in the marketplace. Who is the
target prospect? Is it the sales VP, is it the CFO, is it the head of the
commission accounting team, is it the head of IT applications, or is it
someone in HR? Are the target customers start-up companies, those
under $50M in revenue, under or over $1B in revenue? Or is it
companies that have sales teams under or over 20 reps…50
reps…500 reps? It makes a big difference, doesn't it? Without even
somewhat pinpointing the target we end up with a sales team and sales
and marketing effort that is scattershot, unfocused and less than fully
effective.
Even individual salespeople need to break down the focus of their op-
portunity set. In Rule 19 we will show a tool for prioritization within our
assigned territory and target market. The point here is that broad
targets yield general results; specific targets yield targeted results or
even bulls-eyes. If I know that I'm to sell to CFOs of companies with
revenues of $50M to $1B in the manufacturing marketplace, with at
least 50 sales reps, now I can generate the prospect target lists and get
to work. My world has now gotten smaller, more focused, and
assuming the product is geared toward this "sweet spot," then I'm in a
great position to be successful. At least from a target marketing stand-
point.
How targeted is your marketplace?
Rule 6: Target Your Customer 21

R u l e
7 Know How Your Customer

Buys
Whether they're Salespeople need to understand how their

aware of it or not, customers buy. Specifically, how do they actually
all buyers go purchase the products you sell? Our customers
through a buying are always making decisions about products and
process. services via a tangible buying process. In fact,
businesses and consumers go through a defined
or non-defined buying process. Whether we're
aware of it or not, all buyers go through a natural
progression toward an end purchase. If we un-
derstand that particular buying process then we
can more effectively sell to it.
Several years ago some friends referred me to
Palo Alto Metro Sports for new running shoes to
fix my pronation problem (caused by my ankles
rolling out when I jog). When I walked into the
store the salesman approached me and asked
me if he could help. I described my problem and
he proceeded to clarify and explain to me what
pronation was and showed me two columns of
shoes on the wall that addressed advanced
cushioning and stability. At the same time he
asked me questions about how often I run, what
kind of surface I ran on, how far I ran, in a sense
qualifying me while asking me also the price
range I was looking at, certain brands, etc. He
then said, "I'll go in the back and find two or three
pairs of shoes that fit the type of shoes you're
looking for. You can try them on, go outside, run
up and down the runway. They'll be in your price
band. You can then figure out which pair works
best for you and we'll get you out of here in a few
minutes. How does that sound to you?" Well, it

sounded great. What he was doing was stepping me through a shoe
buying process, and essentially taking me through his matching sales
cycle. At any point I could have said, "Whoa, I'm really just looking—I'd
like to check over at the Stanford Shopping Center." But I said, "Bring
me out some shoes and I'll give 'em a try." I purchased a pair and have
since purchased my last 10 pairs of running shoes from Palo Alto Metro
Sports.
Now that's purchasing at a consumer level. Most of us, whether we're
buying refrigerators, other household items, cars, etc., go through a
process and, if forced to, can specify the various steps of that process.
This process can be documented and applied to any business
purchase as well.
In the following chart you can see that there is a Customer Buying
Process that shows a progression through different stages. Terminol-
ogy can vary whether it's a consumer or business sale. First there is an
initial Interest or Awareness stage followed by an Education or Infor-
mation Gathering stage where information is gathered, compared and
explored. Next is an Evaluation or Demonstration stage where one
takes it out for a spin drive or "tries it on for size." Then comes a Justi-
fication or Confirmation stage where people conduct some type of
financial justification and finally a Decision or Purchase stage where
the customer makes a buying decision.
As mentioned, this often goes on without people even knowing con-
sciously that this is happening. Good selling maps a selling process
(Rule 10) to an understood buying process. If we know where the
customer is going, we can map a process to it and take them along
while we manage the sales cycle. Just as the good shoe salesman pro-
actively stepped me through the process, so good salespeople know
where their customers are going, how their buyers buy and move them
along appropriately. This works for a very simple sale like selling shoes
as well as the more sophisticated multi-million dollar complex sales
efforts, as we shall soon see. Those who understand this will be way
ahead of the curve.
Do you know how your customer buys?
Figure 1: The Customer Buying Process
Rule 7: Know How Your Customer Buys 23

R u l e
8 Know How Your Customer

Makes Decisions
"What's the You have learned in Rule 7 that customers go

process for through a Buying Process. We are working
making a decision toward building of a corresponding Selling
on this and Process, which we will get to in Rule 10. You
who would need to understand how your customer makes
buying decisions. What is the process in steps,
be involved?"
actions and behavior they go through to make
the final buying or purchasing decision?
If a buyer goes through a natural process of initial
interest, awareness and then information
gathering and education, there is a point to ask a
fundamental question that gets at how they are
going to make a decision to buy or not. Essential-
ly, in more complex buy/sell situations you would
like to ask the following question: "Mr. Prospect,
how are you going to make your purchase Go or
No-Go decision?" Or put another blunt way:
"How and when are you going to make up your
mind?"
Now the answer to this question is great informa-
tion you'd like to have, but there's a better way to
ask the question. I call it the Magic Question.
The Magic Question has a few variations but
always contains the P Word. That word is
Process.
The effective way to ask the question is: Mr.
Prospect, what is the process for making a
decision on this and who would be involved?
There are two fundamental truths behind this
very powerful question. First, every individual or
company has a process or steps they go through

when making a buy decision (Rule 7). Second, there is always at least
one and often more than one individual involved in a purchase
decision. You need to know who they are.
This powerful question kills two birds with 15 words. It's quite remark-
able. Try it. It's magic. Prospects love to tell you their process for deci-
sion-making, but you have use the "P word." Since all companies have
processes in place for assessing and purchasing products, equipment
and services, they will often melt with this question and open up the
proverbial kimono and provide you with very useful information about
people, process, decision-makers and power-brokers. As we will
discover in Rule 34, identifying the key players involved in the deci-
sion-making process is critical. It is often people behind the scenes.
The Magic Question effectively draws the information out and sets you
up for further movement through the sales cycle.
I was calling on Mary, a manager-level contact of an enterprise organi-
zation. Mary agreed to meet with me after a series of phone calls to
collect preliminary data and set up a discovery on-premise sales call.
When I met her and spoke to her I realized she was junior in status and
would be the front screen for other key people in the decision-making
process. She was very protective and controlling while implying that
she was the Big Cheese on this project. Attempting to gain an insight
into the decision-making process, I asked her a question which I knew
to be a disaster as soon as it left my lips. I asked, "Mary, are you the
decision-maker on this?" I believe the problem was not only in the raw
bluntness of the question but also must have been in my tone and body
language. It was as if I was implying "Mary, you've got to be kidding
me." I could see Mary bristle as she sat up and decisively claimed,
"Yes, I am!" I was immediately backed into a corner to deal only with
Mary and not able to go around her without further offending her. A
much wiser, softer and effective question would have simply been:
"Mary, what's the process for making a decision on this type of project
and who would be involved?" By the way, I did get the deal that quarter,
but it took me another year to get Mary to loosen up with me.
Do you know how your customer makes decisions?
Rule 8: Know How Your Customer Makes Decisions 25

R u l e
9 Develop Your Customer's

Buying Milestones
The careful In Rule 8, you learned the effective use of the

notation and Magic Question to uncover not only the deci-
articulation of the sion-making process but also the key players
customer's involved in that process. Take careful note of the
Buying stated time-frames, milestones and people
involved. The careful notation and articulation of
Milestones can
the customer's Buying Milestones can separate
separate sales sales winners from mediocre salespeople.
winners from
mediocre When the customer answers your question about
salespeople. their process for making a decision and who is
involved, they are giving you keys to the
kingdom. Their answer can come in very broad
and general terms or very specific detail. No
matter what they say, you should drill down to the
next level of granularity so that you come away
with a list of steps, meetings, people, reviews,
deadline dates, etc., that not only helps you
qualify the situation but gives you tremendous
fodder for pertinent and effective follow-up.
For instance, as shown in Rule 7, a simple
customer buying process moves from 1)
Interest to 2) Education to 3) Evaluation to 4)
Justification before the 5) Decision stage. In dis-
cussions with the customer you will actually find
that the customer might describe their deci-
sion-making Process as follows:
• We're identifying our major needs, requirements
and alternatives. (Stage 1)
• We're talking to suppliers or vendors and
gathering information. (Stage 2)

• Next we'll set up a test, pilot, evaluation or demonstration. (Stage 3)
• We'll then ask for proposals or quotes from the finalists. (Stage 4)
• Finally we'll make a decision. (Stage 5)
Of course, you're in perfect position to ask for details about
time-frames, deadlines, evaluation criteria, etc. based on the logical
questions being raised.
In a more complex customer buying process, the essential
framework is the same but, if you are prudent, you are likely to uncover
the following:
• We're identifying/studying major needs, requirements and options.
(Stage 1)
• We're gathering information, talking and scoping potential solutions with
key vendors, writing and issuing an RFI (Request for Information).
(Stage 2)
• We'll then conduct a pilot or POC (Proof of Concept) while making recom-
mendations to the Sponsor on feasibility and required budget, and obtain
approval from the Architecture/IT and Budget committees. (Stage 3)
• We'll then write and issue an RFP (Request for Proposal), meet with
vendors, evaluate their responses, conduct a formal product Trial with the
top two selected vendors. (Stage 4)
• Then we'll make a recommendation to the Evaluation and Executive Com-
mittee, perhaps have the Committee meet the selected vendor, re-confirm
the budget, CIO approval, Architecture/IT committee, finalize legal terms
and conditions and obtain signatures. (Stage 5)
Whether the buying milestones are simple or complex, by capturing
them in chronological detail, you are now prepared to look like an out-
standing professional salesperson. In understanding the ebb and flow
of the customer's decision-making process, you are able to clarify
time-frames, identify key individuals you need to meet, understand
evaluation processes, budget cycles and approval steps. Your subse-
quent questions and communications with the customer, as well as
with your own internal team, will be crisp, purposeful and aligned with
effective sales cycle management. A powerful tool that plays off the
collection of the customer's buying milestones is the Customer
Decision Plan, further explained in Rule 39 as part of The Effective
Close section of this book.
Do you know and fully utilize your customer's buying milestones?
Rule 9: Develop Your Customer's Buying Milestones 27

R u l e
10 Develop Your Optimized

Sales Process
Over 90% of firms You've identified your target customer (Rule 6);
realize some you know how they purchase products (Rule 7)
positive effect and you understand specifically their process for
from the making buying decisions (Rules 8 and 9). You
utilization of a now have the basic ingredients for developing an
optimized selling process. A selling or sales
documented
process is best defined as:
sales process.
Formally defined, proven, customized and
repeatable selling steps, processes and
systems in which reps are formally trained,
expected to use, and consistently monitored
for that use, developed either internally or via
a commercial offering.
Market-Partners
Pretty fancy, but true. A key to an effective sales
process is the mapping or synching up with a
known customer buying process. If we know how
our target customer buys and makes decisions,
then we can develop a corresponding sales
process that mirrors the customer's steps and
processes. An example of a sales process and
its corresponding buying process as seen in Rule
7 is shown in Figure 2.
While this may seem fairly straightforward,
almost 18% of companies are "Random" and
have no identified sales process at all.1 Another
45% are "Informal" and do little more than pay lip
service to adherence to a documented sales
1. CSO Insights, Sales Performance Optimization

Report, 2009.

process. Yes, they teach their reps and have implemented this into
their CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system, but they lack
the rigor and discipline to back it up. Just under 24% of companies are
"Formal" in their approach to implementation of sales process; and
13% are "Dynamic" or what I would categorize as "Optimized." Indeed,
without enforcement and reinforcement, sales process cannot achieve
the promised benefits. What are those benefits? Over 90% of firms
realize some positive effect from the utilization of a documented sales
process. In fact, in current research Sales Process Execution was cited
as one of the top three reasons for winning business.
Source: MXL Partners

Figure 2: A Sales Process and Buying Process
Think of it this way: if you're selling a popular product that customers

order or purchase without heavy salesperson interaction, then you may
get by without the need for a finely honed and documented selling
process. But as we've seen, some sales cycles have many moving
parts and require a methodical approach to avoid missing key steps
and junctures. As salespeople come in various flavors and styles, the
key to driving consistent sales effectiveness is the adherence to a well
thought out selling process that captures major steps and practices
that keep a sales cycle on track.
Sometimes sales success covers up the need for disciplined selling
efforts. A fast growing Silicon Valley software company saw revenues
increase in spite of an undisciplined and loose sales organization. New
management came in and hired consultants to clarify, articulate,
educate and ingrain a "new and improved" sales process that guided
the worldwide sales organization in best practices that identified key
customer personnel and elevated the conversation to a higher level
value solution. The result was a more precise sales organization
executing improved skills with purpose and rigor. The sales perfor-
mance did improve with higher value deals and deeper account pene-
tration. Within one year the company was acquired with a very high
value multiple.
Have you clarified and optimized your sales process?
Rule 10: Develop Your Optimized Sales Process 29

R u l e
11 Create a Playbook
Every selling So now you're ready to document your sales

stage can be process "playbook." A playbook is just as it
dissected into a sounds—it's a notated game plan of steps,
bullet list of action actions and tools used to facilitate the execution
steps, tactics of the sales process. In the previous two rules
(Rule 9 and Rule 10) we've mapped the selling
or strategies.
stages to the buying stages. In Figure 12 (see
Appendix A), we've now filled out the specific
actions and tools that management has deemed
necessary for the salesperson to successfully
navigate the sales cycle.
Every selling stage can be dissected into a bullet
list of action steps, tactics or strategies. Addition-
ally, specific collateral documents, templates
and sales tools come into play at various points
along the process.
For instance, at Stage 1—Lead Generation,
salespeople are tasked with following up leads
inbound from marketing campaigns or websites,
or initiating targeted contacts on their own. There
is typically some live preliminary lead qualifica-
tion beyond common lead scoring or form fields.
A well-managed sales and marketing team will
coordinate specifically what a rep should be
doing and document those actions. These are
grilled into the sales rep at sales meetings or
training sessions. A playbook can be developed
for different types of field reps (inside teams,
outside direct, etc.) as well as for different
product lines (upsell items, renewals, new
business sales, etc.).

At Stage 2—Discovery/Qualification, there is ample room for error and
inconsistency as reps need to further qualify the opportunity and
execute a professional discovery or information gathering sales call.
By documenting the specific qualifying and probing questions as well
as referencing various helpful sales tools for the rep to utilize, sales
management ensures that their team is conducting the right effort at
the right time. This continues throughout the rest of the sales cycle.
An enterprise software company's sales team was comprised of inside
reps, outside reps and market development/lead generation reps.
There were inconsistencies in the quality of customer meetings as reps
often generated a proposal (Stage 4) after a single conversation (Stage
1) with the customer/prospect. While sales were closing in some
cases, some implementation issues cropped up because the reps had
failed to fully scope out the tailored application and use case of the
software solution. What was missing was a more detailed discov-
ery/qualification conversation or meeting (Stage 2) and then a planned
proof-of-concept (POC) or pilot/trial that solidified the success of the
solution but also further developed the customer relationship and
growing engagement. The reps were guilty of short-circuiting the ap-
propriate sales process, a common problem in many of today's sales
organizations. This problem was alleviated by ingraining through sales
training the importance of good sales cycle management and crystal-
lizing the correct actions, tactics and tools.
As noted earlier in the CSO Insights research, approximately
two-thirds (63%) of firms fall into the category of Random or Informal
when it comes to adhering to a specified sales process methodology.2
One-third (37%) are Formal or Dynamic when it comes to effectively
following some documented sales process.
But today's marketplace landscape requires more than simple docu-
mentation and training. "Sales Process 2.0" is all about the dynamic in-
teractivity of sales stages, steps, actions, collateral beyond the printed
page. There are some exciting new technology solutions that have
taken the concept of "Playbook" to new and powerful levels through the
automation of a documented selling process and the just-in-time
serving up of the appropriate tool, script, or action-step to guide the
new or experienced salesperson. When these tools get implemented
across sales organizations around the world, then sales effectiveness
will meet sales efficiency and produce consistent sales excellence.
Do you have a Sales Process Playbook?
2. CSO Insights, Sales Performance Optimization Report, 2009.
Rule 11: Create a Playbook 31

Part III
The Effective
Salesperson
Personal Accountability Leads to Personal
Sales Effectiveness
"There are two types of people, those who make
excuses and those who find a way."
Larry Beckham, The Southwestern Company
• Rule 12: Be a Superstar

• Rule 13: Have a PAR Time
• Rule 14: Make a 10-5-2-Do List
• Rule 15: Measure Activity Metrics
• Rule 16: Develop Your Success Formula
• Rule 17: Keep Score with a Scorecard
• Rule 18: Reading Makes Perfect

Part III: The Effective Salesperson 33
R u l e
12 Be a Superstar
The attributes and We all like winners and can appreciate super-
make-up of a stars when we see them. We admire the
Sales Superstar superstar athlete who is talented beyond
are like the question and helps his team win games. But
balanced five we've seen superstars come in a variety of
packages. Some are boisterous and obnoxious
points
to their teammates, fans and opponents. Others
on a star. are quiet and gentle, shy and retiring, saving
their talking for the gridiron or field of play.
Others fall somewhere in between. In all cases
there is physical skill, talent, discipline and
mental toughness. There are similarities with the
superstar salesperson, but with a few variations.
What makes a sales rep a star? Producing
results and bringing in the numbers, of course.
What do top producing reps, i.e., superstars, all
have in common? The attributes and make-up of
a Sales Superstar are like the balanced five
points on a star:
Driver - a self-starter.
The best salespeople are those who need no
outside motivation. They possess an inner drive
that pushes them to limits beyond the common
individual. It's not easily taught. A sales
superstar is a natural self-starter.
Technician - technically self-sufficient
The ideal rep can demo the product themselves
and only uses technical support for advanced
situations or to show team depth. They are
knowledgeable about their products and the
customer's environment and problems. They are

not simply sellers. They are like good customer-facing mechanics that
understand how the engine works. They don't necessarily know how to
build it, but can talk about its basic function and structure.
Facilitator - manages individual and group communications
A superstar rep is fairly adept in handling discussions one-on-one as
well as in one-to-many communications. An excellent rep can
command a boardroom full of customer and company representatives
and facilitate the discussion appropriately. It's a skill that comes with
experience, confidence and sensitivity—clearly possessed by a sales
superstar.
Empathizer - can express identification with others
Another key trait of a superstar salesperson is the ability to identify with
others and their issues and problems. They genuinely can respond
naturally to the stated situation of prospects, customers and their own
internal team. This characteristic stems from a sensitive heart and the
ability to fully put themselves in the other person's shoes and effective-
ly listen with compassion and empathy.
Servant - a humble and healthy sense of self
Finally, an effective sales superstar is ultimately a server of others, like
a servant with a heart, and cares for the other person before them-
selves. This characteristic really stems from their own security and
strong sense of self. They are so comfortable with themselves that they
don't have to defend or fight, they actually can care for and desire to
serve the other side.
As shown in the diagram below, the attributes and make-up are indeed
like the balanced five points on a star. While these gifts and attributes
may come naturally to some, they can be honed, developed and
fine-tuned. But balance is the key. If any one point is extended or
over-exaggerated then the star is off balance. An effective superstar is
strong and equally weighted on all superstar points.
Are you a sales superstar?
Figure 3: The Sales Superstar
Rule 12: Be a Superstar 35

R u l e
13 Have a PAR Time
Effective Salespeople and everyone else in life have the

salesmanship same challenge: getting everything done in a
involves 24-hour day. Effective salesmanship involves
discipline and discipline and optimized regimens. Most sales-
optimized people are challenged in sustaining either. How
come successful people seem to accomplish
regimens. Most
more? Simple. They simply do the things that in-
salespeople are effective, mediocre people do not do or are not
challenged in willing to do.
sustaining either.
On Monday morning when you arrive at your
desk what's the first thing you do? You either
open up your email and then you check your
voice messages, or you check your voice
messages and then open up your email. Either
way, same result. What happens? You realize
that a meeting got rescheduled for 10:00 a.m.
that you have to prepare for, or a customer
situation blows up and needs your intervention
with the service team, or a new sales situation
comes up that requires your immediate attention,
or etc., etc. By 11:00 am you've had a busy
morning working through issues. By 2:00 pm
you're tired and look at your To Do list and realize
that you've done a bunch of things but have been
marching to other people's agenda all day. By
6:00 pm you're exhausted and yet have not
gotten a lot of things accomplished that you had
intended to get done.
Sound familiar? What happened? How can you
stay on track to do the things you need to do?

Institute a PAR Time into your routine. PAR Time is a one-hour disci-
pline performed typically first thing in the morning upon arrival at your
desk, or it can be done at a coffee shop on your way to work. It is a
3-step personal practice discipline that formalizes and encourages
what you already may be doing. Its power however is in the productive
use of at least one early hour of your day.
• PLAN (15 minutes). Use this time to formalize your day. You plan
anyway, mostly haphazardly and inconsistently. Get disciplined about it.
Some people over-plan; some do no planning as they just jump into the
day. Fifteen minutes is sufficient and substantial to think about and effec-
tively plan out one's day and anticipate all that needs to get done.
• ACT (30 minutes). Use this time to tackle a key task or something you've
been putting off. Do it, get it started or get it done today. We often have
projects before us that will actually take two or four or ten hours to
complete. We naturally put these off and will tend toward procrastination if
we are not careful. By consciously taking 30 minutes to start or work on an
important project or task (proposal, research, letter, territory/account plan,
etc.), you actually will find big projects getting done and not stacking up.
Big tasks started are easier to complete.
• READ (15 minutes). Use this time to catch up on industry publications
you've been meaning to read and/or inspirational material on sales and
motivation. We all have much to read stacked up on our desktop and
computer in-boxes, folders and bookshelves at home and at work. In a
sales career, there is much to read (see Rule 18). Salespeople often feel
guilty when not on the phone or dealing with customers. It is alright to set
aside some time to read; 15 minutes is all we're talking about here. You
can accomplish a lot of cumulative reading with just 15 minutes per day.
Incorporate a PAR Time into your daily regime and watch the effect.
You will be better prepared, act on the right tasks, and continuously re-
vitalize, grow and develop yourself as a salesperson (and person). All
high-achieving people incorporate some type of PAR Time into their
daily regimen. Do a reset and maximize your life's routines. One hour
a day, that's all we ask!
How are you managing your time?
Rule 13: Have a PAR Time 37

R u l e
14 Make a 10-5-2-Do List
There are four Everyone keeps To Do lists. No matter the title or

steps to the occupation, there are daily items to list,
10-5-2-Do List. remember and get done. In any sales job there
are multiple task items that need to be ad-
dressed, prioritized and accomplished. If you
stop and consider your own experience in opti-
mizing daily personal productivity, the challenge
is not in the creation of the To Do list; rather it's
the prioritizing and then "Doing" of items on the
list. The salesperson or manager that masters
his daily To Do's in terms of list generation, prior-
itization and then effective execution will be the
most productive.
Let me introduce you to the 10-5-2-Do List—the
most practical tool you will ever encounter that
will make a significant impact on your personal
effectiveness, in sales and in life. There are four
steps to the 10-5-2-Do List.
• Your Top 10 - First write down your Top 10 "To
Do's." You may be saying to yourself, 'I'm a very
busy person. I have a lot more than ten items on
my list!' That's okay. Go ahead and list out your 20
or so task items, and then immediately stack rank
your Top 10. I assure you that when you look at
the list there will be a natural prioritization that
comes to mind for the top ten tasks to get done
today. Make sure you keep your personal task
items ("Pick up kids from school" or "Take shirts
to laundry," etc.) separate from your work day
items ("Make 15 prospecting calls," "Write XYZ

proposal," "Prepare for Forecast/Review meeting," "Research the
Anderson account," etc.). When you have your Top 10 recognized you're
ready for Step 2.
• Your Priority 5 - Now take a good long stare at your Top 10 list and
brutally slash it down to what I call your Priority 5. Circle or check off five
top priority task items. This is actually very difficult to do. You've already
prioritized to a Top 10, now you're reducing that list to a Top 5 which forces
you to eliminate some relatively important items off the list. Do not be
dismayed; you have every opportunity to come back to these and get them
done, we are only whittling down your mountain of tasks to a critical
molehill of tasks. When your Priority 5 is itemized, you are ready for the
next step.
• Your Must Do Top 2 - Now stare down the Priority 5 and reduce it down
to your Must Do Top 2. Think of these final two items as those absolutely
critical tasks that have got to be done today or else hammers come down
on you. You can't go home today unless these two items get completed.
Every one of us has these types of tasks that are up against deadlines,
required by management, job-keeping important, etc. Circle or underline
your Must Do Top 2. Now you're ready for the final step.
• Just Do It - In the words of the great Nike brand slogan, Just Do It. Take
these two items that you have worked hard to isolate on, and now go get
them done. When you have finished these Must Do Top 2 items, then
move on to other items on your list in reverse order (Priority 5, then rest of
Top 10).
With the 10-5-2-Do List method, you will find that on some days you
will complete everything on your list; on other days you will only get a
few items done—but they will at least be your most prioritized and
therefore most important task items. The cumulative effect of this daily
whittling down of tasks and priorities on your personal productivity is
profound. I challenge you to try this for two weeks. I assure you that in
those two weeks you will have accomplished more and felt on top of
your game more than you have in a long time. 10-5-2-Do. Just do it!
How are you doing with your To Do's?
Rule 14: Make a 10-5-2-Do List 39

R u l e
15 Measure Activity Metrics
Many firms and When asked how many new prospecting calls
reps don't know the Inside Sales team made each day, the
just how valuable Director of Sales of a client firm proudly stated
these metrics that every team on her sales team made 40 calls
actually are. a day. When I asked her how she knew that, she
stated confidently that "she hears them" as she
sits in the bullpen with them. "They all know that
40 calls is the number of calls they need to make
and that's what they do." Oh, really?
This is a common reaction to classic selling ac-
tivities across organizations. Some manager at
some point in the past has declared a number of,
you name it, phone calls, demos, meetings, pro-
posals, mailings, etc., etc., that the sales team is
to make each hour, day, week, month, or quarter.
That becomes the magic number or mantra for
the sales organization for a range of time until
someone comes along and changes it or chal-
lenges it. Many firms and reps don't know just
how valuable these metrics actually are, but
often they become unrealistic, onerous, or
useless hurdles at which the team winks or rolls
their eyes.
I learned long ago that every business has key
sales activity metrics, which once discovered
can drive one to consistent excellence in sales
performance or management of a team's perfor-
mance. In every sales territory I've managed I've
sought to understand key selling activities, their
appropriate dose, and their yield. I recommend
setting up a 30-Day Activity Measurement
Plan. There are three steps:

• Identify 4–6 Top Selling Activities—actions such as prospecting phone
calls, customer meetings, conference calls, demonstrations, emails, pro-
posals, etc. Determine no more than six (you don't want to track too many
or you'll defeat the purpose here); no fewer than four. These are actions
that you or management have deemed important in the selling process of
your product or service.
• Assign a Relevant Point Value to Each Activity—for instance,
outbound calls might count one point, a meeting might count four points,
an outbound email two points, etc. The key is to have a scoring system that
is simple and relevant for each of the 4–6 selling activities identified. Don't
over-engineer this; keep it simple and on the honor system if tracking a
team.
• Track the Metrics—now track the metrics daily, weekly and quarterly for
each of the selling activities. Look for the patterns, trends and ranges in
the metrics. See the diagram below for a sample tracking sheet. After just
three weeks of tracking you will see clear patterns and norms. Take these
to heart as a realistic snapshot of your real activity.
Remember to keep this exercise simple. Don't over analyze when
you're starting out. Get a foundational benchmark and work from there.
There's value in the truth. When we conducted an Activity Metric study
at that firm doing "40 calls daily" we found that the call volume ranged
from 19 to 53 calls per day by the team. The top two reps were making
20 calls daily; the worst performers were making over 40. We captured
what the successful reps were doing, replicated it and drove all reps to
make at least 25 high quality calls per day.
How's your activity tracking?
Figure 4: Results of the Activity Metrics Study
Rule 15: Measure Activity Metrics 41

R u l e
16 Develop Your Success

Formula
Drive to always When I was in college I had a summer job selling

determine key books door-to-door with The Southwestern
activity metrics Company of Nashville, Tennessee. In the 1970's
this company sold $30M worth of books to
leading to a Suc- families in their homes each summer through
cess Formula. 6000 college students recruited from around the
country for a summer job that was ridiculously
challenging, but rewarding for the daring souls
that signed on. The company still operates today
around the world with a salesforce made up of
college students. One of the great lessons I
learned, among many over three summers, was
the power of developing Activity Metrics (Rule
15) into a repeatable Success Formula.
The Southwestern Company learned through ex-
perience and observation that if a student-sales-
person knocked on 60 doors in a day, they could
get 30 "Mrs. Jones'" to let them "demo" the book.
If these 30 demos (no more than 20 minutes at a
house) were conducted either at a door, on the
porch or in the house, then one or two customers
would buy (despite the quality of the salesper-
son). The metrics of 60 calls, 30 demos, for one
or two sales was drilled into our young impres-
sionable heads. If one would work those metrics,
then one could pocket $2,500 in cash (after
expenses) after a full summer of work. Big
money back in the day.
Since this company had been doing this for over
100 years, the Success Formula for a student
summer salesperson was as follows:

Success Formula =
60 Doors/Day =
30 Demos/Day =
1 or 2 Sales/Day =
$2500 Earnings
In my first summer after my college sophomore year I followed this
formula and earned $2,500 in the summer. I came back and worked
another summer with Southwestern after my junior year and received
a summer paycheck of $6,500. I came back one more time after grad-
uating from Occidental College and received a paycheck at summer's
end for $10,000. The Success Formula worked the same each
summer; the only difference was my close rate increased to many more
customer sales per day as I improved with experience.
The absolute key to success was the goal to knock on 60 doors each
day. Without that achievement then I wouldn't be able to conduct 30
demos which were necessary for closing deals. Many student sales-
people fail in that job because they think they can work a half day or
knock on 27 doors. If they cut corners, then the metrics fall short and
the success formula breaks down. By the way, to get in 60 houses and
30 demos a day, one had to work 13 hour days. Nothing like also
learning a good work ethic! We knocked on the first door at 8 a.m. and
the last door at 9:30 p.m., 6 days a week. Hard work and strong effort
are also keys to any good success formula.
When I got my first territory assignment at IBM in San Francisco, I au-
tomatically sought to determine my Success Formula. In my first two
years on quota, I made the IBM 100% Club in July and August,
whereas most reps achieve their annual quota goals in December or
the last day of the year. Throughout my career I continued this drive to
always determine key activity metrics leading to a Success Formula.
Today I consult companies and teams in determining their formula
which might look as follows:
Success Formula =
X Contacts/Period =
Y Meetings/Period =
Z Proposals/Period =
$Q Revenue Target
Do you know your Success Formula?
Rule 16: Develop Your Success Formula 43

R u l e
17 Keep Score with a

Scorecard
This can all be As a salesperson I always wanted to know where

tracked on one I stood relative to my sales peers and compared
spreadsheet with to my manager's and company's goals and ex-
monthly or pectations. Just like any player in sports, we
quarterly have scorecards, stats and records that show us
how we stand against competition, ourselves
comparisons.
and company targets. When I became a sales
manager and VP of Sales, I tracked my team
against goals and expectations on issues and
areas both "soft" and "hard." This rule is all about
keeping score. Let's take a look at a powerful
way to keep score with a flexible scorecard. This
is not just for sales managers. The enlightened
salesperson can apply this to their own personal
scorecard.
Years ago I learned from a sales management
mentor that achieving a revenue target is a
function of two variables, frequency and compe-
tency; that is, how often we do some things and
how well we do them. Today I call these activities
and competencies. In all selling environments
there are key designated activities and items of
measurement that represent the quality or
mastery of performance, or competencies.
Examples of Activities to be scored are as
follows:
• Number of Prospecting Phone Calls
• Number of New Opportunities entered into CRM
• Number of Face-to-Face Meetings
• Number of Webinars
• Number of Sales Demonstrations

Examples of Competencies to be scored are as follows:
• Presentation Skills
• Lead Management
• Sales Messaging
• Territory Management
• Technical Resource Usage
• Product Knowledge
In addition to Sales Performance metrics such as Monthly or Quarterly

Bookings and Quarterly or Year-to-Date Quota Attainment, the total
number of Activities and Competencies should not be less than 20
items. Not too many, not too few. As it was during my time with IBM,
each item should be rated on a scale of 1 to 5 with 1 being "Poor" and
5 being "Excellent." This all can be tracked on one spreadsheet with
monthly or quarterly comparisons.
The key to keeping score with a scorecard is to use this management
tool as a vehicle for discussion between a salesperson and manager.
A sales manager and a salesperson can effectively use a one-page
scorecard as a foundation to talk about performance quality, growth,
progress, challenge, joy, disappointment and expectations—many of
the things a sales manager never gets to speak about with his or her
young charges because there is too much focus on quota, numbers
and sales revenue.
Are you keeping score with both quantitative and qualitative mea-
surements?
Rule 17: Keep Score with a Scorecard 45

R u l e
18 Reading Makes Perfect
The cumulative In Rule 13 one of the three components of PAR

impact of reading Time was to spend 15 minutes daily reading
15 minutes daily industry publications and/or inspirational
over the course material on sales and motivation. Indeed the cu-
of a career mulative impact of reading 15 minutes daily over
the course of a career is profound. I learned this
is profound.
lesson as a naïve young college student during
my first time spent away from home on a summer
job.
As explained in Rule 16, I worked for The South-
western Company of Nashville, Tennessee, as a
student salesman. At the beginning of my first
summer, after driving into Nashville for one week
of sales training with thousands of other
students, we were each given a box of materials.
Apart from sales scripts and training materials,
the box contained three books: 'How to Win
Friends and Influence People,' by Dale
Carnegie, 'The Magic of Thinking Big,' by Dr.
David Swartz, and 'The Greatest Salesman in
the World,' by Og Mandino. At that point in my
life, I had only vaguely heard of Dale Carnegie
and his book; the others were completely foreign
to me. We were instructed to spend 15 minutes
each morning reading these books between the
time we awoke and the time we knocked on the
first door at 8 a.m. While my sales roommates
thought this suggestion was silly, I wanted to
follow the instructions of successful Southwest-
ern managers so I could earn the average
$2,500 summer commissions dangled in front of
us for successful student salespeople.

I did read those three books that summer. I did earn $2,500, $6,500
and $10,000 in commissions over my three summers' experience.
Better yet, I developed the habit of reading good material to get my
head and heart right. I've been reading these types of sales, business,
motivation and inspirational books 15 minutes every morning since that
first summer of 1976. My personal library has expanded greatly over
the years. More importantly, my mind has expanded and grown strong
and wise through the consistent feeding of good content that educates,
stimulates, motivates, encourages and inspires. Indeed, the cumula-
tive effect of consistently reading good material for the profession you
have chosen, and your personal life, even only 15 minutes per day, is
profound.
In no particular order, here is a list of some of my favorite sales/busi-
ness books:
• 'The Challenger Sale,' Matt Dixon, Brent Adamson
• 'Strategic Selling,' Robert Miller and Stephen Heiman
• 'The New Strategic Selling,' Stephen Heiman and Donna Sanchez
• 'SPIN Selling,' Neil Rackham
• 'Rethinking the Sales Force,' Neil Rackham
• 'Customer Centric Selling,' Michael T. Bosworth and John R., Holland
• 'Solution Selling,' Michael T. Bosworth
• 'The Secrets of Question Based Selling,' Thomas A. Freese
• 'Crossing the Chasm,' Geoffrey A. Moore
• 'Inside the Tornado,' Geoffrey A. Moore
• 'I.T. Sales Boot Camp,' Brian Giese
• 'The 10 Immutable Laws of Power Selling,' James DeSena
• 'Selling to VITO (the Very Important Top Officer),' Anthony Parinello
• 'How to Get Your Point Across in 30 Seconds or Less,' Milo O. Frank
• 'Selling the Way Your Customer Buys,' M. Sadovsky and J. Caswell
• 'Proactive Sales Management,' William Miller
• 'The Greatest Salesman in the World,' Og Mandino
• 'The Magic of Thinking Big,' David J. Schwartz
• 'First, Break All the Rules,' Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman
• 'Crucial Conversations,' K. Patterson, J. Grenny, R. McMillan, A. Switzler
• 'The Five Dysfunctions of a Team,' Patrick Lencioni
• 'Little Red Book of Selling,' Jeffrey Gitomer
• 'Presenting to Win (the Art of Telling Your Story),' Jerry Weissman
• 'Beyond Selling Value,' Mark Shonka and Dan Kosch
• Rain Making (Attracting New Clients), Ford Harding
• 'Selling to Big Companies,' Jill Konrath
• 'Getting to Yes,' Roger Fisher and William Ury
• 'Sales Automation Done Right,' Keith Thompson
• 'Sales and Marketing the Six Sigma Way,' Michael Webb
What's on your reading list?
Rule 18: Reading Makes Perfect 47

Part IV
Effective Territory
Management
Sales Effectiveness and Territory
Management
Effectiveness does not depend solely on how
much effort we expend, but on whether or not the
effort we expend is on the right thing.
• Rule 19: Prioritize Your Accounts and Opportunities

• Rule 20: Develop a Territory Attack Plan
• Rule 21: Develop a 360o Account Snapshot
• Rule 22: Upgrade Your Account Management
• Rule 23: Manage Your Channels
• Rule 24: Master Your 30-60-90 Day Forecast

Part IV: Effective Territory Management 49
R u l e
19 Prioritize Your Accounts

and Opportunities
The Account In my days of selling IBM computer equipment, I

Prioritization sold the first computer to a company called The
Matrix concept is Nature Company, a retail establishment with
deceptively several stores in California. As a young sales rep
simple. I performed all the right steps in getting the sale
closed and set up for implementation with the
third-party software provider and the service
team. As we often did back then, we celebrated
the setup and installation of the system with a
bottle of champagne, in this case on a Friday af-
ternoon.
The following Tuesday there was an implemen-
tation scheduling meeting with the software
company; the next week there was a "kickoff"
meeting with the hardware service and support
team. For the next five weeks there were
meetings at the account dealing with the smooth
implementation of the company-wide system. I
was at every one of those meetings. As a good
sales rep I attended these sessions even though
they were not my meetings nor did they require
my attendance. In the sixth week I went to lunch
with The Nature Company's Director of IT who
managed the implementation. He told me he was
extremely pleased with the whole experience,
that all was going well, that he was pleased with
our software recommendation and the service
and support team was outstanding, and appreci-
ated my involvement throughout the process. He
then said, "But Mike, I have one question for you:
Don't you have anything else to do?" He said "It's
not like we're going to spend any more money;

it'll take the rest of the year to fully absorb this installation." The
question and comment hit me like a ton of bricks. He was absolutely
right. I was spending unnecessary time with a comfortable customer
when I should have been out finding and selling more new business
prospects like The Nature Company. The lesson was not lost on me.
It was the beginning of a process of prioritization of my accounts that
has stuck with me as a territory rep, as a sales manager, as a VP of
Sales, and as strategic sales consultant and trainer. The Account Pri-
oritization Matrix concept is deceptively simple, using a two dimension-
al ABC system of classification. This can be set up on a spreadsheet
or built into a field variable within your CRM system. First, set up two
variables with ABC designations. For instance, one set of variables
might be based on the value of current customer revenues, such as A
= $100,000+; B = $25,000 to $100,000; and C = $0 to $25,000. The
next set of variables might be future potential revenues of a customer
over the next 12 months. It could be the same variables, i.e., A =
$100,000+; B = $25,000 to $100,000; and C = $0 to $25,000, or
variables with differing values. When you align the various combina-
tions you come up with the following:
Rating Current $$ Future $$

AA $100K+ $100K+
BA $25-100K $100K+
CA $0-25K $100K+
AB $100K+ $25-100K
BB $25-100K $25-100K
CB $0-25K $25-100K
AC $100K+ $0-25K
BC $25-100K $0-25K
CC $0-25K $0-25K
By simply using this particularly variable scale and rating your top 20,
50, 100 accounts, you have begun to prioritize your accounts and op-
portunities like only a minority of salespeople. For example, the top
group with "A" rated "Future" sales revenue over the next 12 months
(by your own definition) represents a subset of your account that
warrant significant more attention. My account, The Nature Company,
would have represented an "AC" rating and would have signaled me to
keep them satisfied but not to spend significant time with them over the
next 12 months.
Are you effectively prioritizing your accounts and opportunities?
Rule 19: Prioritize Your Accounts and Opportunities 51

R u l e
20 Develop a Territory Attack

Plan
There are four The worldwide #1 sales rep sat in his office in
basic early January and wondered how he was ever
components. going to repeat his record breaking $1.1M sales
result from the previous year. And what do they
typically do with #1 sales reps? They shrink their
territory and raise their quota! So it was in this
case. His 600 assigned accounts got reduced to
400 accounts and his quota went up by 20%.
What did he do? He closed the door to his office
and spent the next 2½ hours that morning devel-
oping a Territory Attack Plan. When he
emerged he set about executing that plan
month-to-month, quarter-to-quarter. By year end
he far exceeded his increased quota, hitting
sales bookings over $2.4M and was the
worldwide #1 sales rep for the second consecu-
tive year. Let me tell you what I did that January
morning in my office.
I obtained a summary sales report from account-
ing and analyzed my previous year's sales trans-
actions. I realized that I had been opportunistic
and somewhat random in my working of the ter-
ritory. With 600 accounts, I essentially reacted
and jumped at anything that moved while proac-
tively targeting the biggest names in my
customer list. Through sheer hustle and drive I
generated enough sales to hit that $1.1M
number, whereas at that company no rep had
ever sold more than $750K in a year. Even with
400 assigned accounts now, I wanted to blow
through that number with a more systematic
approach.

I developed a Territory Attack Plan that I have since then helped
many companies implement. There are four basic components:
Segment the Territory - Whether the territory is assigned by industry,
region, product-line or some other classification, break it down into
logical segments. I divided my 400 accounts into groupings by industry,
revenue size, bookings amount and history, products installed,
renewal dates, new business opportunities, etc. This is critical
analysis, but keep it simple. Export the data from the CRM and work
with it on a spreadsheet.
Prioritize Target Accounts - Then I used the Account Prioritization
Matrix (Rule 19) and developed a two-variable matrix like my shown
example that prioritized accounts based on past bookings (first
variable) and "guestimated" expected bookings (second variable) over
the next 12 months. In a spreadsheet one can sort numerous combina-
tions of appropriate variables based on sales cycle time, product type
(renewals, new business, custom). The objective is to generate a top
priority target list. I conducted this prioritization analysis on only the top
80 of my assigned 400 accounts to keep my focus on the largest op-
portunities. I later ran separate analyses on the balance of accounts to
further prioritize that batch.
Attack the Targets - I then put together an attack plan that included
daily, weekly, monthly and quarterly actions and goals. I was careful to
spend the appropriate time on the largest opportunities that made
sense (AA, BA, CA accounts) per my assumptions. I used past Activity
Metrics (Rule 15) to set a daily/weekly calling plan, monthly proposal
plans, quarterly travel schedule, industry events coordination, and
marketing campaigns for my territory over the course of the year.
Track the Attack - Finally, I set up my own review and reporting of my
key Activity Metrics each month and quarter. I tracked my pattern of
activity and the yield of those efforts and made monthly and quarterly
adjustments. As for any good sports coach, quarter and halftime ad-
justments are critical. They are based on what transpired against
expected goals. When met or underachieved, evaluation and potential
adjustment are in order. I tracked my attack like a great coach.
I didn't wait for or expect my manager to do all of this work for me. I
relied and directed myself, keeping management informed. It was the
self-discipline and self-management that helped develop an introspec-
tive sales management view and inspired me to develop and drive my
own teams when my management responsibilities expanded.
How's your Territory Attack Plan?
Rule 20: Develop a Territory Attack Plan 53

R u l e
21 Develop a 360 o Account

Snapshot
The general who In his famous treatise 'The Art of War,' Sun Tzu
wins a battle wrote that "the general who wins a battle makes
makes many many calculations before the battle is fought. The
calculations general who loses a battle makes but few. By
before the battle attention to this point, I can foresee who is likely
to win or lose." I've always liked this quote
is fought.
because it speaks to the high value of prepara-
tion in war and has proven true throughout
history. I believe it applies to all things Sales as
well. Like war, the sales battlefield requires good
planning and tools to prepare for battle.
I've been involved in numerous strategic account
reviews that can run for hours and be quite
extensive in preparation and follow-up. Over the
past 15 years, while I have seen the continued
value for these sessions, I see the need for an al-
ternative methodology that may apply for fast
moving environments or where "quick and dirty"
strategy sessions are appropriate. I've
developed an account review process that can
be done in 20 minutes on a whiteboard or where
the rep and manager can brainstorm up to three
accounts in one hour with no preparation. The
net result however is a clear and usable game
plan for immediate execution and follow-up.
The 360o Account Snapshot is a simple tool to
help us think through all the actions necessary to
move an account forward. We can account for
issues big and small and then keep them in
context with what we are really trying to sell in

specific time-frames. It's a practical, useful sales review tool that will
help you stay focused on the necessary actions you and others need
to immediately take within your major sales accounts.
The 360o Account Snapshot (see Figure 13 in Appendix A) has three
key components: Situation Assessment, Sales Objectives, and Strate-
gies Tactics and Actions. Successful evaluation of these key compo-
nents results in a clear Solution, identified People, and realistic
expectations of Time.
1. Situation Assessment - We start with a quick situational assess-
ment through brainstorming an "Assessment List." Simply list on a
whiteboard or paper all of the key issues in bullet form. Then rate each
item as a plus (+) or minus (-) as it relates to your efforts. For example:
• New CIO (-) • Competitive equip. installed (-)

• Depressed earnings (-) • Exec. exposure - Adams Div. (+)
• IT spending cutbacks (-) • Dir(s) Attending SIG Conf. (+)
• Completed successful XT5 trial (+) • Plan Q3 storage upgrade (+)
• Great relationship with SE team (+) • System Upgrade plan Q4 (+)
2. Sales Objectives - Now be very specific and list what you are trying
to sell into this account or group. There may be one product or many
products or services. List them out with quantitative sales bookings
amounts and time-frames. For example:
• 933X Storage, $45,000 in December 2012
• I Series System Upgrade, $85,000 in April 2013
3. Strategies Tactics and Actions - Now think specifically what ap-

propriate actions you and others need to take and when to take
advantage of situations or address obstacles. List these out. This is the
basis for your actions over the next week, month, quarter, etc.
• Q4 mtg with CIO and B Johnson • Talk to Bill re SIG Conf. (Oct)
• Set up trial debrief (Sep) • Meeting w/ Adams Grp IT (Oct)
• Deliver comp. piece to Mark (Sep) • Prepare Upgrade Options (Oct)
• Lunch w/ Karen and SE's (Oct) • New Product Brief w/ Mark (Nov)
The key to a successful 360o Account Snapshot is the effective brain-

storming of all potential pros and cons, clarity of sales purpose and
time-frame, and specific follow-up activities and actions that can be
tracked and reviewed on an ongoing basis.
Can you do a 20-minute account review?
Rule 21: Develop a 360o Account Snapshot 55

R u l e
22 Upgrade Your Account

Management
Companies are Account review sessions can be formal or

now moving informal sessions involving managers, the
toward dynamic account rep or team, technical management and
interactive tools any other key individuals participating in the
that recreate analysis and strategy development of an ongoing
account, typically a major account. They may last
the Strategic
an hour, a half day or even a full day for very
Account Plan…. complex situations. At IBM these sessions were
often grueling with intense preparation. Never-
theless they were critical to successfully navigat-
ing and directing resources in a complex sales
situation.
Today many opportunities lend themselves to
strategic review, or at least best practice selling
efforts. In Rule 21 we reviewed an informal
"snapshot" review tool called the 360o Account
Snapshot to manually review deals. Companies
are now moving toward dynamic interactive tools
that recreate the Strategic Account Plan while
guiding one along the sales process for all key
sales opportunities.
In the 1980's and 1990's there were Miller-He-
iman's Strategic Selling Blue Sheets, compre-
hensive planning documents for managing
accounts. There also were Solution Selling doc-
uments, Target Account Selling (TAS) planning
documents, and a host of other planning sheets
that helped guide the process of effective
account planning. All of these were variations on
a theme including areas for detailing as follows:
• Account Profile

• Opportunity Profile
• People Profile
• Competitive Profile
The one constant with strategic account planning documents is that

salespeople hate to fill these out, whether on paper or simply electronic
versions baked in the CRM. They complain that these are too long, too
detailed, too repetitive with what's in the CRM notes, etc., etc.
Fortunately a new day is here and companies are now moving toward
dynamic interactive tools that create the Strategic Account Plan as the
account manager moves through an automated "Playbook." These
Playbooks extend beyond the CRM opportunity record and now
become the interface for all aspects of the sales cycle. As the rep is
guided through the process, the Playbook captures the data and
produces a summary "deal plan" or strategic account plan. The benefit
of these new tools is that they drive optimized behavior while allowing
manager and account team to reconvene over the issues and details
derived and develop a comprehensive strategic plan without prepara-
tion pain and repetitive activities.
There are many new tools that snap onto existing CRM products that
provide automation to improve and direct sales best practices for key
sales opportunities. Get current and up-to-date with the new technolo-
gy that upgrades how salespeople manage accounts and organiza-
tions maintain consistent sales behavior and quality.
How well do you manage your key opportunities?
Rule 22: Upgrade Your Account Management 57

R u l e
23 Manage Your Channels
(It's) about the Assuming all things equal, over the years I've
sold-out seen that the business that's figured out how to
commitment to get broader distribution captures the most sales,
your decisive even with an inferior product. You simply give
channels of yourself a greater chance to win by putting your
product in front of more people. Of course this
distribution.
depends on your marketplace and product. But
we can all agree that broader sales distribution
coverage yields more "at bats" and therefore
increases the odds of sales success. I'm
convinced that the challenge is in determining
the right channel distribution and the effective
equipping for that channel to be successful.
I was with IBM in the 1980's when the midrange
systems division began to develop the third-party
software network of firms as extensions of its
direct salesforce. Over the next several years,
IBM developed programs for Value Added
Resellers (VARs) and regional partners that
augmented local branch office sales. Over time
there were adjustments to compensation for the
branch salesforce as IBM moved more toward a
channel distribution model. Today there is a
balanced mix of direct reps (working out of their
own home offices) and many reseller partner
firms and Independent Software Vendors (ISVs)
selling solutions of IBM equipment, software and
services.
In CSO Insight's 2009 Sales Performance study
of over 1800 firms, sales were divided across
various sales channels as follows:

• Direct/Field Sales = 68%
• Indirect/Channel Sales = 12%
• Telesales = 10%
• Internet Sales = 6%
• Other Sales = 4%
Direct Field Sales representatives will never go out of fashion. When

asked why their companies continue to rely on a direct sales force,
several commented that "they had more visibility into and control over
their direct sales reps as compared to channel sales." Getting the right
channel mix is optimized over time with constant test and evaluation.
With a commitment to a channel distribution model, here are the key
steps to effectively setting up a distribution channel network:
• Channel Design and Profile—determine and document your channel
model and prototype partners by tiers and segments.
• Target and Recruiting—qualify, screen and recruit per the profile,
measuring success and partner participation versus objectives.
• Train, Equip and Evaluate—develop an on-boarding program that
engages trains and prepares the recruited and valued partners for
success.
These channel partners need to be managed by a channel sales team

that is incentivized appropriately in roles that successfully roll out and
support the channel program. Channel strategies are crucial and
changing with market and competitor movements. Sales leadership
needs to stay close to the ground as these movements will drive the
mix and effectiveness of your channel strategy.
Are you managing your channels?
Rule 23: Manage Your Channels 59

R u l e
24 Master Your 30-60-90 Day

Forecast
Remember, it's There are two things I ask to look at first when I
not just a report, am brought in as a consultant for a sales organi-
it's a process. zation. The first is the documentation of their
sales process (recall from Rule 10 that only 1/3
of firms have this clearly articulated); the second
is their sales forecast report, or more specifically,
their 30-60-90 day forecast report. These reports
tell me everything. I can see how disciplined the
sales and marketing teams are; how clear and
knowledgeable the management is on their
go-to-market strategies, and how tightly
managed or not is the pipeline management and
forecasting process.
The CEO of a Silicon Valley startup told me that
he would potentially need my help if they missed
their quarterly number. He showed me a forecast
report that had 88 line items of opportunities that
his VP of Sales said might happen, though he
couldn't say which ones. Only one deal was
closed two months into the quarter. I got a call
from the CEO in the first week of the next
quarter. My first question was, "How many deals
did you bring in last quarter?" He said, "Three
deals, and one of them wasn't even on the
original forecast report!"
I spent the next 60 days working with the CEO,
VP, and the Inside Sales and Outside Sales
teams in reconstituting their pipeline manage-
ment and forecasting system. I implemented a
30-60-90 Day Forecast Report that was
extracted out of their CRM system, Sales-
force.com. We enforced a mandatory updating of

the CRM by Friday noon each week. We reviewed the following report
each week by rep at the Monday morning sales meeting, with each rep
seeing each other's report. This report has three important compo-
nents:
• Sales Process - reinforced at the top of the report
• Forecast Items - those accounts/opportunities that are at Stage 3, 4 or 5
• Pipeline Items - those accounts/opportunities that are at Stage 1 or 2.
Figure 5: A 30-60-90 Day Forecast Report
Whereas their previous method was capturing 88 potential deals in

play, essentially any deal at any stage, we now enforced a discipline to
only "Forecast" deals that had been given a customized demonstration
(Stage 3), had received a proposal (Stage 4), or were in closure (Stage
5). In the example shown of Bob's deals, there were now four deals to
really bank on, or Forecast; not nine deals.
In the next full quarter, that same sales team "forecasted" 21 deals and
closed 18 of them, a company record. The following quarter they fore-
casted 25 and closed 19, which helped them secure another round of
funding.
The 30-60-90 Day Forecast report is not magic, but it does produce
results like a good sports coach produces a better team with discipline,
rules and accountability. While utilizing terms such as Pipeline,
Forecast or Best Case and Commit, this report can be produced out of
your CRM. Master the 30-60-90 Day Forecast for yourself or your
team. Remember, it's not just a report, it's a process.
How's your forecasting process?
Rule 24: Master Your 30-60-90 Day Forecast 61

Part V
Effective Sales
Communication
The Effective Salesperson is the Great
Communicator
Effective sales communicators paint verbal
pictures that guide and engage. There is subtle
structure, logical flow and purpose to all forms of
their communication.
• Rule 25: Elevate Your Sales Pitch

• Rule 26: Develop a 20 to 40 Second Speech
• Rule 27: Live to Sell Another Day
• Rule 28: Manage Your Sales Email
• Rule 29: Get Them to Call Back
• Rule 30: Share a Great Testimonial

Section V: Effective Sales Communication 63
R u l e
25 Elevate Your Sales Pitch
This is your big In the sales world, one of the most overused
chance to make terms is the "Elevator Pitch." This actually
an impression derives from that proverbial ride on an elevator
and capture when someone asks you the question "What do
an audience. you do?" The idea is to answer the question
while you travel only one or two floors on the
elevator. In other words, keep it short and sweet,
but effective. In the venture capital world, the
Elevator Pitch refers to the brief presentation of
a business plan or concept.
Actually, we are all often confronted with the
need to briefly articulate a message or summary.
When we meet new people at the backyard
barbeque or other social gatherings we are sure
to be asked the question "So, what do you do?"
We try to answer in a way that is clear and
socially acceptable. In the sales world however,
it goes well beyond the "Elevator Pitch." This is
not a simple introduction. This is your big chance
to make an impression and capture an audience.
To elevate your sales pitch there are three key
components that need clear, simple articulation
for your business, company or product:
Summary Description, Business Credibility,
and Value Proposition. If you can nail this down
in bulleted, streamlined talking points you will
have created the foundation for powerful, consis-
tent and effective sales communication that can
be used in a variety of settings as we will find out
in other rules in this section.

• Summary Description - develop a single sentence or two that summariz-
es specifically what your company or product does. Example: "XYZ Corp
produces software that reconstitutes how companies secure and protect
informational content in files, documents, and data stores."
• Business Credibility - specify the "bragging points" that give your
company or product credibility. Example: "We're the #1 Fastest Growing
Security Company" or "We've got four of the top Fortune 10 companies as
clients, or "Our technology has eight patents pending."
• Value Proposition - articulate what your product does for your target
audience in tangible terms. This is another overused and muddled term.
Value propositions specify the value that your customers obtain from your
product. Example: "Many of our customers experience a 20% reduction in
cost savings and a 30% increase in productivity within the first six months
of using our solution."
When marketing and sales leadership come together on a succinct de-
scription of the business, a clear articulation of key bragging points that
show the company and product is legitimate, and targeted value stories
that communicate what buyers can expect and experience from your
company or product, then the sales pitch is elevated. Careful attention
to these components results in effective sales communication.
Has your sales pitch been elevated?
Rule 25: Elevate Your Sales Pitch 65

R u l e
26 Develop a 20 to 40 Second
Speech
Credibility can be Do you know how long it takes to make a good

established in 20 (or bad) impression? Whether one is on the
to 40 seconds. phone or face-to-face, research shows that it
takes between 4 and 6 seconds. Do you know
how long it takes to establish credibility? 20 to 40
seconds. The problem with most salespeople is
that they don't take full advantage of the 20 to 40
seconds that people will give them. They may
make a strong impression in the first few
moments but then either talk too long or not long
enough. Many a salesperson has picked up the
telephone and said something like the following:
"Hi, this is Bob from Transco Techno-Wizard.
We're the premier provider of Techno-Wiz-
ards with offices in 27 countries. Our product
was voted best in class at the recent Techno
conference. Can I show you a demo?"
This is too short (10 seconds) and not over-
whelmingly interesting or compelling. This type
of approach would invariably lead to a "No
thanks, not today" response.
The 20–40 Second Speech is a simple
framework for a highly effective introductory
sales pitch. It builds off what was created in Rule
25.
Introduction–Who Am I and What Do We Do?
You've already created a Summary Description.
Use this after introducing yourself and your role.
This should be crafted to use powerful and
effective words that make a clear point.

Credibility–1 to 2 Bragging Points. Again, you've already created
bullets of "bragging points" that emphasize your quality and give you
credibility. It's okay to brag, only not too long. Only one or two items
here. At most three. Don't overdo it. They really don't care; they're only
being polite. But use the opportunity to strategically strut your stuff and
pass the sniff test.
Problems–One or two Problems Observed. This is the part that is
often left out by salespeople. Use this section to voice real problems
out there that others like your prospect are having. Of course, problems
that your product solves, without talking about your product. For
example: "Many executives tell us that consolidating operations and
costs while maintaining productivity is a key focus." The key here is to
think of common problems your target customers have and which your
product solves.
Transition–Open-Ended Question or Call to Action. Now end this
little speech and pass the ball over to the prospect to respond to your
question or call to action. For example: "I'm wondering if this is
something that you are facing too?" Or "I wanted to see if we could
meet for coffee and discuss what we've done for others like you."
Here's another way that Bob in our earlier example might have
conducted a 20–40 second speech:
(Intro) "Hi, this is Bob from Transco Techno-Wizard, an international
tech services firm.
(Credibility) We're the #1 worldwide distributor of Techno-Wizards,
the market-leading product recently voted best in class at the recent
Techno conference.
(Problems) In speaking to many customers, I'm often asked, "How can
I lower my technology costs while improving my overall IT perfor-
mance? That's a great question.
(Transition) Let me ask you, how are you doing in terms of managing
your IT spending in this challenging marketplace?"
This is not a script, but rather a framework for developing talking points
to optimize an introductory conversation and take full advantage of the
20 to 40 seconds most prospects will give you. By the way, use your
own good judgment on whether it's closer to 20 or 40 seconds. If the
prospect on the other end of the phone gruffly answers and growls
"Johnson speaking!"—you might want to go with the 20-second
version. In any event, you'll sound like a professional and give every
prospect a fair chance to understand you, your offering and what it
might do for them.
Do you have an effective 20 to 40 second introductory speech?
Rule 26: Develop a 20 to 40 Second Speech 67

R u l e
27 Live to Sell Another Day
…perhaps the Whether selling books door-to-door to Mrs.

situation may Jones or sophisticated hardware and software
change someday solutions to business enterprises, I always was
for your prepared to counter any response from my
non-interested prospects in early discussions. Sales is not
random. Preparation of anticipated situations is
prospect.
key.
Once past the introductory 20–40 Second
Speech (Rule 26), the prospect might respond to
you in one of three ways. In answering your
open-ended transition question the prospect
might say:
• "No, I'm not interested" or "This is not a good time"
(same thing)
• "That's not really my issue"
• "Okay, tell me more"
In all cases you should be positive and tactful.

After all, not everyone buys. There are lots of
other fish out there, and perhaps the situation
may change someday for your non-interested
prospect. As I always say: "Live to sell another
day." Let's address how you might respond to
each of these scenarios.
Not Interested - The first response of "not inter-
ested" requires a counter-response that explores
yet doesn't push it. You might respond by simply
saying "Okay, sounds like things are in pretty
good shape over there. I just wanted to introduce
myself to you. We've been quite successful with
others like you and thought it might make sense

to explore how what we've done for others might possibly work for you
and your firm." If they say, "Yes, well thank you for calling anyway." Say
a cordial goodbye and say you'll keep them on the list and check back
with them later in the year. Most people will not object to that. If they
say no to that, then peg them for a call in six months anyway. That
person may be gone or you might approach another party. Go to the
next prospect. Don't spend your time with non-interested people. Inci-
dentally, if they say that "It's not a good time" it's usually an excuse for
lack of interest or understanding. Offer to call back at another time and
try to set it up. You will most likely catch their voicemail, at which time
you simply give them a powerful 20–40 Second Speech as a voice
message.
Maybe - If the response to your open-ended question is "That's not my
problem or issue," then the door is open for you to explore and find out
just what is the problem. If you're prepared to discuss potentially five
or six problems that your target prospects have, again which you know
your product addresses, then you can just offer up another problem or
two until you find a hit or ask them outright. For example: "Bob, we're
dealing with a lot of companies working through a variety of challenges.
What are the top two issues that you're facing right now relative to your
IT environment?" You'll find this will further draw them out and then you
can respond and probe appropriately (See Rule 32 - Become a Probe
Master).
Yes - When the customer responds with any answer to your question
other than no, then you've got them engaged for next steps. Per your
developed sales process playbook (Rule 11) you will then proceed to
ask them appropriate questions about their situation and environment,
probing and qualifying as you carefully guide the conversation. You
might simply set them up for another phone call that will include
someone more senior or technical on your end, again per your sales
process. Or perhaps invite other people on their end. You are still in the
Initiation stage moving toward the Discover stage.
Manage yourself. Be crisp, clear and respectful. Ask natural explorato-
ry questions and respond as your natural inclinations take you. Your
confidence will shine through. There will be no pressure or angst on
either end of the phone. You have a product to sell; you are simply
giving people a fair chance to respond to it and letting the chips fall as
they may. Maintain professionalism and live to sell another day!
Are you effectively managing the conversation?
Rule 27: Live to Sell Another Day 69

R u l e
28 Manage Your Sales Email
What are some of We've all received the email from a salesperson
the keys for using that was too long or poorly written or both.
email for sales Perhaps you've written a few like that yourself.
communications? With the intent of communicating salient points
about a product or service, the writer gets carried
away with valid content and information that sup-
posedly will "sell" the product on merits and
value. Or what about the use of email to follow up
or communicate with prospects or customers
throughout the sales cycle? What are some of
the keys for using email for sales communica-
tions?
I've always believed in the double whammy: the
email and phone call, or the phone call and
email. I've thought a lot about how I personally
respond to salespeople. A salesperson would do
well to send an email introducing me to what they
are selling and then calling me. They should also
leave me a crisp 20–40 Second Speech voice
message linking their name to the email I
received that day or even a couple days earlier.
While there's no guarantee of a sale, their odds
go up considerably in getting my attention.
It's even more effective in getting me to
remember them if their email incorporates the
following three keys to email sales communica-
tions:
Keep it Short and Simple - Your sales email
should ideally be seen on one screen, not so
long that one has to scroll several times. This
applies to general sales email templates as well

as email follow-up and sales correspondence. People do not always
read every word. Sentences should be simple, key words should be
used, even bolded if appropriate. The 20–40 Second Speech even can
be used as a guiding framework to succinctly communicate with a
logical flow.
Keep it Personal and Professional - There is a line between our
personal and professional lives. A fine line that can be deftly crossed
to great effect when communicating with prospects and customers. If
in doubt, err on the side of keeping it professional. It's okay with friends
and some good comfortable customers, but with a few exceptions most
prospects don't really care about your new baby pictures or successful
sports exploits of your children. They do appreciate a human touch as
long as it is handled appropriately. It's okay to show a human side to
your email, but be respectful of your real purposes.
Keep it Reasonable and Relevant - Finally, your email correspon-
dences should relate to the issues at hand. I once received an email
on Good Friday from someone selling marketing services. He started
out his email by writing that "if I was like (him), then I too probably find
Good Friday boring." He went on to say that I should listen in on his
webinar featuring a marketing guru with him sharing great marketing
strategies. He struck me as a particularly tone deaf marketing expert.
While you might say it was relevant as it was sent just prior to Easter
weekend, the bold assumption that he wouldn't possibly offend a
certain percentage of his audience who took Good Friday seriously
was both unreasonable and ignorant.
Email communication can be powerfully effective if the writer is consci-
entious and wise. For the salesperson, it is critical that one pay extra
attention to detail and fundamental keys.
Are you effectively managing your sales emails?
Rule 28: Manage Your Sales Email 71

R u l e
29 Get Them to Call Back
It's not Effective salespeople get people to communi-

always easy. cate with them. It's not always easy. You leave a
message, send an email, then wait for some-
thing, anything that lets you know they know
you're there. But they've gone dark on you. It's
happened to all of us. It happens even more in
tough economic times. What's a salesperson to
do?
One thing to do is to be calm and realistic. There
are Three Reasons why people don't return your
calls:
• You're not compelling.
Sorry, but there's a very real chance that your
sales pitch or message is just not striking or com-
pelling enough for the prospect to respond.
Welcome to the sales club. It's not the end of the
world. Change your message if you're finding
people are consistently not responding to you.
• They're too busy.
This is most common as people are often interest-
ed but are tied up with other projects or issues.
Remember that other people have Top 10 lists or
even Top 20 lists. You might be #17. They'll get to
you eventually. The suggestions below will be
most helpful for these busy types.
• They're not interested.
There's a high likelihood that they are just not in-
terested in your product or service. Again, this is
not fatal. It happens all the time. Better to have a
"No" than a "Maybe" that will waste your time.

Here are some steps to increase the likelihood that prospects or
customers return your calls:
Develop a Compelling 20–40 Second Phone Message. Remember
in Rule 26 we learned to compose a powerful 20–40 Second Speech.
This can be easily adapted to a compelling phone message. There's a
logical flow to a crisp message/pitch that hooks one to listen, respect
and respond. Note: your email should have the same structure.
Follow up Appropriately. Don't give up too soon, but don't overdo it.
Place up to 4 calls over 2 weeks before moving on, or call back next
quarter, as appropriate. Keep track of the follow-up details in your
CRM. Many salespeople fall short here as they fail to stay systematic
in their territory sales activities.
Remember Not Everyone Buys. Some people/companies are just not
good prospects right now. Not everyone is ready to buy your products
now or potentially ever. But don't blow your chance to even possibly do
business with them in the future. Be gracious, professional, and "live to
sell another day." (Rule 27)
Are you getting them to call you back?
Rule 29: Get Them to Call Back 73

R u l e
30 Share a Great Testimonial
Effective A great salesperson will have a story to tell for

salespeople have every occasion. Not a story for a story's sake, but
good stories to a story that can be used as a testimonial at ap-
tell and tell them propriate points throughout the sales cycle.
quite well. Effective salespeople have good stories to tell
and tell them quite well.
Here's an example of a sales testimonial story:
A client had seven call centers providing out-
sourced services. They wanted to distribute in-
formation across the centers via screen pop-ups
without requiring software on each desktop.
There was a clear lack of IT integration between
the various call centers. With (product name)
providing real-time event notification, we inte-
grated with their existing browser application and
gave them a solution that was half the cost of any
alternative and deployed in 90 days. We rolled
out the application in four hours at each site
without disruption. The CIO told us it was the
smoothest implementation he'd ever seen.
There's a 5-point framework for telling a good
sales story. Let's break it down.
1. Who was the Client? Due to some confi-
dentiality agreements, you don't have to dis-
close the name of the client. You can simply
reference a customer or client:
A client…
2. What was the Situation? Simply describe
the situation and or problem that existed
which ultimately gets resolved by your solu-

tion:
...had 7 call centers providing outsourced services. They want-
ed to distribute information across the centers via screen pop-ups
without requiring software on each desktop.
3. Why was there a Problem? Specify why the problem existed.
This is an opportunity to describe an underlying cause to prob-
lems that the prospect might not have thought of before:
There was a clear lack of IT integration between the various call
centers.
4. How did You Solve It? Now briefly relate how your product re-
solved the problem:
With (product name) providing real-time event notification, we in-
tegrated with their existing browser application…
5. What was the Quantifiable Outcome? Finally, mention quanti-
fiable results from your solution. Insert a powerful quote if you can
as well:
…and gave them a solution that was half the cost of any alterna-
tive, deployed in 90 days.We rolled out the application in four
hours at each site without disruption. The CIO told us it was the
smoothest implementation he'd ever seen.
Good testimonial stories come in different sizes. You should have them
available at your ready disposal so you can tell a tale of various
lengths. The example shown here could be told in 30 seconds or one
could go on to tell a longer version up to two minutes long. The
effective salesperson is a storyteller. Have your stories ready.
Do you share good testimonial stories?
Rule 30: Share a Great Testimonial 75

Part VI
The Effective Sales
Meeting
The Keys to Mastering the Customer Sales
Call
Effective sales meetings with customers and
prospects require preparation and a repeatable
game plan that's proven, simple and memorable.
• Rule 31: Prepare the Call Box

• Rule 32: Become a Probe Master
• Rule 33: Qualify, Qualify, Qualify
• Rule 34: Make a Player Chart
• Rule 35: Develop an Executive Whiteboard
• Rule 36: Present Your Solution

Part IV: The Effective Sales Meeting 77
R u l e
31 Prepare the Call Box
There's power in A sales rep went into the meeting with the IT
thinking through Director. He had waited three weeks to get this
the upper and meeting after several calls and messages with
lower acceptable his assistant and the Director himself to arrange
limits of a their schedules. The meeting lasted 45 minutes;
the rep thought the call went well. The prospect
desired goal.
asked good questions about the product technol-
ogy and use cases. The rep asked good
questions about the prospect's IT environment
and experiences, wants and needs in the product
area. They parted with an agreement to meet
again in another week to see a more detailed
demonstration of the product and include some
other technical members on both sides. As he
walked to his car, the rep's heart sank as he
realized he never asked about the CIO or about
their budget situation.
Ever leave a sales call and realized that you
forgot to collect a very key piece of information or
make a particular point which you determined
was critical to progressing the sale? We all have.
Whether you label it forgetfulness or sloppiness,
either way it hinders your selling effort and is
completely avoidable.
I recommend a very powerful tool that takes
three minutes to prepare and can be done on a
piece of paper while waiting in the lobby, sitting
in the car, or awaiting a call at your desk. The
Call Box tool is all about forcing you to write
down key objectives and your expected results.
There is something magical about anticipating a
range of responses that will invariably better

prepare you for your meeting. You will never again forget key ques-
tions, points or objectives in a sales meeting. You will be crisper and
more professional than most salespeople.
Below is a Call Box. Simply draw a box grid as shown below:
Figure 6: A Call Box
Now think of the top three objectives for this meeting you're about to go
into. What are the Top 3 things you want to accomplish? You may have
more objectives, but use the Call Box to prioritize your Top 3. Here are
some examples:
• Get an org chart
• Find out the decision maker
• Find out their real pain
• Set up big meeting with CEO
• Invite them to sponsor event
• Agree to a beta or pilot
Now think of desired outcomes. For each of your three objectives, think
through what is the Best result and what would be the Least (that is,
Least Acceptable). For instance, regarding obtaining an organizational
chart, the best outcome would be receiving an entire company organi-
zational chart; the least might be just receiving a departmental org
chart or even a verbal overview. For finding the decision maker, the
best outcome would be getting the name, phone number and email; the
least acceptable might be simply getting the name. The point is that
you spend a few minutes before the call thinking through the key ob-
jectives that you'd like to achieve in the call. There's power in thinking
through the upper and lower acceptable limits of a desired goal. Now
you've got it in your notes. You can refer to it during the meeting and
at the end of the meeting and rest assured you'll never miss an
important sales call objective again.
How's your sales call preparation?
Rule 31: Prepare the Call Box 79

R u l e
32 Become a Probe Master
A fundamental The biggest mistake that sales reps make in

skill in effective sales meetings is mismanaging the discussion
selling is the flow and failing to appropriately extract enough
ability to draw in valuable information from the customer. This is
the customer easier said than done. A fundamental skill in
effective selling is the ability to draw in the
while you draw
customer while you draw out information.
out information. Mastering the art of the well-executed discovery
sales call is really about the asking of effective
probing questions that achieve these desired
results.
In a customer sales call or meeting, there's a
simple and easy to remember framework that will
keep you on a logical discussion/questioning
path to effective customer discovery. I teach
salespeople to interview prospects and
customers like a news reporter. Like a good in-
vestigative reporter, salespeople need to gather
basic foundational information, then further
explore the challenge or problem with probing
questions. There are four parts to the Probe
Master framework using the acronym N.E.W.S.
(see Figure 14 in Appendix A).
1. Now Questions - Information Gathering
About Current Situation: First, collect basic
background information about their current envi-
ronment, situation or status. For instance, when
I'm meeting a VP or CEO about a possible sales
training or sales consulting engagement, my
"Now" questions are as follows: How many sales
reps do you have? How many hit their quota last
quarter or year? Are they direct or indirect? What

is their typical profile? If I'm selling software, my "Now" questions might
be: How many users in the organization? What's your current IT envi-
ronment? I need basic data to get "the lay of the land." This is relatively
straightforward and easy. Most reps do this fairly well.
2. Explore Questions - Problem Finding: These are open-ended
questions meant to uncover key challenges that your customer/pros-
pect is facing. Questions like: What are your top three departmental
challenges? What do you look for in ____? What's the biggest issue
relative to ____? What would you like to achieve this quarter? The key
at this point is to resist the very strong temptation to talk about your
product. Remember Rule 3! Many reps cannot resist and end up diving
into a product discussion before full discovery is done. Hang on tight
and move to the next level of questioning.
3. Why Questions - Problem Understanding: In response to the
answers to your previous exploratory questions, respond with natural
curiosity as to the reasons for the challenges, issues and problems.
Understand the Why (and the Who, What, When, Where and How)
behind the problem. Questions like: What do you mean? Why is that?
What's going on? What's keeping you from getting there? How are you
dealing with that? Are those goals achievable? Who's mostly
impacted? The questions here are about finding the important details
and implications of the problems and issues uncovered earlier.
Note: It will be very difficult to resist jumping in and blurting "Our
XB1000 Fillibration Oxydizer can reduce that problem by 37% because
of our patented hydrogenic biospherous lint de-processor engine."
Please do resist. You should simply say, "I believe we might be able to
help you. Before getting to that, I'd like to ask you a few more ques-
tions." Then go right back into asking more exploratory and under-
standing questions until you have gathered ample data. Now proceed
to the last step.
4. Summary - Reiterate and Confirm Observations. Finally,
summarize what you've heard and gain confirmation. You may
conclude that you need to meet again and include other parties, or
come back with further information, or proceed to the next stage of the
process such as a demonstration or product pilot.
Bottom line: if you follow these Probe Master steps you will present
yourself as a good and careful listener who asks pertinent questions,
who's not pushy with a solution, and who diagnoses before prescribing
a fix. These are all very good impressions to leave with a prospect/cus-
tomer. You will have successfully drawn them in while you've drawn out
information. (By the way, these techniques will help in personal rela-
tionships too!)
Are you a Probe Master?
Rule 32: Become a Probe Master 81

R u l e
33 Qualify, Qualify, Qualify
Early in all sales In addition to good probing skills during the early
situations, know stages of the sales cycle, qualification skills are
the Who, What, fundamental to effective selling. Many a deal has
When, Where, moved down the sales cycle commanding
Why and How. people resources, time and money only to find
that the prospect is not fully qualified. I find this a
problem in even the most technically savvy and
sophisticated Silicon Valley enterprise sales or-
ganizations. In our rush to sell and close, we
make qualification assumptions only to be
surprised later. Like the "Location, Location,
Location" mantra in the real estate industry,
"Qualify, Qualify, Qualify" is a fundamental
principle in effective selling.
In terms of sales prospect qualification, early in
all sales situations, know the Who, What, When,
Where, Why and How. A simple way to track all
aspects of effective qualification is to simply
track those Six Qualifying points. Let's break it
down.
1. Who are the People and Competition? You
need to understand who are the key contacts
that will affect the sale. Rule 34 "Make a Player
Chart" will dig into this deeper. Additionally, you
need to understand who you're up against com-
petitively. Key questions to ask to uncover this
during discovery/probing calls are:
• What's the process for making a decision on this
and who would be involved?
• Who are the other companies you are talking to
and what's your decision criteria for vendor selec-
tion?

2. What is the Opportunity? You the sales person need to be asking
yourself just what is the real opportunity here. Is there a defined
project? Is there an application fit? Is there a compelling event on
which you can capitalize? Additionally, you must think of the applica-
tion of your various product offerings, and even consider whether the
opportunity is too small or beyond your firm's capacity.
3. When is the Date? Every deal has a time-frame for evaluation,
decision making, and implementation. Here are some questions to
draw this out:
• What is the time-frame?
• What is the target date for a decision?
• What is the implementation date?
4. Where is the Money? Critical to effective qualification of any sales
opportunity is the understanding of the existence and source of funds.
A few key questions:
• Do you have a budget identified?
• What is the budget process and who would be involved?
• (if they have no budget) What's the process for obtaining funds for a
project like this and who would be involved?
5. Why the Buy? Beneath the surface of every deal are the real under-
lying motivations and reasons driving the decision making. Consumer
buying decisions focus on Product Features, Quality, Service, Cost
and Brand. Business buying decisions focus on the Vendor, Product
and Services, Price/Cost and ROI, Time, and potentially even the
Sales Person. In both consumer or business deals there are typically
two of these elements that bubble up as priorities. The way to draw this
out is to ask the following question:
• What is your key decision criteria?
• What's most important to you?
6. How Do They Buy? Finally, every company has a process by which
they buy. This process includes key people and the power players. By
asking the following question you can determine valuable information
that will help you throughout the rest of the sales cycle:
• What's the process for making a decision and who would be involved?
Qualifying an opportunity is not done with sequential questions or nec-
essarily in one sales call. Effective qualification is usually done over a
series of conversations in the first few stages of the sales process.
These six qualification points, easily remembered as Who, What,
When Where, Why and How questions, are difference makers in
effective selling.
Are you a Qualify Master?
Rule 33: Qualify, Qualify, Qualify 83

R u l e
34 Make a Player Chart
A visual mapping In every sales transaction there are various

of the key people with whom you interact. They include
contacts in a low-level staff, mid-level managers, senior exec-
complex sale can utives, people in finance, procurement or pur-
be invaluable. chasing departments, technical evaluators,
end-users and decision makers. If you've ever
received professional sales training in your
career you know that it's important to know the
key buyers, influencers, users and champions in
any sales opportunity. Our CRM systems help us
keep track of these contacts; however, there's
more that can be done to avoid the common
mistake of mismanaging the "players" at a pros-
pect/customer account.
The Player Chart works off the very simple
concept that key contacts at prospect accounts
can be tracked based on their Position and
Status as well as their Attitudes and Percep-
tions. Every contact has a title or position in their
organization ranging from "junior" to "senior."
Likewise they also have certain mindsets about
our products and service offerings ranging from
"negative" to "positive." On a simple 4-square
quadrant these contacts can be placed on an ap-
propriate position on the chart. A visual view of
the mapping of the key contacts in a complex
sale can be invaluable. Below is a sample of a
Player Chart.

Figure 7: A Sample of a Player Chart
Typically in any complex sale there are various roles that get played
such as decision maker, executive, influencer, champion, even an-
ti-champion. You might label these contacts differently or include users
and evaluators or economic buyers on some other terms you favor.
Simply take the people you're engaged with and place them on the
chart per their position/status and their attitudes/perceptions.
This particular chart shows five players. Victor is the Decision Maker
(DM) whom we have not met. We don't necessarily know his thoughts
about us. Bob is the Executive (E), perhaps our board member knows
him personally but we have not leveraged that relationship yet. Mark is
an Influencer (I) who at this point is neutral. Mary is a strange one in
that she was at the first meeting, but has not been engaged in subse-
quent meetings and the product demonstration. She is actually an An-
ti-Champion (AC) and you will eventually find out that she is tight with
your competitor and is pushing for a review of their product. Aaron is
your Champion (C). He loves you and your product. You spend a lot of
time with him as he's helping you maneuver through this organization.
The Player Chart is very revealing. In our example, you can see once
it's on paper, we actually have lots of work to do. We really only have
Aaron on our side. It's clear that we need to garner more senior support
for this project. We should clearly see that there's an opportunity to
contact Bob, perhaps to get to Victor if Aaron can't get us there directly.
We need to cultivate Mark and re-engage Mary, perhaps conduct a
further discovery call with her to understand what's really driving her.
Fortunately, new generation software is building this functionality into
playbook tools for managing sales opportunities.But a Player Chart is
very powerful and can be simply created with paper and pencil. Keep
it simple, honest, and get a clear picture of where you really stand
relative to your deal's key players. The Player Chart works.
Can you chart your customer's "players?"
Rule 34: Make a Player Chart 85

R u l e
35 Develop an Executive
Whiteboard
A sales rep with a The sales rep was in the customer's office for
well-crafted their first meeting. The rep had skillfully probed
Executive and qualified the account with questions that
Whiteboard is a gathered quite a bit of data and useful informa-
beautiful thing. tion about the account situation and where
problems and issues existed. The rep offered up
a provocative statement about the state of the
industry relative to new issues of compliance and
security management control. Then he motioned
to the whiteboard and asked, "May I use your
whiteboard?' The customer nodded and then
further engaged with the rep over the next 20
minutes as the rep used the whiteboard as a
powerful platform to describe the customer's and
marketplace challenges with a helpful framework
for considering solutions. The meeting ended
with the customer considering the rep of signifi-
cant higher caliber than his predecessor and
thinking to himself as he walked him to the door
how helpful and enlightening this sales call had
actually been.
Very few salespeople utilize the powerful tool of
the Executive Whiteboard. The concept is
simple. First, let's define what it is:
• An executive-level "chalk talk"
• A physical diagram or drawn on a whiteboard
• A logical, visual guide of a conversation
• A vehicle to demonstrate thought-leadership
• A presentation of current state of challenges
• A method to draw out executive response

For example, one company selling anti-virus software to lower level
people in IT departments decided to train the sales team to initiate
higher level discussions by developing a "whiteboard" conversation.
The following is the visual that salespeople were trained to use as a
sales call discussion guide.
Figure 8: A Sample Executive Whiteboard
The objective is to identify and discuss real business challenges (Se-

curity/Anti-Virus, Application Integration, and Legal Compliance) that
current customers are facing. In this example, the focus is communica-
tions between companies and their customers and partners. The use
of email, the web, and instant messaging (IM) are all channels of com-
munications that present new levels of business challenges. After
physically laying the visual on a whiteboard (or piece of paper in front
of the customer), the sales rep can simply ask the customer, "So what
are the biggest challenges for your organization?"
Getting the customer to engage in "checking off the boxes" with you
results in a very strong sales call that reinforces your consultative
presence, business knowledge and sales professionalism. You'll
notice that there is really no focus on your product offering, only on
business challenges. If you can establish your credibility and under-
standing of the customer's issues first through effective probing and
engaging "big picture" discussions of high-level problems, then you are
set up to steer the discussion to solutions that address them. A rep with
a well-crafted Executive Whiteboard is a beautiful thing.
Can you conduct an Executive Whiteboard discussion?
Rule 35: Develop an Executive Whiteboard 87

R u l e
36 Present Your Solution
On this topic, As one progresses through the sales cycle, the

effectiveness customers will want to see, touch or try out the
comes from being product or your recommendation. Effectively
deliberate, managing your product presentation will help you
cautious and steer clear of common traps and move you and
your customer toward the close.
professional.
A product demonstration or solution presentation
can actually arise in the first three stages of the
sales cycle (Rule 10):
Preliminary Demo–Stage 1 or Stage 2. This is
common with products that can be downloaded
or sent via links or easily discussed and shown
while talking to a customer on the phone. This
can either be pre-qualification for continuing dis-
cussions, or in some cases (simple products) a
purchase may result immediately.
Do not confuse this Preliminary Demo with the
Stage 3 Full Demonstration. In many software
sales situations, a common mistake is to send a
quote out after a preliminary demonstration
thinking that you've got a hot one that's "ready to
close." You're missing out on the opportunity to
fully understand the customer's needs.
Remember, it's not about your product, it's about
the customer (Rules 3 and 4).
Full Demonstration–Stage 3. This is a
scheduled meeting (via web conference or
face-to-face) often involving technical sales
engineers or product support individuals who can
demonstrate the product for the prospects and
address technical questions. With good prior dis-

covery, this demonstration should be well-tailored for the customer and
their application of your solution.
There should really be no surprises for you or the customer during this
type of demonstration. If you've done the right discovery and qualifica-
tion then you've uncovered the issues, challenges, problems and
reasons and can align those with your solution. If this meeting is not set
up well, then you end up with technical teams on both ends drilling
down about technical issues that may derail the sales cycle. Have the
right people in the room and objectives clear. If not, this meeting may
best be postponed.
"Dog and Pony Show" Presentation–Stage 3 or Stage 4. This is the
big one. Many customers will invite the vendor finalists to come in and
present a full presentation of their offerings. In this one the full evalua-
tion team should be invited, including key executives and decision
makers. This is the opportunity to shine and professionally lay out your
tailored solution for their business challenges. Again, this is not about
your product; it's about the customer's issues.
Carefully manage the meeting flow. A classic agenda is as follows:
• Introductions–all in the room, you and the audience. Some will be
meeting you for the first time.
• Agenda Review–mutually built and confirmed.
• Business Problem Review–what you've learned through discovery and
how you plan to address with your solution.
• Product/Solution Presentation–live and now customized demonstration
or screenshots of application, with relevant stories and tailored comments
for customer issues and challenges.
• Closing Meeting–immediate strong request for response from attendees,
"Robert, what do you like about what you've seen today?" (Note: not what
do you think, but what do you like. This will prompt a truer response in a
public setting and let you know how you stand.) As you leave, confirm the
specific next steps such as "Jim, let's schedule a time next week where I
will return and review our written proposal with you."
As shown, the managing of your product presentation is not a simple

matter of demonstrating your product. On this topic, effectiveness
comes from being deliberate, cautious and professional.
How well are you presenting your solution?
Rule 36: Present Your Solution 89

Part VII
The Effective Close
Mastering the Final Stages of Your Sales
Process
Effective sales closing is a function of effective
sales cycle management and professional and
diligent sales practices. There are no short-cuts,
only wisdom, hard work and personal integrity.
• Rule 37: Become a Close Master

• Rule 38: Map a Problem Chart
• Rule 39: Use a Customer Decision Plan
• Rule 40: Propose Like a Pro
• Rule 41: Negotiate to Close
• Rule 42: These are My Rules. What are Yours?

Part IV: The Effective Close 91
R u l e
37 Become a Close Master
Closing is no The closing of the sale is one of the most misun-

more or less than derstood aspects of effective selling. We often
the final picture the quintessential salesman strong-arm-
culmination of a ing a customer with manipulative tactics or
well-executed sleazy persuasion; or the hyper salesman "going
for the close." I once had a manager tell me he
sales process.
simply taught his team the "ABC Method of
Sales." I asked him to elaborate and he said that
it's all about "Always Be Closing." I felt like
saying that he sounded so "1980's." Closing is no
more or less than the final culmination of a
well-executed sales process. You know when
you're there; there should be no surprises or ma-
nipulative techniques necessary.
The Close is about resolution and commitment. It
is not about tricks, gimmicks and manipulations.
Think of it this way: all sales opportunities end up
in one of three results. They 1) stall or remain
status quo (nothing happens), 2) go to competi-
tion, or 3) they close in your favor. What an
effective sales rep does is determine as soon as
possible which way the deal is going. As the deal
moves through the sales cycle there are check
points that give one indications that there is still
a green light. As each milestone is achieved or
hurdle resolved, there is an implicit and explicit
commitment to move forward. The effective
sales rep is sensitive to these all along the path.

There are five prerequisites for a deal to close: Authority, Solution,
Urgency, Value and Need. Next to each of these listed below is a cor-
responding question that directly ties back to what we learned about
qualifying in Rule 33.
• Authority (Who has it and How are decisions made?)
• Solution (What solution is viable and compelling?)
• Urgency (When is this necessary?)
• Value (Where is the money to justify the value?)
• Need (Why is this really being considered?)
If there are any shortcomings in these prerequisites then a deal will not
close. If there is any lack of knowledge or understanding to the quali-
fying questions associated with these prerequisites, then a deal will be
inaccurately forecasted. This is why we emphasize with sales teams to
not go past the line (see diagram below) between Stage 2 and Stage 3
until you have fully qualified the opportunity.
Figure 9: Mastering the Close
Sometimes you will lose to competition, for a variety of reasons beyond

your control. But if a deal is stalled or not closing, there is something
going on. It is invariably because one or more of the stated prerequi-
sites have been missed. This is always tied to some flaw in the qualifi-
cation and discovery process. If you want to close more deals, Qualify
and conduct Discovery more thoroughly. The following Rules in this
final section will augment these Closing fundamentals with tools that
support the professional and effective close.
Are you a Close Master?
Rule 37: Become a Close Master 93

R u l e
38 Map a Problem Chart
When done well, For any department in any industry there are
the effective sales known challenges or problems. For instance, IT
rep will reveal a departments are constantly seeking seamless
tapestry of applications and reducing costs of operation.
inter-related Finance departments seek streamline processes
that still meet regulatory requirements with fiscal
issues
restraint. Marketing seeks well-run programs
and causes. that meet the needs of the organization and
produce tangible results in customer acquisition,
revenue effect and customer satisfaction. If you
think it through, you can come up with stock
problems, challenges and issues that are a given
for each target department to which we are
selling. Now let's go beyond that and use it for
real effective selling and closing.
There are three fundamental truths about our
prospects and customers.
• They have Goals—these are company-wide, di-
visional, departmental, and personal.
• They have Problems—there are obstacles
(problems) that are keeping them from achieving
their Goals.
• There are Reasons—behind every problem are
reasons they exist; some are evident, while others
are hidden.
It's the job of the effective salesperson to fully un-

derstand the customer's goals, existing business
problems and challenges, as well as the reasons
and causes of those issues. Once again, the im-
portance of good discovery with effective probing
questions (Rule 32) cannot be over-emphasized.

Recall that "Now" and "Exploratory" questions about the current envi-
ronment, situation and challenges will begin to outline the goals and
problems in an organization. "Why" questions probe into the reasons
why and how these issues impact the organization. When done well,
the effective sales rep will reveal a tapestry of inter-related issues and
causes. This is all the better for applying your solution as a potential fix.
In this probing and discovery process you can begin to map out a
Problem Chart as shown in the sample below.
Figure 10: A Sample of a Problem Chart
You can start a Problem Chart with standard broad-level problems and
reasons that we know from experience in various industries. You can
then tailor this to reflect the specific Key Players (Rule 34) with whom
you are engaging. The important connection to make is the inter-rela-
tionships that these problems have across the various departments.
They also will reveal the differing perspectives on the problems you are
uncovering. You, as effective salesperson, will be seen to be wise and
knowledgeable about various facets of the organizations. As you work
through the final stages of the sale you will be armed with valuable
fodder for your executive presentation, proposal write-up and closing
negotiations.
Can you develop a customer Problem Chart?
Rule 38: Map a Problem Chart 95

R u l e
39 Use a Customer Decision

Plan
This now There were five vendors competing for the

becomes a business of a billion dollar organization. The
mutually solutions were similar but one vendor stuck out
important like a sore thumb and won the business. The
working sales rep was able to differentiate herself from
the others in a subtle yet powerfully effective way
document
—she developed and used a Customer
throughout the Decision Plan.
sales cycle.
As discussed in Rule 33, one of the most
effective questions in qualifying an opportunity
and finding out the key players and deci-
sion-making process is as follows: "What's the
process for making a decision on this and who
would be involved?" Another key qualifying
question is in uncovering information about the
budget: "What's the budget process and who
would be involved?" Both of these questions
utilize the magic word "Process." Again, every
customer has a Process by which they do things.
The amazing thing about this word is that when
you use it in a powerful question as stated the
customers melt and start telling you everything
you'd want to know about their internal process-
es. It's like they're so happy to tell someone
about that which they know so well and work
within. Try it; again you'll be struck by the
uncanny power of the "P" word.
In your early Stage Two discussions, while
you're conducting discovery and qualification,
take good notes on the decision-making and

budgetary processes they describe. This becomes the content for your
Customer Decision Plan.
The Customer Decision Plan is a statement of the sequence of
events or activities throughout the sales cycle, as articulated by the
customer and discussed with the rep. These are work items or tasks
that need to get done, meetings that need to happen, introductions to
be made, milestones and dates that are known or need to be estab-
lished, and finally decision-making dates and the implementation
time-table. The following is an example of a Decision Plan:
Figure 11: An Example of a Decision Plan
These plans can be informally stated in an email, a document or a

spreadsheet. It is to be sent to your key contact and hopefully Cham-
pion/Executive for input and approval. This now becomes a mutually
important working document throughout the sales cycle.
The sales rep selling to that billion-dollar organization used this method
in articulating back to the key contact all that had been discussed
relative to the decision-making and budgeting processes. From the
very first meeting, this rep stood out amongst her competitive peers in
her professionalism, thoroughness, and listening skills. The key
customer contact said that she held him accountable for each
milestone and in essence helped him "keep the project on track and do
his job well." With a Decision Plan as a consistent guide, she effectively
closed a significant contract with this significant customer.
Are you utilizing a Customer Decision Plan?
Rule 39: Use a Customer Decision Plan 97

R u l e
40 Propose Like a Pro
You will never go So when does the proposal really come into
wrong if you play? You may have given out pricing informa-
capture best tion, or at least a price range early in your discus-
practices sions. Now what is the appropriate way to
and then propose your solution? When do you use the
standard 12-page boilerplate document versus
institutionalize
something less formal? How do you avoid the
them. common mistake salespeople make when it
comes to sending out proposals?
Most companies have a corporate proposal
template. I find that most of these templates are
non-current and verbose. There is a time for the
boilerplate document, or at least some pages
from it, but the effective rep carefully streamlines
this proposal template to be something that he or
she can stand behind and accurately reflects the
professionalism they themselves project.
As a rule, I always go to the top producing reps
and ask them for their two versions of proposals
and at least two versions of their email cover
notes. Every good rep has at least two versions,
a short and long version that they have cobbled
together over time. By asking up to three reps for
their versions, I can capture the best practices
and begin to see how they are presenting to the
outside world. I will always find one that has it
nailed; that is, they have captured and honed the
optimized short and long versions. If I'm a new
rep, then copy their tactics. If I'm a VP or consult-
ant, I then work to institutionalize these versions

and find out from marketing or sales leadership where we went astray.
You will never go wrong if you capture best practices and then institu-
tionalize them.
There are four key points to understand in proposing to customers:
1. Preliminary Proposals are Good - In many cases it is absolutely
appropriate to give a preliminary quote to a prospect while still
early in the sales cycle (Stage 1 or 2). Give a broad range. I've
answered the proverbial question "How much will this cost?" with
the following: "Well, it depends—we have customers spending a
few thousand to up over six figures. Do you have a budget iden-
tified?" Their response will dictate whether they are in the ball
park of an opportunity to pursue.
2. People Like Options - In both preliminary verbal quotes or par-
ticularly in informal written quote ranges, people respond well to
options. Good-Better-Best; Small-Medium-Large; A-B-C.;
Low-Medium-High. You can easily present a range of prices that
essentially keep you in the game while hopefully drawing out the
prospect's budget leanings and attraction toward either the low or
high end.
3. Deliver in Person or Review on the Phone - One way to lose
control of the sales cycle is to hand over a proposal by sending it
in an email or direct mail. Ever send one out and then have the
customer go quiet on you and disappear? Best practice is to set
up a customer office meeting or phone call in which you explain
and review your proposal section by section. Many a deal has
gone awry because a proposal has not been fully read or under-
stood.
4. Don't Deliver Your Proposal Before it's Time - A common mis-
step is to deliver a proposal too soon after only a brief conversa-
tion or two. Be conscious of your sales process. You may think
you have enough to go on to deliver a quote. Maybe. But in a
more complex sale you must go through your sales process pac-
es to fully discover and uncover all you will need to understand
and prepare a comprehensive proposal of substance. I've seen
too many reps send out quotes before due diligence is complete
and end up with a stalled deal, or a lost deal because their com-
petitor managed the process more professionally.
Be a professional in all aspects of the sale. Proposals do matter. With
attention to detail you too can propose like a pro.
Do you propose like a professional?
Rule 40: Propose Like a Pro 99

R u l e
41 Negotiate to Close
Sales A final aspect to effective closing is negotiation.

negotiations need This is another area that is often misconstrued as
not be both salespeople and customers believe they
contentious or must dig in their heels to protect themselves from
Machiavellian. being "out-negotiated." Sales negotiations need
not be contentious or Machiavellian. One must
be on top of their game and be conscious that all
negotiations are toward closure. However, the
effective salesperson thinks of the other side and
behaves with dignity and respect for themselves
and their customer. There is no dishonesty or
win-lose mentality. There is only a win for both
sides after carefully considering both sides of the
equation.
Good sales negotiations move through a natural
4-Step Process. By clearly understanding and
anticipating these steps and when to deploy
them, the effective rep wisely negotiates all
through the sales process. These steps also
apply to a specific scheduled negotiation
session, for instance, with purchasing or legal
departments.
1. Understanding Issues and Objectives -
This is really an offshoot of all the good dis-
covery that is done in the early sales stag-
es. By careful listening and note-taking and
use of Problem and Decision-Making tools,
the rep should be armed with a clear under-
standing of all the issues on the table for
both sides. Knowing that often both sides do
not view issues the same way, it is best to

compile a pertinent list of key variables. Sample variables are:
price/budget, qualify, time-frame, support, packing, utilization,
product features and project application.
2. Analysis and Clarification - Again, prior sales meetings draw
out key answers to well-asked questions. In a negotiation meet-
ing, there is the give and take of questioning and the seeking of
clarification. There may be a break for both sides to evaluate and
assess their positions. At this point it is helpful for analysis to be
able to stack-rank the issue variables from your perspective as
well as how you believe the other side would rank them.
3. Resistance and Compromise - It is to be expected that some re-
sistance will arise and therefore a need for compromise. Antici-
pate the range of tolerance for both parties. For instance, think
through your "walk-away" point and consider what theirs would
be. Also, consider your "best deal" scenario as well as their "best
deal" scenario. By doing so you will realize how difficult these ne-
gotiations may be and what it might take to reach a compromise.
4. Settlement and Confirmation - When the deal is finalized, do
not gloat or mope. The deal is done. If you've done the right job
in preparation and understanding of the issues and variables on
both sides, you should be able to put together a deal that makes
sense for all. As in non-business relationships and dealings, it is
considerably better to lose a little bit on the negotiation table and
keep the relationship, than to lose the relationship and win the li-
on's share of the deal.
Again, as we stated way back in Rule 2, It's Not About You. Clearly in
sales negotiations you do want the best deal possible, but not at the
expense of your reputation or the goodwill and favor of your customer.
The most successful negotiations are those that make both sides feel
like winners. Again, take the high road and live to sell another day. You
will sleep better, you'll gain the respect of your customers and peers,
and you'll know you've done the right thing in the treatment of others.
In my book you will have increased your sales effectiveness.
Are you effective in your sales negotiations?
Rule 41: Negotiate to Close 101

R u l e
42 These are My Rules. What

are Yours?
You've got There is less than five minutes left in the 4th
the template. quarter of a high school championship football
game. The score is tied 7-7. The All-American
tailback catches the punt at the 50-yard line and
returns the ball to the 5-yard line. On
first-and-goal the quarterback in the huddle calls
for a "Pop Right"—a play in which he takes the
snap from center, turns to the right and hands the
ball off to the team's All League fullback who
dives into the gap between the right guard and
right tackle. The play is stopped cold for no gain.
On second-down the quarterback calls the same
play. This time the fullback runs to the three-yard
line.
It's now third-and-goal. With the clock running,

the quarterback calls for a "Pop Left"—the same
identical play except to the left side of the line. As
they approach the line of scrimmage, the left
guard glances at the left tackle and they both nod
their heads, as if to signal "it's now our turn." As
the left guard gets into his 3-point stance he
recalls all the blocking fundamentals that have
been ingrained into his head by his coaches for
many hours over years of practice. Stay low,
explode into your man, drive the legs, dig, dig,
dig, don't stop until the whistle blows….

When I think about it, I can still smell the grass as I lay face down in it,
my chest across the goal line, that All-League fullback lying over my
shoulder holding the ball. I was the left guard. We scored the touch-
down. We won the game. We won the championship.
Like all those football blocking fundamentals, this book has included
tools, concepts and fundamentals for effective selling and sales man-
agement. It's really on you, the reader, to pull this all together as ap-
propriate and apply it to the big tasks in front of you. In many cases,
much is at stake, even more than high school championship games.
The clear memory I have was the flashing across my mind, at the exact
moment of truth, all that I had learned and practiced to make me
effective at that needed time. May it be so for you as well with all that
is in this book. May you step up to the occasion and implement all tools
and fundamentals necessary for you to be at your best, to sell and
execute effectively and successfully in your own high stakes game. I'll
be cheering for you.
This book has broken down the key areas of sales effectiveness. From
the Effective Sales Perspective, Process, Salesperson, Territory Man-
agement, Communication, Sales Meeting, and Close, these rules
apply for both salespeople and managers alike. You should re-read
these rules and recalibrate them appropriately for your own environ-
ment.
You've got the template. Now rewrite or make your own rules. Let's
start a discussion. Join me and my blog at
www.42rules.com/michaelgriego.
Rule 42: These are My Rules. What are Yours? 103

Appendix
A Diagrams
Figure 12: A Documented Sales Process

Figure 13: A 360 o Account Snapshot
Figure 14: The Probe Master
Appendix A: Diagrams 105

A u t h o r
About the Author
Michael Griego is president of MXL Partners, a

sales consulting firm providing organizational sales
training and strategic sales management and
coaching services.
Michael conducts executive, sales and sales
management consulting and training services for
companies around the world. He brings over 28
years of practical high-technology sales and sales
management experience to his clients. He has held
sales and executive management positions with
IBM Corporation, XL-Datacomp/StorageTek,
Dataquest/Gartner Group, Zona Research/
Intelliquest, Active Decisions and Workshare.
Michael has conducted sales training and
consulting services for a wide range of companies
from Fortune 500 firms to early-stage start-ups in
Silicon Valley. He's a popular corporate and CEO
summit keynote speaker and guest lecturer at
leading business schools including Stanford's
Graduate School of Business. Michael has a BA
from Occidental College and an MBA from Stanford
University. He has been married to his wife,
Debbie, for 33 years. They have three children and
reside in Mountain View, California.

Author 107
Your Rules
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Start today by completing a book proposal at our
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Your Rules 109
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This collection of
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More Praise for 42 Rules to Increase Sales Effectiveness
"Mike Griego provides a practical guide for the sales professional. His 42 Rules
offer a methodology that take the mystery out of sales success and will most
certainly increase sales effectiveness."
Richard Schultz, VP WW Sales, Sensage
"Mike Griego has the gift of turning the complex world of sales into a
remarkably simple and results oriented approach. This is a must read!"
Brian Golter, CEO, Brian Golter & Associates
"Mike has a down-to-earth business approach that really delivers results.
Simply put, his rules work and his book puts it all together in one place. This is
an important book for any one looking to increase sales and profitability."
David White, President, SC Palo Alto
"This is a must read for CEO's and sales professionals. I've worked with Mike
—his strategic insights and practical approach return great value."
Barbara Angius, Managing Director, Accelent Consulting
"42 gems that any entrepreneur can use to build the company of their dreams.
Customer-centered, old-fashioned proven strategies meet new school with a
twist. Easy to read and filled with inspiring examples that break down the
secrets of Mike's unbelievable sales success."
Natasha Deganello Giraudie, CEO Founder, Songline
"This book is most definitely a valuable read! It is chocked full of insightful
nuggets of information that every salesperson will find beneficial."
Amie Chilson, Real Estate Broker
"The perfect guide for all salespeople who are hungry for repeatable success!
An excellent well written guide that de-mystifies the process for repeatable
sales success!"
Chris Holmes, VP Business Development
"Mike has written the essential book for modern sales professionals. His book
provides practical, actionable and effective techniques guaranteed to increase
the performance of your sales team. This book is not an academic exercise but
the hard won lessons of a true sales professional. A must read for those
interested in achieving sales excellence in these challenging times."
David Green, CEO, Creative-Spark, Inc.
Books 113
"We are now using Mike and his successful sales approach. It is great to now
add this Best Practice Guide to our Sales Tool Kits."
John Ruggles, SVP Global Sales, Frost & Sullivan
"Mike shares a lifetime of successful sales, sales management and sales
training experience and encapsulates it into one extremely practical guide to
effective sales."
Craig Olson, VP Marketing

Books 115

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What is the book about?

What is the book about?

What are some of the rules discussed in the book?

What are some of the rules discussed in the book?

42 Rules to

2nd Edition: January 2013

All terms mentioned in this book that are known to be trademarks or

Warning and Disclaimer

Foreword Foreword by Mark Leslie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Part I The Effective Sales Perspective . . . . . . .6

Rule 1 Rules Are Meant To Be Broken. . . . . . . . . . . 8

Rule 2 It's Not About You . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Rule 3 It's Not About Your Product . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Rule 4 It's All About Your Customer . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Rule 5 It's Also All About Revenue . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Part II The Effective Sales Process . . . . . . . . .18

Rule 6 Target Your Customer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Rule 7 Know How Your Customer Buys . . . . . . . . 22

Rule 8 Know How Your Customer Makes

Rule 9 Develop Your Customer's Buying

Rule 10 Develop Your Optimized Sales Process . . 28

Rule 11 Create a Playbook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

Part III The Effective Salesperson . . . . . . . . . . .32

42 Rules to Increase Sales Effectiveness (2nd Edition) vii

Rule 14 Make a 10-5-2-Do List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

Rule 15 Measure Activity Metrics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

Rule 16 Develop Your Success Formula. . . . . . . . . . 42

Rule 17 Keep Score with a Scorecard . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

Rule 18 Reading Makes Perfect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

Part IV Effective Territory Management . . . . . . 48

Rule 19 Prioritize Your Accounts and

Rule 20 Develop a Territory Attack Plan . . . . . . . . . . 52

Rule 21 Develop a 360o Account Snapshot . . . . . . . 54

Rule 22 Upgrade Your Account Management . . . . . 56

Rule 23 Manage Your Channels. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

Rule 24 Master Your 30-60-90 Day Forecast. . . . . . . 60

Part V Effective Sales Communication . . . . . . 62

Rule 25 Elevate Your Sales Pitch. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

Rule 26 Develop a 20 to 40 Second Speech . . . . . . . 66

Rule 27 Live to Sell Another Day . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68

Rule 28 Manage Your Sales Email . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70

Rule 29 Get Them to Call Back . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72

Rule 30 Share a Great Testimonial . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74

Part VI The Effective Sales Meeting . . . . . . . . . 76

Rule 32 Become a Probe Master. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80

Rule 33 Qualify, Qualify, Qualify. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82

Rule 34 Make a Player Chart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84

Rule 35 Develop an Executive Whiteboard . . . . . . . 86

Rule 36 Present Your Solution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88

Part VII The Effective Close. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .90

Rule 37 Become a Close Master . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92

Rule 38 Map a Problem Chart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94

Rule 39 Use a Customer Decision Plan . . . . . . . . . . 96

Rule 40 Propose Like a Pro. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98

Rule 41 Negotiate to Close . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100

Rule 42 These are My Rules. What are Yours? . . . 102

Appendix A Diagrams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104

Author About the Author. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106

Your Rules 42 Rules Program. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108