Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

MARHNELLE and DAVID HIBBARD are cofounders of Dialexis. Prior to this, David spent 18 years in the commercial real estate industry. Marhnelle began her professional career as one of the few women in commercial real estate brokerage and commercial real estate development. Their clients include Cisco, Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, Xerox, IBM, AT&T, Berlin Packaging, Oracle Dell, Vistage, and many more.

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SOAR SELLING

McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

Contents

Chapter One

What Is SOAR?

SOAR is a contact formula created by Dialexis for reaching decision makers and high influencers on the telephone. SOAR stands for Surge of Accelerating Revenue. The SOAR program supports salespeople from any industry to make fewer net new business development dials while making a higher percentage of contacts and appointments.

SOAR evolved from extensive field research conducted by David and Marhnelle Hibbard, the Dialexis sales team, and the Dialexis training field team. A period of over 15 years was devoted to the development of the SOAR strategy. Making contact with decision makers and high influencers is a formidable task, one that required a multitude of approaches to find a successful solution. We were determined to develop a formula that would yield a contact rate that would revolutionize the way salespeople make contact over the phone.

As we tested various approaches over the years, one thing we focused on consistently was finding a solution that was ethical and instructional and that anyone could execute. Once we believed we had the formula, we tested the approach throughout the United States, Canada, and central and eastern Europe. We received rave reviews from corporate leaders, sales managers, and salespeople alike. Organizations that experienced SOAR expressed amazement not only at how well the techniques worked, but were equally impressed at the measured ROI (return on investment) numbers that SOAR drove over such a short period. Through SOAR, senior sales professionals and rookies alike began to experience a new way of prospecting for net new business. Organizations implementing SOAR penetrated a multitude of blockades, ultimately making contact with up to 90 percent of every net dial. When combined with accountability, a measurable ROI in the range of 200 to 2,000 percent was achieved in as little as 12 weeks from program inception.

Today, organizations throughout the world, such as Vistage, CoStar, Oracle, Cisco, AT&T, AOL, Dell, Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, Morgan Stanley, Berlin, PGi, Yahoo! and hundreds of smaller entrepreneurial firms have introduced SOAR to their sales force and have experienced the new way executive contact can be made using the telephone.

How SOAR Differentiates

Other sales training philosophies focus on what to do once you get in. We realized that the prevailing problem facing salespeople was how to get in. Salespeople needed a way to get past blockades and into the "exclusive club" of decision makers without making hundreds of calls. Various successful selling programs like SPIN Selling, Sandler Selling, PSS, Solution Selling, and Strategic Selling are all top-notch, but they focus on what to do once a salesperson gets in. We decided that if we could solve the problem of how to get in, we could make a salesperson's life easier, provide a better solution for driving net new business, and, at the same time, reduce attrition for corporations because salespeople would now have a method for making contact.

Here are the key advantages that SOAR provides:

• Contact. SOAR provides a quantifiable contact rate with decision makers and high influencers of up to 90 percent on every net dial to a new prospect. Again, other vendors focus on what to do once the salesperson gets in ... SOAR is all about how to get in. The 90 percent contact rate statistic is the current number, and it is updated quarterly with actual numbers from live trainings.

• ROI. The program is measurable. Organizations have experienced a 200 to 2,000 percent ROI 12 weeks from program completion (the vast range from 200 to 2,000 percent is due to an organization's or individual's value statement, which we will address later.) Simply stated, when a client makes an investment with SOAR and executes on that investment, they can expect to receive from 200 to 2,000 percent ROI in 12 weeks!

• Accountability. With SOAR, managers and salespeople are accountable for results during the 12-week measurement period. Dialexis interfaces with the leaders involved in the program consistently on a schedule during this time frame. Essentially, the coaching segment of SOAR allows Dialexis to stay with the client for the 12-week tracking period to ensure the program consistently demonstrates revenue surge and ROI.

• Tactics and Mindset. Dialexis understands that tactics matter, but also realizes the importance of mindset. As a result, Dialexis has included a mindset component in all its training programs. It's not simply how to do a something that makes the difference, but why. The mindset segment sets up the individual to be open to a new way of approaching driving net new business using the SOAR formula.

• Proof of Concept. Dialexis teaches how to reach decision makers live on the telephone (or on the streets, which is an entirely different approach), then has the sales group make live calls in the class demonstrating they can execute the SOAR formula. In most instances, every single attendee dials live in front of the class with the instructor present and coaching. With Dialexis, once the instructor leaves, it is assured that the training works and attendees can execute what they learned.

• Train the Trainer. For the Fortune 500 companies or organizations with a substantial number of salespeople, Dialexis has developed a train the trainer deliverable. Any corporate nominated individual wishing to be certified in the SOAR methodology can do so. This subsequently reduces the overall financial investment for the client and speeds up the delivery of the information to the field.

• Reputation. As we mentioned earlier, SOAR has demonstrated its effectiveness with a multitude of Fortune 500 organizations as well as many mid-size to smaller entrepreneurial firms.

ROI and Measurement

Let's take a look at one powerful example of SOAR's efficacy. Dialexis was retained by a Fortune 500 company in 2007 with a strong brand to provide SOAR training to a team of salespeople who were primarily compensated on commission. The client requested a pilot program to evaluate its potential to drive top line revenue through net new business. The candidates selected for the training varied from rookie to mid-level to highly experienced. If the SOAR program was a success, the client would be able to roll out the program throughout the United States. In preprogram discussions, the client agreed that ROI was critical in order to demonstrate to upper management that the investment in time and money was a wise one. The training was completed in three days in Southern California with key managers in attendance and measured over a post 12-week period, as is standard with SOAR. All results were tracked and strictly validated by the client, while Dialexis coached and monitored.

Participants in the pilot program were measuring their SOAR dials using a contact management system maintained by the client. Through this system, they were able to validate that all SOAR dials (new business development calls) were tracked and authentic. The objective was to reach decision makers and C-level high...