Sales Reinvented

Storytelling is the best way to help someone learn and understand the value of a new concept, product, or service. Mary Jane Copps also believes that it’s a great way to build rapport. In this episode of the Sales Reinvented podcast, Mary Jane shares how a good story is crafted, what makes a great storyteller, and even tells one of her favorite stories. Don’t miss it! Outline of This Episode

• [0:46] Why is storytelling an important skill to possess?
• [1:35] Is storytelling something that can be learned?
• [2:08] The ingredients of a great story that sells
• [3:26] The attributes of a great storyteller
• [5:03] Improve your storytelling abilities with these resources
• [6:38] Top 3 storytelling dos and top 3 don’ts
• [10:37] The importance of follow up in sales

The ingredients of a great story that sells

What makes for a great story that sells? According to Mary Jane Copps, you need to start with a challenge that is customized to the audience you’re speaking to. The story must include some sort of lesson or challenge that you overcome. Mary Jane points out that there needs to be a hero. The hero may be the product or service—or even you. But storytelling is also a great way for people to get to know you. You can make them laugh. It allows you to build trust. A good story can help someone go, “I should work with this person.” 

The attributes of a great storyteller

When you’re telling a story, you need to pace yourself. You need a good tone of voice and delivery to build excitement and trust. You have to customize it to the audience you're speaking to. You must also be empathetic. It tells the prospect you’ll have empathy and compassion with them. If you’re telling a story about yourself, you must be humble. 

Want to improve your storytelling abilities? Be sure to check out the resources below!

Top 3 storytelling dos and top 3 don’ts

What does Mary Jane live by when it comes to storytelling? 

• Humor is key. Once people are laughing, you know you have their full attention and that they're enjoying themselves. 
• Allow yourself to be vulnerable as a storyteller. Tell your story truthfully—share successes and the failures you had to overcome. Vulnerability allows you to build a strong foundation of trust.
• Match the story to the audience. You shouldn’t tell a story for the sake of telling a story. Instead, it should match what is important to the prospect or customer.
• Don’t be boastful. When you’re selling, you have to share the success you’ve realized with other clients. It’s an important aspect of growing a business and creating revenue. However, do it humbly.
• Don’t make your story a novel. When you go to networking events or cocktail parties, no one wants to get stuck with the person who is telling stories and never stops. Make them pithy, easy to listen to, and don’t take over the entire conversation.
• Don’t go off-topic. Don’t throw in a story that you enjoy but has nothing to do with the conversation at hand.

The importance of follow up in sales

Mary Jane met an entrepreneur with three young children who also owned three franchises. One day, she happened to be home and a young person with a lawn maintenance company knocked on her door to give her a quote on maintaining her lawn. As a busy young Mom, she would delegate anything she could. He left the quote in her mailbox—and she never heard from him again. They never followed up.

When she shared the story with Mary Jane, she said “If you want my business, you call me. It doesn’t matter how much I need the help…if they didn't have the time to follow up with me, they weren’t going to get my business.”

Don’t confuse persistence with pestering. You want to follow up to show your prospects you want their business. You understand they’re busy and you’re taking responsibility for making the relationship happen.

Resources & People Mentioned

• Theatre of Commerce

Connect with Mary Jane Copps

• The Story of Telling

Connect With Paul Watts 

• LinkedIn
• Twitter 

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Audio Production and Show notes by PODCAST FAST TRACK https://www.podcastfasttrack.com

Too many sales reps treat territory sales planning reactively. Many sales reps get a call from clients, jump in the car, and drive off. They aren’t managing their territory. How can they reduce reactivity? By time blocking. Block in different areas of your territory to visit on different days to help yourself stay organized. You can also time-block different segments to look at different verticals or disciplines. Rick Denley believes the key to success is proactive planning. Because if you don’t have a good plan, success will become further out of reach. Hear more of his thoughts on territory sales management in this episode of Sales Reinvented!

Outline of This Episode

• [0:48] Why is territory sales planning underrated? 
• [1:31] Reduce reactivity in territory management by time-blocking
• [2:40] Rick’s ideal territory sales territory plan
• [3:35] The attributes of a great territory sales manager 
• [5:17] Tools, tactics, and strategies, to improve sales planning skills
• [6:30] Top territory sales planning dos and don’ts
• [9:00] Align knowledge and expertise in your territory

Rick’s ideal territory sales plan

Rick notes that you need to start by analyzing the market and your segment of customers. Then you need to identify the business environment that you’re working with. You likely have different verticals and different types of customers. 

Rick also suggests performing a SWOT analysis of the market. What are the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats? What is your position in the marketplace? Where do you want to spend more time? Where should you spend less time? How you use your time is vital. 

How are you organizing your time and efforts throughout your territory to make sure that you’re focusing where you need to? If you’re looking to grow and find new business, that dictates a different territory management approach than if you’re maintaining existing accounts. 

With very few exceptions, the 80/20 rule applies—you get 80% of your business from 20% of your clients. So you have to cover that 20% so you don’t lose business. It takes far more effort to get new customers. 

Rick’s favorite territory management tool: SmartDraw

Rick suggests utilizing SmartDraw to map out your territory. It’s software that helps you build a visual representation of your territory. This allows you to focus on where you’re spending time and where your business is coming from geographically. You can also color-code it to see what verticals the business is coming from. When account reps move things around or the organization changes, it’s easy to make any edits in this software tool. 

Top territory sales planning dos and don’ts

Rick shares his favorite territory management tips:

• Time block: Time block a month ahead so you know where your focus will be each day. You will look professional and organized.
• Set growth goals and establish targets within your territory. You want to drive more sales but need to do that by setting realistic goals. Maybe a portion of your territory isn’t well covered. Plan to go there one day a week for the next three months.
• Develop a strategy map with your sales territory, targets, and goals. Create a strategy and use software to visually map it out. 
• Review and track your results so you can measure success in your territory and categories. Create a visual map to show where business is coming from and growing.

Align territories with a sales rep’s knowledge and expertise

When Rick was in sales leadership, he was working closely with 12 sales reps. They were in the process of shifting them to different territories. Rick acknowledges that it was painful. People don’t like change. 

They had to map out each of their accounts. Back in the day, that meant physically mapping them out on a map of Canada. They had different stick pins for different organizations and industry verticals. 

They understood that aligning sales reps with knowledge and expertise in a specific industry with the clients who were the best match was key. Too many sales reps are given territories that they can’t handle. So they assigned food and beverage to one rep, pharmaceutical to another, and so forth. They saw tremendous results from aligning specialties with client needs.

You have to be open and flexible to change within territories—don’t act like you own it. Things will change on an ongoing basis. The customer needs to be first. Secondly, it can be good to get others involved in your territory to maximize the amount of revenue you can generate from it. 

Resources & People Mentioned 

• SmartDraw

Connect with Rick Denley

• Connect on LinkedIn
• Follow on Twitter

Connect With Paul Watts 

• LinkedIn
• Twitter 

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Audio Production and Show notes by PODCAST FAST TRACK https://www.podcastfasttrack.com

Leadership and sales management need to be bought into the process of territory management and the thoughtfulness it takes to do it well. If they embrace it, the mindset cascades down to the individual contributor that’s managing the territory. 

Santino Pasutto emphasizes that salespeople need to take time to plan out their territory and understand their numbers. If you’re allowed the time to measure twice and cut once, it will expedite the outcomes everyone is looking for. 

Santino shares the unique ways that territory management directs his steps in this episode of Sales Reinvented. Don’t miss it!

Outline of This Episode

• [0:42] Why is territory sales planning underrated?
• [1:14] How to reduce reactivity with territory planning
• [2:11] Santino’s ideal territory sales plan
• [5:15] How to determine penetration rates
• [6:54] Attributes and characteristics of a great territory sales planner
• [8:31] Tools, tactics, and strategies to improve territory management
• [11:01] Top 3 territory management dos and don’ts
• [14:35] How territory management directs your steps

Santino’s ideal territory sales plan

Santino notes that your plan boils down to the product or service that you’re selling. Some salespeople sell agnostic products whose client base is broad and varied. Others have a very narrow and prescriptive client base. If you’re in the healthcare space, your targets are likely hospitals. It’s easy to determine who to approach. But if you sell a service that a plethora of businesses can benefit from, your ICP is far different. 

Who is going to use your product or service? What is their ICP? You have to determine their firmographic information. How many employees do they have? How do you access them? What industry are they in? Where do you sell well and what do those clients look like? Pinning down the ICP within your geography is key. 

Then you must look at buyer personas. Who are you selling to within the accounts? What problems are you solving for them? Santino looks at his existing territory and the margins and penetration rates within those accounts. He looks for where he gets the most bang for his buck. 

Which accounts are the most growable? Which are the most at risk? This helps him determine where to prioritize his time. He doesn’t want to spend a lot of time focusing on accounts that are transactional or low-margin. It’s all about looking for a mutual fit where you can earn a fair margin.

How to determine penetration rates

If you’re selling to a hospital, you could correlate the revenue to the number of beds they have. What’s the revenue per operating unit of a business? Use that as a rule of thumb. Look at the number of beds with other accounts and look at your revenue as a percentage of that. How does that compare to an account where you believe you have all their work? 

Determining penetration rates helps you establish a benchmark with known accounts where you have a 100% share of wallet. You use that benchmark to compare to similar accounts to estimate your wallet share in them. 

What are the attributes and characteristics of a great territory sales planner? Listen to hear Santino’s thoughts.

Tools, tactics, and strategies to improve territory management

Santino emphasizes that sales professionals need LinkedIn Sales Navigator. Santino uses it to define ICPs and identify buyer personas. Santino also uses job boards to look for buyer personas by their titles. He’ll read their job descriptions to learn how his product or service helps them address their everyday tasks. 

You also need to calculate the opportunity that you have in each account. You have to leverage the data available to you to scale your territory, sell effectively, and have high win rates. To do that, you have to focus on where you sell the easiest and the most. Look back at your accounts and look at the ICP, revenue, and margin in those accounts. You will see a sweet spot—hone in on it. 

How territory management directs your steps

Santino had taken over a territory in the medical device world managed by a top rep. The market penetration within key accounts was solid. Santino had to find somewhere to grow, so he started looking for the easiest accounts to grow into. Leadership felt his time was spent in rural accounts. But Santino realized the effort to sell into those accounts wasn’t the best use of his time. 

So Santino looked at key accounts and how he could double down on growth. They were overly focused on top-line growth and not enough on the quality of that growth, i.e. the margin. Santino would have had to sell 2–3x the amount to rural accounts to achieve the same bottom line he was earning in larger accounts. One deal in one of these accounts was equal to 10–20 deals in the potential rural accounts. 

So he decided to drip campaign smaller rural accounts and hone in on larger city accounts. His risk was higher because the opportunities were fewer but the sales process was the same. He’d rather spend six months on one deal than several smaller deals. How did his plan play out? Santino shares the whole story in this episode. Give it a listen!

Resources & People Mentioned

• LinkedIn Sales Navigator

Connect with Santino Pasutto

• Connect on LinkedIn

Connect With Paul Watts 

• LinkedIn
• Twitter 

Subscribe to SALES REINVENTED

Audio Production and Show notes by PODCAST FAST TRACK https://www.podcastfasttrack.com

Tibor Shanto points out that creating a great territory sales plan includes building a blended pipeline. It needs to consist of current customers and revenue as well as up-and-comers in the industry. You must maintain the old and be open to the new. Learn more about how he approaches building his territory sales plan in this episode of Sales Reinvented.

Outline of This Episode

• [0:54] Why territory sales planning is underrated
• [1:37] How territory sales planning can reduce reactivity 
• [3:30] Tibor’s ideal territory sales plan
• [6:34] The attributes that make a salesperson successful
• [9:36] Tools, tactics, or strategies to improve sales planning 
• [11:34] Top 3 territory sales planning dos and don’ts
• [17:26] Why you have to build a blended pipeline

Tibor’s ideal territory sales plan starts with a simple graph

Tibor Shantolikes to create a simple graph to help him plan his territory. One axis is the likelihood of a deal closing within the next two cycles. The other axis is the total value of the deal. It helps you look at your best opportunities based on reviewing deals you’ve won and deals you’ve lost. The goal is to spend your time where you’re most likely to close a deal. 

Then you drill down further. What factors allowed you to close those deals? You have to understand what it will take to hit your quota and what the addressable opportunities are in your area. Most salespeople want to continuously expand their territory. Why? Because they don’t know how to drill down further into their own territory. 

Secondly, Tibor points out that you must start spending time disqualifying prospects. The right opportunities will help you hit your quota and you need to doggedly ignore anything else. It’s hard to accept but he notes that only 56% of B2B sales reps make quota. He emphasizes that you shouldn’t worry about what you’ve missed—worry about what you lost that you were supposed to get. If you can identify the opportunities that make the most sense to you based on data then ignore what doesn’t fit the template. You have to play to your skills and strengths.

Tibor introduces his clients to the concept of the 360 Degree Deal View. It helps them look at why they win or lose deals. When people do deal reviews, it tends to be a lovefest. But you want to go back six months later and ask how you’ve been able to change a customer’s workflow. If you understand how you do this, you can see who's best going to fit your template. Again, you have to ignore what doesn’t fit. You have to be objective and avoid deviating from your plan.

The attributes that make a salesperson successful

It all comes down to attitude. When people ask Tibor why he was successful, he points out that it’s simple—he wanted it more than the next guy. That’s something you can’t teach. Any competitive athlete completely understands the power of mindset, determination, and self-discipline. The general public doesn't necessarily have these characteristics.

A software company in the late 90s recruited college football players who weren’t drafted. Why? They had drive, the ability to follow a playbook, discipline, and the ability to be coached. That software company got acquired. It worked for them because their exit strategy materialized. Tibor doesn’t believe that salespeople with soft shells will survive. There aren’t participation trophies in life. 

Tools, tactics, or strategies to improve sales planning 

You must understand what you’re looking for. What’s worked for you in the past with your accounts and territory? A blended pipeline is key. If you focus on different accounts, you can get much more volume done—and as a result—earn higher commissions. So start by plotting out a clear plan on a grid and be disciplined while remembering to adapt as needed. You can’t just double down on territory planning and stop prospecting. If you don’t prospect, you don’t have a territory. 

Tibor also advises salespeople to look for lookalikes similar to your prospects. Why is a lookalike the same? How are they different? Where are the greatest number of interceptions? Go after those. You know the jargon, you know the story, so show up and present how you’ve just succeeded for the last client. Most people tell him they appreciate that he works with a competitor because they don’t have to educate him on the basics of the business—he can hit the ground running. 

Why you have to build a blended pipeline

Tibor looks at the top dozen accounts in his territory. He’ll look at where he’s at with them this year and make projections for the next year. What is the gap in his quota and projections? Doing this allows him to understand how he needs to service his top customers. Secondly, it allows him to look at the up-and-coming in his territory. 

Tibor set his sights on someone making noise in the business. Many other people ignored them because they were second-tier. This one small company grew and became a dominant player in the industry. That’s why you have to build a blended pipeline. Even if a prospect isn’t the most sought after, it still has value. Don’t ignore less attractive prospects that might save your hide as long as they fit your plan. Tibor points out that you should always leave room for flux and luck. 

Connect with Tibor Shanto

• Connect on LinkedIn
• Follow on Twitter

Connect With Paul Watts 

• LinkedIn
• Twitter 

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Audio Production and Show notes by PODCAST FAST TRACK https://www.podcastfasttrack.com

Joe Girard points out that salespeople don’t actively think about their territory sales plan and tend to be more reactive. But companies get held hostage by the best their salespeople can do. Without a plan, you aspire to be the best and just hope it happens. But a company can’t survive on hope. That’s why creating a territory sales plan and executing that plan is key. Hear more of Joe’s thoughts on the strategy in this episode of Sales Reinvented. 

Outline of This Episode

• [0:45] Why territory sales planning is an underrated activity
• [1:17] How can territory sales planning improve reactivity?
• [2:38] Joe’s ideal territory sales plan
• [3:56] The attributes of a salesperson
• [6:22] Tools, tactics, or strategies to improve sales planning skills
• [10:49] Joe’s top 3 territory sales planning dos and don’ts
• [13:09] Sales success hinges on proper planning 

How can territory sales planning improve reactivity?

Most salespeople are busy getting leads and trying to convert them. But you must take a step back and make a plan. Joe notes that it’s very uncomfortable for salespeople because they feel like they need to be selling. But they need to do more of the right things. How do you spend more time doing the right stuff and less time doing things that won’t make an impact? Focus on high-value activities. 

Joe’s ideal territory sales plan

Joe implores salespeople to use a ranking system. Look at the opportunities you think you should go after (your ICP) and rank who you want to sell to. Then rank the activities you need to do to sell to them. Rank your team's level of ability to do those activities. Then you have to execute that plan. You have to commit to 90 days or six months and see your plan through. Give your team the space to execute the plan and be successful.

But you also have to be adaptable in the trenches. How will everything you do contribute to your plan? You need to make your plan, test it, and come back and revise it as needed. It’s an ever-evolving sales process. You’ll begin to see repeating patterns. Then you can build out best practices and share them with your team. 

Tools, tactics, or strategies to improve sales planning skills

Are you serious about your results? Joe always sets a 90-day plan or sprint. Then he breaks it down into activities and holds himself accountable to those activities. Implementing a 90-day sprint helps you focus. 

Secondly, if you’re trying to figure out how to help new customers, talk to old or current customers. How did your service or product help them? Validate your assumptions and build in a feedback loop. Get the customer language into your sales language.

Make the time to plan and review your work. Even something as simple as looking at your daily activities. Did you miss something? Write it down and make a plan for the next day. Then review the week and make sure you didn’t miss anything. If you did, knock it out and close out the week.

Joe notes that there’s no shortage of training and tactics and it can be overwhelming. He emphasizes that it’s not about what you can put into salespeople, it’s about what you can pull out of them. Territory sales planning should be about making the most of each individual and helping them shine. 

Sales success hinges on proper planning 

When Joe started in sales, he wasn’t doing well. His boss told him that if he didn’t pick things up in the next 60 days, he wouldn’t make it. The other rep working with Joe gave up and went to work for the competition. They were sitting at $2.3 million between the two of them. Joe put a plan together—based on him being the sole salesperson—to reach sales of $4 million. Joe was told that if he didn’t hit his target, he wouldn’t get paid. He had to almost double his current sales. 

So he broke down what his activities would need to look like monthly, weekly, and daily. He looked at how many people he needed to have on his list, how many he needed to talk to, and how many appointments he needed to book. You have to break things down to what needs to happen every day to stay on track. You can’t make up for lost weeks and months. By the end of the year, Joe hit his target and surpassed it—landing at $4.1 million. He didn’t work harder but made the most of his time with a clear plan.

Low-level salesmen who make plans can outperform the highest performers if they build a good plan and execute it day after day. It’s all about execution. Don't wait for someone else to tell you how to plan your territory and above all—don’t give up.

Connect with Joe Girard

• Connect on LinkedIn
• Follow on Twitter

Connect With Paul Watts 

• LinkedIn
• Twitter 

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Audio Production and Show notes by PODCAST FAST TRACK https://www.podcastfasttrack.com

Wes Schaeffer states that his purpose in life is to rehabilitate salespeople and train their managers. Most managers are hired from within because they were successful. They were successful because they were hungry, aggressive, and impatient—not necessarily because they were the smartest or most detail-oriented salespeople. Those attributes are at odds with the management role. Those skills can harm them because they are aggressive and impatient with their team. 

They’re putting pressure on their salespeople but don’t have the skills to teach them. Salespeople are left on their own to make it or break it. Territory planning isn’t taught. If it is, it’s taught from a book—not from someone who did it successfully. So how do you change that? Find out from Wes in this episode of Sales Reinvented.

Outline of This Episode

• [1:08] Why territory sales planning is underrated by salespeople
• [2:43] How to reduce reactivity with territory sales planning
• [5:13] Wes’s ideal territory sales plan
• [8:08] Wes’s version of the ABCs
• [10:38] Why you need to just start writing
• [13:50] Top three sales planning dos and don’ts
• [18:01] How to take control of your territory

How to reduce reactivity with territory sales planning

Most people are reactive to everything in their lives—it’s not even necessarily a sales problem. The type of people that are drawn into sales are outgoing “people’s people.” They’re not engineers or accountants but simply good at making friends. Their personality is not methodical and goal-oriented. They're relationship-oriented. Now, they’re being asked to plan. 

Wes wrote “The Seven Deadly Sins of Selling.” The first sin is shooting from the hip i.e. winging it. Most salespeople have been hired as a cultural fit. A sales manager probably isn’t detail-oriented or has a methodical process for hiring and onboarding. There isn’t a culture built around territory planning. 

Wes’s ideal territory sales plan

Wes instructs managers to manage activities and pay on results. Just like losing weight, closing a sale is a lagging indicator. If you want to lose 10 kilos in 90 days, stepping on the scale at 90 days only proves how diligent you were at following the process. What did you eat for every meal? How did you exercise? Maybe you hired a fitness coach or a dietician. Maybe you have a tracking app, planned your meals, and planned when to exercise and how much. If you’re diligent for 90 days, you’ll hit your goals. 

Sales managers don’t give salespeople the activities to do. Wes tells people to batch phone calls: before breakfast, during lunch, and at the end of the day to get around gatekeepers. He has different scripts for each call. They’re telling a story through multimedia and different steps. Wes gives his community a way to track their time in 15-minute increments. Whatever you measure, you can improve. Break your big plans down into 15-minute increments, i.e. what you have to accomplish to reach your lofty goals. When you are diligent with this, you’re more likely to be successful. 

The characteristics a salesperson should have

Wes emphasizes that the mantra “Always be closing” is crap. This idea was propagated when people the age of our grandfathers were in sales. Yet we still live by the adage. Wes’s version of the ABCs is “Always be curious. Always be courteous. Always be concise.” Ask more questions. Take a step back and ask, “Where are you a product fit? Why do people buy your stuff? What pain do you solve?” Start there. Where do these people congregate? 

Wes was working for a startup in Austin, TX. The technology was beneficial in the healthcare space. Wes looked at technology in healthcare and there was a huge community with state and regional chapters. He joined those chapters and became active in those communities. He went where the fish were. You can’t just go to the local swimming pool and drop a pole in the water because it’s convenient. 

Tools, tactics, and strategies Wes embraces

Wes gives out a free guide called “Process Before Login.” The concept is that you need to document your steps and track your activities before you log in to any tool. Because a tool won’t save you. You know what your territory is. You have to figure out how to get in front of people. Can you knock on their door or go to events where they congregate? Once you plan daily and weekly activities, you can manage them. How many phone calls can you make? How many emails can you send? How many handwritten letters can you write? Do you have scripts for text messages? How are you engaging people on social media? 

If you're in B2B, LinkedIn can be good. But Wes gets more crappy messages on LinkedIn than anywhere else. Why? Because people don’t know how to communicate. People are spending money to get in front of Wes with an awful message. Learn how to communicate. Blog. Write a post for LinkedIn. It can even be a FAQ post. Prepare written answers to objections ahead of time and link it to a blog or LinkedIn post you’ve written. Your prospect will be impressed. They’ll think you know what you’re talking about. If you do anything, Wes implores you to just start writing. Write a daily article for LinkedIn that your prospects would be interested in. Your life will change in 30 days. 

What are Wes’s three sales planning dos and don’ts? Listen to find out—they might really surprise you.

How do you take control of your territory? How do you disqualify a prospect to focus on the important accounts? Listen to hear Wes’s process!

Resources & People Mentioned

• Get your Process Before Login Map
• The Seven Deadly Sins of Selling
• The CRM Sushi Podcast
• The Sales Podcast

Connect with Wes Schaeffer

• Connect on LinkedIn
• Follow on Twitter

Connect With Paul Watts 

• LinkedIn
• Twitter 

Subscribe to SALES REINVENTED

Audio Production and Show notes by PODCAST FAST TRACK https://www.podcastfasttrack.com

Jeff Bajorek believes that salespeople underrate territory sales planning because it’s boring—and they lack a growth mindset. But if you’re a full-cycle sales rep, you need to know where your revenue is coming from. So you need a good grasp of your territory, the players in it, and who’s moving in and out of it. You need a handle on price increases and must know your products inside and out. It’s not all buying dinners and playing golf with prospects. Territory sales planning is where many people could make up ground if they do the work. 

Outline of This Episode

• [0:59] Why salespeople underrate territory sales planning
• [2:08] How territory sales planning can lessen reactivity
• [3:52] The ingredients for the ideal territory sales plan
• [7:34] The attributes that make a salesperson successful
• [9:25] Tools, tactics, or strategies to improve territory sales planning
• [11:12] Jeff’s top “do”: Embrace the buddy system
• [15:12] Jeff's simply and effective territory planning strategy

How territory sales planning can lessen reactivity

Do you want to be at the whim of your territory? Or do you want to have an impact and influence on what your territory produces (from a revenue perspective)? If you’re waiting for a customer to wave their arms in the air, you’ll be waiting a long time—and doing activities that won’t move the needle. Can your calendar be used against you in a court of law to convict you of being a salesperson? 

Do you have time blocked to prospect? Do you have time blocked to contact your regular customers? Do you have time blocked to research and develop accounts in your territory? Or are you completely winging it? Are you taking control—or waiting for things to happen? Jeff points out that you know what the right answer is but you’re probably still not doing enough of it. 

The ideal territory sales plan is focused on a growth mindset

Who are the players in your territory? Who is growable? There are a lot of companies talking about fresh opportunities but “new” versus “old” is the wrong paradigm. Growable versus not growable is what you need to focus on and accessibility is the issue. Jeff breaks things down into quadrants: growability and accessibility.

1. Quadrant one is those that are growable and accessible. These are new or existing accounts with room to pick up wallet share.
2. Quadrant two is growable but not accessible. These are dream clients you have to work to gain access to.
3. Quadrant three is not growable but accessible. These are the clients that shake your hand, slap you on the back, and say “It’s good to see ya” but there’s no room to grow.

You feel productive when you gain the attention of quadrant three. If you can’t grow them, they’re the best source for referrals or introductions. Use them for market research to help you gain access to clients in quadrant two.

But people spend so much time in quadrant three. They could spend half the amount of time maintaining business and spend it gaining access to new accounts. Where are you spending your time? Spend it all in quadrant one if you can. Once you fill that demand, you’ll have a void. You need to make inaccessible opportunities in quadrant two more accessible. Then, use your best customers to understand what it takes to gain access—whether introductions or referrals. Now you’re selling. 

Tools, tactics, or strategies to improve territory sales planning

Every year, you start from square one. Your company likely asks for 7%. Every January, Jeff went to a national sales meeting. They’d get information about fee increases, new products, line extensions, etc. Jeff had his notebook open and a pen in his hand. He took diligent notes and knew exactly who he’d call on with new products. By the time he left that weekend, he’d have his territory sales plan sketched out. He knew who to call, who would be a great target, who would buy, who was already using similar products and how much they were using, and the value of each customer. He left those meetings fired up and set appointments for the next week. 

Jeff points out that pen and paper is an under-utilized tool. You don’t need fancy technology to plan your territory—you just need to set aside time to do the work. Opportunities won’t fall in your lap. Where do you have good access and growability? Write it down. Who are your dream clients? Who are a great fit and you just don’t know? Write it down. How do you plan to reach them? Who are your rockstar clients? Write it down. That can translate to introductions and referrals. You need to understand the players in your territory before you can do anything else. 

Jeff’s territory sales planning do: Embrace the buddy system

Find a buddy. Jeff worked with another salesperson and they got together once a quarter. They met in the middle and planned for the next quarter. They held each other accountable. Every quarter, they presented what they accomplished, what their revenue looked like, how they executed against their plan, and how successful they were. It’s tremendously beneficial. If you don’t have leadership that will hold you accountable, find a buddy—in or outside of your organization.

The bottom line is that sales is a verb. You have to act on your plan. You can’t afford to sit and wait for sales to happen. Create opportunities, steward them to close business, and maintain those relationships to earn referrals.

Connect with Jeff Bajorek

• Connect on LinkedIn
• Email Jeff at JF(at)JeffBajorek.com

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Too many salespeople wing it. They just wanna “See what’s out there.” But Mark Hunter emphasizes that planning is the only way you’ll maximize the opportunities in your territory. You can’t react to whatever business is out there. 

Mark loves to say, “Tomorrow begins today.” You have to plan your day, week, and month. Why? It allows you to use your time efficiently. Many salespeople are busy but not as productive as they could be if they had planned how they’d use their time. Listen to this episode of Sales Reinvented to hear Mark share more about his planning process!

Outline of This Episode

• [0:49] Why is territory sales planning underrated? 
• [1:13] How territory sales planning can reduce reactivity
• [2:06] The ingredients of the ideal territory sales plan
• [3:39] Attributes and characteristics that make a salesperson great
• [6:33] Tools, tactics, and strategies to improve sales planning skills
• [9:17] Mark’s top territory sales planning dos and don’ts
• [12:36] Control your territory—don’t let your territory control you

The ingredients of the ideal territory sales plan

The first question you must ask is who is your ideal customer? No matter the size of your territory, there will always be opportunities. You want to focus your time on the best of the best. If you don’t know your ICP, you’ll waste a tremendous amount of your time on other people.

You have to understand the outcome that you can create. No customer buys anything. They invest. They invest because they want a return on their investment. So what can you help them achieve?

Don't overlook the value of your calendar. Block time to work on projects. Mark follows the “10 am Rule.” By 10 am, he wants to have accomplished something significant. If you can do that, it motivates you. If the day were to fall apart you could still consider it successful. By mid-morning, Mark had already sent out a major proposal to a client. What has it resulted in? He’s accomplished so much more. 

Attributes and characteristics that make a salesperson great

Your head needs to be in the right place. You have to focus on using your time efficiently—while helping customers—and never be satisfied with where you are today. Mark points out that it’s not his job as a sales manager to motivate his salespeople. His goal is to create an environment for them to motivate themselves. There are a few things Mark shares that lead to success:

• You have to understand the value of time and how you manage it. Everyone is blessed with 24 hours a day. How will you choose to use them?
• Be customer-focused. Salespeople set a monetary goal not realizing that’s the reward, not the goal. Your goal should be meetings, making customers happy, and helping customers achieve their outcomes.
• Never be content with where you’re at. Success can only be defined by yourself. Don’t let others define it for you. You can deem yourself successful while never being satisfied. Why? Because you’re always asking what you can do to become better. 

How can you become more proficient? How can you be more productive? The measure of productivity is the results your customers achieve from the outcomes they’re able to achieve based on how you’ve helped them.

Top territory sales planning dos and don’ts

Mark shares some things you should—and shouldn’t do—to achieve your goals:

• Identify your ICP and develop key questions that focus on each ICP.
• Manage your time. Break it up into segments. Allocate a percentage of each day to small, medium, and large accounts. 
• Understand where your greatest opportunities are and manage your pipeline. It doesn’t matter how many leads go into the top of the funnel—it’s what you pull out through the bottom. Identify and qualify prospects quickly to close them faster. 
• Don’t hang on to customers that aren’t profitable. You can’t afford to keep them. Always look to trim the bottom 10% of your client list.
• You are not in the customer service game. The sales role is about creating incremental opportunities. Don’t allow yourself to play customer service agent. 
• Don’t allow yourself to associate with anyone who is not going to be a positive influence on you. You are the sum of the 5 people you associate with the most. Invest your time with really smart people. 

Control your territory—don’t let your territory control you

Mark was young and enthusiastic when he started in sales. He had a large territory assigned to him. He soon realized that territory included demanding customers. He felt he had to step up and deliver them more service. The result? He could leave their office and they’d call 20 minutes later and ask for something else. 

He had been working the territory for 3 months when his boss asked him to meet for breakfast. Mark was an hour and a half late because he was visiting a customer taking care of a problem. He thought his boss would be happy. His boss was actually livid and threatened to fire him on the spot. It wasn’t because he was let. It was because he allowed his priorities to get disrupted. He was allowing problem accounts to control how he operated his territory. It’s one of the worst problems new salespeople have: the desire to want to serve and please everyone out there. 

Mark’s boss told him that he would never be able to satisfy every demanding customer. Instead, the objective is to minimize them. Allow them a small percentage of your time. If not, you’ll never have time to develop customers to create the incremental business you need to meet your numbers. Failure to make your number will get you fired in a quarter. 

Resources & People Mentioned

• Mark’s book, “A Mind for Sales”
• Evernote
• HubSpot
• Chorus
• Zoho

Connect with Mark Hunter

• Connect on LinkedIn
• Follow on Twitter

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• LinkedIn
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There are actions, tasks, and disciplines that must be accomplished to create a perpetual business. Tom Ninness points out that it’s important to know what activities drive your business. When Tom first entered the mortgage industry he was assigned to a territory. He knew that to use his time wisely, he needed a plan. So he planned where he would go when. So much so that all of his customers knew which days he was coming to visit. What else does Tom do to support his territory planning? Learn more in this episode of Sales Reinvented.

Outline of This Episode

• [1:11] Why is territory sales planning underrated? 
• [2:39] How territory sales planning can reduce reactivity
• [4:15] The ingredients of the perfect territory sales plan
• [5:45] Attributes and characteristics that make a salesperson great
• [7:57] Tools, tactics, and strategies to improve sales planning skills
• [10:19] Top 3 territory sales planning dos and don’ts
• [14:07] Be servant-minded with your approach

The ingredients of the perfect territory sales plan

If you have a plan laid out so you know what you’re doing hour by hour, you’ll get a great ROI. Tom has the loan officers he works with complete an exercise to calculate their hourly rate. If they want to make $250,000 and want a week off every quarter. They have to work 40 effective hours a week. That averages $130 an hour. Are the sales folks completing value-based activities that will earn them $130 an hour? When you place a value on your time it makes the necessity of a plan even more apparent. And, it will help you be more successful.

Attributes and characteristics that make a salesperson great

A salesperson has to be likable and servant-minded. People will want to do business with you. Many salespeople view selling as something they do “to” another person instead of something they do “for” another person. Tom firmly believes that he “gets” because he gives without expectation of anything in return.

Tim Sanders wrote a book, “Love Is the Killer App,” in which he posits that business people are looking for knowledge. Your knowledge is worthless if you don’t share it. Secondly, you have to have a network to share it with. The larger your network, the greater your opportunities. Lastly, give with no strings attached. That’s where the law of reciprocity kicks in. 

Tools, tactics, and strategies to improve sales planning skills 

Salespeople can do business with friends, family, and coworkers. But there are other people in your network. Tom’s end customer has friends, families, and coworkers. They can refer business to him. If he does a great job and a happy customer fills out a survey for him, he believes there are at least four more opportunities for him to do additional business.

So how do you get these names? Tom uses a form where he asks happy clients for a list of professionals in their circle of influence. They gladly provide that to him. He can then share the survey they’ve completed with that list and cultivate appointments. When you delight your customers, they’ll want to refer you to their friends and colleagues.

Be servant-minded with your approach

Tom represents the financing for a builder. Someone else that represents a builder wanted to buy a unit from Tom’s builder but wanted to use his own lender. Tom’s builder flat out told him no—he had to work with Tom or he wouldn’t sell the property to him. The builder warned Tom that the customer was upset and to be mindful of that when they spoke.

Tom gave him a call and asked him to call his lender to see what they’d offer him. He agreed to match it. Tom had Googled him and done some research and really liked this guy. So throughout the next year, he sent him information and resources and gave him ideas. Tom always asks people, “What is the biggest challenge you’re having in your business?” The answer is usually something they’re having problems with. After a year and a half of offering value to this guy, Tom gets a call from him, asking him out to lunch.

After the waiter took their order, he said “Tom, I feel like I’m having an affair.” Dumbfounded, Tom said “What?!” Tom had given him so much value while the lender he had worked with for 20 years wasn’t motivated to help him. This man landed a new builder with 55 townhomes and made Tom his new lender. Tom emphasizes that just because you hear the word “no” doesn’t mean you give up. You can give someone value with no strings attached. Don’t be surprised if it comes back to you tenfold. 

Resources & People Mentioned

• Love Is the Killer App by Tim Sanders

Connect with Tom Ninness 

• Connect on LinkedIn

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Territory sales planning is like building a house. To be successful, you need blueprints. You need a plan to follow so you can build a firm foundation. Lisa firmly believes that you need to create a plan, work your plan, and take responsibility for exceeding your sales goals. Lisa shares her ingredients for the ideal territory sales plan in this episode of Sales Reinvented.  Outline of This Episode

• [0:55] Why is territory sales planning underrated? 
• [1:33] How territory sales planning can reduce reactivity
• [3:00] The ingredient of Lisa’s ideal territory sales plan
• [6:41] The attributes of a great salesperson
• [8:33] Tools, tactics, and strategies to improve your skills
• [9:49] Top 3 territory sales planning dos and don’ts
• [12:09] Forecasting is the key to successful territory sales plans

How territory sales planning can reduce reactivity

At the beginning of a year or quarter, you must take the opportunity to evaluate your territory. How effectively are you using their time? Where are the dollars gonna come from? A simple spreadsheet of your sales reports for the past 2–3 years will help you realize there’s gold within your territory. You don’t have to spend time doing more prospecting. Why? You can fish in your own territory.

The ingredient of Lisa’s ideal territory sales plan

Lisa believes that there’s not a perfect sales territory plan—it must always evolve. This is her general recipe for success:

1. Run a client analysis: Run a report that shows your clients and all of the sales for the last 2–3 years to see an average. Where are the dollars coming from? How much time are you spending on your different accounts? This will help you create a territory sales plan that will help you achieve your goals. 
2. Complete a detailed forecast: How many dollars has an account given you in the last five years? Sort your accounts from the highest to the lowest. What dollars do you anticipate you can do with each client? Look at overall revenue and how you can expand it. What services or products are they buying from you? What else could they buy from you? The most effective way to grow your business is cross-selling with current clients. 
3. Validate information directly with your client: What are their goals, initiatives, and priorities? What could you sell them? Are they expecting the same inventory? What are they anticipating to purchase from you? Get answers directly from your key accounts. 

Most salespeople put together a territory plan and shelve it. To be successful, you must review it monthly and quarterly. Forecast a number and lock it in. Challenge yourself to meet your working forecast. It will help you validate how accurate your forecasts are at the beginning of your territory planning. 

Forecasting is the key to successful territory sales plans

Lisa and her Director of Sales worked together to dive into and conquer their territory sales plan. When they did a thorough forecast—based on the previous 4 years—they realized that 92% of their business would come from existing customers. Some of them didn’t buy from them in 2020 because of COVID. That showed that they could reignite old client relationships. It helped direct their prospecting. 

This exercise also helped the sales team gain clarity on who is responsible for what—especially when dividing up an existing plan. It’s a team effort to get business and create their next best year ever. A sales professional will create and work a plan and reinvent themselves as a trusted advisor because they know the value they can bring to their clients. 

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• Connect on LinkedIn
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• LinkedIn
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