Monday, January 19. 2009Converting Exetel From A 'Service' Company....John Linton .....to a 'Sales Company'. We have begun the extremely difficult process of changing Exetel from a company where each additional employee was hired to perform a job directly related to the support of an established customer in some way to a company that, in Australia at least, will only now hire new personnel to contact potential customers and assist them make a decision to become an Exetel customer. The current plan is to double the number of personnel within Exetel from 40 to 90 over the coming 12 months with 40 of the 'end total' being direct sales personnel. We have had, since we commenced business only one person who was designated as a 'sales' person and he was fully occupied in replying to inbound inquiries from business and government people who wanted information having become interested in Exetel via the web site or their own personal experiences as a residential customer. We have had, for much of our existence, a "sales" option in our IVR and a 'contact sales' email address on our web site but the personnel who answered either the sales calls or the sales email inquiries were the same engineers who answered the support inquiries and were given no "sales training" at all on the basis that residential enquirers basically wanted technical information. Our web site "marketing" (the overall layout and every single word written) has been done by one person since it was 'created' over five years ago. Whatever any 'critic' may think of our web sites over the years they have been the sole source in creating a $A40+ million business in less than 5 years which was pretty much the target we aimed at. But now we have to change to build much of Exetel's future growth from the business user market, serious VoIP user and HSPA in both business and residential market sectors. While a few of our engineering qualified personnel will move to more sales oriented roles, the majority of the, possibly, 40 people we will add to Exetel over the coming 12 months will be new hires who will almost all be recent graduates attempting to build their future careers via their first jobs. A brave, many people might think very foolish, endeavour. Perhaps that is what it is - time will tell. I have been around and intimately involved in selling and building sales forces from 'scratch' many times over the past 40 years and therefore have some quite significant experience in undertaking such a task. However that was then and this is now and now, among many differences, I already have a very large number of other things for which I'm responsible that seem to more than adequately fill my day. So it will be, to say the least, a "challenge". I spent some time yesterday 'sketching out' how to teach 40 'graduates' how to not only 'sell' but do a better job at 'selling' than anyone they would compete with in today's communications marketplaces. As I have been 'selling' Exetel's products and services via the web site for the last five years my detailed product knowledge of both our own products and those of our competitors is very 'current' so that presents no problem. The techniques to be used do present a problem as I have no recent direct experience of dealing 'face to face' with our business customers. So my intended course of action is to 'teach' selling a step at a time and I thought I'd start with the five things that I have found to be the most important aspects/elements of my personal (financially) very successful career in selling technology products and services in Australia over the past 40 plus years which are: 1) People Usually Prefer To Buy Rather Than Be Sold This is generally true in the world of business technology decisions and it is very important, especially for sales people at the start of a sales career to keep this in mind. Rule Number 1: Become as expert as you can as quickly as you can in terms of answering questions about your product lucidly and succinctly. 2) It’s Difficult Enough To Understand Everything About Exetel’s Products And Services Never make any comment about any other supplier’s products or services – you have no way of knowing what changes another company has made to them. Rule Number 2 = No buyer likes someone criticizing another company’s product or service so never do it 3) Everything Is Urgent In Terms Of Supplying Information The ONLY time that it’s appropriate to send a prospective customer information about something he/she has requested is the second after you have put down the phone or read the email. Rule Number 3 = Always do it NOW without fail EVERY TIME. 4) Unlike The Old (And Discredited) Proverb – All Things Don’t Come To He Who Waits If you aren’t doing something to generate new sales every minute of every working day who do you think is doing that for you? Rule Number 4 = Develop a routine that pushes you to use all of your time to generate business. 5) There is No Such Thing As A Perfect Sales Document When you join a company/sales team you will 'inherit a lot of "boiler plate" documentation that may well have been written by very senior and very competent people within the company. Rule Number 5 = Every time you send out a proposal/sales letter improve one thing about it – no matter how small. If Exetel could have a 40 person sales force that worked every day on this basis then I think we will do very well. There are some other things a successful sales person needs to become capable of doing but not many. Working out how to get this implemented is something I have given no thought to. Trackbacks
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"Whatever any 'critic' may think of our web sites"...
I'm a big fan of the current Exetel website. I find it quite "calming" (for want of a better word) compared to some of the dog's dinner ISP websites I've seen. I'm actually surprised you've received criticism for it. But then some people really will complain about anything... All the best with growing your business throughout 2009. Comments (2)
Just try to supply telstra based ADSL2+, there are people who wants this,willing to pay for it even if with different quota structure as long as it is reasonable in pricing : quota.
Comment (1)
There are already 4 or 5 ISPs offering Telstra ADSL2 (apart from Telstra).
There's nothing that Exetel could add to that service that would improve it in any way. It would be quite pointless, at least as things are right now, to waste our time and our customer's money to offer a 'me too' service that has no benefits. Comments (7)
@HOE To be honest I do not think reselling Telstra ADSL2 is a good idea at all. So far each company reselling it has only shown one thing. How bad the actual value of the products are, likely based upon the terms of the wholesale agreement reached with Telstra. Just compare plans and the evidence is there.
@JL I find it interesting that Exetel are looking to put people on rather than looking to 'scale back' on hiring. To me it just shows that it comes down to management and business models/efficiencies. Comment (1)
In our case it is based on our need to grow our business and assuming that in bad times people who were previously content to pay high prices will be more interested in making easy savings.
Comments (7)
Very good tips on selling John, I must say. As someone who has never sold tech but has bought quite a lot of it, I can say they definitely match up with my expectations as a buyer.
Comment (1)
Agreed. Especially #3. Case in point: recently when we were shopping for a new car the car yard that got our business was the first to reply to our email query via their website. (A few places didn't reply at all!)
The salesman also followed rule #1, which was definitely a big positive. Comments (2)
John ,
I have been a part of Exetel for some years now, and you are the front man for a company which I have grown to trust since the Swiftel days when i followed you across to Exetel -- A company that I have great trust in now - and it has definately not been misplaced. Always in the background has been the name Steve Waddington and I have always considered him as the nuts and bolts mam that actually makes things run. John what part has Steve played in the success that Exetel has achieved. He seems to be the forgotten man that has been beside you all the way. I know that without someone at the helm guiding a true and safe course that dangerous waters arnt far away but his name seems to scarecely appear in your commentarties. You are the front man for a team that appears to follow your every word -- John are you forgetting those -- that make it happen. It would be nice to see the names of those that -- do make it happen. Comments (3)
I'm not sure that I understand what you are asking.
Steve has his own blog and he frequently posts there. Similarly he, like me, has always posted in the Exetel forum since the very first day that was 'opened'. Comments (7)
i didnt know he actually hsd his own blog -- i most investigate further.
cheers Comments (3)
john ,
your executing a hugh power play by putting on another 40 people in a sales capacity during an economic downturn. why would you risk it now. you have always appeared to be a conservative player. are you sure about tnis move? i dont understand why a conservative player would make such an aggresive move. no one else here has expressed a word of caution -- why do i - because i actually care about the future of Exetel. This is a very ballsey move under the current economic conditon. Comments (3)
In some ways you are correct.
However building a sales force is never risky - in any way except if you have either no product competitive edge or no capacity to handle the additional business volumes. Exetel has both. So, if we do it a few at a time, making sure that the revenue streams increase linerarly with each additional person, there actually are no risks at all - other than some money wasted on salaries of non-performers for a short period of time. In theory you could have 400 rather than 40 - the 40 is actually being conservative! Comments (7)
John,
I hope you hire geeks as opposed to closers. They should also answer the questions asked by clients rather than the questions they want the clients to ask. Comment (1)
I have always despised such 'techniques' and regard companies and "sales people" that use them as pathetic.
Comments (7)
Hmmm... JasonM's Exetel Forum avatar whilst amusing, goes against your Rule No.2
Comment (1)
Hi John,
I am the Chief Sales Architect at SALESCRAFT, a Sales Growth Consulting company as well as its Managing Director. I am also a former customer of Exetel. I read your blog on the transformation of Exetel from a 'service' company to a 'sales' company. Your timing is excellent. I have been advising leaders and businesses who can, that this is the time to grow. There are three reasons: 1.A portion of businesses and people are genuinely affected with the economic slowdown; 2.A second portion 'think' that they are affected with the economic slowdown; 3. A third and final portion fear that they will eventually be affected with the economic slowdown. So, the good news is that a large number of businesses and individuals are open to change and will embrace solutions that add value. And companies that have the resources to cover the market have a great opportunity to grow. A case in point from personal experience - a number of global financial services provider are migrating from paper based daily investor reports to electronic versions. Loss for the printer and gain for the PDF reading solution provider. I can help you on this journey of transformation and growth. I have successfully partnered with visionary leaders like yourself and led teams through this experience both for small and large global businesses. Based on your blog, here are some essential steps that I have implemented successfully and would recommend to follow and achieve change: 1.Identify the internal team and external resources who can make this vision a reality 2.Jointly, develop a 12 month roadmap with sales plans and head-counts 3.Break this down into quarterly goals and action items 4.Develop a sales organisation structure based on roles or markets that you want to service 5.Identify the distinct sales processes required to achieve the type of results in these (residential vs business markets). A tier 1 company approach will differ from residential and so will the ideal candidate. 6.Prepare a recruitment profile for each role with a special focus on sales managers, who will catalysts for your vision. 7.Develop a recruitment strategy for each sales role 8.Create an in-depth technical and sales education plan for new sales employees. 9.Follow this up with a 1-1 coaching plan by managers for all sales people as well as for the sales managers. 10.Implement good performance management practices and systems to provide transparency into sales efforts and results. This fosters a culture of accountability and ensures that your new sales employees are paying for themselves, as mentioned in the blog. 11.Review each quarters results, refine the strategy and renew your growth efforts. This is based on the iterative concept of the 'Sales Growth Cycle', which I have developed from my B2B sales experiences and I recommend this to you as foundational steps: 1.Sales Planning http://www.salescraft.com.au/index.php/sales-planning 2.Sales Process http://www.salescraft.com.au/index.php/sales-process 3.Sales People http://www.salescraft.com.au/index.php/sales-people 4.Sales Performance Management http://www.salescraft.com.au/index.php/sales-performance Furthermore, I would be delighted if you would like to discuss how we can assist you achieve your goals. I look forward to you hearing from you. Regards, Pritam Sarkar Comment (1)
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