Home Features Mastermind Videos About Advertise Blog Network Contact
   

Have A Suggestion?
Toronto Salsa Classes / Toronto Salsa Lessons Email us your ideas on how to make our website more valuable! Thank you Sharon from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for your suggestions to make the newsletter look like the website and profile younger entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez and Sean Combs!
Have A Suggestion?

Featured Ebook


ebook Famous Entrepreneurs - Modern Empire Builders


Featured Ebook

More Evan Carmichael
Have A Suggestion?

Sales Lessons From Starbucks And Dell

Your Sales Methodology: Retain It, Repair It, or Replace It



Your Sales Methodology: Retain It, Repair It, or Replace It
   

For most successful companies, consistent revenue delivery is in part dependent on a well-founded and institutionalized selling methodology—a set of processes, procedures and tools that provide the sales organization with what they need to convert qualified prospects to customers. Today, For most successful companies, consistent revenue delivery is in part dependent on a well-founded and institutionalized selling methodology—a set of processes, procedures and tools that provide the sales organization with what they need to convert qualified prospects to customers. Today, with relentless competition, savvy buyers, and information about your offerings readily available on the Internet, successful selling is the result of staying close to a proven path rather than “winging-it,” which is still the de facto standard for far too many selling organizations.

Just the phrase “sales methodology” scares many sales reps; sometimes for good reason. I’ve seen reps hobbled by bureaucratic burdens placed upon them by well-meaning executives. Other reps have lost weeks of selling time in training classes that contributed nothing to their productivity. It takes strong leadership for a sales organization to know that their adoption of a methodology will enable them to win more business.

What’s your first step? Assess your situation. Perhaps you don’t have a methodology in place. Maybe you did, but it may have fallen out of use, leaving your reps to figure things out for themselves. Whether you are selling commodity products over the telephone or professional services to Fortune 500 CEOs, your reps need a clearly defined path to achieve their mission. Every quarter that you wait before taking action will be another quarter’s revenues at risk. You need a methodology that will be the foundation for driving revenue now and supporting growth into the future.

Sales managers that have invested in sales methodology consulting and training and are not able to tie results directly to increased revenue need to know why. Do the processes that were installed still fit your business requirements? If not, that would be a reason to repair your approach. Have many of the people originally trained left your company? In that case, assuming the processes are still relevant to achieving your objectives, recommit to the methodology and invest in a new round of training and the strategic coaching that will support its ongoing use.

Unfortunately some companies realize that the training and consulting they invested in would not have gotten the job done under any circumstance. Perhaps a thorough requirements definition wasn’t done or the methodology provider wasn’t able to deliver what was needed. Maybe the methodology was better suited to a complex sale and yours is a relatively simple one. This total breakdown is the worst case scenario, and requires immediate action. An objective assessment will have identified the gaps between what you have and what you need. These should be the foundation of a requirements definition that will enable you to find the right company to get you back on track and then provide you with the processes, procedures, and tools that will put you out in front, where you need to be.

It is critically important for every salesperson to have a methodology to depend on that will guide and support them down the proven path to a sale. If your company doesn’t have one, acquire one. If the one you have is broken, repair it or replace it.

Just the phrase “sales methodology” scares many sales reps; sometimes for good reason. I’ve seen reps hobbled by bureaucratic burdens placed upon them by well-meaning executives. Other reps have lost weeks of selling time in training classes that contributed nothing to their productivity. It takes strong leadership for a sales organization to know that their adoption of a methodology will enable them to win more business.

What’s your first step? Assess your situation. Perhaps you don’t have a methodology in place. Maybe you did, but it may have fallen out of use, leaving your reps to figure things out for themselves. Whether you are selling commodity products over the telephone or professional services to Fortune 500 CEOs, your reps need a clearly defined path to achieve their mission. Every quarter that you wait before taking action will be another quarter’s revenues at risk. You need a methodology that will be the foundation for driving revenue now and supporting growth into the future.

Sales managers that have invested in sales methodology consulting and training and are not able to tie results directly to increased revenue need to know why. Do the processes that were installed still fit your business requirements? If not, that would be a reason to repair your approach. Have many of the people originally trained left your company? In that case, assuming the processes are still relevant to achieving your objectives, recommit to the methodology and invest in a new round of training and the strategic coaching that will support its ongoing use.

Unfortunately some companies realize that the training and consulting they invested in would not have gotten the job done under any circumstance. Perhaps a thorough requirements definition wasn’t done or the methodology provider wasn’t able to deliver what was needed. Maybe the methodology was better suited to a complex sale and yours is a relatively simple one. This total breakdown is the worst case scenario, and requires immediate action. An objective assessment will have identified the gaps between what you have and what you need. These should be the foundation of a requirements definition that will enable you to find the right company to get you back on track and then provide you with the processes, procedures, and tools that will put you out in front, where you need to be.

It is critically important for every salesperson to have a methodology to depend on that will guide and support them down the proven path to a sale. If your company doesn’t have one, acquire one. If the one you have is broken, repair it or replace it.



Your Sales Methodology: Retain It, Repair It, or Replace It - To learn more about this author, visit Dave Stein's Website.

Like this article? Share it with your friends
[Get Copyright Permissions] E-Mail | Print | More  


Related Articles Related Articles
Your Sales Methodology: Retain It, Repair It, or Replace It
  With relentless competition, savvy buyers, and information about your offerings readily available on the Internet, successful selling is the result of staying close to a proven path rather than “winging-it,” which ...
How To Make $1 Million in Your Small Business
  Is it possible to make $1 million dollars profit from your small busines? Good news. It's not only possible, it's common. Want to know the "secret"? Understand your break-even point, your desired profit margin point...
Computer repair franchises
  In today's cyber society it looks as though there will soon be more computers than people. And just as humans need a doctor from time to time, so do laptops and PCs.
Business Coach: Do You Employ the Yard by Yard or Inch by Inch Methodology to Master Success
  With all the business coaches to executive coaches entering the marketplace, what is the most effective methodology: Inch by Inch or Yard by Yard?
What is Your Company’s Sales Approach?
  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. Where Do You Stand?

Related Forum Posts Related Forum Posts
Online Sales and Marketing vs Traditional Online Sales and Marketing vs Traditional
Re: Online Sales and Marketing vs Traditional Re: Online Sales and Marketing vs Traditional
Home-based Business Home-based Business
Practical Sales Advice Practical Sales Advice
Sales & Marketing Resources Sales & Marketing Resources
Take Some ACTION already! Take Some ACTION already!
Sales advice from Jeffrey Gitomer Sales advice from Jeffrey Gitomer
Marketing led Sales? Marketing led Sales?

 
About the Author


Dave Stein
(Visit Dave's Website)
Dave Stein is CEO of ES Research Group (www.ESResearch .com) which he founded in early 2005. ESR is the first company to independently advise organizations on how to assess and most effectively implement the right sales training program for their individual needs, whether hiring an outside provider or delivering internal training. ESR delivers reports to its members ranging from weekly sales training research briefs to In Depth comparisons of the leading sales training and consulting providers. Beginning in 1993, after a career in sales and sales mgmt, Dave focused his unique skills in competitive sales strategies on sales training and executive coaching in companies of all sizes leading them to close large deals against insurmountable odds. Dave is the author of the business best seller HOW WINNERS SELL(now used by many universities), a regular contributor to leading journals, and the featured monthly columnist for Sales & Marketing Mgmt, Magazine. Dave’s affiliations include: Exec. Adv. Board of the Fisher Inst. for Prof. Selling; prof. member - National Speakers Assoc; Society of Sales & Mktg Training, American Society for Training and Dev.; and Sales & Marketing Execs Int’l.
Have A Suggestion?

View Author's Blog
Become An Author

View Author's Video
Become An Author

Free Downloads


Dave Stein's

Complete
List Of
Sales
Articles

First Name
Last Name
Email
 
If you enjoyed this article, get Dave Stein's Complete List of Sales Articles For FREE!
Become An Author