Motives Product Knowledge, Application And Sales Training Motives Product Knowledge: Fill & Download for Free

Sales is a human activity that needs to be managed with social intelligence and strength.In no particular order:You need to find salespeople with experience in the specific vertical you operate in. In which case you are trading financial capital for knowledge.You can also hire good people without experience and trade your knowledge in exchange for their time.Salespeople are tricky because they operate on lizard brains. Its chase, close and be immediately compensated.Which is why the commission structure has to be in line with their emotional make up.If your star sales person likes to piss against the wall, you install a urinal on their favorite spot.If you are moving boxes, you need good strong pissers.If you are selling engineering value add you need to pair a good strong pisser with somebody with an engineering background.You got design engineers. You have process engineers. And you have customization engineers. The tweak meisters should be paired with sales people.20% of your sales force, produces 80% of your sales because 20% of your customers generate 80% of the revenue. Don't put a piss ant on a customer that brings in more than 5% of your revenue.Your best sales person will make the absolute worst sales manager. And by extension trading equity in the company for the best sales person, is the absolute worst thing you can do bar none. It will sink you, because equity appreciation is a long game, and sales people need to be in the short cycle of hunt, kill and eat.Its better to have a crappy product with a stellar marketing and sales team, than it is to have a stellar product with a mediocre sales organization.Perfectionism will kill the animal spirits that drive salesmanship. Every time. If a star sales person does crappy paperwork, hire them an assistant. Possibly a pretty dumb one. That always motives sales people to exceed their quotas…If you are not willing to fire a customer, you are not generating revenue in excess of costs. That means you have a weak salesforce. Customers can smell weakness a mile away. That is the only way to judge a sales person.The higher the profit, the higher the margin, the better the sales people you will attract. That is all there is to it.Why would you have a hunter spend 80% of their time cold calling potential customers? That’s like having a tiger hunter tend to a rice field. Have your farmers prospect full time, and send your hunter to close the deals.Better marketing makes your lead generation easier. Better leads equals a better close ratio in the field. A better close ratio means less sales people to keep happy.The only thing of value on the balance sheet is the trade mark equity. Invest in it. A sales person knows that a sale absent trade mark equity is exponentially harder. Which means you are also trading trade mark against capital. The less trade mark equity you have, the more you need to compensate over achieving salespeople.New product from a new company cannot be sold. You are entirely dependent on the trade mark equity (personal brand) of the sales person themselves. Never forget that. Well, no worries, they will remind you of that daily…Investors don't give a hoot about you or your product. A pitch is a sales exercise. They are judging your ability to sell. I don't care what anybody says, its really all about the CEO’s ability to sell. Because the CEO will handle the 20% of sales calls that produce the 80% of revenue. Credibility and personal brand are key to success.Why otherwise would people care how good and polished your business plan presentation is? Ultimately it should not matter if you stumble in and utter garbled nonsense. Either your your product sells itself at a profit, or it does not. True, except for the fact that a crappy product with a better sales organization will always out compete a better product with an average sales organization.Which is why crappy product with no market potential always gets more funding than the better technical solutions… which of course accounts for the high failure rate.Its not a paradox. Its just human nature. Why can a lizard brain close a deal while a highly polished scientist with social intelligence and empathy fail? Because the lizard brain plans his/her work and works their plan, today, right now, where can I find my next kill and when do I collect on the kill…?!As I said don't wast their time prospecting leads. Load them up with 4 in person F2F sales calls per day and make sure you PAY THEM THE INSTANT THEY CLOSE THE DEAL.Lead generation is one job (inbound outbound don't care, balance will shift with acquired TM Equity).Lead qualification is another job.Selecting the right Lizard for the job, is a critical management function.Making and confirming appointments is another job.Making the field sales call is separate activity.Sending a closer in to assist the piss ants is another job (20% of revenue 80% of effort).After sales support and customization is another job.Training is another job.Long term follow up on customer needs is the most important job. Because finding new customers and closing them is really really hard, and the less customers you lose, the less you are in lizard mode.If it takes you 3 months to close a deal, 3 months to install the application, and you invoice for a 24 month recuring revenue stream, your CFO better have their numbers down tight, because with every sale you get closer to running out of cash…If a sales person senses that you do not have the cash to execute on a transaction they closed, they will bolt faster than a lizard being chased by a cat.Last but not least, if a sales person senses fear or weakness in the Captain, the good ship of commerce will surely flounder on the hard rocks of reality because the sales person will steer the ship right onto the rocks, so they can get off without getting wet.Thanks for the ask, always a pleasure. That’s all I got for for today!

How I made it to #2 salesman in my first full month of selling:​I knocked on over 1000 doors over a six-week period and I’ll write below how I found out what works despite sounding like a mumbling idiot at first.This post is about my experience becoming number 2 salesman out of 22 in my first full month of selling for a dairy company door to door.Even if you don’t sell door to door, some of this will still be applicable to you.First, it’s probably worth mentioning that I’m very competitive and strive to be the best at what I do. I try hard. Just having this quality will set you apart from others on the team because most people are lazy. Also, I’m very detail oriented. This allowed me to keep strict stats. Keeping strict stats kept me motivated because I knew when to expect the next sale. Based on my closing ratio.If you’ve listened to Jim Rohn much, you may have heard, “once a ratio starts, it tends to continue”. This is true and as your skill level increases so will your closing ratio which is really exciting.How I got the job:In July of 2012 I moved to a new state and was looking for a job. I had been in sales before and knew I could do it but didn’t really like selling all that much despite previous successes.After scouring every other possible avenue, I was short on cash, barely making it, so I answered a few ads looking for salespeople. I didn’t get a reply so I took my resume in to the company I most wanted to work for and asked to speak with the sales manager.I caught them off guard but this is really what they were looking for, someone that had the moxie to walk right in and be enthusiastic about their opportunity.You know how in the old days they had dairy boxes sitting on the front porch for the milkman to put milk in? That’s what this company sold. It was hard for me to believe that people still did this.The company carried around 40 products from farm fresh milk, to cheese and bread, and cookies etc. There were delivery drivers that would go out at night and deliver goods, and there were sales people that went out during the day to sell “memberships” in which the company would deliver items once or twice weekly that a customer selected on their grocery card that they needed. Kind of like a grocery delivery service for premium staple items. They had been in business for over 100 years so they were doing something right.The sales people sold the service and never really seen the customer after that.My training week:The first week I only rode with other sales people. To be honest, I didn’t really believe it was possible to get a bunch of people to buy this service in one day. It really opened my eyes seeing it done.It was one of those things where a phenomenon goes on without you really knowing about it, so it doesn’t really seem possible when you hear about it until you get out there and take action.The whole world is different when you get out and take action. Nothing is as hard as it seems when you are sitting at home thinking about it.My instructions were:“Learn the script (pitch) word for word”. It was about a page long and covered the basics of the service. It was refined from what worked well for the sales manager.“Sell the Sample” We were given samples and their purpose was really to buy time an goodwill and let the customers try our product. It really was good milk if you're a milk lover. Ha“Pay attention to these sales people and see what works for them and incorporate that into your pitch according to your personality” Next week you are on your own.On the last day of watching, I did the talking on a few doors. Let me say this: It is infinitely easier watching someone do this than doing it yourself. But it gets easier and you get better with time.Weeks 1-3 (Selling on my own):Stats:Houses approached: 650People Home: 199Samples Given: 43Sales: 22It was really critical for me to keep these stats because I then knew about when to expect another sale after my ratio developed.Ok, I should note that it was vitally important that I exercise before coming to work. I would go run from 1-2 miles gradually picking up pace until I was running as fast as I could for about the final 300m. I had a few amazing pump up songs picked out that I listened to when I ran. Exercising like this did a few things:Mainly, it turned down the stress level on all things that happened to you throughout the day. You could deal with everyday hassles way easier because you’ve just pushed yourself to your limits. Your whole mood changes.Secondly, you have more energy the rest of your day. Your blood is pumping good. Assuming you eat small, light, nutritious meals so you don’t get bogged down. (At least until you are done selling)I kept track of my stats, which increasingly got better. The first week was the toughest because I felt like a mumbling idiot. The first few people I spoke with, I just tried to recite word for word the script I had been given. I was stuttering and losing track of what I was saying because of my nerves. My hands were sweating. But I got through it.It is good to remember that this is just a process and is only temporary until you gain some proficiency. Everyone goes through it, but the more you bleed in practice, the less you bleed in war. Remember that. It’s true.After doing this for a while I discovered that I needed to change something because it sounded canned when I was talking. So I asked myself what I would say to a friend or someone I like. Then I just went up and did what I would do if I hadn’t learned a script, while trying to act as relaxed as possible.This really helped me because instead of sounding like an idiot, I was incorporating my personality and being sincere and it made the whole process seem real instead of some pushy salesman that didn’t care about the customer.When I got back to my truck after hitting a few houses, I would go over my script and see what I needed to incorporate next time to make it better. So I gradually included everything they wanted me to say in the script.Weeks 4-6:On week four something truly eye-opening and amazing happened to me.Our sales manager kept stats posted of how many sales each person had. So the leaders were visible.There was one particular guy who had unbelievable stats. I just couldn’t comprehend how he could sell this much. He had been there for 12 years I found out. He seemed kind of cocky and into himself so I didn’t like him at first. (I later found out that although he was confident because of his level of experience, he was really a likable guy)Despite not liking him initially, I made an effort to befriend him. It was hard because I had to hide the fact that I didn’t like him. He was about 10 years older than me I think.He seemed receptive to me and after a bit I said, “When are you going to ride with me and show me how you do that”? I said it kind of jokingly and friendly. Like I looked up to him. He said, “Whenever you want man”. So later in the week he asked me if I wanted to ride together and I said, “sure let’s go”.On the way to our territory he asked to hear my pitch. It was kind of embarrassing but I stumbled through it. He told me it wasn’t bad but I needed to work on my proficiency. To make it sound like the conversation that just flowed.I had no idea what to expect from him once we started selling.Listen: I had my eyes opened to what was possible in the world of selling by seeing this man in action! He had great energy. He had no visible fear of dealing with people. His words came effortlessly and articulately. There was zero friction from transition to transition, all the way until the sale was closed. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.During one stop, I put my phone on record and kept it in my breast pocket. So I had his pitch and how he transitioned (which was critically important), how he led the customer, assumed the sale without resistance, everything! It would be hard to over-estimate the value of having a mentor like this.It would be easy to pass judgment and say this man was gifted, but he assured me that all of his success came from trial and error, and persistence, and failing until he got good little by little. Over time I learned how generous, kind, unique, and skilled this man was. He became a good friend.After this, I had a new motivation with my eyes opened to what was really possible. I started incorporating what I learned and here are my stats for the six weeks total (the lack of houses hit compared with the first few weeks was due to riding with other sales people while they sell and touring the dairy, etc.):6 Week Stats Total:Houses Approached: 990People talked to: 342Samples given: 77Sales: 45Believe it or not, all of those fears you have about getting chewed out by the homeowner rarely came true. I can remember dealing with only 3 or so “grumpy” people and they were disarmed when I kept agreeing with them.I came in just under the top salesman for the month. So at this point I had a goal for the next month of making 4.3 sales per day to hit my monthly goal of 86. Without taking into consideration my skill level increasing, this meant approaching 95 houses per day, talking to 33 homeowners, sampling 7.3 people and selling 4-5 of them.Here is a photo of the spreadsheet I made:​When I came in at night I would just track my numbers on my computer.In summary here are a few points that were important to my success.• Exercise hard• Keep track of progress• Develop a ratio to stay motivated and know where you are at (I was the only one at the company doing this) hard to believe, i know• Learn from the best. This will take tons of time off the learning curve.• Don't quit. Push through the tough spots, it get's easier and you get better.• There are tricks in every trade that you don't know about. Make an effort to find out what they are and use them to your advantage.• Go throughout the day with a sense of urgency.• Finding out what customers are interested in hearing (once you do, don't stall for a second, talk about that)• Be respectful and assume rapport• Use a lot of adjectives concerning your product• Maintain and attitude of "Why wouldn't someone want to use this product or service?" -knowing the value of it• Offer as much value to the customer as you can early on.• Pay attention to how your courage increases as you use it• Focus on relaxing while you do what you doGood luck in your efforts,Roy

I am pasting an extract of the official amazon job description for you:The Amazon Web Services (AWS) enterprise solutions architecture (SA) team provides an education program that includes self-paced learning, instructor-led training, hands-on projects, job shadowing opportunities, and a peer-reviewed opportunity to demonstrate your knowledge.As an Enterprise Solutions Architect, you will partner with customers, AWS Sales and several other AWS teams to craft highly scalable, flexible and resilient cloud architectures that address customer business problems and accelerate the adoption of AWS services. In collaboration with sales, you will drive revenue growth across a broad set of customers. As a trusted customer advocate, the solutions architect will help organizations understand best practices around advanced cloud-based solutions, and how to migrate existing workloads to the cloud. You will have the opportunity to help shape and execute a strategy to build mindshare and broad use of AWS within enterprise customers. The ideal candidate must be self-motivated with a proven track record in software/technology sales or consulting. The ability to connect technology with measurable business value is critical to a solutions architect. You should also have a demonstrated ability to think strategically about business, products, and technical challenges.Roles and Responsibilities· In partnership with the sales team, formulate and execute a sales strategy to exceed revenue objectives through the adoption of AWS· As a key member of the business development and sales team, ensure success in building and migrating applications, software and services on the AWS platform· Educate customers of all sizes on the value proposition of AWS, and participate in deep architectural discussions to ensure solutions are designed for successful deployment in the cloud· Conduct one-to-few and one-to-many training sessions to transfer knowledge to customers considering or already using AWS· Capture and share best-practice knowledge amongst the AWS solutions architect community· Author or otherwise contribute to AWS customer-facing publications such as white-papers· Build deep relationships with senior technical individuals within customers to enable them to be cloud advocates· Act as a technical liaison between customers, service engineering teams and supportBASIC QUALIFICATIONS· 7+ years design/implementation/consulting experience with distributed applications· 5+ years experience in infrastructure architecture, database architecture and networking· 3+ years relevant experience in technology/software sales· Working knowledge of software development tools and methodologies· Presentation skills with a high degree of comfort speaking with executives, IT Management, and developers.· Strong written communication skills· High level of comfort communicating effectively across internal and external organizations· Technical degree or equivalent experience required; Computer Science or Math background highly desired· Demonstrated ability to adapt to new technologies and learn quickly