What Company Leaders Want From Sales Leaders
Brian Geery recently wrote about a sponsored event by the New England Technology Sales Executives Association that was titled “CEOs on Selling.” This is worth another look.
It was a panel event with ample opportunity for audience Q&A. The three panelists were Bill Hewitt, CEO of Kalido, Patrick Morley, President and CEO of Bit9, and Stephen Orenberg, Chief Sales Officer of Kaspersky Lab.
Many of the things that company leaders expect from sales leaders – accurate forecasts, timely reporting, good upstream and downstream communications, etc. – are managed by sales operations professionals...
It was a panel event with ample opportunity for audience Q&A. The three panelists were Bill Hewitt, CEO of Kalido, Patrick Morley, President and CEO of Bit9, and Stephen Orenberg, Chief Sales Officer of Kaspersky Lab.
Many of the things that company leaders expect from sales leaders – accurate forecasts, timely reporting, good upstream and downstream communications, etc. – are managed by sales operations professionals...
Here are some of his key takeaways:
Managing the Sales Process
- CEOs want sales leaders to carefully manage enterprise deals. Sometimes it can take two to three years to identify all 50 decision makers so it is important to “ruthlessly qualify” opportunities. In a down economy, approved vendor lists, procurement requirements, and strict IT specifications are more common so it is vital to understand the purchasing process.
- Use communication tools like Chatter (a Salesforce.com add-on) to keep all the right people informed and involved.
- Ambiguity is not your friend. Picking the right deals to pursue is important. Pick your segment and be specific. Pick targets where you know can solve a prospect’s pain quickly and you’ll shorten the length of your sale.
- Early on, find out your prospect’s key objectives or metrics and incorporate them into the selling process.
- For one CEO, “custom demos are the single biggest driver of sales against our major competitors.” As such, performing them well is crucial.
- Favorite quote from the day: “We look at selling as every bit as much a process subject to analysis and refinement as our manufacturing process.”
- To foster a sales-driven culture, start all company meetings with an update on the sales organization’s key performance indicators.
- To help non-sales personnel understand what the sales organization is dealing with, have sales team members complete a standardized trip report for all first-time prospect meetings. The CEO who recommended this said, “I read every one.”
CEOs should be involved in the sales process. Three areas of common engagement:
- Opening doors with new prospects
- Being involved in escalations like negotiating special terms
- Doing after-the-sale check-ins to validate delivery of commitments
- Identify metrics that can capture performance throughout your entire sales process – from lead to close.
- Open communication is imperative. There is no bad news if you keep communication open – visibility is key! The last thing CEOs want is a surprise.
- Honesty and transparency are a must. No exceptions.
- Sales leaders should not hesitate to update the CEO when an opportunity’s status turns negative.
- Quarterly business reviews where you share KPIs and plan the next quarter are important.
- Sales leaders need to be straightforward with their forecasts. If they know we will miss a number, communicate it immediately.
- Investors will never tell a CEO, “That forecast seems high,” but they will be sure to hold you to account if you don’t hit your projections.
- VPs of Sales should present the numbers to the board so the board knows the CEO and VP Sales are in lockstep.
- The best sales reps “dig in.” They watch for organizational changes (i.e., a senior executive leaving can stall a deal) and they understand the macroeconomic issues that may impact the sale.
- Customer intelligence wins deals. One CEO related a story in which they learned where a key decision maker lived, his monthly mortgage payment, and about his proactive involvement in church. Discovering that the prospect was very conservative, they dressed accordingly and carefully addressed risk factors.
- CEOs take calls from salespeople who are educated about the specifics of their situation. One CEO referenced the phrase, “Show me ya know me.”
- It is best to ask a CEO who the right person is to speak with about your product or service.
- The best information on compensation comes via the recruiting process.
- One CEO was recently surprised to see the increase in compensation expectations of inside sales professionals.
- Keep compensation plans simple. Compensating on margins can be complicated and should be avoided.
- There are many compensation strategies; the key is to use compensation as the reward for the behavior you want to drive.
- Sales planning should be both top-down and bottom-up. Revenue growth and profit targets are relatively easy to determine, the hard part is knowing where to spend your money.
- Expect quarterly adjustments to sales plans.
- One CEO said that when he became a CEO he was surprised how much people wanted him to be happy. He said business is not a beauty contest, tell it like it is.
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