What is Your Company’s Sales Approach?
What is Your Company’s Sales Approach?
How Many Methodologies Do You Really Have?
When we recently interviewed the manager of learning and development of a Fortune 500 technology company, they reported that over the past three years, 4,000 of their sales and channel organization had been trained in one methodology by one of the companies we evaluated in our July ESR/InDepth Report. Management was very supportive, took the training ahead of the rest of the company, and the entire organization is using the methodology and speaking the same “language”. Since that training they have seen their sales cycle shorten, their hit rate heighten, and their order size grow.
However, when we ask most sales leaders, general managers and CEOs whether they have a sales methodology and if sales people are compliant in its use, the answer is often disappointing. Many respond saying they have no methodology; but that’s really not the case. Their situation is, in fact, far worse. What they have is possibly the same number of methodologies in place as the number of sales people. Each sales person is pursuing business their own way, with no common approach—selling by the seat of their pants. The symptoms are classic: deal slippage, reactive discounting, hockey-stick forecasts, and a small percentage of the team carrying the ball for everyone else. Today’s business world has no time or patience for seat of the pants selling.
Where Do You Stand?
By now you already know where you stand. If your company has been strategic in its approach to sales development and sales performance, you probably already have a methodology in place, have likely trained your team on its use and measure performance improvement on an ongoing basis. Most members of your team are probably performing at or above quota.
If that isn’t the case, you might start with a bit of a self-assessment. Here are a few questions to get you thinking in the right direction:
1. Can you explain in precise terms how your customers typically buy?
2. How many steps are their in your standard sales process?
3. What are the five most important qualification criteria that must be met for your sales people to be entitled to receive support from other people in pursuit of an opportunity?
4. Has every sales person been coached and certified on delivering your key messages to different constituencies within your customers’ organizations?
5. Are your sales people equipped with a list of standard objections that they are likely to face and have they been trained and coached on how to manage them?
6. Are you able to consistently find and hire sales people who deliver at or above quota?
7. Is every member of your team educated on the trends, issues, enablers and obstacles for their customers’ success in those markets into which they sell?
8. Do you have a documented set of processes and tools that encourage your sales people to effectively plan their sales campaigns, including every meeting, presentation and event?
9. Can your account executives effectively build and manage mutually beneficial long-term relationships with your key accounts without constant threat of competitive displacement?
10. Do you have a mechanism that provides each sales person with up-to-date, objective information about their competitors’ companies, products and services, and sales strategies and tactics, with clear and precise recommendations on how to use that information for competitive advantage?
How did you do? Do you feel confident that you objectively answered each question with a resounding “yes!” and can anticipate what my next ten questions might be? If not…
What Should You Do First?
First, understand why not. The results of a 2005 ESR survey show that these are some of the most common reasons sales leaders have not taken a formal, methodical approach to selling:
Those leaders are not process-oriented and therefore believe that processes inherently inhibit productivity, rather than enhance it.
They cannot get budget allocated for sales consulting or training because they are unable to present a credible business case including a target ROI.
They will not invest in sales development and process because they are compensated on operating income and training is seen as a large expense, potentially impacting their bonus.
They believe they hire top sales people who do not need a methodology or training. Anyone who does not make quota is replaced by another top performer, so, sales management concludes, there is no need to make the investment.
They have no idea how to properly select or engage with a sales consultancy and, out of fear of (another) failure, they do nothing.
They have invested in a CRM system and feel that that is all the process that their salespeople need.
So what is the real reason your company does not have a strategic, holistic approach to selling?
Methodology Comes First
We have seen many companies go from a state of disorder and failure within their sales function to one of consistent and predictable performance. One critical factor in making that transition is understanding that a methodology is absolutely required and that building or adopting one comes before training your team.
Now is the time to take a comprehensive, objective assessment of your current situation and capabilities. The need for objectivity makes this very difficult to accomplish using internal resources. Generally, ESR does not recommend that the providers of sales training perform this assessment due to potential conflicts of interest. With those caveats in mind, this needs to get done before anything else.
Based upon that assessment, determine your requirements. Do you need to replace members of your team based upon a new understanding of the qualifications required to be successful? Do you need processes to help your team qualify, manage an opportunity or generate leads? Is your marketing organization providing the required support? You get the idea. If you are going to engage with a sales performance company to help you build that methodology, the requirements document becomes the basis for an RFP (request for proposal). If you don’t have the time or resources to do it properly, engage a professional to assist you.
Then build or adopt a sales methodology based upon your specific and unique requirements. One size does not fit all. Once that methodology is in place, with all the relevant processes, methods, tools, you’ve built the foundation upon which metrics and training can be added.
There is never a better time than now to begin taking an approach—the right approach—for achieving sales effectiveness within your organization.
What is Your Companys Sales Approach - To learn more about this author, visit Dave Stein's Website.
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From ESR’s research, it is very clear that companies sell more effectively if their sales approach is based on a well-founded, institutionalized methodology. This is true of companies that have one salesperson or companies with ten thousand whether they sell staffing or technology, industrial equipment or professional services.
How Many Methodologies Do You Really Have?
When we recently interviewed the manager of learning and development of a Fortune 500 technology company, they reported that over the past three years, 4,000 of their sales and channel organization had been trained in one methodology by one of the companies we evaluated in our July ESR/InDepth Report. Management was very supportive, took the training ahead of the rest of the company, and the entire organization is using the methodology and speaking the same “language”. Since that training they have seen their sales cycle shorten, their hit rate heighten, and their order size grow.
However, when we ask most sales leaders, general managers and CEOs whether they have a sales methodology and if sales people are compliant in its use, the answer is often disappointing. Many respond saying they have no methodology; but that’s really not the case. Their situation is, in fact, far worse. What they have is possibly the same number of methodologies in place as the number of sales people. Each sales person is pursuing business their own way, with no common approach—selling by the seat of their pants. The symptoms are classic: deal slippage, reactive discounting, hockey-stick forecasts, and a small percentage of the team carrying the ball for everyone else. Today’s business world has no time or patience for seat of the pants selling.
Where Do You Stand?
By now you already know where you stand. If your company has been strategic in its approach to sales development and sales performance, you probably already have a methodology in place, have likely trained your team on its use and measure performance improvement on an ongoing basis. Most members of your team are probably performing at or above quota.
If that isn’t the case, you might start with a bit of a self-assessment. Here are a few questions to get you thinking in the right direction:
1. Can you explain in precise terms how your customers typically buy?
2. How many steps are their in your standard sales process?
3. What are the five most important qualification criteria that must be met for your sales people to be entitled to receive support from other people in pursuit of an opportunity?
4. Has every sales person been coached and certified on delivering your key messages to different constituencies within your customers’ organizations?
5. Are your sales people equipped with a list of standard objections that they are likely to face and have they been trained and coached on how to manage them?
6. Are you able to consistently find and hire sales people who deliver at or above quota?
7. Is every member of your team educated on the trends, issues, enablers and obstacles for their customers’ success in those markets into which they sell?
8. Do you have a documented set of processes and tools that encourage your sales people to effectively plan their sales campaigns, including every meeting, presentation and event?
9. Can your account executives effectively build and manage mutually beneficial long-term relationships with your key accounts without constant threat of competitive displacement?
10. Do you have a mechanism that provides each sales person with up-to-date, objective information about their competitors’ companies, products and services, and sales strategies and tactics, with clear and precise recommendations on how to use that information for competitive advantage?
How did you do? Do you feel confident that you objectively answered each question with a resounding “yes!” and can anticipate what my next ten questions might be? If not…
What Should You Do First?
First, understand why not. The results of a 2005 ESR survey show that these are some of the most common reasons sales leaders have not taken a formal, methodical approach to selling:
Those leaders are not process-oriented and therefore believe that processes inherently inhibit productivity, rather than enhance it.
They cannot get budget allocated for sales consulting or training because they are unable to present a credible business case including a target ROI.
They will not invest in sales development and process because they are compensated on operating income and training is seen as a large expense, potentially impacting their bonus.
They believe they hire top sales people who do not need a methodology or training. Anyone who does not make quota is replaced by another top performer, so, sales management concludes, there is no need to make the investment.
They have no idea how to properly select or engage with a sales consultancy and, out of fear of (another) failure, they do nothing.
They have invested in a CRM system and feel that that is all the process that their salespeople need.
So what is the real reason your company does not have a strategic, holistic approach to selling?
Methodology Comes First
We have seen many companies go from a state of disorder and failure within their sales function to one of consistent and predictable performance. One critical factor in making that transition is understanding that a methodology is absolutely required and that building or adopting one comes before training your team.
Now is the time to take a comprehensive, objective assessment of your current situation and capabilities. The need for objectivity makes this very difficult to accomplish using internal resources. Generally, ESR does not recommend that the providers of sales training perform this assessment due to potential conflicts of interest. With those caveats in mind, this needs to get done before anything else.
Based upon that assessment, determine your requirements. Do you need to replace members of your team based upon a new understanding of the qualifications required to be successful? Do you need processes to help your team qualify, manage an opportunity or generate leads? Is your marketing organization providing the required support? You get the idea. If you are going to engage with a sales performance company to help you build that methodology, the requirements document becomes the basis for an RFP (request for proposal). If you don’t have the time or resources to do it properly, engage a professional to assist you.
Then build or adopt a sales methodology based upon your specific and unique requirements. One size does not fit all. Once that methodology is in place, with all the relevant processes, methods, tools, you’ve built the foundation upon which metrics and training can be added.
There is never a better time than now to begin taking an approach—the right approach—for achieving sales effectiveness within your organization.
What is Your Companys Sales Approach - To learn more about this author, visit Dave Stein's Website.
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Leanne Hoagland-SmithAre your sales where you want them to be? Will you be one of the few who achieves sales or business success or one of the many who have failed to change? Are you tired of being told you are like everyone else? Then you may find my first book on sales of interest. Be the Red Jacket in the Sea of Gray Suits, The Keys to Unlocking Sales available at Amazon or at http://www.processspecialist.com/red-jacket.htm. This book is a reflection of my no-nonsense approach to improving sales to overall business results. If you are truly committed to making sustainable changes, then I can help you secure a positive return on your investment because I focus on executable solutions not telling you the problems you already know you have. From training to corporate (group) coaching to executive one on one coaching, my approach is to assess, create awareness, build a goal driven action plan and then execute. The bottom line question is "Not do you or your employees know it, but do you or they want to do it?" Please call for a free strategy session at 219.759.5601. - Visit Leanne Hoagland-Smith's Website |
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David AchesonDavid Acheson is the founder of DCJA Consultancy. DCJA Consultancy is a management consultancy business specialising in B2B sales consultancy. They offer bespoke and packaged sales consultancy including Sales Optimisation Review, Interim Sales Management, Sales & Marketing Review, 1:1 Sales & Management Staff Analysis, Management Training, Solution Sales Training, Creation of New Pay Plan, KPI's, run Customer Feedback Campaigns, assist with Recruitment, Coaching, Appraisals and set up Strategic Marketing Campaigns. David spent his early career in accountancy and then moved into sales in 1982, working in Office Equipment, IT, Advertising, Training, Outsourcing and Consultancy. He has held many Senior Positions in SMBs and Global Organisations including Head of Sales Operations & Head of Business Development. His knowledge, skills and great experience of the Sales Industry has led to David making keynote speeches and running educational sessions to key businesses through organisations including The Chamber of Commerce and Business Link. - Visit David Acheson's Website |
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Dave KurlanDave Kurlan is the founder and CEO of Objective Management Group, Inc., the industry leader in sales assessments and sales force evaluations, and the CEO of David Kurlan & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in sales force development. Dave has been a top rated speaker at Inc. Magazine's Conference on Growing the Company, the Sales & Marketing Management Conference and the Gazelles Sales & Marketing Summit. He has been featured on radio and TV, including World Business Review with General Norman Schwarzkopf, in Inc. Magazine, Selling Power Magazine, Sales & Marketing Management Magazine and Incentive Magazine. He is the author of Mindless Selling and Baseline Selling – How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball. He created and wrote STAR, a proprietary recruiting process for hiring great salespeople, and he writes Understanding the Sales Force, a popular business Blog and is a contributing author to The Death of 20th Century Selling and 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life, Volume 2. - Visit Dave Kurlan's Website |
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Linda RichardsonLinda Richardson is the Founder and Executive Chairwoman of Richardson, a global sales training and performance improvement company. As a recognized leader in the industry, she has won the coveted Stevie Award for Lifetime Achievement in Sales Excellence and she was identified by Training Industry, Inc. as one of the “Top 20 Most Influential Training Professionals.” Ms. Richardson is credited with the movement to Consultative Selling and is the author of ten books on selling and sales management, including Sales Coaching — Making the Great Leap from Sales Manager to Sales Coach, and Stop Telling, Start Selling. She teaches sales and management at the Wharton Graduate School of the University of Pennsylvania and the Wharton Executive Development Center. Linda is a frequent speaker at industry and client conferences, has been published extensively in industry and training journals, and has been featured in numerous publications, including The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Nation’s Business, Selling Power, Success, and The Conference Board Magazine. Learn more about Richardson's sales training and performance improvement solutions at http://www.richardson.com web - Visit Linda Richardson's Website |
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John BrennanJohn Brennan Ed.D. Dr. Brennan is President of Interpersonal Development, LLC, a training and development firm. Interpersonal Development has provided sales training and coaching to more than 3,000 sales reps from over 100 companies. A native of Australia, Dr. Brennan received his doctorate from the University of Rochester. His dissertation researched the effectiveness of Behavioral Modeling Technology in training people in interpersonal skills. While he has spent most of his career designing or delivering training, he was also a Vice-President of Sales of a training and development franchise with operations in 25 markets. Dr. Brennan has designed and delivered sales training in North America, Asia, Europe, Australia and the Middle East. He has been a guest speaker at numerous national and regional professional conferences. When Microsoft wanted Best Practices articles on sales for their web site, they called Dr. Brennan. The results are at http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/FX011387391033.aspx His firm’s clients have included Volvo, The Prudential, Merrill Lynch, Eastman Kodak, Gannett, Equifax Europe, the Economist Group and countless small businesses. - Visit John Brennan's Website |
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George LudwigGeorge Ludwig is a recognized authority on sales strategy and peak performance psychology. An international speaker, trainer, and corporate consultant, he helps clients like Johnson & Johnson, Abbott Laboratories, Northwestern Mutual, CIGNA, and numerous others improve sales force effectiveness and performance. Though it's George's strategies and processes that help corporations increase productivity and performance, it's his tremendous energy and dynamism that spark the transformation. Again and again, clients remark on his amazing ability to unleash human capacity and inspire men and women to break out of their comfort zones. The result is a whole new type of salesperson. His customized presentations teach achievers to make stunning advances in their lives. From helping salespeople realize cherished dreams to helping corporations exponentially accelerate revenue streams, George Ludwig leaves audiences and individuals empowered, emboldened, and clamoring for more. George is the best-selling author of Power Selling: Seven Strategies for Cracking the Sales Code and Wise Moves: 60 Quick Tips to Improve Your Position in Life & Business. - Visit George Ludwig's Website |
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Kim CastleWith nearly two decades in the advertising and design business, with clients like Domino's Pizza, General Motors, Direct TV, Pedigree, Wolfgang Puck, Higher Octave Music, Hollywood Celebrity Products, Disney, and Paramount, as well as thousands of entrepreneurs around the world define, structure, communicate, and position their business for greater profits, BrandU(R) co-creators Kim Castle and W. Vito Montone discovered that entrepreneurs could experience the same power that big brands command for a fraction of the cost with the world's only process-based results-drive Integral approach to business creation. BrandU(R) is helping entrepreneurs grow with the power of extreme clarity from idea...to brand...to market(TM) and helping one million entrepreneurs become successful and whole so that they can make a difference in the world. Are you one of them? If you want to experience clarity all the way to the bank(TM), get started now at http://www.brandu.com. - Visit Kim Castle's Website |
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Anne BarrAnne Barr has over 26 years experience in sales and marketing, six years as a franchisee. She has assisted over 367 business owners and purchasers to achieve their goals in career change, transition and exit strategy. She holds the designation of Certified Franchise Executive from the International Franchise Association, Certified Business Intermediary from the International Business Brokers Association and Board Certified Broker from the Texas Association of Business Brokers. Anne is active in professional organizations, networking groups and volunteers for non-profit entities. As owner/operator of four successful businesses, Anne has proven people skills and enjoys helping clients find the right "fit" in business ownership. Visit www.FranchiseOpportunitySpecialist.com for more information about me and my company. - Visit Anne Barr's Website |
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