In a post for The Customer Collective, Kelley Robertson offers “7 Reasons Decision Makers Won’t Take Your Calls.” It’s a good list. Robertson introduces the perils of sounding like everyone else, using manipulative tactics and mistreating the executive’s assistant (never, ever do this by the way!).

But let me offer one very good reason why an executive will take your call:

You provide valued guidance.

It’s true that executives are busy people, drawn in many different directions by many different demands. They are difficult to reach and engage.

However, executives are also looking for new ways to drive up revenues and drive out costs. They have thorny business challenges they are struggling to address. With this in mind, they value new insights and perspectives that can help them approach these challenges in new and compelling ways.

In my experience, one perspective that executive buyers particularly value is an overview of how their peers are addressing particular problems.

• What investments have they made?
• What solutions did they adopt?
• What hurdles did they confront when rolling out new solutions?
• What results did they achieve?

If you can share this type of information, it goes a long way towards earning confidence.

But perhaps even more valuable is the perspective that a trusted advisor can provide regarding the implications of the executive’s current situation:

• What are the costs of doing nothing?
• What are the risks associated with the current course?

While such insights are generally gathered through deeper diagnosis and research, it’s your promise of gathering and presenting such insights that will encourage executives to take your calls in the first place.

Companies have fewer resources available these days to research and evaluate challenges that are increasingly complex and risk-laden. That is your opening and opportunity.

One sure way of not getting a returned call is pitching your services and sounding like a self-serving salesperson. Provide valued and reliable guidance, and you not only differentiate yourself , executives will welcome your calls.

It’s that time of year when we’re all assessing the strength of our sales pipeline in order to build our plans and budget for achieving next year’s revenue targets.

A critical factor that must be examined is not only the size of your pipeline (in terms of number and size of deals forecasted to close) but the true health of it.

Here are some questions to get you started:

How much of your current forecast is real and gives you confidence as you plan your budgets for 2011?

Assuming all forecasted deals close as predicted, how many more deals will you need to meet your 2011 numbers?

Assuming only 50% of forecasted deals close, what’s the impact to your lead generation plans for 2011?

According to CSO Insights’ 2009 Sales Optimization study of over 1800 B2B organizations, only 47% of forecasted deals actually close. This means that many companies have an over-inflated pipeline, providing false hope and an inaccurate assessment of what is truly required to generate the sales needed for next year.

Now is the time to drive out all subjectivity in order to achieve forecast and pipeline accuracy. A realistic diagnosis of the health of your 2011 pipeline is the foundation on which to base the critical budgetary and strategic decisions that you are making right now.

As we move into 4th quarter, go-to-market and strategic planning sessions for next year are well underway. For large and small organizations alike, this can be a lengthy and complex process…one that can be simplified by answering a few important questions:

• GE Healthcare will matter more to hospitals by helping them ensure nurses spend more time at the bedside caring for patients and less on everything else.

• Marketing Arts diagnoses why new strategies fail to produce expected revenue for some of the world’s leading technology companies. They create true value by staying in the game until the sales teams deliver the bottom line results needed.

• McMann & Ransford helps organizations go beyond solution selling to building customer intimacy as the pathway to sustainable growth. By getting in the trenches with their clients to accelerate the transformation, they deliver what’s needed most – not just expertise and ideas, but execution and outcomes.

• Jill Konrath, sales strategist and best selling author, recently launched a new initiative to help professionals laid off from work land new jobs faster. By sharing insights into personal branding and strategies to stand out from the crowd, Jill has carved out a unique place in the market to matter more.

Since I’m on the topic…how can my team and I matter more to you next year by delivering greater value? I’m all ears!

Some companies think of marketing as a series of discrete events called campaigns.  They move seamlessly between these events, judging them merely on response rates and investment returns. But perhaps such marketing approaches are not as seamless as they seem.

The trouble is you can’t truly capitalize on the learning and insights now being generated through customer outreach. Whether marketing activities are fully managed in-house or involve partners engaged in Client Discovery work, companies could turn this accumulating knowledge and experience into a powerful asset if they started to think of marketing as an ongoing process.

We see this in our business all the time. When our clients commit to an ongoing relationship, we are able to develop new and deeper levels of knowledge about their markets, customers and prospects. Our analysis and insights become deeper, more valuable and more actionable over time. We can provide guidance and feedback they can use to hone their messaging, strengthen their value propositions and maximize their sales results. We’ve certainly provided this level of value in the healthcare field where we have developed powerful insights into the buying processes and dynamics of hospital decision makers.

That said, we are committed to providing valuable market intelligence in all cases — even when our clients are merely interested in a brief campaign. But the intelligence we accumulate — an asset, to be sure — cannot be further leveraged if the objectives are merely short-term in scope.

So maybe it’s time to think beyond isolated campaigns and think more carefully about the value of rich and perpetual connections.  Deepen your connections with your marketing and teleservice partners and they can, in turn, deepen connections with your prospective customers. Deepen these connections and they can provide richer and more powerful insights.

That’s the question that John Fox seeks to answer in a recent eBook addressing “management blunders.” Fox,  author of The Marketing Playbook, is convinced that most companies don’t apply the same discipline to marketing that they apply to product development.

Result? They fall short of the goals they’ve set — or more ambitious goals that they could be reaching.

Echoing some of the themes in our recent position paper Masters of Client Discovery, Fox identifies five key reasons that sales teams are underperforming.  Just as we pointed out in our piece, he notes that sales professionals are being asked to do things that should be delegated to others.  The 5 key management  blunders he recognizes:

• Letting sales reps decide which marketing activities get done. Instead of creating an advanced marketing system, many companies expect their sales people to hunt for their own business. The reps naturally request support that addresses their own personal interests. This creates a “hodgepodge activity list,” but it doesn’t encourage you to focus your marketing resources on the stages of the sales process where deals are getting stuck.  As a result, deals disappear.

• Making sales reps responsible for their own marketing work. Over the years, marketing departments have abdicated many responsibilities to sales reps — making them busier, but no less productive.  Indeed, reps are often responsible for generating leads, producing presentations and constructing proposals. Industry sources suggest that sales reps spend as much as 40% of their time (16 hours per week) engaged in marketing-related tasks.  That’s time not invested preparing for key meetings, building relationships and closing deals.

• Allowing sales reps to be responsible for the customer qualification mix. By allowing sales reps to determine which prospects you engage, you will needlessly disperse and diffuse your limited resources. It’s critical to have focused qualification criteria — ones that determine whether a prospect is a good fit — to ensure your resources are optimally deployed.

• Expecting sales reps to take on an educating, nurturing role with customers and prospects. The sales rep’s time is often wasted merely educating prospects at an early stage of a buying process — time that is taken away from guiding buyers through the later stages of a decision. To avoid this problem, marketing needs to step into the role of educator and nurturer.

• Turning sales reps into overpaid secretaries and clerks.  Companies often expect their sales reps to “record everything” and encourage them to spend an excessive amount of time on clerical work. Again, this time must be taken from other activities. By reducing clerical demands, you free up your sales people to focus on closing business.

Buyers now expect sellers to know their business, listen and provide sound advice, and create a “win-win” situation, according to research from Development Dimensions International. Sales, in other words, is more demanding than ever. Fox cites this data point to make the case that companies need “repeatability in their marketing operations  for the principal purpose of creating traction for sales reps.”

So what must happen to end the blundering? Focus marketing on the activities that will create this traction, while empowering sales reps to concentrate on what they do best.

In her new book SNAP Selling, my colleague, Jill Konrath, offers some simple truths that are essential to engaging with prospective buyers in today’s difficult and demanding sales environment.  I’ll be sharing some of her wisdom over the next several months starting with this post.  Jill has a wonderful way of going beyond sales methodologies and providing real-world, immediately usable tactics to reach, engage, and sell to busy prospects.

The first simple truth: Keep it simple.

Today’s “crazy-busy” decision makers are overwhelmed with demands on their time and have no interest in anything that will make their lives more difficult.  Jill shares “Your ability to eliminate complexity and effort from your prospect’s decision-making process will improve your chances for sales success.”

I agree and often see salespeople try to pack too much – and too much irrelevant – information into their initial outreach efforts (including calls, email and voice mail messages) in the hope that something will resonate and catch the buyer’s attention. Not too long ago,  long sales letters, info-rich websites, and PowerPoint presentations packed with a ton of information (death by PowerPoint, anyone?) were essential components of a successful sales process.

In this age of Twitter and short-attention spans, less is definitely more and “compelling simplicity” wins. Can you get your message across in 140 characters or in a 30 second voicemail? If not, you should highly reconsider what you’re saying.

In our work finding and developing new sales opportunities for several Fortune 500 clients, I’ve begun testing the effectiveness of the initial emails we send requesting a meeting with an executive for our clients. For each “campaign”, I’ll develop one longer email and one shorter, straight- to- the- point email. In almost every case, we’ve gotten more positive responses from the shorter emails….and I think it’s because we’ve made it an easier and quicker decision for the executive. Our “time to results” has been reduced as well, which has delivered a stronger ROI for our clients.

Bottom line:  Focus on getting your point across as simply, quickly, and as effectively as possible. The less time the buyer has to give you, the more important each word becomes.

How do you effectively engage senior decision makers? Engage their executive assistants.

“I think there is a tragedy taking place in many of the [sales] training programs in the marketplace,” says Jeff Thull, author of Exceptional Selling. “It’s the simple use of the term ‘gatekeeper.’ It portrays executive assistants — staff members — in a negative manner.”

Rather than try to evade or attempt to outwit these individuals, Thull urges us to build more effective relationships with them. “The most successful people in sales and marketing are interacting with these assistants at the same level they interact with the executive,” he contends. “Most executive assistants know as much or more about the business going through the executive’s hands as the executives themselves.”

With this in mind, he suggests you put together a “value hypothesis” – a statement outlining the business challenge you might be able to address (based on existing evidence) – to justify a meeting and further investigation.  Then, you share it with the executive assistant and seek assistance.

“You are looking for their guidance and advice as to whether that would be relevant and material to the executive,” he explains. “You get guidance from that individual most of the time. What would we have to do to make it presentable to the executive? What format would be appropriate? You’ll then put that together. Could be in an email. Could be in a letter. You will probably be sending it to the executive assistant, not the executive.”

Such approaches, as we’ve seen in our own Client Discovery work, are essential in establishing credibility with the executive. You want to position yourself as an extension of – and a contributor to — the executive’s team. You want to be a valued business resource. That effort begins by creating a trusted relationship with the executive’s trusted assistant.

I frequently read blog posts written by Ari Galper, a sales trainer focused on helping salespeople move away from slick “always be closing” tactics to approaching prospects in a way that builds trust from the first conversation.

He just posted some thoughts on how to move away from “old sales thinking” in order to improve your sales effectiveness that I want to share:

http://www.unlockthegame.com/UTG/Home/AriGalpersUnlocktheGameSalesBlog/index.cfm?objectID=4219

I really like concept #1:  Stop pitching and start a conversation. If you start every conversation with potential new customers with a description of your services and your company, you risk coming across as a self-serving salesperson…not someone who is focused on the problems your potential customer might have.

I have seen many “scripts” that start this way, and it’s usually not that the person writing the script has wanted to only talk about how great their company is…more often, they just didn”t know how to do it better.

I hope you find Ari’s insights useful. Would love to hear your comments and thoughts.

Are you focused on the right activities, the right market, and the right opportunities?

As the President of my company, I often have to wear multiple hats to keep the business running smoothly and make sure our clients are getting results.

As a perfectionist, and someone who does not take failure well, I tend to want to have my hands in everything….it’s not always easy, nor is it a smart way to lead a company.

In today’s fast-paced business environment where work is not contained to 8a – 5p, and phone calls, text messages, emails, and tweets come at you seemingly 24/7, we’re all in the same boat. We’re pulled in a million directions all the time….We’re a busy, scattered, over-communicated society.

But we’re all given the same 24 hours in a day…so why are some people more productive, effective, and successful than others?

It’s all about FOCUS. It’s about where you choose (and choose is the operative word here) to spend your most limited, precious, and expensive resource — TIME.

As President of my company, I can choose to focus on the big things or all the little stuff that is seemingly urgent, but not important in the long-run.

One challenge that all sales organizations face is that their sales professionals are often pulled in too many different directions….and spreading yourself too thin will almost always make you less effective and efficient in all areas.

When I consult with new clients, I ask them to define the sales activities that contribute most to acquiring new clients, that are “revenue-producing“, and that create the most value. Those are the ones that their highly paid, highly skilled sales executives should be focused on. It’s a waste of their time (not to mention the company’s money) to be finding and qualifying prospects on their own. They should be laser-focused on developing opportunities with those companies most likely to become customers.

And that’s the true value of what we do for our clients. We not only do all the heavy-lifting required to fill the top of the sales pipeline with interested prospects, we allow sales professionals the time and focus needed to consult with prospects, guide them through the complex decision-making process, and ultimately close deals.

If you are not meeting your sales goals, take a look at where your sales executives (or you!) are focused and spending time.

Companies engaged in a complex, business-to-business sale are now relying on “teleservices” solution providers more than ever, according to AberdeenGroup.

“With the ultimate goal of focusing their internal frontline sales people on properly identified and nurtured opportunities, Best-in-Class companies are building substantial, multi-faceted relationships with solution providers that go far beyond the simple acquisition of flat data or sales appointments,” writes analyst Peter Ostrow.

In a study of 206 companies, top performers, which were meeting 90% of their sales quota, exhibited several common characteristics:

• 79% have formalized and direct involvement with outside vendors

• 58% include real-time adjustment of customer messaging or strategies, directly influenced by solution provider callers

• 63% enjoy a 360-degree vendor feedback loop arrangement including solution provider consultation on customer messaging strategy

• 30% combine appointment setting deliverables married to business intelligence

Top teleservices firms now deliver far greater support and more valuable deliverables than at any time in the past. They are also accountable for meaningful results. As Barb Nichols, director of sales operations at Vindicia, explained to AberdeenGroup: “I treat my teleservices engagement as a marketing program, but one that optimizes the outside team as an extension of my internal group, and I hold both teams accountable to the same results-based metrics.”

What’s clear is that partners like my company are becoming much more active partners in the lead generation and nurturing process — enabling sales teams to become far more skilled and specialized.

What’s more, we are increasingly providing valuable intelligence that can both sharpen marketing messages and set the stage for more effective sales meetings.  I am constantly reviewing the results of our campaigns and the specific responses of prospects to gauge the effectiveness of our approach and course correct if needed. We also regularly research trends in our clients’ industries in order to develop messaging that is in line with current market issues and that will resonate most.

At a time when sales organizations need to accomplish more quicker and with less resources, partnering with an experienced company with proven results can accelerate the entire client acquisition process.  For many organizations today, it not only can position you for “best in class” results, it just makes good sense.