CEO's on Sales

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...

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.”

Sales Culture

• 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.”

CEO Involvement in Sales
CEOs should be involved in the sales process. Three areas of common engagement: 

1. Opening doors with new prospects
2. Being involved in escalations like negotiating special terms
3. Doing after-the-sale check-ins to validate delivery of commitments

Key Performance Indicators

• 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.

Top Performers

• 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.

Selling to CEOs

• 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.

On Sales Compensation

• 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 Plans

• 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.

Being a CEO

• 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.

Turn Your Customer Service into a Profit Center

Customer Service Is Not Just About Service

by Terry Stidham

We know that “Everyone is in sales,” or should be according to many along with Joe Maddalone in his Forbes article, "Five Essential Sales Tips Everyone Must Master".

This is especially true for the customer service department. For many companies their customer service team is the main point of contact. They work on the front lines, and often are the ones who know the most about the customers’ specific wants and needs. So, it makes sense that they should be in a position to make additional sales, right?

Whether this task has been outsourced to a call center or there is an in-house team, these employees should be doing more than taking calls. In addition to providing quality customer support that will keep customers coming back, your customer service team should be upselling customers to increase revenues and improve the lifetime value of your customers.

 

Targeted Upsells 

Successful upselling starts with attention to the customer’s wants and needs and who knows them better than customer service. They have access to a CRM system that tracks each customer’s purchase history and interactions with the company.

 

They also know the specific reason why the customer has contacted the company, how to resolve their issue, and what type of product or service the customer may be receptive to purchasing at that time, oftern making them the right people to upsell successfully.

 

Customer service reps should take into account the customer’s history and needs in order to provide an upsell or cross-sell that is valuable to the customer at that moment. The particular needs of the customer should determine what the rep chooses to market to them. If the customer does not find value in it at that time, the upsell will not be successful.

 

Limited Time Offers

Customers don’t call to say, “I love my purchase, sell me more!” Oftentimes, they have a specific issue or question that they want to resolve. However, the customer service reps shouldn’t pass up the opportunity to sell to customers, since they’ve already crossed the biggest hurdle to sales: making contact.

Customer service reps can take advantage of the contact by telling the customer about the promotions, sales, and limited-time offers currently available to them. As stated above, these offers should be targeted to what the customer wants or needs.

For example: “I see your service contract is about to expire. We’re currently running a limited-time offer that provides 3 free months when you sign up for a 12-month contract. Would you like to renew your contract with us today?”

 

Bundled Services and Deals

Because the customer service representatives know the customers so well, they can predict what kinds of sales, upsells, or cross-sells would be most successful. Have them look for products that customers might want to buy together, and provide them as a bundled service. Purchased as a bundle, the array of services cost less than purchasing each one individually. Offering to bundle a customer’s current product with other complimentary products or services can give customers the impression of added value – in addition to cost savings.

 

Top-Notch Customer Service

Of course, the most important aspect in sales to customers through your customer service team is the quality of the service itself. If customers aren’t happy with the service that they are receiving, they won’t be receptive to any sales efforts through that funnel. However, high-quality customer service can improve customer satisfaction and result in more sales.

Two-thirds of consumers would be willing to spend more with a company – 13% more, on average – following an excellent customer service experience (The 2012 American Express Global Customer Service Barometer).

 

A properly trained customer service team can not only keep the customers coming back; they can also help customers find the products and services they need, and increase the lifetime value of each customer through thoughtful, personalized upselling techniques.

Recognize the 4 Personality Types to Improve Sales

Improve Sales and Customer Satisfaction by Selling to Their Personalities

by Terry Stidham

You or your reps. are good at identifying and finding prospects, making initial contacts, performing a needs analysis, developing solutions, giving presentations, handling objections and closing sales.

Most likely there can be some dramatic improvements on close rates and customer satisfaction by identifying and addressing the different personalities that are encountered.

We all know that people like to buy from people that are like them or understands them.

No one person is ever totally one personality type. We are all mixtures. People operate primarily in one of 4 types.

4 Personality Types and the Associated Characteristics:

Analytical:

• Likes facts and detail
• Money and numbers oriented
• Wants to know "bottom-line"
• Works best independently
• Very neat and organized
• Stickler for timeliness
• Not much of a risk taker

Driver:

• Gets right to the point
• Limited on time
• Always busy
• Wants immediate results
• Risk taker
• Likes multiple choices
• Needs to have the power
• Works best independently
• Focuses on positives 

Amiable:

• Likes to build relationships
• Friendly and likable
• Traditional attitudes
• Not a risk taker
• Needs support of other people
• Makes careful decisions
• Somewhat "wishy-washy"
• Less time-oriented

Expressive:

• Dreamer
• Uses hunches to make decisions
• Needs to be with people
• Makes quick decisions
• Likes to plan
• Takes risks
• Focuses on generalities
• Less time-oriented

How can you identify these personalities on a sales call?

Analytical & Amiable:

• Ask a lot of questions
• Speak softly
• Move slowly
• Not much direct eye contact
• Leans back in chair
• No hand gestures
• Patient
• Cooperative
• Calm

Driver & Expressive:

• Tell you things
• Speak loudly
• Fast movements
• Direct eye contact
• Lean toward you
• Animated hand gestures
• Impatient
• Competitive
• Excitable
• Enthusiastic
• Outwardly positive

Analyticals and Drivers are less responsive so you will notice:

• Serious attitude
• Very few facial expressions
• Formal approach
• Heavy time-orientation
• Will not touch you
• No chit-chat
• Direct conversation
• Rigid, calculated movements

Amiables and Expressives tend to be more responsive, so you will notice:

• More personal questions
• Warm, friendly approach
• Animated expressions
• Changes in tone and pitch
• Will try to build close relationship
• May touch you
• Chatty
• Many hand gestures
• Fluid movements

Begin studying the people in your life to determine their personality type. Take notes and compare them to the characteristics listed.

 

Working with each personality type:

Analytical:

• Let them feel they are right
• Give them facts first
• Stress rational, logical reasons for buying
• Observe time constraints
• Compliment them regularly
• Give quick, precise answers
• Use a direct close

Driver:

• Dress professionally
• Get right to the point
• Do not waste time
• Stress quick results
• Ask questions to force attention
• Change voice inflection to maintain interest
• Put everything in writing
• Let them feel they are in control
• Summarize key benefits before closing
• Use 2 or 3 option close

Amiable:

• Be friendly and build rapport quickly
• Don't rush into the presentation
• Don't pressure them
• Allow for plenty of time for conversation
• Stress emotional benefits
• Reassure them regularly
• Allow them to include others in decisions
• Give them one positive choice
• Help them make the decision

Expressive:

• Present the "big picture"
• Use emotional benefits
• Show them proofs -- testimonials, articles, etc.
• Recognize them as being important
• Put details in writing and explain carefully
• Use a direct close and reassure them of their decision

Recognizing personality types and being capable of working with them at their level will improve results dramatically and make selling more enjoyable. 

Grow With a Strategic Approach to Costs

Prepare for Expansion with a Strategic Approach to Costs 

by Terry Stidham

Many companies are in better financial shape today than they've been in for a long time. Having implemented cost-cutting and austerity programs during the recession, they have relatively healthy balance sheets and sizable reserves of working capital. They have strengthened their ability to weather downturns and improved their productivity in ways that could potentially last for years. All these restructuring actions were required for survival between 2008 and 2011.
 

But as focus shifts from the cost side of the ledger to the revenue side, searching for ways to move beyond cost cutting — entering new markets, commercializing innovative products and services, offering more compelling customer value propositions —  many companies are not strategically and financially prepared. They have not made the hard choices involved in channeling investments to the capabilities that are needed most, and minimizing or eliminating their other expenses.

3 Question Diagnostic to Tell if Your Company is Ready for Growth? 

1. Do you have clear priorities, focused on strategic growth, that drive your investments?
2. Do your costs line up with those priorities? In other words, do you deploy your resources toward them efficiently and effectively?
3. Is your organization set up to enable you to achieve those priorities?

The easiest way to answer these questions is to imagine the opposite. 
If you do not have clear growth priorities, there are several warning signs. 

• You have so many initiatives that you can’t name them all. 
• Your executives go to multiple meetings on unrelated topics every day. Asked to name the most important capabilities your company has (the things it does well) or how they relate to your strategic objectives, different leaders give different answers. 
• Your best people are working on so many programs and projects, they are burning out. 
• Meanwhile, you are under-investing in some areas — which might include parts of R&D, market development, sales force effectiveness and customer experience — where you could potentially build a distinctive edge against your competitors.

If your costs are not deployed appropriately, that’s also painfully apparent — especially in the amount you spend on non-essentials.  

• Staffing levels in different parts of the organization are out of sync; for instance, you might have twice as many finance people counting the money as salespeople bringing it in. 
• Your highest-priority initiatives falter because their investments do not get sufficient attention, while legacy programs with very little impact continue to be funded. 
• Every function pursues an agenda of professional excellence, striving to be “best in class,” no matter what the cost. 
• Each department’s annual budget is calculated as “last year’s, plus 3 percent.” 
• Every once in a while, in moments of high pressure, you institute across-the-board cost-cutting programs that force the businesses to temporarily reduce overhead, but everyone knows that it won’t make any long-term difference.

If you don't have a well-designed organization, that will become evident.

Multiple layers of management creates a disconnect between top business priorities and the actual work that gets done.

• You are not nimble enough to move quickly, or aligned enough to work in harmony. 
• It takes a week to get a sales quote approved, while your competition wins the business. 
• Information is not readily available to the people who need it. 
• Managers oversee fewer than four employees, on average, and get far too involved in their subordinates’ work. 
• Incentives (such as bonuses and rankings) motivate people in ways that actually undermine the behaviors needed to achieve the company’s stated growth priorities — for instance, people put internal reports ahead of customer responsiveness. 
• You have “shadow” HR, finance, and IT staffs popping up in places outside your shared-services organization. 

Since most suggestions are rejected, people become afraid to take calculated risks — and that derails the most innovative growth- or savings-oriented ideas. 

Increase Flexibility
Taking a balanced, broad-based approach to cost cutting requires business to develop an operating model that is not only cost efficient, but one which can respond quickly to unforeseen changes in the market such as further deterioration or an upward trend. Companies will have no choice but to industrialize their operations in order to combine low costs with high flexibility. Companies should consider outsourcing repetitive, non core functions that do not provide real differentiation to customers.

Build Execution Capabilities

Determining the right changes to make and having the courage to move ahead with these changes in today’s challenging environment certainly will not be easy. However, effective execution is even more difficult. Common challenges in executing cost- reduction strategies include: breaking down silos between business units, changing management culture and attitudes, executing at speed without disrupting business as usual and freeing up sufficient investment capital to tackle structural cost reductions with longer paybacks. Businesses can increase their chances of success by gaining executive buy-in up front, developing clear financial objectives, creating a transparent cost baseline, incorporating cost/benefit reporting into the financial planning process and clearly aligning cost-reduction efforts with existing investment portfolios.

Get Started

Companies that pursued traditional cost-reduction programs achieved cost benefits. In the long run, they will be unable to sustain those cost reductions and will find themselves at a competitive disadvantage.

Maintaining a longer-term focus while undergoing cost-cutting efforts is the right path to take—but it requires discipline, commitment and courage.

The actions companies take now to optimize their cost base and enhance their capacity to respond quickly and effectively to market change will shape their ability to achieve high performance in the future.

Post Sale Win-Loss Interview

Why Did You Win or Lose the Sale?  If You Don't Know Then Ask

by Terry Stidham

The answers are rarely as obvious as you or your sales team might think.

You can glean a lot of information from interviewing prospects who were part of the sales process.

This is known as a win-loss analysis.

Benefits of Win-Loss Interview

• Enables you to improve sales cycle understanding and incorporate changes to improve closing ratios. 
• Helps you understand your market and the performance of your organization. When prospects evaluate your product, they encounter many parts of your organization and its processes. While the outcome of the sale is important, you can gain valuable knowledge from both wins and losses.
• Creates goodwill among both wins and losses for your efforts to improve your product and it’s sales process,
• Provides you with insights on how your sales process works and how your product/service stood up to your competitors.
• Win-loss interviews offer a powerful way to understand your strengths and weaknesses in the eyes of the market.

Win-loss analysis does not replace the need to understand the market problems you solve, but it helps your organization to understand how you are being presented to a potential buyer. 

What can be learned?

Win-loss interviews can help you uncover answers to the following questions and afford valuable information to your organization:

• How important are specific aspects of your offerings?
• Are you reaching the right types of buyers?
• What obstacles are preventing you from selling your products?
• What features are you missing that lead to lost business?
• What are you doing well that can be repeated?
• Which marketing messages do your prospects respond to?
• What will help your buyers to purchase from you more easily?
• Does your pricing match what your buyers are willing to pay?

What to ask?

If possible, conduct a win-loss analysis for every attempted sale of your product/service. Use the following list when interviewing prospects (you may choose to add your own questions):

• What led you to choose our company or another company?
• What is your opinion of my company and our product/service?
• How did our company compare to the competition?
• What was the key deciding factor in your purchasing decision?
• Were your issues resolved?
• What collateral and sales tools were involved?
• What elements were missing during the buying process?
• Which product features did you like the most? What features were missing?
• What is will you be looking to purchase next that might be able to provide?

Interview Guidelines

The following guidelines will help you to conduct successful win-loss interviews.

• Do it soon after the decision: Schedule the interview within the month of the purchase decision.
• Motivate them to help you: Many prospects will agree to speak with you. However, if they seem hesitant to do so, find some way to motivate them (e.g., offer to donate to their favorite charity).
• Keep it short: Limit your call to 30 minutes so that you do not monopolize the interviewee’s time.
• Do not sell: Avoid dealing with any potential objections in an attempt to save the deal. It will put your interviewee in a defensive position, and this may negatively affect your data.
• Position it as a learning experience: Your prospect will want to know why you are asking these questions. Explain that your purpose is to learn and improve.
• Go off script if necessary: If your interviewee shares something interesting, feel free to go off script. Ask more about the issue, and let them explain their thoughts. There is no right or wrong answer to these questions. Your goal is to learn how they perceived the process and your product or service. The more you learn, the better.

What to do with results?

Share the results of your findings with your team. There are many people in your organization that can benefit from this information. For example, your team can identify how your product is positioned, make your marketing message more salient and learn what your prospects like and dislike about your product.

Win-loss analysis is a powerful tool for looking back at your performance and learning how to improve.

Sales Evolution Over the Last 60 Years

Overcome Sales Resistance - Move into a Collaborative Selling Mode

by Terry Stidham

Sales have evolved through five generations over the last 60 years.

They can be classified as the 5 C's of Selling

1. Cronyism

- also known as the "Good Ol' Boy Network". The first era of selling, prevalent in the industrial boom following World War II. In this approach, the sales person was essentially your buddy; that is, someone whom you got to know well and liked. The sales person would drop by every so often and take your order. Times were good and there was very little differentiation of product or focus on deeper buyer needs.

2. Commodity Selling - The second era of selling took hold from the 1950’s until mid 1960's where sales people basically sold on price. Again, there was little product differentiation, which resulted in discounting and price wars. Sales people typically dislike this approach as there is always pressure to cut the margins to increase sales.

3. Content Selling - This era of selling was the first to involve a strategic differentiation of one product from another. Starting in the 1960's through to the 1980's, professional marketers, with the help of advertising agencies, were now able to create brand awareness and customer knowledge as to why one product was superior to another. The goal was to educate buyers on the "features and benefits" of a specific product, and thereby increase sales by generating excitement in purchasing these features and benefits.

Content selling enabled sales people to move away from a commodity approach based on lowest price to being able to charge a higher price (with greater margins) due to brand awareness and buyer sophistication.

Although this era marks the start of "professional selling", the flaw with a features and benefits approach is that it did not take into account the unique and differing needs of customers. In effect, this approach was product-centric versus customer-centric. Although content selling raised the likelihood of increased sales with some customers, it did not maximize success with all customers. Hence the evolution to the fourth era of selling...

4. Consultative Selling - Over the past 20 years, consultative selling has been very much in vogue. By the 1980's, organizations realized the problem with content selling ("features and benefits") was that you may be providing a benefit that the customer doesn't value, and missing a benefit that the customer does want.

In consultative selling, the initial focus is on first understanding the deeper needs and buying motives of the customer and then ensuring your product fits with these needs and motives. Given that customers value different things, this approach requires some product diversity but also presents greater upside on the sales front.

However, even consultative selling has a drawback, which is particularly apparent in these tough economic times. That is, when the entire focus is on meeting the needs of the customer, that negates the very real needs of the supplying organization, especially when the business climate is hurting. In other words, notwithstanding the critical importance of the customer, if those needs are the only ones that matter, then some excellent selling organizations may be pushed out of business - and that indirectly hurts the customer that has benefited from this solid customer-supplier relationship.

This brings us to what we see as the dawn of a fifth era in selling - Collaborative Selling.

5. Collaborative Selling - In a collaborative selling approach, there is a partnering mentality between customer and supplier. Both organizations realize that their longer term success is predicated on both of them staying in business - and this means that supplier needs matter too.

We are currently in a well documented economic climate of restraint and cutbacks. Sales volumes are down in almost all industries. This means that many suppliers will find their revenues decreased and be required to make some tough business decisions to survive.

This is where the buying organization's role takes precedent. The buyer may be able to partner on matters that would typically be the sole responsibility of the seller. We are not suggesting that the buyer take a reduction in quality or service; that wouldn't make sense. But there may be some opportunities where the buyer can be flexible in order to help the seller survive. This could include some flexibility on payment terms, inventory levels, and other items that help the overall bottom line of the seller, without significantly impacting the business of the buyer.

In effect, in collaborative selling, both buyer and seller become customers to each other. This approach has three (3) primary goals for both organizations:

1. Minimize short-term risk
2. Maximize long term gain
3. Create value by partnering with each other

Creating value is recognizing the natural synergies that already exist and jointly seeking new ways to be innovative and proactive in adding to each partner’s business success.

How and When to Move into Collaborative Selling Mode

We realize that not all customers want to be partners. In fact, for many customers, the current focus on consultative selling (with a focus solely on their needs) works just fine. For these customers, the sales person should continue to do what’s been working well to increase sales - no need to change a winning game!

There are in fact three ingredients that cause both buyer and seller to want to move from a consultative to a collaborative mode, including:

1. The two organizations (buyer, seller) already have a successful and trusting business relationship.
2. Each organization needs the other organization to succeed in order for it to succeed.
3. There is some element of risk threatening the welfare of one organization that potentially could cause harm to both.

When these three conditions are present, it is in the best interests of both organizations to partner with each other. Given their already trusting relationship, it should be relatively easy for the sales person to articulate the needs for flexibility and joint problem solving on matters that were traditionally the sole concern of one organization, but not both.

It is also worth pointing out that the "tables can turn", so partnering can have reciprocal benefits to both organizations. That is, whereas one organization may be struggling today; the other may be struggling tomorrow. Working in a collaborative way builds a spirit of reciprocity that can help both partners as business cycles ebb and flow.

Ramifications to Your Sales Success

Our hope is this article presents the differing approaches to selling and gives you insights as to ways you can increase your sales success.

Start with self awareness - what type of sales person are you? Are you still sticking to the old ways of “you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours” (cronyism)? Are you engaging in price cutting to secure business but significantly hurting your livelihood in the process? Are you still pushing the features and benefits of your products even though these are not compatible with the deeper buying motives of your customers and prospects?

Hopefully, you are mostly engaged at a higher level of professional selling in being consultative with your clients. But don’t stop there. This article gives you suggestions on how to further raise the bar with some key clients and thereby significantly reduce the business risk inherent in today's precarious economic climate.

Collaborative selling makes sense, especially when conveyed in a manner that helps both parties over the longer term. By partnering with the seller, the buyer receives greater benefits since the business relationship is maintained and the opportunity to create value now exists. This will add to the bottom line of both organizations. Find ways to make the business case for your customers to partner with you, and then move into the new era of selling - that is, be collaborative.

Sales Playbook

Sales Playbook

by Terry Stidham

You wouldn't send your football team into a game without a defined play, would you?

The same standard exists for your sales organization. If you are responsible for leading a sales team that is to be skilled in hunting down leads, tracking them, closing deals, and maintaining client satisfaction, you probably know the importance of using a streamlined process and a consistent message for internal and external purposes.

What is a sales playbook and why is it important? Sales playbooks are the synthesis of sales process, best practices, the sales tools used and the tactical steps that should be adhered to as part of an effective sales engagement. Think of it as a blueprint for sales success, which allows for creative tailoring based on situational needs but the core underpinnings should remain consistent. Without a step-by-step process and clearly-defined value propositions/messaging, your team (no matter how skilled) will likely falter, missing crucial steps in the sale and ultimately losing deals that could easily be won if handled correctly.

A playbook is an in-depth manual outlining each stage of the sale, and all aspects of:

·        WHAT you sell

·        WHO you sell to

·        HOW you sell it…play-by-play

By interviewing a good cross section of your top performing sales reps as well as your bottom performing sales reps, you can develop a better understanding of what is working well in your sales engagements, what isn’t working well and why. Combining that with general best practices allows you to craft a road map for sales success, also known as a sales playbook.

In many cases, it is just as important to incorporate what you should not do as sales rep in to a sales playbook as what you should do. That could include many things like whom you should be engaged with and selling to as opposed to whom you shouldn’t be selling to or investing time with.

What sales tools should you use and when in the sales process? How do you orchestrate the sales process to build to a crescendo and the optimal outcome? What resources should you leverage and when in the sales process?

Sales playbooks should include properly setting expectations and managing them with the prospective customer, also known as earning the right to the next step in the sales process and ultimately earning their business.

Sales playbooks should always include a go/no go stage at the end of each step in the sales process along with criteria that assist in making informed decisions about whether to continue to invest your company’s resources in the opportunity. Many sales reps fail to walk away from a sales opportunity even though the odds for success are slim or if it’s simply not a good deal to win.

Strategic sales reps always are assessing whether to continue investing their resources or not-qualifying is ongoing not a discrete step at the very beginning of the sales process. The discovery stage of developing a sales playbook is always enlightening in terms of what is really happening in the field; good, bad and indifferent. It also highlights sales tools, process steps and refinements in the sales process that are needed to sell more effectively.  

When combined with a strong sales process, your team can use these deliverables to effectively close more sales. Map your sales process and playbook to your CRM system of choice to easily track where each sales person is in their sales and accounts. This gives peace of mind to upper management, and also allows all members of the sales team to be on the same page with their counterparts.

In addition to being a valuable selling resource, a playbook also helps management weed out top sellers from underdogs who aren’t pulling their weight. Here’s how: Once trained on a playbook, each member of your team should be able to articulate your value proposition and business benefits through call scripts, elevator pitches, executive presentations, and more. Those who can’t do this, or those who don’t feel the need to use the playbook, are likely the team members that are keeping you from greater success and revenue. Lastly, it’s something that should be revisited and updated every 6 months as the market evolves and demands improvements in the way that you sell.

Just like any other team, your sales force needs a playbook to understand the game, define best strategies, and develop tactics for greater success. Start outlining the best plays for your team, and best to you on a winning season!