Colleen’s Blog

It was a gorgeous day in San Francisco today and another busy day at Dreamforce! I spent the day with Adobe in the Adobe Sign Signature Lounge shooting video and talking to people about the future of sales.  You can check out my Facebook live interview with Joe from Adobe here. The message about community obviously resonated with people as it's had over 1.5k views today. We started our conversation about creating customer experiences. I believe that customers and employees want to experience a community. Dreamforce is an example of a customer experience community that we should all strive to emulate. Dreamforce is a community where:

This is one of the topics I will be covering at the Sales Summit Oct 4th at Dreamforce this year as I dive into the topic of Sales Acceleration. Want to create and sustain a top-performing sales team and get the steady growth you need for your business? Rethink the relationship your sales team has with the money you pay them for what they do. Conventional commission plans are at the heart of a problem that’s shockingly widespread in sales organizations today: underperforming salespeople remain employed far too long the the same workplace. Even worse: there remains a stubborn unwillingness to do anything about it. Let’s look at how this happens, the reasons why it remains a problem, and how you can solve it.

I’ve been at Dreamforce today chatting with other experts about the future of selling. Check this out and tell me what you think. I can find a business application for each one of the statistics and I think its high time you do too!

Hands down there is nothing more frustrating than to have manufacturing or operations make a mistake on the very first customer order or interaction. Despite the effort and investment to attract a new client, it only takes a minor error to completely destroy the customers experience and erase and positive impressions they might have had. In business, individuals in marketing or selling have an outward focus placed on identifying and capitalizing on that which the customer values. Those in operations or manufacturing however have an inward focus centered on productivity and efficiency. Explained another way, the responsibility of Sales is to attract and close new customers while Operations delivers the customer’s product or service as fast and efficiently as possible, minimizing costs along the way. These opposing viewpoints result in what I call the Customer Value Disconnect, or C.V.D. for short. Fortunately to close the C.V.D. gap is not as difficult as you might think and is somewhat counterintuitive to conventional thinking. The key is in shifting Operational perspectives around what it is that customers value. There are a few critical questions that can support diminishing C.V.D. and bring about a broader perspective on what it means to satisfy customers. Here are the three most critical:

The top 10% are like the Heat. They accept responsibility, regroup, refocus, and come back charging. They hit the court / office, make note of what didn’t work and what did, and leverage their strengths. Sure, take a breather after a big loss. Step away from your desk. Go for a walk, lunch, or take an afternoon at the park. But, while you are away accept that YOU lost the deal and only YOU can stage a comeback. Comebacks start only when you take responsibility and then take action.

Are you continuously dealing with prospects who are saying "No" to you or your products? I know, it can get frustrating. You may even find yourself more frustrated with your own inability to react to the rejection in a productive manner. A blank, disappointed stare or a quick exit from the room are a couple of common reactions that I've seen time and time again. There's good news, not only is there a better (and less awkward) reaction to handling rejections, but there's also a chance to close the sale at a later time if you play your cards right.