Regular readers will know that I am passionate about combining sales methodology with technology to make life easier for sales people.  One of the areas where I have seen lots of wasted time has been in Account Planning and Management.  So, I decided to do something about it and I’m excited to  let you know that my new book Account Planning in Salesforce is now available at your favorite online store. You can get an extract here, and buy the book here.  It should be less than $10 (I’m trying to make it very affordable) and proceeds go to Peter Gabriel’s WITNESS charity.

As I hope you would have come to expect, this is not a theoretical book – but is practical and marries methodology with technology to make effective account planning accessible to all sales professionals who care about taking care of their customer while they go about selling to them.  But this post is not meant to be a promo for the book.  I was very fortunate to have a number of people who are a lot smarter than me review the book while it was a work in progress, and I want to share some of their comments here – as I think they point to the many challenges that sellers face when seeking to maximize revenue from their major customers.

This is Account Planning that works – because it is fully integrated with salesforce.com. There has never been a time where customer focus has been more important.  As broad marketing becomes irrelevant, sales professionals need to treat their current customers as their marketplace; consider what the marketplace needs and then deliver true value.

My friend Matt Dixon, co-author of The Challenger Sale, was kind enough to review the work in progress.  Apart from commenting that this is the only business book that he has ever seen that quoted lyrics from Metallica! (more about that later), Matt’s take was that “[the book] grounds its recommendations in the context of modern B2B sales, where customers armed with massive amount of information and advice can afford to engage sales people later and later in the purchase decision … there are no short-cuts to getting this right.”  Matt knows this better than most I think.

When Bob Thompson of Customerthink read the book, he hit the nail on the head.  He was kind enough to provide this quote for me.  “All too often Account Planning is a once-a-year effort that gathers dust on the shelf. Use Donal Daly’s ACCOUNT PLANNING in SALESFORCE to help transform this critical activity into a usable, customer-centric approach to growing loyal relationships all year long.” I thank you Bob.  There is a recognition from those who know how it really works, that there are many hours wasted on developing account plans that are never used. (By the way, if you’re not familiar with Customerthink, you should go and have a look.  Bob curates some wonderful insights on his site.

Matt Cox over at HP told me that from his perspective “Account Planning is a core sales skill that requires a disciplined approach and ongoing care and maintenance.”  and of course he is right. When I spoke to Peter Jofriet, who runs Sales Excellence at Honeywell, he said that “account planning must live and breathe as part of how you run your business. It needs to become part of your culture, and should be integrated into your overall business cadence.”  This is a really critical observation. Account planning can be the new marketing for your large accounts.  If you are hoping that your marketing department is going to help you penetrate that key customer, then you’re likely headed for disappointment. Ask Peter, he knows. And he had nice things to say about the book as well.  I thank you Peter!

More than half of the sales professionals that I have spoken to acknowledge that they are not maximizing revenue in their accounts. Sales reps are leaving money on the table and they are not serving their customers well.  I am trying to help them solve those problems. This book, based on interaction with hundreds of sellers and their customers, describes how high-performing rockstar sales reps are successful at maximizing value in their strategic accounts, both for themselves and for their customers.

You can read more insights from some of the others who supported me along the way here. I am deeply honored by the caliber of people who were interested enough to share their thoughts.

And about those Metallica lyrics …

Account Planning is not always the most riveting subject, so a book about account planning isn’t guaranteed to be a page turner! Well, I tried to make it as consumable and enjoyable a read as possible.  I feel pretty confident in saying that this is probably the first and only book on account planning that includes a playlist to help you hum along as you develop your plan.  You will find songs here that you know (from the Beatles, Metallica and U2), some you may have forgotten (anyone remember Rose Royce?) and probably some new songs that you will not have heard before. I borrowed from the lyrics of these musical muses to illucidate some of the points I was trying to make.  Metallica’s Nothing Else Matters refers to Trust – and in Account Planning, it is true; without trust, nothing else matters.  I hope the playlist adds to your enjoyment when (if) you read the book.  I know it lessened the load when I was writing it.

Account Planning is a tremendously important endeavor. It drives revenue, increases customer satisfaction, aligns your organization, and provides incredibly gratifying moments when you can see the impact of your work – both for the customer, and for your company. I hope this book accelerates your journey. More info here.

Thank you.

This is third post in a series on The Trust Default, serialized from my upcoming book on Account Planning.  You can click on the links to the previous two. (If you are interested in being notified when the book is available – sometime in March – please let me know ddaly (at) thetasgroup (dot) com.)

The Trust Default (Part I)

The Trust Default (Part II) – The Changing Shape of the Trust Circle

Part III – Building Trust

To develop a deep customer relationship you have to overcome the Trust Default. With the change in the shape of the Trust Circle you must accept that your customer’s perception of you will gain less ground from your company’s website or CEO pronouncements. You own this responsibility, and others will influence it.

If you are hoping to influence the customer’s attitude towards you then you better be sure that what they hear about you from peers, academics, company technical experts, and the regular employees is what you would like them to hear. The reality is that what you, as a business, might broadcast in your public statements is of diminishing value. The actions you take and the value you add to the community in which you and your customer exist is what will fundamentally determine your reputation, and how you are perceived.

Here is what you need to do:

1. Invest your time to understand your customers’ industry and their business. If you’re to advise, you must be a subject matter expert.
2. You need to give value first and expect nothing in return. You are building a relationship for the long term, and it is only OK to ask for something from the customer when you’ve earned the right.
3. You need to be authentic, honest and fair – in everything, always.
4. You must focus on areas of Mutual Value, where what’s good for the customer is also good for you – in that order. Explore the customer’s Business Strategy, understand or suggest Business Initiatives to deliver on that strategy, and when you find an area that will make a real difference to the customer, see if you have a solution to their problem. Start with the problem, not the solution. If you discover that it is only good for you but not for the customer, then you should explain that to her and explore alternative approaches.
5. Choose your customers wisely, only applying the resources to customers for whom your products or services can truly deliver value. Don’t try to force-fit your solution. It will only end up in tears.
6. Trust is a two-way street. If you are delivering on your promise, then it is only fair that the customer holds up her end of the bargain.
7. Recognize that some customers don’t want this level of attention or relationship.
8. It boils down to value, and value propositions needs to be business-based, not feature-based, addressing the Critical Success Factors for key Business Initiatives. This means that you must first truly understand the customer’s business.
9. Recognize that the impact on a customer of a bad buying decision is usually greater than the impact on you of a lost deal – and then act accordingly
10. Adopt the customer’s perspective. Sit in the customer’s chair and ask the question: “Would I buy from this company?” If you answer that question honestly, it will guide your actions.

Remember, customers don’t need you to learn about your product: they can get all of the information they need from the Internet. They don’t need you to recommend solutions: they can get that from their peers. Your opportunity is to help them shape their needs, identify or suggest initiatives, and then to figure out how you can apply your solutions to those initiatives. If you don’t know how to do that you should look for outside assistance.

Trust is Personal

Lasting business relationships between the seller and the buyer, like lasting personal relationships, are built on a foundation of trust that for each of us is fundamentally personal. While always important, trust as a determining factor of business transaction efficacy increases or decreases in amplitude at different phases of the business interaction, because risk transfers from seller to buyer before and after the sale. Be conscious of that shift, bearing in mind that while you and your buyer may be engaged in a commercial interaction for your respective companies, trust is fundamentally personal.

     Nothing Else Matters is a very personal song written by James Hetfield, singer and rhythm guitarist with the American heavy metal band Metallica. He wrote this song while he was on the phone with his then girlfriend. There are four lines in the song that go to the heart of establishing a trusted relationship:

If you want to be trusted by your customer, you will need to trust her first.

Now you can flip the Trust Default on its head. It should refer to the default position you take – a willingness to trust. If this is not currently your default approach, you will need an open mind for a different view. You may feel uncomfortable about this – but it is a major point that will deeply underpin your future success.

Trust is so important in developing long-term customer relationships that it is not too much of a stretch to say “… and nothing else matters.” Thank you, James Hetfield.

(By the way – I guarantee that my book will be the only book on Account Planning that comes with a playlist!)

I have been away for a while, and have not posted here for two months.  The reason: I have have been writing a book on Account Planning.  The book is now finished and will be available in March. (Let me know if you are interested and I will email you when it is available.)  Some of the early reviewers had very positive things to say about the chapter in the book on Trust, and felt that Trust is an undervalued business asset, so I decided to serialize it here in a few posts.  Here’s the first.

- o – o – o – o -

If you want to build a long-term customer relationship you need to develop a deep level of trust with that customer. Customer acquisition is easier when you are starting from a foundation of trust. Once you have a Customer, converting that Customer to a Loyal Customer will happen only if the Customer feels that she can depend on you. Unless you achieve that level of trust your Customer will become a Former Customer.

Trust is the fulcrum upon which every customer relationship pivots. Trust is a valuable currency that must be earned, but never spent. Trust is built one step at a time, and unless protected, can be blown away in a moment. Account Planning is all about developing long-term relationships, and that is hard to do without trust.

Here’s an illuminating story.

When Angela called one spring day, the excitement coming over Skype was contagious. Angela was CEO of Kincometrics, a small software company serving the pharmaceutical market. Recognizing that selling to large pharma companies was going to be very difficult for a small company, as part of her go-to-market strategy, Kincometrics had partnered with a large well-known enterprise software company. For the purpose of this story – and to protect Angela’s business – I will refer to that company as BigSoft.

Angela’s face lit up as she told me that she had accompanied one of BigSoft’s sales executives to a meeting with BigPharma. (No, that’s not its name either!) The meeting had gone exceptionally well, and Kincometrics was on the verge of its largest deal ever.

In Angela’s words, the background went something like this:

“BigPharma had put out a RFI to a number of regulatory compliance system (RCS) vendors. It’s important to note that BigSoft does not have an RCS offering, so it would not have been able to complete the RFI without our company. They requested only three of the vendors to complete the RFP, and happily we were one of those. The RFP was followed up by web demos initially and then an on-site demo. The relationship between us, the BigSoft team and the BigPharma team started off really well.

BigPharma’s team felt more and more comfortable with the subject matter expertise of our team. The reason for this was that two thought leaders in our space represented Kincometrics. We had two PhDs (chemistry and microbiology) with extensive laboratory experience. As a result we could relate well to the day-to-day operations of the proposed end-users.

A number of web meetings followed the visit and then another on-site demo and discussion about implementation. We highlighted the extremely tight partnership between Kincometrics and BigSoft. This was clearly important to James, the CIO from BigPharma. Pretty soon it became apparent to everyone on the team that James was leading the decision-making process here. He felt the need to have a vendor who not only had the correct technology solution but also had a clear focus on the pharmaceutical industry. This would provide them with the support to expand the implementation as BigPharma deployment grew.”

Angela had called me to tell me that the meeting she had just attended was the final step in the budget approval process. She had won the business! Kincometrics was the preferred vendor and the price was acceptable. James, BigPharma’s CIO, confirmed that he was very comfortable with Angela’s team. He expressed his admiration for the unique design of Kincometrics’s RCS software, and said he was reassured by the partnership with BigSoft. What could go wrong?

Unfortunately, the story did not end there. The next call I got from Angela was not as positive:

“James requested a meeting with the new CEO of BigSoft, Kincometrics’ partner, and made it clear that this meeting was just to confirm his decision that he could rely on the technology support and domain expertise of the joint team. He made it clear that he preferred the Kincometrics solution. His only concerns were ongoing support and confidence that BigSoft was sufficiently focused on BigPharma’s future needs. Kincometrics was not represented at that meeting. That was a huge mistake.

After the meeting between the CEO of BigSoft and BigPharma CIO, the BigSoft sales guy who was at the meeting said, “This was the worst meeting I’ve ever been at in 30 years of selling. Even though I prepared everything that the CEO needed to bring this deal home, he totally screwed it up.” He was talking about his own CEO, the face of BigSoft!

The BigSoft CEO spoke only of the many changes that he planned to make now that he had taken over at BigSoft. He talked about the other industries that he had yet to conquer: Government, Finance, etc. He talked … and talked … and talked, and did not listen to James, the BigPharma CIO. Two weeks later we got the news that BigPharma would stay with its incumbent system, making further modifications to that rather than deploying the Kincometrics package. It’s a disaster!

The CIO from BigPharma emailed me to say he was sorry, but he felt that he could not trust BigSoft because, even though he said otherwise, James felt that the CEO of BigSoft was following only his own agenda. The CEO promised him that he would support their deployment, but did not listen to BigPharma’s concerns. The trust that Kincometrics had built up over the previous number of months was lost.

To add to the irony of the situation, during the main-stage presentation at the BigSoft Sales Kick-Off in July, roughly a week before being told we had lost, the BigSoft CEO mentioned the great meeting he had had with the BigPharma CIO. He emphasized the importance of getting a deeper knowledge of our customers and a greater understanding of their needs! This was exactly what he had not done. He did not really care about the customer.

You know, I’m not angry at BigPharma. I’ve met the new CEO at BigSoft, and I just can’t believe a word he says. I just can’t trust him.”

Angela’s story is completely true, even though obviously the names have been changed. It is a sad story. Angela had done everything right. Her product was a winner. She had tried to mitigate the risk of being a small company by partnering with BigSoft – but that was before they hired the new CEO. Angela had spent a long time building up trust with the CIO of BigPharma, but that was completely blown away in one foolhardy moment, by an arrogant ass.

Complete trust between people is infrequent, and between companies and individuals even more rare. Trust is not attainable by request or appeal and it is not transferable. It has to be earned. Trust sits on the three pillars of authenticity, integrity and honesty; promising only what you can give, and giving what you promise. Attitude and preference, as they relate to how a customer thinks about your company, are as likely to be informed by whether a customer feels they can trust you as by the capabilities your company can provide.

However, in many cases, companies have defaulted on their obligations to customers, who feel ignored, poorly treated, and often perceive that their concerns as customers or consumers are rarely heard. I refer to this as the Trust Default.

There is no question that trust in business has become more elusive. According to the 2012 Edelman Trust Barometer, just 45% of customers in the US trust businesses. In Europe, the situation is worse. Across the United Kingdom, France and Germany, less than one-third (31%) of customers feel they can trust business. The banking crisis and subsequent bailouts across the world have combined to infect industry in general, and financial services in particular, with a lingering malodorous tumor.

As a consequence of the Trust Default, developing trusted relationships with customers has never been more difficult. On the one hand the consequence of this is that the task of establishing true customer affinity might seem a little ambitious. But, on the other hand, if you are prepared to make the journey, you will find that not many others have joined you on the voyage. When you arrive at the destination you may well find that your only companion will be your customer.

From my perspective, what happened during the economic turmoil of the last decade was not so much a recession as a fundamental restructuring of the economic order. This is a good thing! It has forced us once more to focus on true difference versus positioned differentiation. To address the Trust Default, it has demanded a focus on values and ethics, underlining the value of trust as an asset.

We should recognize that, while honesty and integrity as propellants of commercial energy have not necessarily always been the most comfortable bedfellows with the pursuit of profit and revenue, what is scarce is valuable. If you are prepared to address the Trust Default, you have the opportunity to gain a considerable advantage over your competitors.

The next post in this series will deal with the Changing Shape of the Trust Circle

In June 2012, Angela Ahrendts, CEO of Burberry appeared on the cover of Fortune magazine.  As Fortune reports it:

 Last May, Burberry CEO Angela Ahrendts flew to California from her London headquarters to introduce herself to an executive she thought could be critical to the future of her business: Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff. When the two met at the Ritz-Carlton in Half Moon Bay, they stood in the hall batting around ideas for 15 minutes before even sitting down. Ahrendts explained her vision: to create a company where anyone who wanted to touch the brand could have access to it. She just needed a digital platform to make it happen.

Click for bigger image

Benioff sketched a diagram of how Burberry could become a “social enterprise,” overlaying technology like Salesforce, SAP, Twitter, and Facebook atop the entire company. (Benioff signed the drawing “Angela + Marc = LIKE,” and Ahrendts keeps the framed original, pictured below right, in her office.) “I told him, ‘I think I finally met someone who talks faster and has more energy than I do,’ ” she says. “We just connected.”

However, as anyone who attended any salesforce.com event between mid-2011 and 2012, physical or virtual, could tell you, you could see that Ahrendts’ new celebrity status is due in no part to the level of exposure given her by Benioff. It even got to the stage that Twitter contributors were wondering if she was going to wear ‘that white suit again’.  Benioff – certainly one of this era’s marketing geniuses – knows how to make his high-profile customers feel special – and knows, better than most, the value of the Customer Network Value.

In many cases customers are totally bypassing the early stages of the traditional buying cycle.  Rather than calling a company for information, they are instead joining forums on line, engaging in conversation on Twitter or Facebook, looking to people with ‘Klout’ or influence to guide them through the information gathering and evaluation phases of the buying cycle.

They look for recommendations from peers and others ‘like them’ to short-list potential suppliers, refine their requirements, and gain insight in the application of a vendor’s product that often surpasses that of the vendors sales person.

To care about your Customer’s Network Value, you must first care about your customer, and treat customer service, and every customer interaction as an extension of marketing.  Caring about your customers before they become customers is actually more difficult but increasingly important.

You can achieve this firstly by participating in the same networks in the Social Universe as the customer traverses the Contact phase of the buyer/seller transaction.  Then you need to monitor what is happening and respond to your customer during the Control phase, as that is where they can have most impact on your future customers.  In any case, if the customer wants to interact in the Social Universe, it is your job to facilitate that interaction.  It is increasingly becoming an implicit part of your promise to deliver – and you need to be prepared.

We need to recognize that our customers and prospects hang out somewhere, and that somewhere is increasing somewhere online in the Social Universe, where each is weaving their own tapestry with the threads of their network.

You really do want to be one of the threads!

Unless you want to become irrelevant, or unless you can consistently be the low-price provider servicing those who care only about price, then you need to be part of the ‘recommendation chain’. You must establish trust, and the customer must see you as someone more ‘like them’ than a representative of your company.  But, the threshold is high – because in the end, for new customers, you’re going to ask them to do business with you. Being ‘like them’ breaks down some barriers, but it’s not enough.  You must continually add more value in the Social Universe than you expect to get in return.  You’re looking to recoup the return on the influence you have developed online later.