Lately I have observed many sales teams living month to month. Sales leadership efforts are solely concentrated on making the current month’s (or quarters) number. Any longer term initiatives are shoved to the back burner. Typically, the team experiences a decent month followed by a poor next month. As revenue targets continue to grow, this approach becomes non-sustainable.

How are sales leaders balancing their efforts between living for today and building for the future? High performing sales leaders are managing their efforts / initiatives on a 1,3, and 6 month time horizon. When making decisions, they estimate the timing of the impact – will this effort deliver results in one month or less in 3 months or less or in six months or less?
The complexity and length of the sale cycle will determine just how quickly an initiative can deliver a return. Assuming a solution sale cycle of moderate complexity (3 – 6 months, multiple steps, multiple decision stakeholders) I have captured below potential sales initiatives and the expected timing of the impact. I have also limited the initiatives to those that a sales leader can most likely control or influence:

Impact in 30 days or less
- Removal of internal barriers (Example - improve contract approval process)
- Sales training (sales execution training, not product training)
- Sales manager coaching (manager to rep)
- Sales manager development (training sales managers to be more effective)
- Recognition programs
- Compensation spiffs
- Deal closing strategy sessions

Impact in 3 months or less
- Account planning
- Territory re-alignment
- Formal lead generation campaigns

Impact in 6 months or less
- Hiring and on-boarding new reps
- Bringing on a new partner / channel

Each morning, a sales leader should ask 3 questions:

1. What am I doing today that will bring immediate impact?

2. What can I do today to position ourselves for success 3 months out?

3. What can I do today to position ourselves for success 6 months out?

Sales teams will NEVER get out of the good / bad cycle unless they build an engine to HIRE and ON-BOARD top performers. Never forget that building a team of top performers is the only sure fire formula for long - term sustainable growth.

How are you / your sales leaders balancing your activities to ensure success in both the short and long term? Do you have thoughts on the 1, 3, and 6-month time horizon?

When his executive team wanted to make drastic changes to the sales organization, a wise old CEO replied, "Don't scare the chickens. If you scare the chickens, they stop laying eggs."

Translation - Be careful not to distract the sales team. If you do, they might stop selling.

This particular sales team was having a banner year in a difficult market. What the CEO artfully communicated was not to mess with momentum. He was a guy who understood the psyche of front line sales people and how easily they can be distracted or de-motivated.

Every day sales executives are faced with circumstances that may warrant change. Typically, it is a negative sales forecast that starts the change engines rolling.

Company executives and Sales leaders are constantly thinking about ways to build sales momentum. Unfortunately, many initiatives they introduce have a negative impact. Ideas that look good on paper (and spreadsheets) fall apart when implemented.

Over the past few years, I have observed companies make many chicken scaring mistakes such as:

• Fire the TOP 10% of their sales team and tell the remaining sales people that the group that was let go was making too much money.
• Cancel their annual sales conference because "they didn't want to take the people out of the field"
• Buy a competitor and not merge the two sales teams. The teams were pitted against each other, often competing for the same deals.
• Eliminate support resources forcing sales people to spend an inordinate amount of time performing administrative duties.

So, what can a sales leader do to positively impact momentum? Here are a few ideas:

• Get the chickens involved in the planning process. Top performing sales people will have insights on what would help the team be more successful. If they are part of the solution, they will influence other team members to buy in.
• Make sure your objective is perfectly clear - "We need to take sales from X to Y."
• Show HOW the objective can be achieved. Make sure it is achievable for the average sales person. Shoot for incremental improvement, not home runs.
• Provide tools that will immediately impact the sales people such as training, coaching and lead generation.
• Identify what activities, if executed properly, will lead to the desired result. Measure those activities and show how they are contributing to results.
• Make sure there is a clear "What's in it for me" for all involved. This could be a compensation spiff, a reduction of pressure, or even the ability to keep your job.

Anyone have any good examples of bone headed moves that scared the chickens?

Sales leaders are measured by making their numbers. The only thing worse for a sales manager missing their number is being surprised by the miss. With six months left in the calendar year, companies typically have fairly good visibility into future revenues.

This has certainly been a volatile year. Many very smart people did not see the mortgage crisis or oil price increase coming. How might these issues or other financial issues impact your next six month revenues?

With the exception of the airline and financial service industries, most major companies are doing ok. The reason for this is that most learned from the dot com bust a few years ago and tightly manage finances. As all sales managers can attest to, closing deals has defiantly gotten more difficult. So if most companies are doing ok, why worry?

Based upon conversations with several sales organizations and their customers, I am seeing a disturbing trend. Many companies are using the current economic downturn to further differentiate critical versus discretionary spend and are whacking expenses aggressively. Many companies are notifying vendors that 1) they need a price reduction 2) They will be spending less than projected in Q3 and Q4, and / or 3) they no longer will be a utilizing their product / service. Not good news for sales organizations.

So, what should a sales leader do? Choices include 1) do nothing 2) find a way to win

Unfortunately, many sales leaders are experts at the do nothing approach. If you have a solid do nothing plan, no need to read the rest of this post.

For those sales leaders who want to find a way to win, here's some ideas on how to prepare for and win Q4:;

Revenues come from two areas, net new customers and existing customers. Most sales organizations are highly focused on the net new pipeline and aggressively manage deals to closure. No need to change this tactic for Q4.

Where risks may lie are in your current customer base - revenue you may have assumed is "in the bag". Just because a customer has been spending at a certain level (or has a contract) should you assume that this revenue is a lock for the rest of the year.

A sales leader needs to constantly look at the revenue streams and determine what revenue is at risk. Here's a simple way to identify the actions needed to insure a solid Q4

1. Rank your customers by expected revenue for Q3 and Q4

2. For each customer (starting with the most important first), answer the following questions

            - What is happening in their industry?

            - What capital and operating expenses are absolutely critical
               to their business?

            - What expenses would they see as discretionary?

            - Is your product / service critical or discretionary?

            - What is the likelihood of them cutting what they spend with you?

            - How do they make these kinds of budgeting decisions?

3. Get in front of customers where you identify potential revenue risks

            - Meet with decision stakeholders that make budget decisions

            - Show the value you provide them (and the impact on their business) and provide ideas on how you can even make them more successful

            - Walk out with a commitment to take the relationship to the next level

4. Manage these conversations just like you would the new business pipeline

            - Document the customer, expected revenue, potential revenue at risk, action items

Of course, you could also use this process on your net new business pipeline. Identifying which prospects that see your product / service as critical (or not critical) to their business could shift your business development priorities.

I am curious to see what other sales leaders are hearing from their clients. Are you concerned about current customers falling short of excepted revenues for Q3 and Q4? How are you dealing with this issue?