The Sales Issue

The Sales Issue

A P U B L I C AT I O N O F T H E R E TA I L S O LU T I O N S P R O V I D E R S A S S O C I AT I O N

Research

Ask

Listen

Teach

Qualify

Close

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October/November 2015

Figure 1 .

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connect Magazine Issue 86 |October/November 2015 connect

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Table of ContentsPRESIDENT'S NOTE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6

SECTION I: SALES PHILOSOPHIES

CONSULTATIVE SELLING... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8

RELATIONSHIP BUILDING ISN'T DEAD, IT'S EVOLVING—AND YOU SHOULD BE, TOO... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9

SALES (R)EVOLUTION: LESSONS LEARNED FROM THE FINANCE INDUSTRY... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11

BE AN EXCEPTION TO THE LATEST DEPRESSING STATS ON CONSULTATIVE SELLING... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12

SECTION II: PROSPECTING, GETTING LEADS, AND NURTURING RELATIONSHIPS

COMPLETING THE CYCLE OF LEAD GENERATION TO MAKE THE SALE... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .14

A CONNECTED LEAD GENERATION STRATEGY... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .16

THE RIGHT PROSPECTING PERSPECTIVE FOR SUSTAINED SUCCESS... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .18

SECTION III: USING SALES TOOLS

5 COMMON MARKETING MISTAKES POS VARS MAKE... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .20

21 POWERFUL, OPEN-ENDED SALES QUESTIONS... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .22

SECTION IV: SALES MANAGEMENT

11 ACTIONS SALES MANAGEMENT MUST TAKE NOW... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .25

SALES MANAGEMENT AUDIT QUIZ.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .28

8 TIME TESTED RULES FOR HIRING AND RETAINING SALES PEOPLE... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .32

EMPLOYEE CLASSIFICATION REVIEWS... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .34

SECTION V: SALES TRAINING

A LOOK BACK AT SUGAR CAMP... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .37

SECTION VI: SALES PLANNING

12 TIPS TO CLOSE END OF YEAR SALES FAST... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .43

SALES LEADERSHIP: 5 STEPS TO EXCEED 2015 QUOTA... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .43

PEEKING AHEAD TO Q1? WHY IGNORING Q4 IS A VERY BAD IDEA... . . . . . . . . .46

RECOMMENDED READING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .48

The Sales Issue Sales Philosophies

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INDEX

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connect Staff Contributors (October/November):

Bob Fiorentino Kelly Funk

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in the past that whi le they would love to at tend, the locat ions outs ide of the cont inental US made i t a chal lenge for them. For those of you that th is was the case, th is is your year ! Go to www.GoRSPA.org/ INSPIRE to learn about our star studded educat ional l ine up as wel l as the special group events we have planned to help you maximize your networking and fun whi le there.

I was thr i l led when the staf f approached me with the idea of an issue dedicated to sales. Though I wondered, how could we f i t

re levant , meaningful informat ion on such a broad topic into just one issue? Wel l i t seems we have done just that . There was careful at tent ion paid to shar ing general knowledge, as wel l as pieces focused more speci f ical ly on the nuances of our industry. We also remained vigi lant in shar ing the voice of our members, your peers, so you can hear and learn f rom others that are seeing the same chal lenges and opportuni t ies that are in f ront of you. And f inal ly, we’ve curated a ‘best of ’ l is t of recommended sales reading to help you augment your knowledge and cold weather reading l is t .

Speaking of cold weather—what better way to hide f rom the elements in late January than to jo in us at INSPIRE® 2016. This event is our annual meet ing of owners and thought leaders. I t ’s an int imate crowd of about 175 people, part ic ipat ing in our top t ier execut ive educat ion and connect ing with others in the industry. We are very exci ted that in 2016, for the f i rst t ime in over 10 years, INSPIRE wi l l be hosted stateside in San Diego, CA. We’ve heard f rom members

By Kel ly Funk

Section I . Sales Phi losophies

Finding the answer for the customer—that ’s always been at the heart of the industry,

s ince the ear ly days of the ICRDA. In those days, gett ing to know a customer, f inding

out not just pain points , but , understanding who the customer is on a personal level…

were chief reasons why cash register dealers were not just salesmen, but partners.

Today, these sales strategies st i l l remain successful : asking the key quest ions to

col lect pert inent informat ion, and suggest ing a method to help the customer fu l f i l l

a need, solve a problem, or make their business more ef f ic ient , is st i l l a def in ing

character ist ic of the value added resel ler.

Whether i t ’s cal led relat ionship sel l ing, solut ion sel l ing, or the ubiqui tous

consultat ive sel l ing, i t seems to be the prevai l ing sales phi losophy of the

POS industry. In th is sect ion, th is phi losophy is examined from a few di f ferent

perspect ives.

of clients buyafter 5 “NOs.”

(source: The Results Corporation PLC)

of the buying process is now

complete by the time a prospect is ready to engage with sales.

(Source: SiriusDecisions)

of business buyers say when they’re ready to buy, they’ll find you.

(Source: DemandGen Report)



When I first started in sales for IBM in 1984, the buzz phrase that everyone was talking about was “relationship selling.” That phrase stuck for most of

my time at IBM, but trendy new sales approaches and buzzwords seem to have taken over in recent years.

For instance, in 2011, the Harvard Business Review published an article declaring the death of relationship selling and the rise of the “challenger sale.” The key distinction was that challengers push prospects out of their comfort zone and drive them to learn new things about their business, market, or pain points. While I think that approach has serious merit, its supporters often overlook one thing: In order for a salesperson to impart that knowledge and awareness on a prospect, they must first establish a relationship. This is especially true in an age where content marketing and nurturing play key roles in the actions that prospects take.

In fact, in many ways, I think we’ve come full circle from my days at IBM.

Today, the most successful salespeople aren’t just good at challenging a buyer to explore new ways of solving problems and addressing needs. They’re also experts at creating and nurturing authentic, congruent relationships with prospects across multiple channels (social, phone, email, events, etc.).

Sales Isn’t Just Phone and Email

While most prospecting is done via phone and email, we now have the luxury of numerous other channels to find, engage, and contact prospects—whether it’s LinkedIn, LinkedIn Groups, Twitter, Google+, or (depending on the scenario) Facebook. The very best salespeople are particularly adept at deploying a multi-faceted prospecting approach to establish and build relationships, and they strive to create a congruent

Relationship Building Isn’t Dead, It’s Evolving–And You Should Be, Too By Kendra Lee

relationship across all of those communication channels.

Why is that important?

Think about this scenario: Let’s say that your company executes a nurturing campaign that conveys a blissful, friendly, highly personalized message, and at the same time takes a hardcore telemarketer approach to secure a phone appointment.

How do you think prospects will respond to that? My guess is that they’ll be confused. And, in the end, that will probably cause you to lose them.

Consider the Relationship Prospects Want to Have With You

To avoid losing prospects from incongruence, consider the relationship your contacts want to have with you, and then to be consistent across all communication channels. For instance:

When you prospect on LinkedIn, prospects don’t want to be sold to. If you blatantly ignore that protocol, you’ll very likely lose credibility and connections.

When you reach out to prospects over the phone, they don’t want to be unabashedly sold to. They want a quality, professional conversation.

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Everyone is talking about consultative selling. I’ve heard so often from those in the industry that

you must meet your customers’ needs to be successful. And then the next sentence is often a variation of, “we just need to figure out a way for them to see it our way.”

In my experience with training staff how to sell consultatively, the recurring issue I see over and over is the sales person’s need to make the sale overcoming the true needs of the customer. Consultative selling is about building partnerships with your customers; not simply selling them widgets. Many say that asking good questions is the way to be consultative. That’s true, but it’s only a part of a successful foundation. Below are a few tips for becoming truly consultative in your approach.

Everything you say during a sales call will get a reaction: good, bad or indifferent.

You can help control the reaction of your prospect by explaining what you mean instead of allowing them to assume what you mean. Don’t tell someone you have the best price around if it gives them the impression your product lacks quality. You might see the advantage for them, but they need to hear it from you as well. If price is important to them, explain why you have the most competitive price.

The “Why” is the single most important thing you can discover about your client.

It is what motivates them to be in business, to make purchasing decisions, to hire new staff and so on. Keep their “Why” at the forefront of your relationship and you will have built the base for a lasting partnership.

Selling is a process.

Anyone can get lucky and make a sale. However, to achieve more regular and repeatable success you need to develop a process that you take into every call. A simple process for each call could be: set an agenda with each customer, ask open ended questions to identify needs, build a solution together based on their needs, identify concerns of the customer, and always set the next steps and follow up items.

Listen well.

Don’t ever ask a question if you don’t care how it gets answered. Be prepared to listen and use their words to identify what is important to them before you try to connect your product to what you think they need.

If you think this approach could work for you and your team, but you’re not quite sure where to start, reach out to me at [email protected]. Together, we can tailor the approach to your needs of meeting your clients’ needs.

Consultative Selling By Bob Fiorentino

mailto:[email protected]




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When you prospect via email, people don’t want to be spammed. They want messages that demonstrate the sender has put thought into how they relate to the prospect.

When you nurture prospects on Twitter, people don’t want constant self-promotion. They expect authentic engagement.

The key theme here is that you need to be congruent in how you engage with your prospects to initiate a long-term relationship. Put yourself in your prospects’ shoes and look at relationship building from their perspective. If you do that, your multi-faceted efforts will come across as more genuine and relevant, and you’ll develop the much-needed credibility that more “modern” sales approaches are so reliant upon.

of marketing leads never convert into sales. Lack of lead nurturing is

the common cause of this poor performance. (Source: MarketingSherpa)

need to do so. Some providers only go to market one way (for example Geico, which can only be sold by buying it directly from them), many others offer various (and yes oftentimes competing)distribution models. The choice on what is needed and how to purchase is squarely where it belongs…on the customer.

So you may be thinking “great history lesson, but why is this relevant to me?” I see many parallels between the shifting sales approach of the point of sale/retail technology industry and the evolution of the financial services industry. At each stage there was:

• Fear of the unknown and the impact to one’s way of doing business and livelihood

• A threat to the current way of doing business

• Ways to potentially engage MORE customers

• A period of disruption, followed by norming

• Growth in the overall industry

Sound familiar? In both industries, at each stage it’s necessary for all of the players involved to perform an honest self-assessment and reexamination:

Look at your areas of expertise.

What solutions/services are your specialties? In which areas are you able to provide your customer insight and advice they couldn’t find elsewhere (namely, via the internet)?

Consider if there opportunities to expand your portfolio or partner or perhaps even adjust your target market.

With so much interconnectedness of technology in the point of sale space, this is the perfect time to consider adding solutions/offerings to your line card. Partnerships are also key—can you possibly customize merchant solutions with the right ISV partner, for example? Have you considered expanding your market, or, conversely, becoming micro-focused, and being super-specialized in a niche you know well?

Consider your value proposition.

In the ‘new world’ are there gaps you can fill for the customer? Or are there new potential customers you should consider?

Both industries are growing, evolving, offering additional delivery channels and providing more customer choice. If and how you choose to take advantage of that is what will differentiate those that perish from those that thrive.

I consider myself a lifelong learner. I enjoy reading about other industries, approaches, and people as I think there is much to be learned by how others approach their situations. I spent the bulk

of my career in the financial services industry; and, as I consider the challenges our industry is currently experiencing, I believe we can extrapolate some key learnings from the evolution of financial services.

Back in the 1950s insurance was sold door-to-door. The insurance man came and collected your 10 cent premium each month, marked in premium booklet that he collected it, and then he might sit and have dinner with you…and then he did it all again the following month. He was a fixture in your home and neighborhood. If he heard that your neighbor had a baby, he’d stop at their house, sell them a policy, and add them to the list of addresses to stop by each month to collect the premium. Not very advanced, but effective, and based on simply being a presence you couldn’t avoid.

Over time the insurance agent evolved. They started selling other products, like auto and homeowners insurance and mutual funds. They would still visit you in your home, but only to review your coverage or offer to sell you more products. The insured would pay their premium by check or automatic deduction of their bank account. The other significant change was that banks got into the insurance business. Now someone cashing their check at the local branch would be asked if they wanted to open an IRA or if they had life insurance.

Then brokerage came into vogue. They essentially were aggregators who would entice agents by offering greater commission and a variety of products. Some offered only investments, others only insurance, many offering both.

The late 1990s/early 2000s introduced the era of ‘self service.’ Everyone could do whatever they needed for themselves…simply go online, walk through a magical wizard to help you determine your coverage needs or risk tolerance and then you could purchase it directly either by phone or on the website. Boy, that really upset the insurance agents: they were deeply offended that anyone would think they could help themselves without their expert guidance. Not to mention they feared for the worst—no one would ever need their services again (which meant they would not be able to earn a living).

Where is that industry today? Although each era decried that new selling methods would be the end of the financial services industry, that industry is flourishing. It constitutes 20% of the market capitalization of the S&P 500 in the US. There are many ways to purchase those products and it’s the consumer’s choice how much or little assistance they

Sales (R)evolution: Lessons Learned from the Finance Industry By Kelly Funk



I read a fantastic, albeit depressing article that was published [in September] by Dave Kurlan, founder of Objective Management Group (OMG).

Periodically, OMG mines the data on the thousands of salespeople that are assessed using their tools each year (now over 1 million salespeople in total). What they have learned is that the average consultative seller competency has not improved much over the last four years. Despite so much more information out there about sales effectiveness. And despite the hundreds of training and development companies that exist to try and improve sales skills of sales teams.

In 2011, the salespeople in the research group exhibited, on average, only 47% of the consultative seller skill set. Now, with the most recent data (on 350,000 salespeople) they exhibit, on average, 48% of the consultative seller skill set. Big whoop. A 1% increase.

Don’t misunderstand me. These are not representative of our experiences with the clients we help improve, nor is it consistent with what Kurlan has found for his clients who are “expertly trained and coached.” It’s the rest of the population.

More about the latest research:

• Includes almost 350,000 salespeople who have used OMG’s sales assessment tools.

• The salespeople represent over 200 different industries.

• Half of the assessments were from new candidates/job applicants; half were from existing sales team members undergoing evaluation.

• Most of the assessments were taken by experienced salespeople.

• The assessment tools are separate from any training or coaching services (for which Kurlan found entirely different results; namely, a “spectacular rise” in competency).

Being a consultative seller is what will set a salesperson apart from the competition. And, in today’s world where so much information is

available to buyers, the buyers are engaging with salespeople later in the sales process. When they do, the salesperson must be able to demonstrate a reason why the buyer should choose them. They must be able to demonstrate their value to the buyer. Consultative skill sets will enable this to occur.

Here are the attributes that combine to make a proficient consultative seller:

• Asks Great Questions

• Asks Enough Questions

• Quickly Develops Relationships

• Presenting at Appropriate Times

• Uncovers Issues

• Understands How Prospects Will Buy

• Takes Nothing for Granted

• Able to Ask Tough Questions

• Able to Listen/Ask with Ease

*Per OMG’s Salesperson Assessment

The bad news is that it’s likely that you don’t have any truly proficient consultative salespeople on your team. And the typical salesperson has only 48% of the attributes of a consultative salesperson.

So what do you do?

1. Use a more precise process to hire new salespeople who are consultative.

2. Determine who on your team can become a consultative salesperson if they aren’t already.

3. Engage a sales improvement company to build those skills in those individuals on your team who are trainable. Preferably, find a company, like Braveheart, that will completely customize the experience to your needs.

This article originally appeared on the Braveheart Sales Management Blog on September 17, 2015 (http://blog.braveheartsales.com)

Be an Exception to the Latest Depressing Stats on Consultative Selling By Gretchen Gordon

The Sales Issue Prospecting, Getting Leads, and Nurturing Relationships


Lead generation is big business in today’s Internet based economy. Think of yourself as a

farmer, working with the right tools, the right mix of fertilizer, sun and water—everything needed to grow a bumper crop. The analogy may be corny (pun intended), but today you have to become an expert at cultivating leads and bringing them to market quickly, or in sales talk, closing them fast.

If you have an online presence for your business, you’re halfway there. To attract all those Googlers, you have compelling content, great visuals, even a blog on your

website. You have a Facebook page and a social media strategy for engagement. So far you are doing everything right. Add a white paper to your website about how your POS system will increase sales and make a business run more efficiently, and a potential buyer goes for the bait. They fill out a contact form and, drum roll—you have a lead.

Now your lead may also be in the form of a business card you were given at a tradeshow. Or you may have purchased a list, or a friend of a friend has told you about someone in the market to buy your product. No matter. You have a lead. What do you do next?

The answers may vary depending on the type of lead you have, but the following recommendations apply across the board.

Verify that Your Information is Correct

Before you contact a prospect or provide a lead to your sales team, verify the following:

Contact name

Phone number

Completing the Cycle of Lead Generation to Make the SaleBy Gary Staub featuring Rich Peterson

Job title

Location

E-mail address

Industry type

Bad contact information is not only a waste of time; it can also cost you money. You don’t want that expensive direct mail or e-mail marketing campaign to go down the tubes. You also don’t want your telesales rep to be on the phone and not be able to connect with the decision maker. That’s frustrating and can be demoralizing as well. So make sure you are working with current information.

If You Purchase Leads

There are companies that exist whose entire business is finding qualified leads for specific markets. They collect names and phone numbers of prospects who have expressed interest, often minimal, in purchasing a product. The challenge of buying leads is the cost. You can find inexpensive leads, but they are usually old, cold and not exclusive. If you do purchase leads, make sure they are qualified—that is, the following type of information has been recently vetted:

Current contact info (name, title, address, phone number, email address)

The type of system the merchant is looking for (PC-based, tablet, mobile)

Whether the prospect would be a first-time or second-generation purchaser

Whether the prospect has a single or multiple locations

Budget

Timeframe for purchase

Need for local service

Act Fast and Ask the Right Questions

As soon as you verify your lead information, put it in a CRM, act upon it quickly and update it as often as possible. A warm lead can turn cold overnight, so never wait too long to make that connection.

Your goal now is to take that lead and make a conversion —convert that lead to a sale. Conversions start with the right questions, which should include:

1. How many employees do you have?

2. What is your sales volume?

3. Who is the decision maker?

4. Have you purchased a POS system before?

5. If yes, what type and how old is your current system?

6. Do you have a need for local service?

7. What is your budget?

Have a Value Proposition Ready

The next step to converting a lead to a sale is a solid value proposition—convincing your prospect that your POS system or service will add more value or solve a problem better than your competitor’s.

Only 25% of leads are legitimate

and should advance to sales.

(Source: Gleanster Research)

57% of B2B organizations identify

‘converting qualified leads into paying customers’ as

a top funnel priority.

BUT…65% of B2B marketers have not established

lead nurturing. (Source: MarketingSherpa)

Section I I . Prospecting, Gett ing Leads, and Nurturing Relationships

Leads—a funnel is useless without them. In th is sect ion, the lead generat ion cycle

in the modern economy is explained, as wel l as prospect ing and relat ionship

cul t ivat ion.

Your POS system has a perceived benefit and a cost. To motivate that customer, you have to convince them that what you are offering them will be invaluable to their business. They don’t need to hear about every bell or whistle your system can provide but rather, how that system will benefit them directly.

That can mean something different to different people. But when you get to know your customer, you can gauge his or her reaction to your value proposition. What does he or she need? What do they expect? How does your POS system not just meet their needs but exceed their expectations? The perceived benefit to your customer far outweighs the cost of your system. Now just close that sale.

Sales Philosophies

connect 17www.GoRSPA.org

Fast Sales FactsThe Sales Issue Prospecting, Getting Leads, and Nurturing Relationships

Fast Sales Facts

of salespeople give up after the first “No,”

after the second “No,”

after a third “No.” (source: The Results

Corporation PLC)

Nurtured leads produce, on average, a

increase in sales opportunities versus non-nurtured leads.

(Source: DemandGen Report)

more sales-ready leads at

lower cost.

(Source: Forrester Research)

Companies that excel at lead nurturing generate

A Connected Lead Generation Strategy

Step 1 Step 2 Step 3

Getting Started

What do you want them to buy?

14 Types of Attraction Strategies

The basic campaign structure

TARGET MARKET CAMPAIGN

Step 1Determine your target market and personas

Step 2Choose your Attraction Strategies

Step 3Create your lead generation campaign

Getting Started

What do you want them to buy?

RESPONSES & CLICK-THRUS

SHOULD WE TALK?

DID YOU SEE IT?

TRIGGER & OFFER

A Connected Lead Generation Strategy

Personal

Digital

Collaborative

1. Email2. Phone pursuit3. Letters4. Personal networking5. Postcards6. E-newsletters7. Articles and blogs8. Social networking9. Social media10. Online PR11. Online events 12. Local events13. Offline PR14. Alliance Partners

14 Types of Attraction Strategies

Developing your company’s top quality prospects is simpler than you might think. There are many tools at your disposal. You just need a detailed lead generation strategy that gets your

solution in front of qualified potential buyers efficiently—and cost effectively.

Lead generation campaigns are a great way to educate and encourage new prospects about their needs and how you can help.

This is a basic structure that can be used for any campaign integrating different types of attraction strategies. Campaigns can be expanded to span 6-9 months, even a year or longer.

The basic campaign structureProspect: The backbone of any successful campaign is identifying the right segment and knowing your customer’s needs.

Product Service Project ?

Each of your company’s campaigns should keep your business objective in mind. What will these campaigns do for you? To turn campaigns into results, you need to know what you want your pros-pects to buy—and then center your campaigns around those offerings.

©2015 by KLA Group, LLC.

The Sales Issue Prospecting, Getting Leads, and Nurturing Relationships


In my sales training sessions at RetailNOW® in August, we talked about some excellent strategies to get more

customers. While everyone left with new strategies, we didn’t have an opportunity to talk about how business owners and salespeople unintentionally make lead generation harder than it has to be.

The approach you use is only one facet of prospecting. Another equally important facet is the mindset you and your sales team take in lead generation.

Simply put, many of you put too much pressure on prospecting activities. Now I know you need more prospects to build your business. And there is a quota to achieve, but are you approaching prospecting from the right perspective so you can be successful?

Here’s what I mean.

Most salespeople’s prospecting success is judged by the number of appointments they generate. While this is important, there are a lot of things that can happen between an appointment and a flat-out rejection—things that you can do to bring yourself closer to a future sale even when setting an appointment isn’t an option.

For instance, suppose you call a top prospect, and although they don’t agree to meet with you, you have a brief conversation. It might seem like you failed, but what if:

• You planted a seed in the prospect’s mind that got them thinking about something they openly admitted they hadn’t considered before?

• They tell you they aren’t ready right now, but please call back next quarter?

• They appreciate your ideas and agree to meet with you in 2 months, partially as a result of those steps you took today?

Taking the long view can help you realize that these conversations aren’t failure. Far from it. They are future successes.

I think more salespeople and business owners should view prospecting and lead generation in the right context: Your job is to start forming relationships with potential buyers.

Fostering that mindset can change not only the way you feel about your prospecting, but also the results you get from it. Suddenly the 20 conversations that yielded only two appointments today, are actually 20 conversations, 2 appointments, and 14 call-backs in three months. You’ve added to your sales pipeline – and your prospecting pipeline.

Those 14 call-back prospects will take less time to gain access to in three months, and quite possibly could yield faster sales. All because you changed

The Right Prospecting Perspective for Sustained Success By Kendra Lee

your perspective of prospecting from transactional appointment setting to long term relationship setting.

Prospecting can seem really unrewarding if you’re using the wrong set of measurements to weigh your progress. Appointment setting will always be important, but I would encourage you to look past the obvious. Learn to see the value of new relationships established during prospecting, and you’ll find more new opportunities than disheartening percentages.

50% of leads are qualified, but not yet ready to buy

(Source: Gleanster Research)

80% of sales are made on the

fifth to twelfth contact.

(Source: National Sales Executive Association)

The Sales Issue Using Sales Tools


A well designed and thought out marketing campaign can accomplish a

lot for a barcode or POS company: It will connect you with potential customers and create excitement for your brand, products, or services. However, creating the perfect marketing campaign isn’t easy, and there are quite a few mistakes that can cost your company time, money, and potential customers.

In order to avoid the pitfalls and put your POS or barcode company in a good marketing position, take a look at five of the most common marketing mistakes POS or barcode companies make:

Not Knowing about/using MDF

Market development funds (MDF) are used by channel partners, resellers, value added resellers (VARs), and other affiliates in order to sell products or raise awareness for a particular brand. These funds are offered by manufacturers, and they can be structured differently depending on the company and the relationship in

5 Common Marketing Mistakes POS VARs Make By BlueStar VARTECH Nation

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Having MDF funds and not using them is akin to shunning barcode scanners for a pen and paper. Not knowing about MDF—or simply failing to use it—can severely cripple a company. Inquire about market development funds as soon as possible, and come up with a plan for using every cent.

Forgetting to Establish ROI for MDF

While utilizing MDF funds is preferable to shunning them, more must be done to maximize the impact they can have. ROI, or return on investment, is a measure of the resulting benefit from an investment. Once your business begins using MDF funds, remember to calculate the ROI from the marketing campaign. It’s much easier to measure the success of digital marketing campaigns than it is for traditional campaigns. Companies should look at the number of leads generated, impressions/click through rates, the cost per lead, amount of projected vendor sales, and more in order to improve the ROI on marketing

activities.

Not Following up with Customers on Supplies

If your business sells barcode or receipt printers and supplies to a customer, you should be able to estimate—with fairly good accuracy—when they will run out of supplies. Instead of waiting for the customer to place another order, follow up with them. The 80/20 Rule states that 80% of a company’s profits come from 20% of its customers. It’s much easier (and much less costly) to resell to your current customer base than it is to attract new customers.

The benefit of marketing to current customers is twofold. For one, they are already a customer, so it should generally be fairly easy to make another sale. For another, a little customer service goes a long way. Run reports on customers who bought barcode or POS printers in order to see who isn’t buying supplies, then set up an automated follow up plan with emails, phone calls, and visits. Taking the time to follow up with customers makes things easier for them and more profitable for you.

Not Keeping your Website up to date

Directing customers to a website that isn’t up to date happens much more often than it should. A website with out of date information—or the wrong products or links—could cause confusion among customers. Marketing is supposed to foster a better reputation for your business and increase sales, but, when poorly done, it could do quite a bit of damage. Before sending customers anywhere, ensure that the target webpage has the correct information. Otherwise, interested customers will go elsewhere to find what they need and your business will have a lot of trouble getting approval for market development funds.

Not Understanding your Target Audience

VARs, and businesses in general, must always be cognizant of who their target audience is. Certain topics or ideas need to be directed at specific people, and the length of a marketing campaign depends entirely on what you are trying to sell. Large enterprise solutions need to be marketed to a team of decision makers over a long period of time – usually 6 to 12 months. Product sales and consumables have shorter sales cycles because they tend to be impulse purchases. By defining your target, you can strengthen your marketing campaign and pique the interest of a greater number of people.

VARs must be fully aware of the resources they have available to them when it comes to marketing. Often times, the mistakes that hurt companies most are the ones that are the easiest to prevent.

Section I I I . Using Sales Tools

CRMs, Market ing Automation, Sales Intel l igence. There

are many tools avai lable to help faci l i tate the sales

process. However, technical agi l i ty does not replace

the needs for t r ied-and-true methods, l ike conversat ion.

This sect ion provides arguments for adopt ing sales

technology, as wel l as f i rst -person insights on bui ld ing

customer rapport .

Marketing automation platform users have a 53% higher conversation rate from

marketing response to marketing-qualified lead than non-users.

(Source: Aberdeen Group)

The Sales Issue Using Sales Tools


Asking questions is a critical part of consultative selling process. But there’s sometimes a big gap between knowing to ask, and knowing what to ask. Oftentimes,

when a salesperson starts in POS, the questions are already prescribed: perhaps an owner or sales manager has a script for the newbie to follow. But it takes time to learn how to build rapport with a potential customer. Can this be done with the right open-ended questions? We asked two resellers about it—Uwe von Sehrwald (Truno) and Alejandro Swaby (Metrotouch Solutions)—and they provided some questions they’re actually using in their sales conversations.

Uwe’s Suggested Questions for new relationships

Are you getting everything you need out of your system? What is you would like to be able to do that you can’t or wish you could do? Is your current provider taking good care of you?

This is really not a question but rather inserting it into the flow of the conversation: I always will ask, “do you have any exciting vacations

planned?” Then, I tell them about what I had going on or somehow bring in something personal from my family, but only after they talk about something that may spark me talking about something personal.

Typically speaking, almost 95 percent of the time you can find something personal that is relevant to everyone with whom you may be speaking, or things people have in common to build a relationship. I always try not to ask anything political or controversial. Although where I have really good relationships they usually can figure it

out. You never know where people lean and that can impact views. Alejandro’s Suggested Questions for Discovery

What types of issues have you had in the past 1-2 years with your technology? And, How did these impact your business?

Identify a pain point. For example: he couldn't process credit cards on a busy night. Regardless of whether it was the

ISP, Router, Cable, Processor...a number of layers can exist environmentally. By asking these types of questions, and responding in an educated and strategic way will identify ourselves as industry experts.

“You know <Opportunity Name> there are a few reasons why certain systems may lose the ability to process cards, How much do you know about dial backup and offline processing solutions?”

Towards the end of every presentation before pricing I choose 3 pain points, and review them with the Client. It’s important for the Client to listen to you during this time, it will show they are involved in the process. If they rush you back to price, jump back into another pain point.

How did this impact employee morale?

One of the hardest issues for business owners is managing employee

performance. Employee morale, as well as performance, go a long way. By identifying certain internal pain points and resolving them with a solution in front of them is a way to further qualify the sale and differentiate yourself from competition.

WITH UWE VON SEHRWALD AND ALEJANDRO SWABY

How did this impact customer satisfaction? (cont'd , any complaints?)

Keeping customers happy is important for the Business owner. If the kitchen made a mistake because the server

wrote the check wrong, or if the 2 servers are charging different prices and customers notice and complain. Everything is online now and businesses, especially restaurants, do not want negative online reviews impacting their bottom line. Businesses know customers research businesses online now, before walking in the door. If we can help improve Customer Satisfaction then we are improving their business and adding profit to the business.

Solution Selling

What are your immediate expectations of this technology purchase?

Two key areas present an opportunity to add value: Compliance and Reduce/Shrink Loss.

What I have found is that most Opportunities “think” they know about Compliance yet they only have a narrow view on compliance. By creating a list of Rebuttals prior to meeting and educating the merchant with a rebuttal i.e.: Not only do you need to have a separate network for your wireless network but you also need to have a higher level of encryption. PCI DSS 3.1 SSL and early TLS are no longer considered best practice for encryption.

The more value you can create in Identifying “losses” “waste” “shrink” the more eager the client will be to sign and the actual cost of the system will not be seen as an expense instead as an investment towards a high return on investment.

How do you budget for technology needs? Do we need to do cap x budgets? Do you have cap x dollars left you would like to use?

Research shows that 30-50% of sales go to the vendor

that responds first. (Source: InsideSales.com) We sell Self-Checkout systems, dvr

systems, and other products; and I may ask a prospective client “how are

you dealing with improving customer service and reducing costs in the current climate of regulations like the AFA act?” “especially when competing against the giants”…which usually engages a conversation for what may be on my agenda, from a selling perspective. But this type of question actually helps in other products we sell as well, because all retailers want the ROI.

Closing out the Discussion

What are you uncomfortable with or what is holding you back in regard to making a decision on our discussions and proposals? Is there something that I need to change?

Closing out the discussion

Are you ready to sign and put down a down payment?

Not sure if is open ended, but it usually leads to a conversation in discovering what the holdup is if they do not say

yes. This seems simple and really common sense but it sometimes can be the hardest question to ask for a lot of sales people. Many sales people wait for the client or customer to bring that up.

What are the long term expectations of the POS purchase? Future Expansions? Multi-Locations Management? Franchising?

Always preface the Closing Question: “Now that I have a really good understanding of your business,”...

Please note part an important part of the decision making process is to actually meet with the decision maker when consultative selling.

The Sales Issue Sales Management


Sound investment portfolio-management advice ranges from “hold firm with

your existing stocks” to “take advantage of a great opportunity to buy at today's basement prices”. Holding firm assumes that your existing portfolio contains quality securities, is properly diversified and has been managed with an appropriate, long-term perspective.

For our sales management world, let’s make the same positive assumptions—our sales team consists of quality people with good attitudes and successful track records, and has been properly managed. However, there’s one big difference. Sales leaders must continually keep their sales teams focused on goals and activities that make their teams and companies successful. Therefore, their perspective must be short-term revenue generation.

Today’s tenuous political and economic situation is very distracting and may be

11 Actions Sales Management Must Take Now! By Ken Thoreson

having a negative impact on your team’s morale and drive. Lousy economic headlines and layoffs may have left staff suffering from survivor’s guilt, lamenting about the loss of comrades and security.

Now is the time to rally your troops. The nation’s leaders are encouraging spending and investing to boost our economy. This also is an opportunity to build a better sales team that will increase your market share as competitors lag. The following tactical program features 11 key sales and marketing management actions that will help your sales management approach take advantage of

A whopping 68% of B2B organizations have not identified their funnel.

(Source: MarketingSherpa)

the opportunity of a lifetime during the lifetime of this opportunity:

Mobilize by motivating.

Keep your team focused on activity, and decrease distraction by tuning into the attitude and motivation of your sales team. Build belief in your company, and boost your team’s confidence in its products/services with visits to your satisfied customers, reference letters, or customer visits and presentations to your entire organization about their satisfaction. Make your sales meetings fun. Create sales contests/games that are focused on achieving activity levels that will increase your

Section IV. Sales Management Leading sales teams requires managers to be focused on mot ivat ing direct reports

as wel l as the bottom l ine. This sect ion contains informat ion for sales managers,

including sel f -assessment and sales hir ing advice.

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sales pipeline and sales opportunities. Find out what is important to your sales team, and create rewards that will reinforce these.

Review your product/service packaging and pricing tactics to ensure that you are capitalizing on your strengths and meeting competition.

This is a perfect time to review your existing profit margins and sales-cycle length by product line, and make short-term adjustments to determine the elasticity of your product that will increase revenues and margins. Create or amend the features or offerings in your various packages or even create new packaged offerings. Confuse your competition with new offerings and you may even find new added-value options that have been overlooked. Find ways to be different.

Analyze and profile the sales team and distribution channels that you need to penetrate your markets.

Your channel partner strategy should complement the efforts of your team, not cannibalize them. Look to your partner’s business model to determine how to capture “share of mind”, and reward them for their achievements. Quantify the results of each partner, and keep senior channel management updated.

Analyze your existing strategy and each channel partner as to how they match up to your profile. You may find new partners/alliances that will open up new accounts and even new markets. If your #1 choices for partners

Jeff Ernst of Forrester Research, Inc, estimates that only about 5% of marketers use a full-featured

automation solution (Source: Forrester Research)

aren’t interested, pursue #2 choices with the argument that you can help make them #1. You also may find it advantageous to discontinue some relationships.

First list the attributes necessary to maximize sales of your product, and then determine if this is best accomplished through a company sales organization or channels/partners or both. Second, create a customer focus group and ask them how to best serve them and what they are looking for in a relationship. What levels of support do they require? Third, make a decision on the five most essential attributes or profiles for your sales employees and channel partners.

Muscle up your sales team.

With so many very good salespeople available and looking for the right opportunity, it’s the perfect time to increase your recruiting and potential hiring. It is far better to hire the best person for the job, and not the best available person. Create the ideal five attributes of successful salespeople, and establish a “tight” interview process that ensures you increase the quality of your team. Guideline: spend 25% of your time interviewing.

Analyze and strategize each sales opportunity.

If your industry is facing fewer opportunities and increased competition, each opportunity is even more precious. Schedule time with salespersons individually or in a team setting to think through each near-term sales opportunity. Provide your team with effective tools that analyze the status of each opportunity and develop the various tactics to increase your probabilities. Specifically:

1. Pinpoint and develop ways to counter objections

2. Determine buyer decision criteria

3. Establish client decision makers and influencers

4. Initiate multi-level contact with multi-level influencers in the prospect’s company.

Seek supporters who will recommend your product/service.

Analyze the type of organizations or people that impact your client’s decision process. These “influencers” may be consultants that work in the same market or leverage the same prospect base, accounting firms, bankers, industry analysts. Consider other sales organizations that would benefit directly or indirectly from the sale of your product or service. Develop a plan to establish who the decision makers at these organizations are. Enlist your sales and management teams in a campaign to present these influencers with advantages of your firm, and secure a commitment from them to work with you. This on-going action can lead to the equivalent of a normal salesperson’s quota value of sales!

Create new sales leads with an active target-marketing campaign.

Create a smart, targeted campaign, not a blast or mass-appeal plan. First, establish profiles of current clients, and determine the five reasons they use your products/service. Second, hit your market with a strong, clear message—ROI and productivity gains—through case studies in publications that your market reads and a customer reference list. Third, establish a plan of action for the next six months and make sure you have included a sales follow up contact—execute your management review.

Review your current compensation plan to ensure that it supports company goals.

Clearly document your current plan and tabulate payments against results over time. Is the plan achieving your original goals? Is the plan reinforcing desired sales activity behavior? If not, develop a new plan, and gain internal buy-in from your team. Focus on shorter-term goals, and implement a new plan with commitment to keep it in place for at least six months. Use the existing market opportunity to focus on short-term achievements.

Increase your investment in training – sales skills, product/service knowledge.

In tighter times your team must perform more effectively. Review your past efforts, and take an inventory of training needs based on individual salesperson comparisons against your desired profile. Schedule ongoing training programs. Develop your own internal programs to ensure your salespeople fully understand and can sell your product/services and then arrange for commercial sales skill training programs. You will experience both short-and long-term benefits. Focus on increased levels of training for six months.

Develop an active program to contact every customer.

This is a great time to establish a program to make contact with each existing client to fully understand their situations and use of your product/services, to offer new packages, and seek references for new potential clients. Make sure you are effectively using your CRM or SFA programs, and update your database with each customer contact. Verify that your sales team’s recent contacts with every prospect and client are appropriate. Develop, execute, and monitor a program of continuing contact with all targeted clients, prospects, influencers and partners. Review your progress each week/month at your sales meetings.

Build better planning into your sales organization.

Failure to plan is the number one obstacle thwarting revenue generation. First, define the specific steps of your sales process, and ensure that each salesperson executes those steps effectively. Second, develop detailed six-month individual salesperson business plans. Third, create specific named account tactical sales plans for those key strategic accounts, and follow up on your salespersons’ actual actions.

You’ll find the word “execute” many times in this brief article, because action is critical.

Successful sales managers plan, successfully focus, and execute their programs. Take these 11 actions, and you will enhance your sales team, increase revenues, and build a focus in your organization when it is critically important – NOW! Take Action. Stay Positive.



PLEASE SCORE 1-5, 5= HIGH

Rate how wel l you know the true or real total value of your pipel ine?

1 2 3 4 5

Rate how comfortable are you that you know what percentage of the pipel ine in the current category is required to ensure the current sales budget is exceeded? 1 2 3 4 5

Rate how comfortable are you that you have enough pipel ine potent ia l in the 30, 60, and 90 categor ies to exceed future monthly quotas? 1 2 3 4 5

Rate how comfortable are you of the projected revenue you need in each sales stage category to ensure you have enough opportuni t ies to exceed the future quota?

1 2 3 4 5

Can you visual ly see al l your top 10 potent ia l forecasted accounts, f rom your desk or my port fol io? Rate how wel l you strategize on the top 10.

1 2 3 4 5

How are you doing as a sales leader? Are your goals as a team leader a l igned with overal l business goals? This audit can help you assess where you’re at now, and what you might need to start , s top, or cont inue doing.

Sales Management Audit QuizBy Ken Thoreson

How wel l are al l key accounts targeted? Rate your p lan to at tack them? Do you have a plan to review your planned targeted account act iv i ty vs actual account act iv i ty?

1 2 3 4 5

How would your rate your ongoing recrui t ing plan that ensures you have qual i f ied candidates avai lable?

1 2 3 4 5

Rate the qual i ty of your interviewing process that ensures the best candidate is selected not the best avai lable candidate is selected?

1 2 3 4 5

How complete is your salesperson Personal Business Plan implemented and is i t reviewed each month?

1 2 3 4 5

Rate the qual i ty of your 3-month sales-tra in ing program, is i t def ined and implemented? Do you have a salesperson Development Plan implemented to improve the professional ism of your team?

1 2 3 4 5

Rate the qual i ty of your CRM/SFA system, is i t being used ef fect ively? Is i t up to date? Is i t backed-up?

1 2 3 4 5

Rate the qual i ty of your salesperson 6-month Named Account reforecast/strategic/ tact ical p lan process?

1 2 3 4 5

Rate the qual i ty of your 6 month sales/market ing/management plan, is i t def ined for each month?

1 2 3 4 5

Rate how your compensat ion plan works? Are your company’s goals a l igned with the compensat ion/quota programs?

1 2 3 4 5



Do you have the right partner to help your business grow?

contact us at: [email protected]

© 2015 NEC Corporation of America. All rights reserved. NEC and NEC logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of NEC Corporation

that may be registered in Japan and other jurisdictions.

The Stanchion suite of retail IT bears all of NEC's highest standards to help your commerce succeed tomorrow, the next day and years to come.

Hardware. Software. People.

How wel l are your sales leading indictors def ined, are they measured, posted-Graphed-Analyzed?

1 2 3 4 5

Do you have regular scheduled and unscheduled “Coaching” sessions with each of your salespeople?

1 2 3 4 5

How would you rate the ef fect iveness of your sales contests and business games? Are they planned to promote revenue and bui ld teamwork?

1 2 3 4 5

0-33 | Major Assistance Required NOW Have you considered br inging in some consult ing help? A sales leadership t ra in ing consultancy, l ike Acumen Management can both help rejuvenate and mot ivate companies in every stage of growth.

60-85 | Minor Tuning Maybe Required Keep up the good work! Assess your lower scores, and put plans into place to help address those opportuni ty areas.

47-59 | Consider Several Projects Are Required I t seems that your sales management strategy is sol id , but some key tweaks need to be made. Rol l up your s leeves, some work needs to be done to get your scores in a higher range

34-46 | Wil l Need Mult iple Actions Taken Quickly Lots to focus on, determine your pr ior i ty act ions.

Total Score

Scoring:



During my recent presentation at RetailNOW® 2015 in Orlando, the audience and I agreed on these two business fundamentals:

Hiring the right people is difficult.

Hiring salespeople is the trickiest hire of ‘em all.

I couldn’t promise the attendees that every manager who followed my “8 Time-Tested Rules For Hiring & Retaining Salespeople” would achieve perfection in their sales team-building activities. Even Hall of Fame hiring managers don’t bat 1.000, especially in sales.

But if you apply the principles of this proven process, you will exponentially reduce your number of bad sales hires and make your successful sales hires even better.

Due to space constraints, I won’t dive deep into each rule. If you want more details, please reach out to me (contact info at the end of this article) or visit book’s website: www.HireLikeYouJustBeatCancer.com.

Rule #1: Raise your standards. Capable salespeople who are successful, fun, and have high character actually do exist. Hold out to hire them. A typical hiring manager error is to hire only for skills. Your pre-employment interviews should be structured to determine if the candidate is a good match for your company in four areas: skills, personality, character, and mapping. (Mapping definition: Does the candidate have the psychological makeup to be inclined to perform the activities of the job?)

Rule #2: Fire your lousy salespeople. You need to establish the right culture before hiring new salespeople. Give underperforming salespeople a chance to get good, but the timeframe to meet your standard should be measured in months, not quarters or years. If you give a rep adequate support and they fail to meet your standard, you need to cut the cord for the sake of your culture.

Rule #3: Sit down and write a training outline. In Good To Great, author Jim Collins talks about not just discipline but “rigorous discipline.” You need have the discipline to develop a thorough sales training plan to ensure you adequately train new hire sales reps. Fundamental aspects of a sales training program include: a job description, a specific roadmap for the first 13 weeks on the job, a list of who and what they’ll be exposed to and when, and a frequent, candid meeting with their supervisor.

Before we get to Rule #4, did you notice the first three rules don’t involve hiring in itself? You need to establish a sturdy foundation for you company culture before moving forward with new sales hires.

Rule #4: Don’t get hypnotized by a resume. Don’t allow yourself to be seduced by a likeable, well-spoken sales candidate who boasts of past sales success. Sorry to sound like a broken iPod, but you need to hire for skill, personality, character, and mapping. A common mistake made by hiring managers in the pre-employment process is looking only to answer the question of whether a candidate can sell or not.

Rule #5: Test, don’t guess. The most common response to pre-employment interview questions by sales candidates is “I’m a gonna …” They say, “I’m a gonna be your best salesperson!” and “I’m a gonna be your hardest worker!” You can’t base your hiring decision on their promises. Tests are a more accurate method of predicting a candidate’s future performance. Among the tests I’ve seen help with decision making are the Wonderlic Cognitive Ability Test, the DISC personnel assessment tool, asking the candidate to write an essay or a persuasive letter, and giving the candidate a project to research your organization.

8 Time-Tested Rules For Hiring & Retaining Salespeople by Jim Roddy

Rule #6: Challenge them. If you only ask questions like, “What are your career goals?”, “What motivates you?” and “What are you looking for in a job?” before making an offer, you can make even Vladimir Putin seem charming. Your hiring process needs to occasionally challenge the candidate to see how they react to pressure. The best way to do this is to share criticisms with the candidate so you can experience firsthand—through your own eyes and your own ears—how they respond. Your tone can’t be accusatory, condescending, or emotionally charged. It should be more of a conversation, not an interrogation. Example: “I want to share a criticism with you. I hope I don’t come off as harsh here—I’m just trying to make sure this is a right fit for you and us. Can I share with you an area that concerns me?”

Rule #7: Slow down, you move too fast. The typical hiring process involves reviewing a resume, meeting with the candidate once or twice, then—if the candidate isn’t offensive —making a job offer. This is a mistake. You can’t just hang out with a sales candidate for an hour or two and get the information you need. The more information you can uncover and the more skillfully you analyze it, the better your hiring decision will be, and this can only be accomplished through multiple interviews. Included in your pre-employment process should be dozens of behavior-based interview questions plus sales candidates spending time with your current sales reps—1-on-1 interactions, observing sales calls, and attending a sales meeting.

Rule #8: Set clear expectations. The final step before making a job offer to a sales candidate should be an Aversions Interview. This is where you have a frank discussion with the candidate of what actions they will need to take to survive and thrive at your company. Here are a few sentences that help gain agreement on with sales candidates before making an offer: “We will work with you at monthly goal-setting meetings to evaluate and test the health of your sales funnel and pace of account movement. Periodically, we will audit your territory to help you avoid a potential sales slump in the future.” If a salesperson presses for no management —you’ve heard “Just leave me alone!” before, haven’t you?—you can point back to this conversation.

I really enjoyed the give-and-take on this topic during and after my RetailNOW presentation. If you’d like to talk sales hiring or people management in general, I can be reached at [email protected] or 814-897-9000, ext. 201.

Happy hiring!

of salespeople are considered to be effective.

(Source: Harvard Business Review)

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There are two areas where Resellers find themselves with repeated difficulties

in regard to management of their employees. First, is the proper classification for overtime compensation. Second is the distinction between an employee and an independent contractor. These two areas have now become more closely related due to recent events.

This past month two Resellers received inquiries from the Department of Labor in regard to their overtime policies. In both instances the Resellers assured me that the individuals were paid a “salary” and thus were not entitled to overtime. How an individual is compensated is not relevant. It is the employee’s duties and responsibilities that determine whether overtime compensation must be paid. Service technicians are the individuals usually misclassified. In most situations technicians will be entitled to overtime compensation. A service manager will not. Also, technicians dispatched from home are on the clock once their normal commute time is reached. It should be noted that in both actions brought by the Department of Labor a technician that was terminated blew the whistle on the employer. Even though the employers had provided generous compensatory time for extra hours worked and time off when needed, these facts are not considered when determining if proper compensation was paid.

The U.S. Department of Labor recently issued guidance on

the classification of employees versus independent contractors. At times Resellers will classify individuals as independent contractors in order to avoid paying benefits, social security taxes, withholding taxes, and state and local taxes. An independent contractor is responsible for the payment of all taxes based upon his or her gross income. If an individual is found to be improperly designated as an independent contractor then the employer becomes responsible for all taxes and withholdings regardless of whether the funds were withheld. Thus the Reseller would have to pay the full withholding, both portions of social security and Medicare, and state and local taxes. In several situations misclassified individuals have sued for medical benefits, profit sharing, and other benefits that would have been received if they were properly classified as an employee. Regulators are also concerned that independent contractors are not covered by many of the legal protections extended to employees such as Family Leave Act and Worker’s Compensation.

The Department of Labor guidance established six factors of an economic realities test to help employers properly classify individuals. The factors are:

1. Is the work an integral part of the employer’s business?

2. Does the worker’s managerial skill affect the worker’s opportunity for profit or loss?

3. How does the worker’s relevant investment compare to the employer’s investment?

Employee Classification ReviewsBy Bob Goldberg

4. Does the work performed require special skill and initiative?

5. Is the relationship between the worker and employer permanent or indefinite?

6. What is the nature and degree of the employer’s control?

The closer the relationship to the employer and a lack of independence weighs these factors as establishing an employee relationship. The Department of Labor believes that most workers should be classified as employees and the six factors support this belief. Courts have felt the same having reviewed relationships based upon the six factors in the economic realities test.

With new standards for overtime compensation raising the gross compensation required to be exempt from overtime compensation it is felt that independent contractor status might be considered to avoid paying overtime. Clearly the Federal and State regulators will be closely monitoring worker classification and Resellers are encouraged to examine their job descriptions and classifications to assure compliance. The six factors set forth are a good basis to begin a review.

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The Sales Issue Sales Training


Section V. Sales Training The training of salespeople is cr i t ical for success. In th is sect ion, the story of the f i rst

sales t raining school for POS is documented.

The World’s First Sales Training School By Amber Murdock

S topping his horse on a bluff that overlooked a peaceful scene of trees and gentle breezes, John H. Patterson looked north: sprawled in front of him to one side were the sprawling factory grounds of the company he

founded (the National Cash Register Company), and to the other, a pristine view of the city of his birth (Dayton, Ohio). Given the serene and breezy setting, Patterson was struck with an idea to move the small sales school he had founded nine years earlier, currently being hosted in a small house on his property, to this quiet location with the incredible, inspiring views.

Hurriedly, tents were constructed on the hilly area, which had once been used for the harvesting and manufacture of sugar, extracted from the maples that proliferated on the 36 acres space. Wood floored tents, cots, tables, were all moved to accommodate the school, which soon became known as “University under the Canvas.” However, the official name of the school gave a nod to the sugar processing that the land had been used for—Sugar Camp. It was 1903.

Above: John Henry Patterson, founder of NCR

of salespeople think that sales training helps them do

their job better. (Source: American Society of Training &

Development)

Organizations that offer salespeople opportunities for ongoing development are more likely to create more peak performing salespeople than those that don’t.

(Source: American Society of Training & Development)

of veteran sales people suffer from some sort of call reluctance serious enough to threaten

their career in sales. (Source: Behavioral Sciences Research Press)



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Training Sales “Warriors”

The sparse facilities and the singular focus on the subject matter, selling, was aligned with Patterson’s philosophies on sales: discipline, determination, and concentration are required. In 1884, he founded the National Cash Register company and became the maker of the first mechanical cash registers. Simultaneous with the founding of NCR, he established a clear sales philosophy—directing his sales force with exacting management which stressed strict preparation, distinct territory coverage, and a highly professional approach. If Patterson’s goal was to dominate his marketplace, his leadership style and the systems he put in place for his new company indicated he was ready for the battle.

Part of his arsenal was a sales manual he created—known as the “Primer,” which divided the sale into four steps: approach, proposition, demonstration, and close. The manual provided step-by-step instructions for cash register sales, which included the salesman communicating to the prospect that he wanted to help the business owner increase profits: essentially, establishing the salesman as a consultant.

“The Primer instructed salesmen to exert pressure in a forceful yet subtle manner,” according to Walter A. Friedman, lecturer at Harvard Business School. “The key was to prevent a prospect from feeling manipulated.”

The aversion to outright manipulation by the salesman was a key characteristic in Patterson’s sales philosophy—market domination was the goal, but in order to truly accomplish that, buyers had to feel that the purchase was truly beneficial to their businesses. Who better to help the customer feel that way, than a salesman that exuded “confidence and honesty,” says Friedman. Previously, the salesman was considered a fast-talking, unkempt peddler of unwanted goods. Transforming the salesman into the professional with an interest in helping meet a need was a revolutionary concept.

With his “intricate” system of managing sales, as well as his trailblazing efforts in a new medium—print advertising—Patterson was committed to ensuring that every business owner who sold goods for cash knew about his products. In an ironic twist, after making his frequent visits to sales offices, Patterson discovered that his own salespeople, in many cases, didn’t know as much about product as their targeted customer base. “Half of our salesmen are so ignorant of our products that they will actually prevent the customer from buying, even if he wanted a cash register,” he was quoted as saying to his Dayton staff. Even though he had systems in place, manuals for reference available, scripts prepared, even a Book of Arguments (created to handle customer questions and objections of every ilk), Patterson decided that a sales training school was the best method to help create better salesmanship. And with the creation of his school in 1894, he changed the history of sales.

Spartan Conditions

The tents of Sugar Camp were usually brought out in the Spring of each year, and taken down with the advent of the Ohio winter. As many as 275 men would gather at the camp in these early years, living, working, and learning in the tents as they received the training that would help them better sell NCR products. In 1933, eleven years after Patterson’s death, a permanent home for Sugar Camp began construction. When it opened for the 1934 class, there were “50 cabins, a caretakers’ cottage, a dining hall, a recreation building, and two schoolroom buildings, each with three air conditioned classrooms,” according to Ken Carr, secretary of the NCR Retired Employees’ Association. “Each cabin housed four men:

there was a two man bedroom on each side of the cabin with the closets, bathroom and shower in the center, running from front to back,” notes Carr. “Administration buildings, an assembly hall, and 10 more cabins were added in 1936 to complete the facility as it stood through the 1960’s.”

The rigor and intensity of NCR’s Sugar Camp soon made the difference Patterson envisioned, and Sugar Camp became a standard part of the company’s training program for its sales force, and continued into the late 1990’s.

People are People: Sugar Camp’s Modern Era

It is widely held that John Patterson’s sales training methods transformed sales into an actual profession. Prior to that, the common belief was that salesmen were born, not made, asserts Carr. Patterson also believed that even though material was available, it wouldn’t ensure that it would be “read, understood, or even applied correctly,” said Carr.

BJ Maynard, RSPA Board Member and President of Management Control Solutions, agrees that the in-person aspect of sales training is essential. “Intense personal interaction is required in order to understand the various personalities (you may encounter),” he commented. “Much would be lost without that engagement.”

Maynard, a Sugar Camp alumnus, first attended the training school in 1967, when he began his career at NCR. Newly married and new to the industry, Maynard says that he did not fully grasp the importance of Sugar Camp when he was first told he had to go to Camp: “I suppose it was a real blessing that it was required. I was part of the “younger generation,” and did not appreciate the relevance of Sugar Camp and

the vastness of the education of salesmanship that was there, waiting for me.”

Instructors at Sugar Camp were all Camp alumni, with at least ten years in the field, according to Maynard: “As a rule, two years as an instructor was a prerequisite for returning to the field in a management position.” Days were

Top: students at Sugar Camp trained and lived in tents like these until 1934, when upgraded facilities were added, like these cabins, bottom.

Maynard



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intense, and began at 7AM for Maynard and his Sugar Camp classmates. “There were guys from all the states and Canada. The cafeteria staff tried to please everyone for a home-cooked type breakfast to help get over the shock of our intimidating instructors from the day before,” he remembers.

Classes did not include any product knowledge: “that was to be learned later at your home office. We were specifically studying the 5 Steps of The Creative Sales Plan.” Maynard recalled that his first course gave him a bit of apprehension: “My first course was the study of human behavior traits,” he said. “At some point, he realized, “people are just people!” After a couple of weeks, I got it! People really are just people.”

Future Leaders Wanted

As time went on, the facilities of Sugar Camp became increasingly sophisticated, especially as technology advanced. “I was fortunate to take some of the first ‘computer courses offered [at Sugar Camp],” said Tom Reichart, RSPA Chairman-Elect and Vice President of Business Development at Mercury, a Vantiv Company.

“One instructor in particular was well ahead of his time in communication capability and taught us the basics of the computer—input devices, output devices, CPU and storage—and though I had taken a very basic course in college, he brought it all together and gave me a real method to explain a computer in very simple terms to prospects.”

Reichart attended Sugar Camp for weeks at a time, starting in 1972 when he joined NCR, through the mid-1990s. “[Sugar Camp] was

a strong selling point for me to join NCR,” he stated. “Attending was a huge influence on making me a professional salesperson/manager. I learned many sales management techniques at a very early age.”

One of the other notable outcomes of the Sugar

Camp era, was that it became a real breeding ground for NCR’s future leadership. Grooming the next generation of company leaders was likely an expected outcome, with the program’s

emphasis on excellence, and the stress placed on unparalleled professionalism. But according to statistics in the 1930s, it was estimated that 1/6 of the world’s top executives were trained by or started their leadership career with the National Cash Register company.

Long days with intense training were critical in the preparation process: “Classes were from 8 to 5 or 6pm with breaks, and some evening and Saturday classes,” remembered Reichart. “Curriculum was a full scheduled week (or weeks) taken similar to a college structure… i.e., 101, 201, 301, etc.” Hearkening back to Patterson’s own training standards—a healthy mix of product knowledge with communication strategies, Reichart recounted, “[There was] incredible sales and retail industry training, with a lot of hands-on, and role play.”

“There was a lot of [product training] with graded role play on how to sell and beat competition,” he continued. “And a well-developed management course curriculum once I was promoted to management.”

An Unforgettable Experience

The legacy of Sugar Camp is far reaching. Beyond a training school, it’s become a foundational stone in the history of sales education. Patterson’s tactics and techniques paid off with NCR’s future dominance in the industry (so much so, that the ICRDA itself was founded to counter its preeminence). The sales and marketing strategies he implemented have had a major impact on modern selling. For those who attended, and benefitted from the intense training, Sugar Camp was career-changing:

“Sugar Camp, without any doubt, molded my perspective on sales by teaching me that from the very beginning of the sales process with any customer, you must create a comfort and trust level with that person before ever discussion a potential product,” said Maynard. “I learned that, when the customer asks, ‘do you sell the best system?’ I respond, ‘all the systems have strengths, but we need to determine what will increase your profitability.’ At that moment, trust has been established!”

Maynard’s vivid memory of this important lesson taught at Sugar Camp, echoes the lessons outlined in The Primer. “Avoid giving the impression to the merchant that you are trying to force him to buy. No man likes to feel he is being sold,” the Primer warned salesmen.

But, in a world of consumer electronics, and unprecedented access to information, is the intensity of a Sugar Camp-like sales training experience needed for today’s sales professional? Could it be executed successfully? Maynard and Reichart think so.

“Absolutely,” Reichart asserts. “With the technology available today, I believe a very similar approach could be created. Courses directed at the industry, sales, product, management and related subjects could be offered in a virtual environment for our resellers and vendors. Similar to the way on-line college courses as well as MBA programs are taken.”

Maynard, like Reichart, is also a veteran sales trainer, and still believes in the in-person training experience, but adjustment could be done for today’s student. “As far as the full immersion? That would need to be discussed, to consider a compromise,” he said.

Whether the next iteration of sales training is a Sugar Camp-like experience, or a detailed sales training manual, James Patterson had more than just a breath-taking view on that spring day in 1903. His idea to combine sales education with hands-on experiential learning prevails, especially in the best sales training programs today.

Reichart

Little Known Facts about Sugar Camp

During World War II, Sugar Camp’s training facilities were taken over by 600 of the U.S. Navy’s Women Appointed for Voluntary Emergency Service (WAVES). The job of the WAVES stationed at Sugar Camp was to assemble “Bombes” at the U.S. Naval Machine Computing Laboratory at NCR. (Bombes were code-cracking machines used to decipher the German Enigma Code). During peak production, the WAVES’ shifts ran eight to 12 hours long, 24 hours a day, and were rotated weekly. The work of the WAVES at Sugar Camp remained a secret for more than 50 years, with the true nature of their work only being revealed in the mid-1990s.

Today, after being sold to investors in 2006, the 24 acre Sugar Camp property is part of the city of Oakwood, OH, and has been revived as a mixed use development, featuring residential and commercial real estate. Custom homes, luxury condominiums are available for purchase. The original NCR buildings were retained in the new development, and are again serving as office space options. Do you have Sugar Camp memories? If so, email us at www.GoRSPA.org/Publications

The Sales Issue Sales Planning


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It’s November! For most sales reps and sales managers that means it’s crunch time for achieving your sales goals. With just weeks left in the year, you need to close sales fast,

but don’t want to appear desperate. Here are 13 strategies you can use to close sales without proposing discounts and special offers:

1. Review all the proposals you closed this year and make a list of things customers decided to “wait to do.” Close them now.

2. Spend two days closing lingering proposals, even the ones from last January.

3. Upsell add-ons you thought would inflate the original solution you sold this year.

4. Sell one more. Look for opportunities to sell one more of something small or simple: one more PC, one more small project, one more staff administrative position. Sell a bunch.

5. Conduct a 2014 review meeting with your top eight customers. Look back on the year’s successes and forward to what still needs to be accomplished before year end.

6. Look for clients with remaining budget this year that they’d like to spend on next year’s priorities.

12 Tips to Close End of Year Sales Fast by Kendra Lee

7. Call every client you haven’t talked to in 90 days to see how they’re positioned to start next year. Do they need your services in December to get off to a fast start?

8. Call all prospects who’ve been holding off on moving forward with a proposal. Check in to see how they’re positioned to achieve their first quarter initiatives.

9. Review your forecast and identify the steps required to close everything – then execute.

10. Enlist your manager’s and / or team’s support in overcoming roadblocks holding any of your customers or prospects back from buying.

11. Remind customers you welcome referrals. Who do they know that needs help to get through year end?

12. Set appointments for January to give yourself a fast start to next year. You may find last minute opportunities while you’re at it!

There are still plenty of sales to be made this year. Go get ‘em!

Sales Leadership: 5 Steps to Exceed 2016 Quota By Ken Thoreson

The end of the year is rapidly closing in and while everyone in your organization is focused on achieving their targets; as a sales leader it is crucial you are also

focused on the new year. At this time of year I am working with each of my clients to begin to position them for success. I have listed the actions most organizations need to consider to exceed next year’s quota.

Begin to recruit. This is the best time of year to recruit as top performers are evaluating their current situation, so you may lose individuals

and you can add individuals. Assuming your sales quota will go up, you will need additional salespeople on your team to achieve those higher numbers. Recruiting takes time and training new salespeople takes time, get a jump on your headcount. Also you may have salespeople failing and you may need to let other go, not having enough quality salespeople to achieve your numbers is the number one reason sales managers are let go! Check out my book on Recruiting High Performance Sales Teams, if you do not currently have a recruiting/interviewing process-it also includes a salesperson “On Boarding” process.

Section VI . Sales Planning Planning is an essent ial part of successful sel l ing. In th is sect ion, ins ights on how to

f rom RSPA’s Sales Issue Faculty are provided.



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Evaluate your compensation plan. Does the plan match your organizations strategic objectives? Is it competitive? Will there be changes to your products/services in the new year that could impact your compensation plan? It takes time to build a new compensation plan, do no leave this till December! You need to test it and plan how to roll it out. (There is a free sales compensation assessment on our website: www.AcumenManagement.com)

Review Account Planning and Salesperson Business Plans. Depending upon your sales model, review whatever templates you are currently using; are they sophisticated enough, do they achieve what you want them to accomplish? Account Plans should at a minimum include a “strategy” and 5 tactical steps to either open or penetrate the accounts more effectively. Salesperson Business Plans should include more than simple forecasts; they need to include goal setting, training needs, marketing activities and business objectives. If you want a free sample, simply ask: [email protected]

Create annual sales contests. One of the key components in building high performing sales teams is the creation of the annual sales trip. There are many variations to concept and I don’t have room to detail in this blog, but the facts are where we have annual team reward trips, I see great sales organizations. They build pride, team

work and drive revenue. In my book; Creating High Performance Sales Compensation Plans I have an entire chapter on incentive compensation.

Plan what major sales training your team requires. Consider the skill level of your general team and what changes there are in your market and then assess various training programs that are available. We are not a sales training organization but we can make recommendations based upon your general needs. Create a budget and insert it into your new year plan!

Each organization is different and requires a unique solution however these 5 basic actions, if acted on, will position you to be ahead of the game!



Recently, I heard a sales consultant tell a group of sales reps that they needed to forget about closing Q4 deals and turn their attention to laying the groundwork for 2014. The only value to Q4, this consultant argued, is that it presents an opportunity to get a jump-start on Q1.

And he was dead serious.

I couldn’t believe it. Why would a salesperson treat Q4 any differently than the other three quarters of the year? The opportunities are still there and you’ve still got quotas, quarterly targets, and annual revenue goals to shoot for, don’t you? For me, quitting on Q4 to look ahead to Q1 is akin to a football team walking off the field in the fourth quarter of a game so that it can rest up or prepare for its next one. Have you ever seen that happen?

Throughout the years, I’ve consistently coached reps to recognize the value of Q4 sales and the potential prospecting opportunities the coming months present. Namely, you’ve still got time to close more deals and make more money (duh). And the more seeds you sow now, the better your harvest will be in Q1.

If for no other reason than to achieve those benefits, why wouldn’t you give Q4 your full attention?

3 Excuses for Abandoning Q4 (and Why They’re All Bogus)

In 25+ years as a sales executive and consultant, I’ve heard every excuse in the book for why Q4 is a dismal time for salespeople.

It’s the holiday season—prospects aren’t in the office and they don’t want to hear from me. I’m too far behind—even if I worked my tail off, I couldn’t make my number. To close any deal at the end of the year, I have to slash the price on my product and management just won’t let that happen.

What do I think about those excuses? They’re incorrect, self-defeatist drivel. Here’s why:

Peeking Ahead to Q1? Why Ignoring Q4 is a Very Bad Idea by Kendra Lee

“No one wants to talk business during the holidays.” Do companies suddenly shutter their windows in November and December and ignore their biggest challenges or pain points? No. Someone is working and, believe it or not, it’s often easier to reach those people because they’re more relaxed and open to chat. Yes, it takes a bit more work to push a PO through, but it’s not an impossible task.

“There isn’t enough time left to do anything meaningful.” Most of the small and midsize businesses we work with have average sales cycles of 60-120 days for new clients. So, yes, there are some deals that just won’t close before year-end, but there are plenty of others that could. While we don’t have 120 days left, there’s still plenty of time left for add-on sales, up-sells, and fast moving 30-45 day closes.

“Because it’s year-end, prospects and clients expect a discount.” Guess whose fault that is? Because so many sales reps now manage Q4 with such nonchalance, customers have begun to expect fire sales and slashed prices. When you sound desperate or frantic, prospects smell blood in the water and take advantage of the situation. When the tone of your emails and phone calls is confident and built around a clear business case, you can manage your prospecting with the same confidence you have in March or April.

Boom or Bust: How Will You Close Out Q4?

Over the course of the last six weeks, I’ve conducted and participated in four webinars that have shared more than 20 tactics salespeople can use to successfully close business in Q4 – and none of them involved resorting to desperate tactics to do so.

You can still make your quarterly and annual numbers. But in order to do so, you need to fully commit to the next few months just as you would the first few months of next year. The payoff for doing that can be significant. The payoff for quitting on Q4? I’m guessing you can figure that one out on your own.

WO

RLD C

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INFORMATIONS GENERALES COULEURS UTILISEES APPROBATION

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41.8% of sales reps missed quota. (Source: CSO Insights, 2012-2013)



Kendra Lee, KLA Group Named one of the Top 25 Influential Leaders in Sales by OpenView Partners, Top 10 Women in Sales Experts

to Follow on Twitter by Sales Gravy and Faculty Chair in Prospecting and Lead Generation for the Sales Training Institute, Kendra Lee is president and founder of KLA Group, a world-class sales consulting and training firm, and she is author of the award-winning books The Sales Magnet and Selling Against the Goal.

Once a repeat IBM Golden Circle award winner, Ms. Lee has led her organization in advising and training clients, including Fortune 100 enterprises and countless small and mid-market companies.

About Bob Goldberg RSPA General Counsel Bob Goldberg is a recognized authority in the area of trade regulation,

antitrust, franchising, distribution channels, contract relations, and complex litigation. He advises several major corporations and numerous trade organizations including the Business Technology Association, Association of Independent Mailing Equipment Dealers, North American Retail Dealers Association and others. He has served as an Assistant Attorney General in the Antitrust Division as well as a staff attorney on the FTC.

About Gary Staub Gary T. Staub is the Chief Sales and Marketing Officer of Sterling Payment Technologies, where he

leads Sterling’s sales and business initiatives. Prior to joining Sterling, Mr. Staub helped build and manage several of the leading payment processing companies in the United States, including Chase Paymentech and U.S. Bank/Elan Financial Services. With dedicated resources focused on Integrated POS programs, Sterling is helping resellers and developers grow and expand with innovative products and services.

Alejandro Swaby President Metrotouch Solutions

Uwe von Sehrwald General Manager Sales Truno

Tom Reichart Vice President of Business Development | Mercury, A Vantiv Company.

BJ Maynard President/Owner Management Control

About Gretchen Gordon Gretchen Gordon is owner of Braveheart Sales Performance, a consulting firm that guarantees

improvement in profitable sales for its clients. With data-driven sales team evaluations, sales effectiveness training, salesperson recruitment and sales management outsourcing, Braveheart helps businesses increase revenue and the bottom line.

About Rich Peterson Rich Peterson began his career as a technician for Abacus Business Systems. Peterson worked his way

up to Service Manager, and in 1990, he purchased the company. Peterson then grew the company over the next 22 years to 85 employees with three offices and then sold the company to NCR. He is now President of RCP Enterprises Inc. in Clearwater, Florida.

About Jim Roddy Jim Roddy is the President of Jameson Publishing, publisher of Business Solutions magazine.

Roddy joined Jameson Publishing 10 years ago as the managing editor for Business Solutions. He was elevated to operations manager in 2002 and then to general manager in 2004. Prior to working at Jameson Publishing, Roddy was the owner and co-publisher of two regional magazines in northwestern Pennsylvania. Business Solutions has served the IT channel for 18 years. For more information, go to www.BSMinfo.com.

About Ken Thoreson Ken Thoreson “operationalizes” sales management systems and processes that pull

revenue out of the doldrums into the fresh zone. During the past 17 years, our consulting, advisory, and platform services have illuminated, motivated, and rejuvenated the sales efforts for organizations throughout the world.

He was recently ranked for the third year in a row by Top Sales World magazine as one of the Top 50 Sales & Marketing Influencers for 2014.

Ken has written 5 books, his latest book is: SLAMMED! for First Time Sales Managers. Ken provides Keynotes, consulting services and products designed to improve business performance. Contact Ken at [email protected] or www.AcumenManagement.com

Sales Issue Expert PanelRecommended Reading with Kelly Funk

Special Contributors

Swim with the Sharks without being Eaten Al ive | Harvey Mackay My f i rst introduct ion to relat ionship sel l ing. Shar ing stor ies f rom his exper ience, Mackay provides examples of ef fect ive CRM techniques before CRM was even a catch phrase. This book real ly opened my eyes, as a new salesperson, that there is much more to sel l ing than just numbers.

Litt le Red Book of Sel l ing | Jef f rey Gitomer Gitomer of fers bi te s ized kernels of advice and informat ion.

The Power of Prospecting: Supercharge Your Sales Performance | Z ig Zigler and Br ian TracyStart ing my career in the insurance industry, Z igler and Tracy were THE two authors/speakers that were revered within that wor ld, but have great relevance more broadly, as wel l .

How to Win Friends and Inf luence People | Dale CarnegieThe classic sales book—After a l l , regardless of our work roles, aren' t we al l sel l ing at some point?

About Kelly Funk Kelly Funk is the President and CEO of RSPA, the only association dedicated to the retail technology

industry. She has extensive leadership and management experience, and has held previous positions with the Alzheimer’s Association, Genworth, and GE Financial. She also holds a Master’s degree in Leadership from Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business, where she is an adjunct faculty member. She also sits on the Board of Advisors of the PCI Security Council.



8 8 8 . 4 7 2 . 9 5 6 4 | p a y m e n t l o g i s t i c s . c o m

Traditional Tip Adjust on EMV Sales

P2P Encryption Recurring Billing

Pay at the Table Online Signature Capture

Customer Interaction Platform

Real-time Transaction Management

Tokenization

O N E S I M P L E P A Y M E N T I N T E G R A T I O N

PL-RSPA-Connect-OctNov.indd 1 9/15/2015 9:44:08 AM

NOVEMBER 2015CALENDAR OF EVENTS

SYNNEX Fall VAR-NEX Conference Anaheim, CA

1-4

VSR - Business Optimization Summit ConferenceNew York, NY

4-6

BSM's Channel Transitions 2015 VAR/MSP Executive ConferenceOrlando, FL

5

IAPAAOrlando, FL17-20

Ingram IMOneNashville, TN16-19

Connect Statement of Ownership, Management and Circulation

Previous 12 months:

Average Total Number of Copies: 971;Mailed outside-county paid subscriptions: 895; Mailed In-County Paid Subscriptions: 9; Paid Distribution Outside the Mails, Including Sales through Dealers, Carriers, Street Vendors, Counter Sales, and Other Paid Distribution: 0; Paid Distribution by other classes of Mail through the USPS: 0; Total Paid Distribution: 904; Free or Nominal Rate Outside-County Copies: 0;

Free or Nominal Rate In-County Copies: 0; Free or Nominal Rate Copies Mailed in Other Classes Through the USPS: 67; Free or Nominal Rate Distribution Outside the Mail: 0; Total Free or Nominal Rate Distribution: 67; Total Distribution: 971; Copies Not Distributed: 0; Total: 971; Percent Paid: 93%;No Electronic Copies

Most Recent Issue Published Nearest to Filing Date – Issue 85 – September 2015

Total Number of copies: 3000;Mailed outside-county paid subscriptions: 2752; Mailed In-County Paid Subscriptions: 2; Paid Distribution Outside the Mails, Including Sales through Dealers, Carriers, Street Vendors, Counter Sales, and Other Paid Distribution: 0; Paid Distribution by other classes of Mail through the USPS: 0; Total Paid Distribution: 2754;Free or Nominal Rate Outside-County Copies: 0; Free or Nominal Rate In-County Copies: 0; Free or Nominal Rate Copies Mailed in Other Classes Through the USPS: 396; Free or Nominal Rate Distribution Outside the Mail: 0; Total Free or Nominal Rate Distribution: 396; Total Distribution: 3150; Copies Not Distributed: 150; Total: 3300; Percent Paid: 93%;No Electronic Copies

Have an event you’d like other RSPA members to know about? Submit to us (at least 6 weeks in advance) at [email protected].

Canadian Community Sponsors

W2W Community Sponsors

founding sponsor

The Sales Issue

52 OCTOBER/NOVEMBER www.GoRSPA.org

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The Sales Issue

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Transcript of The Sales Issue