INTRODUCING THE NEW ERA SALESPERSON:

The SalespreneurNIKOLAUS KIMLA

Contents

Introduction 3

1. What Is An Entrepreneur? 5

2. The Salespreneur 9

3. When You Need Salespreneurs The Most 13

4. Becoming a Salespreneur 17

5. The Proper Tools 21

Introduction

As described in great detail in our Pipeliner Philosophy Ebook Trilogy (The Pipeliner Selling System, Theory Made Real, Philosophy Into Action), Pipeliner CRM is built on sound principles of management and entrepre-neurship stemming back some 150 years. In this white paper, I will be using these principles to illustrate what a salesperson must be to survive in the 21st century.

We could call this person the New Era Salesperson. We could call them (and have) the Entrepreneur Within The Enterprise. But neither of these closely expresses what we mean, and so a few years ago I coined a new term: salespreneur.

There is a clear difference between the traditional salesperson and the salespreneur—there are many qualities that a salesperson must take on in order to become a salespreneur. We will clearly define what a salespreneur is, and go through and clearly define these qualities.

I have often discussed the difference between an art and a craft: an art is something that is instinctive and requires more than technique or technol-ogy, A craft, on the other hand, is something that is composed of clearly laid out steps that, when executed, produce a result. An example of an art would be sculpting; there are definite techniques to it, but the result must be obtained from a sense that is beyond technique. An example of a craft would be today’s medicine; while once an art, today’s vast medicinal knowl-edge can be passed onto anyone who is qualified and intelligent enough to grasp and use it.

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The good news is that being a salespreneur is a craft, and certainly can be learned! And in this white paper we will lay out the fundamentals that, when applied, will eventually lead one to be a full fledged salespreneur.

Let’s get started!

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NikolausKimlaCEO of Pipelinersales Inc.

Best,

Chapter1

What Is An Entrepreneur?

Before we can explain the salespreneur, one must first fully understand the concept of the entrepreneur on which it is based.

In various schools of economic thought—and specifically within the Austrian School of Economics—the entrepreneur is assigned a crucial role in economic development. The entrepreneur is one who seeks out informa-tion that can be utilized for profit, and continuously finds creative ways to do so. This is the concept of a “self-starter” magnified many times—this is someone who not only gets himself or herself going, but sees opportunity that others miss, and cleverly develops that opportunity into profit.

An entrepreneur becomes expert in weighing risk against protecting the existing enterprise. How much time and how many resources can be invest-ed in a possibility and how much risk will be involved—measured against the preservation of the ongoing activity?

Entrepreneurs excel at being creative in the moment, and utilizing that skill to theirs and others' considerable benefit.

The examples of this are many and legendary throughout the history of business. Behind every successful venture there was or is an entrepreneur.

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Not a CraftUnlike many other pursuits, including that of a salespreneur, being a true entrepreneur is an art, not a craft. An entrepreneur has many high skills and instincts—of leadership, of evangelism, of understanding—that cannot be learned through a lifetime of study. Hence, not everyone is cut out to be an entrepreneur.

The new approach from a lot of governments around the world is to promote and encourage the startup movement, and create a better environment for entrepreneurship (for example South Korea, Israel and Great Britain). Governments and investors create programs for and invest billions in new startups every year—yet according to Forbes, 80 to 90 percent of them rou-tinely fail. That’s a huge number—and it reflects the lack of understanding of what it really takes to be an entrepreneur.

It is vital that we have a strong private sector and a good startup com-munity. We just need to understand that not every person is made to be an entrepreneur, and through this understanding we should create differ-ent programs.

Freedom vs. ResponsibilityPeople all over the world—nearly always people who have absolutely no familiarity with what it takes to be an entrepreneur—seem to crave the apparent freedom that entrepreneurship brings. They can be their own boss! Nobody tells them what to do! They can keep their own hours!

But this is a totally unrealistic view of freedom. Author and social critic Thomas Mann pointed out that freedom is but one side of a coin—the other side being responsibility. You cannot have one without the other, and this is never more true than in real entrepreneurship.

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I’m not going to go fully into what it really takes to be an entrepreneur—that is the subject of a future ebook, actually. Suffice it to say that entrepre-neurship is much more of an art than a craft.

Fortunately, however, being a salespreneur is not an art, but a craft, and can be learned.

Sharing Qualities with SalespeopleI have often pointed out that salespeople are “entrepreneurs within the enterprise.” This is because their characteristics extend well beyond that of a normal company employee.

If you look over the qualities of entrepreneurs, you'll see that sales reps share many of these qualities in common with them. Sales reps prefer making their own financial ways, and hence are paid on commission. Like entrepreneurs, they prefer to make their own lives, rather than be regi-mented by jobs.

Scanning over a list of leads, sales reps can readily see—where others wouldn’t—those that might qualify and those that probably won't. In casual conversation with a prospect, a salesperson can be very creative in getting the prospect interested in the product or service. Throughout the life of the sale, the sales rep is finding ways—such as demonstrating a product or service or taking a meeting or lunch at the most opportune times—to continually reinforce the prospect's interest. This type of ingenuity follows all the way to a close.

An entrepreneur, as we pointed out, is always taking a risk. While not the same level of risk, a salesperson is yet taking risks, too. Who’s to say wheth-er the salesperson will succeed and make those commissions so desired? It is always a risk, and the salesperson is always willing to take it.

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In bringing about and fortifying all of these qualities, we bring about a salespreneur. So now let’s take a look at what a salespreneur would actual-ly be.

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Chapter2

The Salespreneur

As we’ve just seen, a “salespreneur” could be said to be a sales rep—an “entrepreneur within the enterprise.”

But looking closer, there is actually a great deal of difference between a run-of-the-mill salesperson and a salespreneur.

Worker or Salespreneur?There are usually very few stakeholders within a company that are truly dedicated to the organization and its purpose, and those are usually toward or right at the top. To those further down it’s much of the time “just a job”—their real life and true ambitions exist outside and away from that compa-ny. They learn enough of their job skills to perform adequately while they’re there, and at a certain point don’t need any more than that.

For the sales force it can be a bit different, if only because sales reps create their own income; their very livelihood depends on their dedication to the job. Yet some salespeople don’t fully realize this. Much like an average com-pany “worker,” hey learn just enough to carry them along, and don’t really want to know much more than that. They then wonder how it happens that some of their colleagues advance to the “big leagues” and some even become wealthy.

It’s the difference between paycheck-to-paycheck salespeople—and salespreneurs.

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What is Dedication?Dedication to a company is not, as some might think, blind faith in the company, its ideals and its products. It is actually a belief in the company’s product or service as the best. It’s a belief in the management team. It’s a belief in the cause behind the product. It is these beliefs that motivate the salespreneur.

In short, a salespreneur’s inner strength comes from the belief in the mean-ing of what they can do better to fulfill the needs of the customer.

The Salespreneur SpiritA true salespreneur has the above kind of dedication and belief, and they’re succeeding because they’re getting the job done. They don’t view them-selves as mere employees, but as totally in charge of their careers and their lives. They’re willing to take the necessary risk to achieve the reward, because they feel they can and win.

Taking on that view, they learn everything they can about their product, their market, their competition, their prospects and their clients. They often and consistently are enhancing their sales skills. Such elements give them a substantial edge over others who simply come to work, put in their time, collect their commissions and go home.

Leads: Inbound and OutboundToday much is being written and said—and in fact whole companies and industries are being created around—the topics of inbound leads and insight sales.

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Today the average salesperson totally expects leads to be brought to them, for leads to be generated by marketing and be completely inbound so they can just be worked by the rep. This expectation is being backed up by every-thing being written, taught and practiced on this subject.

This is most definitely not the attitude or operating stance of a salespreneur. Especially early in a company, a salespreneur will do everything necessary to get sales, including the outreach necessary to obtain their own leads.

Reaching far back in history—which I sometimes enjoy doing—we can look back to Marco Polo, probably the very first example of a salespreneur. Marco Polo was an Italian merchant who lived in the 14th century, and was chiefly responsible for introducing Europe to Central Asia and China through trade and his writings. A fantastic account of his life can be seen in the Netflix series Marco Polo.

Marco Polo was most certainly reaching out—if he had waited for customer to reach him, he would have waited many years, perhaps his whole life. In reaching out he traveled thousands of miles and took quite a risk, even putting his life squarely in danger. But in reaching out, he certainly won.

In my opinion, Marco Polo’s motivation was a combination of adventure and the lure of prosperity. The motivation of a salespreneur is quite simi-lar—while they may not necessarily seek adventure, they certainly want to prosper! They can do so for themselves and for their companies by reaching out, not simply waiting for leads to come in.

A Unique PositionIn comparison with the average salesperson, a salespreneur is in a unique position with regard to advancement opportunities.

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A salesperson already takes on the considerable challenge of having a direct link between the amount they sell and the amount they earn, and right there they can up their income over the previous weeks and months. But rising up as a salespreneur, they are constantly learning all about their product, industry, competition and clients, and keeping abreast of changes as they happen. Enhancing their sales skills besides, they position them-selves to become leaders and move well ahead of someone who just sees what they do as a “job.”

That may be the type of dedication that makes their sales management and company happy. But it’s also the kind of dedication that they can carry into a better-paying sales position at another company, should such an oppor-tunity arise. It can even enable them as independent sales consultants, answering to no particular organization except themselves.

Sales Managers Not Left OutPlease note that a sales manager can also become a salespreneur—and very well should. It not only makes it possible for that sales manager to function as a salespreneur, but also to fully recognize, understand and manage salespreneurs.

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Chapter3

When You Need Salespreneurs The Most

Salespreneurs from the StartThere have been countless articles on the hiring and training of salespeo-ple—and for very good reason: these can be the highest and most import-ant expenses a company can engage in.

A great article on the subject was published in the Harvard Business Review back in 2006. In the article it is stated that if a company “jumps the gun” and hires sales reps before the company is really ready to dive into selling, it can be an expense from which the company never recovers. The company hasn’t really learned how to market and sell their product, and salespeople are mainly going to chalk up losses.

The article states that a company goes through 3 phases in the launch of a product or service: the initial phase, transition phase and the execu-tion phase.

Of interest is a statement the article authors make about the first of these phases, the initial phase:

“ The types of skills needed during this phase differ from those needed to sell more mature products. They include a facility for communicating with many parts of the organization, a tolerance

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of ambiguity, a deep interest in the product technology, and a talent for bringing customers together with various functional teams within the company. Salespeople must be resourceful, able to develop their own sales models and collateral materials as needed. We think of this kind of person as the “renaissance rep.”

—MarkLeslie,CharlesA.HollowayHarvard Business Review

If you go back and re-read what I’ve already said about salespreneurs, you’ll have the same thought that I did when reading the above paragraph: They’re not describing a “renaissance rep”—they’re describing a salespreneur!*

In any case, it is especially important when a company is just starting up and/or a new product is being launched that salespreneurs be employed—as well as why they should be employed. A salespreneur has the right “pioneer spirit” to go out and obtain their own leads when needed, to go the extra mile in bringing in a new opportunity, and to literally perform any function necessary to make new customers and keep them happy. When my own company was brand new I had one salesperson—and in addition to the tasks and skills mentioned above, he even had to handle tech support and creating invoices. That is a salespreneur.

Bestselling sales author Jeb Blount describes perfectly how a salespreneur operates. You can simply substitute the word “salespreneurs” for “super-stars” and you’ve got it:

* In reference to the renaissance, it should be pointed out that a person of that era was multi-skilled—hence the term “renaissance man” which meant that someone had more than one great facility (Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo being 2 outstanding examples). This is probably the reason for the term in “renaissance rep.” But if a sales rep is being based on such a figure, it should be pointed out that they’re not creating anything new, they’re just skilled in doing several things that have already been done. The salespreneur, though, is out to assist people in living better lives through their products and services.

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“ Superstars are relentless, unstoppable prospectors. They are obsessive about keeping their pipeline full of qualified prospects. They prospect anywhere and anytime —constantly turning over rocks looking for their next opportunity. They prospect day and night—unstoppable and always on. Fanatical!

“ It is just human nature to seek the easy way out. It is disappoint-ing to observe how many salespeople today have this attitude—always looking for an easy way out. One more call - the enduring mantra of the fanatical prospector.

—JebBlount

In addition to being vitally important to startups, a salespreneur can be crucial for an established company with a new product line, or even for pioneering an existing company in a whole new territory.

Cost of Customer AcquisitionAnother excellent article also goes into this subject, detailing the kinds of things that can kill startups before they’re really out of the gate.

The article advises new startups to carefully measure their cost of custom-er acquisition, and do everything possible keep that cost well below the recurring revenue that the company will be producing.

Part of the cost of customer acquisition is, of course, sales costs. Where I had to respectfully disagree with the author of this otherwise excellent article was when he laid out the cost of a direct field sales force. In this table he listed the salary + overhead of a salesperson at $310,000 annually. At that point I had to ask, “What are they doing paying a salesperson a salary—especially at the beginning of a startup?”

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Once again, it is the salespreneur that is needed at this stage of a compa-ny’s life. A salespreneur is not a salaried employee, so is not going to incur the ridiculous kind of overhead cited above.

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Chapter4

Becoming a Salespreneur

So now that we’ve generally laid out what a salespreneur is and does, what does it take to actually become a salespreneur?

Why Become a Salespreneur?Before we get into how one becomes a salespreneur, one might ask, “Why?” What would be the motivation?

For a company: it might well behoove a company to provide a higher com-mission system or perhaps more incentive such as company stocks, simply because the salespreneur is really stepping out there and risking more of his or her time and fortune. Because a salespreneur is a higher performer, a company needs fewer of them and they’re better at what they do, therefore costs are lowered.

But whether or not the company is rewarding salespreneurs more than average sales reps, it certainly benefits the salesperson in reaching up and becoming exemplary at selling and representing the company. In the long run it means more trust and faith from their company and, more impor-tantly, from their customers.

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Willingness to LearnThe first qualification, and the first thing the aspiring salespreneur will need, is a willingness to learn. This might seem like a “no-brainer”—but without such a willingness, a person will not make it any further than they are now.

The choices are 2:

a) You remain exactly where you are, or perhaps just a little further on, or

b) You totally adapt a willingness to learn, so that you can, and you aim for—and begin achieving—the stars.

Adopting TechnologyAnother important part of becoming a salespreneur is the adoption of tech-nology. While 30 years ago technology adoption might have been simply an option, today the world, through the Internet, has become interconnected. Anyone who is to be a player in that world must connect up.

That means becoming aware of—and utilizing, where it makes sense—today’s technological advances. Of course it means such things as smart-phones and their apps, but it also means other types of technology which you will be able to utilize in servicing your customers and advancing your sales. It also means becoming expert in the technology your company is using, and engaging (again, where it makes sense) in social media.

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Characteristics of Selling: The New EthicAs we’ve been discussing, today’s world is interconnected. Hence, so is selling:

As you can see, in a networked world, a seller must have a set of charac-teristics that will allow them to interact and sell to today’s buyer. These include empathy, respect, trust, the intention for a win/win (as opposed to simply a win for the seller), and the creation of an enjoyable experience for the buyer.

Why are these characteristics so necessary today? It’s simple: if you or your company are to successfully continue in business, the buyer you are sell-ing to today must be your advocate tomorrow. That won’t happen if any of

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SELLER BUYER

BUSINESSSOLUTIONS

RESPECT

EMPATHY

RecomendationsReviewsReferrals

NETWORKEDMULTIPLIER

Self-awareConfident

Business AcumenValue-orineted

WEALTH CREATION

TRUST

WIN/WIN

ENJOYABLE

these characteristics are missing or violated—in fact it’s likely to have the reverse effect, and your reputation is tarnished or not promoted at all.

These are the characteristics it takes—it’s the new ethic.

The Highest LevelIn Part 2 we spoke of dedication—but here we are focusing it down to the highest level of dedication to your product or service. For a salespreneur, that dedication should approach that of the entrepreneur who brought that product or service forth to begin with.

The entrepreneur who invents a product or service, and then brings it to market, is a product evangelist of the highest order. Often nobody can resist a sale from that person, and buyers usually rave about them. A salespre-neur should have that kind of dedication to a product or service, and that kind of belief in it, so that they give buyers that kind of experience.

Incidentally, if a salesperson really doesn’t have that kind of belief in their product, they’re not going to be able to fake it for long. They should find a different product, or a different company—one of which they can be proud.

There is much more to the how of becoming a salespreneur, and as I said it is a craft and can be learned. The particulars of that are beyond the scope of this white paper, however—and we’re currently creating the Pipeliner Academy to help everyone learn this craft.

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Chapter5

The Proper Tools

I’ve already touched on the necessity of the salespreneur to avail them-selves of the latest and best technology. As I said, in today’s sales landscape this is no longer an option—it is a necessity.

The proper tools extend outward from what I call the War Room. This is fully described in my book Leading from the War Room: Building a Battle Ready Sales Force. Below are the primary tools required.

Dynamic Sales ProcessThere are numerous tools that a salespreneur will need. The first of these actually lives both inside and outside of technology—and that is a dynamic sales process. A sales process is that series of steps through which a sale travels from lead to close. A dynamic sales process is a sales process which is monitored for needed changes mandated by the market, by new products or product changes, or by streamlined processes. Changes are made just as soon as needed so that the sales process always remains optimally useful.

The sales process is the salespreneur’s battle plan.

Sales PipelineTechnologically, the sales process is expressed as a sales pipeline. The sales pipeline is a visual representation of the sales process.

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In my product Pipeliner CRM, the sales pipeline, due to its importance, is visually represented prominently in the product. All opportunities can be instantly viewed, right in sales process stages in which they’re located. Additionally Pipeliner’s Dynamic Target, always visible from the pipeline view and several other views as well, shows how these opportunities cur-rently add up to the sales target—either for a single rep, a sales unit or the whole sales organization.

Strategic and TacticalA sales process is actually broken down into strategic and tactical steps. The pipeline itself could be said to be strategic, as could best practices which should be shared (and are, in Pipeliner) throughout the sales process.

Tactically there are tasks and activities that need to be completed for an opportunity to be moved from one sales process stage to the next. In Pipeliner, these tasks and activities, like the pipeline stages themselves, are expressed visually so that anyone can instantly see what needs to be done next with an opportunity.

Importance of Truly Empowering CRMWhile most companies have some sort of CRM application they use and have their sales force using, traditional CRM applications are generally of no help to a salesperson in controlling and obtaining opportunities—hence salespeople tend to utilize CRM begrudgingly and sometimes not at all.

My company developed and released Pipeliner CRM to directly empower salespeople, and specifically for the salespreneur. It is instant intelligence, visualized—which means that at a glance the salespreneur knows where every opportunity stands, which are priorities, which tasks and activities

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should be undertaken right away, and how current efforts are contributing to the overall target.

If you are aiming to make your sales force into true salespreneurs—or if you are working toward becoming one yourself—I highly recommend giving Pipeliner CRM a try.

Impact on SalespreneurThe sales process, sales pipeline, tasks and activities and other tools provid-ed through the War Room are those that make it possible for the salespre-neur to operate at maximum speed and optimum efficiency. In other words, they make it possible for them to be a salespreneur.

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IntroducingtheNewEraSalesperson:TheSalespreneur by Nikolaus Kimla, CEO of Pipelinersales Inc.To learn more about Nikolaus Kimla visit his website: www.nikolauskimla.com

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