Succeed Magazine – www.succeed.co.za – April 2009

With the downturn in the economy an increasing number of businesses are looking for ways to buck the trend. According to Bill Gibson, chairman of Knowledge Brokers International, the first place to start a turnaround is in sales. “It is difficult to raise capital when your business is struggling,” he says. “Really, the first place to start turning the business around is in sales.” He explains that the more short-term capital you bring in the more time it buys you to turn the company around.

“The smaller deals will maintain the cash flow while you are waiting for the bigger deals which will ultimately bail you out.” In start-up businesses cash flow is everything. “You will not survive with a long-term plan to turn around the business. You have to think short term,” he says. “Short-term income will give you the necessary cash flow to sustain you until your long-term income can be achieved.” This leads to the question, what does it take to bring money in?

Gibson highlights the following:

1. If you are going to turn your business around you must increase the number of people you contact. It is the law of averages – the more contacts you make, the higher your ratio of success will be.
2. You must increase the number of ‘right’ people that you contact – there is no point contacting people who have no money.
3. You need to increase your closure ratio. For example, if on an average your team closes 30% of their contacts. Set a goal to go up to 35% during a turnaround phase.
4. You must increase the size of your individual sales. Often you do not need more clients, but rather more business from existing clients. This means taking the time to ask these clients the right questions to maximise your cross- and up-selling opportunities.
5. The frequency of purchases per client needs to be increased. They must buy more often. If you give good service, and you are unique about what you do, you may increase your market share.
6. The frequency of times you contact the same clients must be increased. One study showed that eighty percent of sales are not closed before the fifth call to the same client, so do not give up.

These are the important areas that need to be focused on. There should also be a fundamental shift in the way a business is run. “If you are trying to turn your business around, you may need to work up to 90 hours a week and more – you cannot do a turnaround on the same hours that you have been working. Even if your business has been comfortable you must now treat it as a start-up.”

You need to look at how to increase the number of hours that salespeople are in contact with clients as well. All sales administration and writing up of orders must be done after hours. “Do not fool yourself,” he says, “you may find that salespeople are only in contact with clients two hours a day, and the rest of the day they are tied up with administration.” When you are trying to turn a company around, you must be in front of clients more often. “Salespeople should have at least three early morning appointments a week during these times. These could be at 6:30am or 7am. By the time 9am arrives you have had a period of productive time already, and have gained momentum.” Sometimes it is about working smarter. “Seventy percent of all sales appointments for the upcoming week should be booked in advance by the Thursday before. This way salespeople end that week with direction, and start the following week with momentum.”

He believes that during hard times everyone in the organisation needs to be sales orientated. “Some companies insist that all the people in the company, even if they are not salespeople, have to handle accounts whether they help with admin or setting up appointments. This creates a culture of sales in the workplace. It is about pulling your whole team together towards one goal.” He points out that this may result in a situation where every single staff member has to phone up a list of clients every day, and thank them for their business, ask them if they need any assistance, and then make a few offers.

“Shopping centres wait all day for passing trade and 60% of the time they are not doing anything. They should allocate time each day to phoning clients.” Focus on what is important. “Your accounting and marketing department are suddenly less important than sales, so focus on what is important,” he says. “If you have savings, ignore it and sell like you need to pay the salaries that month. This will create a sense of urgency.”

When you are turning a business around the owner should be one of the top salespeople. “The management need to be out there selling. They have business presence, and this is much more powerful than a sales pitch. It is one of the key characteristics of top producers.” Business presence can be acquired. “Salespeople can associate with businessmen and businesswomen, attend business presentations, and study what is going on in the industry that they are targeting. If their client is selling merchandise, they should go and study merchandising before they make contact.”

These are the fundamentals of turning your business around through sales. It involves a change in the culture of the company and starts at the top. There is still money to be made, but you need to make sure that you are the one making it.

(Interview with Succeed Magazine)

Succeed Magazine – www.succeed.co.za – Jan/Feb 2005

“The power of an individual top producer is the ‘special talent’ called a positive attitude. Companies should hire for ‘special talents’ and train for skills and knowledge. Skills and knowledge can be transferred through training, talent cannot” – Bill Gibson

Building a high performance sales team is all about hiring the right people, says Bill Gibson. To hire the right people, you need to know exactly what a top performer looks and talks like.

While this may sound like a simple task, profiles differ from job to job, and so do individual requirements. “The profile for somebody working three or four nights a week as a top financial advisor would be very different from that of a Coca-Cola rep who oversees stock levels in retail stores. The rep for Coke would need to be someone who can build and cultivate relationships, so that they can manoeuvre the product into the right place,” says Gibson. “The financial advisor needs to be an altogether different kind of person.”

Gibson advises companies to brainstorm necessary attitudinal characteristics and write down a clear job description for each sales position. Instead of waiting until it is absolutely necessary to hire another sales person, companies should be on a constant lookout for the right staff. “Remember that you’re always hiring,” says Gibson, who believes that the best time to hire somebody is before they know you are thinking of hiring them. “This gives you the chance to see the person’s true colours. You get to see if they’re professional, how they respond to people, how patient they are and how they behave even under the influence of alcohol, at a social function.”

Ego drive and empathy are two characteristics to look out for in top performers, says Gibson. Ego drive relates to how quickly a person gets up after they have been knocked down.

“Somebody with a high ego drive will get up fast, but somebody with a low ego drive won’t handle rejection well, and will typically have a low success rate in sales.” A high ego drive should be combined with empathy. However, sales people need to be able to project themselves into somebody else’s shoes. These are natural talents and can’t be trained.

The toughest way to hire is through advertising and a recruitment agency. You don’t know the people and it is difficult to get to know them in such a short time. Sales managers should instead focus on building a network of contacts, and drawing up a list of prospective salespeople. “Birds of a feather flock together,” says Gibson. “Companies will often find good people by asking their top performers, as they’ll usually hang out with other successful people.” Companies can also incentivise staff by offering the same commission to staff members as they would to a recruitment agency. Gibson believes that the ability to attract top people can give companies an indication of how successfully they are managing the business as a whole. “If you are running a good operation, good people will line up to work for you.”

Gibson’s five pointers to follow:

• Look for people who have a positive take on life. Choose people who naturally look forsolutions instead of looking for problems (a talent not a skill).

• The ability to communicate is important. Sales people should listen to understand, not just respond. “Choose people who talk so that others will want to listen, and listen so that others will want to talk.”

• Look at a person’s ability to be organised. “Some people are unstructured – their desks may be a mess – but they can handle five things at a time… they are organised”

• Only then, look for knowledge and experience. “It’s in fourth position because if somebody has the right attitude, they’ll learn quickly.”

• A person’s physical appearance comes in at the bottom of the list. “Top performers come in all sizes and shapes.”

 About Bill Gibson

Bill Gibson has immense experience in the fields of sales and marketing. He is one of the top business trainers currently operating in the country. His formula is based on following the tried and proven processes that top performers employ, having management and staff focus on using them well. Gibson’s company, Knowledge Brokers International is best known for the business-building products, processes and systems that they have developed. Among their business systems is the Business Success Series for small business, that they developed in conjunction with the Ntsika Enterprise Promotions Agency (now SEDA). Their other products include The Complete Sales Action System, a 15-day programme, and two shorter programmes, Managing Complex Business Relationships and The Map for Success Profit and Income Builder Implementation Process. His company’s clients include ABSA, Nedbank, BMW, Siemens, Sanlam, Santam, Old Mutual, Adcock Ingram and Acer.

Bill Gibson can be reached on (011) 784 1720 or through bill@kbitraining.com