Keith Eades comments featured in Selling Power Magazine...

Want to know more about the role of procurement and purchasing managers in the sell cycle? Need to have a better understanding of who the buyers are and how their influence can ‘bend trends’ in the current economy? Confused about titles like “Global Supply-Chain Manager” and “Chief Procurement Officer”?

In a recent article by author Heather Baldwin, “The Rebirth of the Purchasing Manager: How to harness the power of the new (and much more important) purchasing manager” (Selling Power Magazine - May/June 2010 issue - Vol.30 No.3 - pages 50-53), this trend in titles and responsibility structures is examined and scrutinized to the overall conclusion that they not only play a vital and important role in the sales cycle, but to overlook their influence is to potentially lose the deal.

Baldwin’s article sites interviews with key sales leaders including SPI’s own, Keith Eades.  Eades’ take on the importance sellers need to place on procurement is included in the following excerpt(s):

…page 53

Sales Performance International (SPI) CEO Keith Eades states it even more strongly: “It’s almost insane for sales organizations not to make procurement a part of their normal calling cycle or not target this department as people they need to sell to. If you wait until the RFP comes out and that’s the only time you talk to procurement, you’ll lose, statistically, more than 90 percent of the time.”

…page 53

SPI is doing just that. It’s sales force now embraces procurement as a key player in the buying process, connecting with this group early in the buying cycle, treating procurement personnel like business people, and educating them on SPI’s value. The strategy is paying off: SPI recently won a multimillion-dollar opportunity, and CEO Keith Eades credits the salesperson’s work with procurement as a major contributor to the win.

“The role that purchasing team members are playing now is probably broader, deeper, and has more influence than ever before,” says Eades. “Rather than just administering a purchase, they’re answering, ‘Does this solve the business problem? Does it work? Is it right?’ And they’re staying involved longer after the purchase. I would describe them now as more internal consultants to the business functions they’re supporting.”

For the full written article, click here to go to Selling Power Magazine’s website.

To read more on the topic of procurement, buyer-aligned selling and getting to power, look at the following articles:

A Short Chat with a Procurement Manager about RFP’s

A Question of Power

Power Buys From Power

Collaborative Sales Negotiations

Sales Kickoffs - How to Keep them Motivated All Year

We all hope our 2010 Kickoffs will get our team motivated and provide them with new information to help them increase sales for the New Year ahead. The problem is that more often than not that excitement doesn’t last.  According to Keith Eades, Founder and CEO of Sales Performance International (SPI), “Sales people are typically enthusiastic training participants, but once they’re back at their sales organization old patterns and pressures are imposed, they’ve got to close deals and meet their quotas, so the new learning is often lost.”  

This is a problem that all sales managers deal with, not only with Sales Kickoffs for the New Year, but for sales training events in general. In fact, studies have shown that 86% of knowledge retention is lost within 90 days of sales training events without specific reinforcement vehicles and integration with business practices. And yet, thousands of companies continue to take a train and hope mindset, with little consideration for legitimate success criteria.

So, how do we keep this from happening? Here at SPI we believe that you should take a Continual Learning approach to sales training. It is not about one big event, it is important that you are continually providing and reinforcing knowledge to your sales people throughout the year. In the image below you can see some of the key elements involved in creating a continual learning environment. All of these elements are critical in attaining World Class Sales Training and Continual Learning status.

The Solution Selling Continual Learning Framework

By attaining this status you can achieve up to:

• 9% higher quota attainment
• 7% higher win rates of forecasted deals
• 5% less turnover

In the study previously mentioned, SPI Senior Consultant Bob McGarrah said, “What emerged from our study is a growing recognition not only of the pressing need for post-training reinforcement, but also the necessity to do more than periodic refresher training. Instead, the reinforcement has to be integrated with the sales organization’s day-to-day work and there should be more of a common methodology among all those on the team, what’s sometimes called a sales process. At a minimum, this means a shared perspective, language, skills and tools, so that as the team functions the learning continues and gradually takes hold.”

Although it is important to get your team motivated for the New Year, if you don’t continue to reinforce and integrate best practices in your sales process throughout the year you will not reach your potential.