Posted by Mansfield Sales Partners on Fri, Jul 30, 2010
What is the best way to engage a prospect in a sales dialog?
The answer is to make your sales presentations entertaining, interactive and memorable.
Every one of us has sat through one of those presentations. You're sitting in a boardroom. You’ve eaten the catered lunch. It's 1:15PM. They dim the lights and start the slick PowerPoint presentation. The pitch begins. You realize that that "free lunch" really wasn't free. Your mind wanders and you start to plan your weekend or think about all the work you should be doing. You send a text or two. You really don't remember the presentation at all.
Don't let this happen to your next presentation
Companies often invest a lot on money in client entertainment. A sales presentation often includes a costly catered lunch. The sales materials you leave behind are expensive and often go unread. But how much money, time and effort do most companies invest in making the sales presentation really entertaining and interactive?
It is hard to make a sales presentation memorable
We live in a fast-paced, dynamic world. Peoples' attention spans are getting shorter and fragmented because we are constantly forced to multitask. Sales presentations need to keep up and be designed for this new, more demanding audience that will not be entertained by a "dog and pony show".
You clients and prospects live in an interactive world where they are used to having an active role and being in partial control. Here are a few ways that sales leaders have made their presentations engaging and memorable:
Make it a Magic Act
Magicians have been doing it for years; they spice up a boring act with audience volunteers. This is one trick worth stealing from them.
When the magician selects his volunteer, at first we secretly wish we were selected. If the magician then locks the volunteer in a box and pulls out a gigantic saw, we change our minds and breathe a sigh of relief. No one really wants to volunteer to be sawed in half.
Start the presentation off with a brief introduction but then move quickly into a dialog. Keep it informal, keep it on topic, and involve your audience. It doesn't matter where you are giving the presentation – a large group, a few people in a conference room, online or by remote video – you can build in audience participation. Just don't lock anyone up in a box and pull out a gigantic saw.
Make the presentation style suit your audience
Don’t use a "flashy" presentation for a small, informal group. Save it for a large meeting, conference or for a Board presentation where it is expected.
When you are presenting a small group or an audience of one, keep the presentation simple. Don't use a laptop or projected presentation unless it is core to your product or service. When you have a small group, work to maximize your opportunity to make a personal connection.
Discard the old structured presentation agenda
Have the guts to abandon a classic, structured sales pitch. Most presentation experts recommend a sales presentation with an Introduction, Benefits with concrete examples, Conclusion where you "ask for the order", followed by a Q&A period.
Think about changing this up. Why not incorporate the benefits in the introduction? Why not invite questions in the middle of the presentation? And why wait to ask for the prospect's business?
Remember, your audience has seen dozens, if not hundreds of presentations. You do not want to blend into the sea of just another corporate presentation.
Don't use outdated clip art, complex build slides and cluttered templates
It seems elementary but is it still such a common mistake, I have to include it. The fastest way to brand you company as "out of touch" is to use canned clip art. At all costs, avoid "cartoon" style illustration. Don't use complex build slides or cluttered PowerPoint templates. It is far better to use a plain template with straight-forward, simple language and online information-added graphics.
We all love PowerPoint but…
This is one case where less is really more – more memorable that is. Keep the slides to the minimum number required to tell the story. Research studies have found that shorter slide presentations are more memorable. Don't bore the audience with a data dump. Make a few brief, powerful points and support them with fast memorable facts and brief case history example. Try to inspire questions – don’t give all the answers.
If you are not a standup comic, don't pretend to be one.
Everyone in the room is exposed to the high-level comedy on TV so the bar for a joke is very high. Use prepared jokes only if you can really deliver them professionally. If you lack comic timing, avoid them at all costs.
Say thank you and don't just hope for an encore performance - ask for it.
And no matter what, end the entire presentation with a thank you and a request to go to the next step – ask for a follow-up meeting or when you can start service. Make the audience want an encore.
Bottom line: Make your sales presentation stick. Impress yourself with how elegantly simple it is and how well your audience listens. Deliver the goods, not the fluff.
For more help with your sales processes - give us a shout.
Photo Credit: by ξωαŋ ThΦt
Posted by Chris Foran on Wed, Jul 28, 2010
Research shows organizations that spend more time recruiting high-caliber people earn 22% higher return to shareholders than their peers. Ponder for a moment the last sales person that you hired. After you selected them, did they work out as intended or did they turn into somebody totally unlike what you thought when you interviewed them? The most important aspect of any business is recruiting and retaining top sales people.
Hiring is both art and science. Refusing to improve this vital process will almost always guarantee you will be spending money and time hiring the wrong people. Here are several reasons why traditional techniques are inadequate:
- The majority of applicants exaggerate to get a job
- Most hiring decisions are made by intuition in the first few minutes of the interview
- 2 out of 3 sales hires prove to be a bad fit within the first year
- Most interviewers are not properly trained nor do they like to interview applicants
5 P's to Help You Improve Sales Team Hiring
- Prepare - Prior to the interview make sure you understand the key elements of the job. Develop a simple outline that covers the job duties. Screen resumes to gain information for the interview. Standardize and prepare the questions you will ask each applicant.
- Purpose - Talented sales people have more choices and job opportunities to choose from. The interviewer forms the applicant's first impression of the company. Not only are you trying to determine the best applicant, but you also have to convince the applicant this is the best place for them to work.
- Performance - Identify the knowledge, attributes, and sales skills the applicant needs for success. If the job requires special education be sure to include it on your list. Identify the top seven attributes or competencies that the job requires and structure the interview accordingly.
- People Skills - The hardest to determine, as well as the most important part of the process, is identifying the people skills a person bring to the job. Each applicant wears a "mask." A good interviewing and selecting process discovers who is behind that mask and determines if a match exists between the individual and the job. By understanding the applicant's personality style, values, and motivations, you are guaranteed to improve your hiring and selecting process.
- Process - The best interview follows a structured process. This doesn't mean the entire process is inflexible without spontaneity. What it means is, each applicant is asked the same questions and is scored with a consistent rating process. A structured approach helps avoid bias and gives all applicants a fair chance.
Hiring and retaining a great sales team isn't easy. We can help you with this all-important process.
Photo credit: I Don't Know, Maybe
Posted by Mansfield Sales Partners on Mon, Jul 26, 2010
I was in Las Vegas last week and one of the first things I thought about was "How can I improve my odds through sales planning and lead management?"
OK, I can read your mind, sales planning and lead management is boring. I would never think about that in Vegas. Anyway, we have vendors that care of lead management. They have it under control. As for sales planning, that's just a normal part of our sales process. Well my bet is that your company has a patchwork quilt of lead sources and no one is managing them. And the odds are in my favor!
Several recent studies found that about 75% of companies do not have an effective process for managing, dispersing and tracking leads. And over 90% of companies do not integrate lead management into their sales planning process. Yes, I can see you nodding off. But hang on for just a minute. There is a payoff!
Most companies outsource lead generation and let their lead management efforts operate on autopilot. There is rarely any effort to make sure that the vendors know about changes in the marketing program, new product development plans or changes in sales strategy. Once leads are received, there is rarely an effective process for managing, dispersing and tracking leads. And it is almost impossible to find any companies that effectively plan the lead generation program as part of the sales planning process.
Every now and then a "sure bet" really does comes along. In this case our sure bet is a sales strategy that incorporates all aspects of the sales and marketing process into a coherent plan.
- Aligning sales with lead generation. The first step in that process is to take at look at your lead generation efforts and integrate them into your sales planning. Are you getting leads and new customers from emerging markets? Are there underserved markets with weak competition that offer you new growth opportunities? Then look at your capabilities. Is your sales team able to keep up with the marketplace? If not, what can you do to make sure that you can expand capabilities rapidly?
- Accelerating the sales process. The competitive gap in sales planning and lead management provides a great opportunity to the few companies who rethink their lead generation programs. This gap has also given rise to a new generation of Integrated Sales Management outsourcing firms – agile, sophisticated companies that have moved beyond generating qualified lead lists to offering a full range of integrated sales planning, lead management and strategic marketing services. Companies who have invested in the latest sales automation technology. Companies who can efficiently manage turnkey new client acquisition programs that really reduce the cost to acquire a new customer. Bringing in this kind of capability can rapidly improve sales and allow you to exploit new markets quickly.
Look at your current lead management capabilities. Think about integrating them with external teams that incorporate planning, management and lead generation. Sales outsourcing provides a low-risk, high reward way to improve your odds of achieving success. But don't miss this opportunity. You can bet that an opportunity like this won't happen very often.
Photo credit: Roadsidepictures
Posted by Mansfield Sales Partners on Wed, Jul 21, 2010
Go back a couple of decades and you will find that most companies had a unified Sales and Marketing function. Today, even in mid-sized companies, the Marketing function is often separated from Sales. Marketing is the "keeper of the brand" and creates "sales support materials" but really doesn't actively engage in "selling".
How did this happen?
Probably we need to assemble a team of MBA's to study this phenomenon for a couple of years and present their findings to uncover the truth. But allow me put forward a theory – it started with the systemization of Marketing at Harvard and other leading academic institutions. Great and important work that really helped elevate brand management, but also started to separate Marketing from Sales.
Does it matter who did it? Not really. The real key is to fix the problem.
Jumpstarting Sales Growth
Breaking down the barriers between Sales and Marketing is one of the fastest ways to refocus your organization on what matters and jumpstart sales growth. In most organizations this is not an easy task but a determined CEO can make it happen. Here are a few examples of successful efforts.
- Just get them to talk – honestly: One CEO I know decided that he would call regular Sales and Marketing meetings. He didn't engage in any formalized Sales and Marketing Integration process. He just worked to foster communication and dialog between his two departments. He held Sales and Marketing Team meetings every week and focused the meetings squarely on a discussion of disconnects and missed opportunities – and how to solve these problems. He mandated honesty. Some of the meetings were tense; a few were almost out of control. After several weeks, however, the meetings started to become productive. Realistic plans for change were developed. The Sales Team started to feel like they had a voice in the entire process. The Marketing executives got credit for actually doing some things right and became less defensive about change. Over time, the meetings evolved from problem-solving sessions into a way to brainstorm sales growth strategies and to synchronized efforts. It didn't solve all the problems, but it helped.
- Exchange student: What is the fastest way to connect Marketing to Sales? It may be to make the key marketing executives actually sell something. A CEO faced with a struggling division did just that. He took his VP of Marketing and put him on the phone, selling the division's services to small business owners. Much to the VP's dismay, he was assigned to the task for a month and given a sales quota. After a week or two, the VP’s perspective started to change. He learned that the division’s lead generation program had significant gaps and he re-evaluated his vendors. He also discovered that it was hard to sell the division's service, that the company lacked a clear competitive advantage. The experience not only built a new respect for how hard it can be to sell, but it also inspired him to reconfigure the service offering and build in meaningful advantages. The division continues to struggle but the refocused sales and marketing program have started to make a difference.
- Shared goals, clear roles: Every CEO knows that success is almost impossible without common corporate goals and strategies that are understood. But it is equally important that the roles and responsibilities with Sales and Marketing are well defined and properly interconnected. Usually there are clearly written job descriptions neatly filed in HR and quickly forgotten. Sometimes outside venders have formal goals. But rarely does anyone take the time to make sure that all the key players know what their roles and responsibilities are, and to eliminate any gaps or gray areas. One large corporation has solved this. They hold quarterly Sales and Marketing conferences to make sure that everyone is on the same page. All of the key members of the Sales and Marketing team are included – both internal and external. Many companies hold similar meetings but what distinguishes this company is that they always spend the first session on making sure that there is clarity and agreement about goals, roles and responsibilities. Then they move on to planning the upcoming sales effort. Everyone knows what they are expected to do and what they must accomplish to achieve the sales goals.
- The sales presentation is useless: A consultant was hired by a CEO to develop a sales training program. The consultant first learned about the company and sales process. Not surprisingly, she discovered a disconnect between Marketing and Sales. The Marketing Team had put together tools and presentations for their sales team that bore little resemblance to the actual pitches given by sales. The sales team didn’t support marketing’s program and they quietly developed their own pitch. As a result, there was a disconnect between the benefit statements, key concepts, and core message in the company's advertising and sales support materials vs. the sales presentation. Clients and prospects were confused, and sales lagged. The consultant went back to the CEO with a proposal to help the company integrate its sales and marketing efforts. Sometimes an outside consultant can identify and help solve these problems more effectively than internal staff.
Is there a Grand Canyon between Sales and Marketing in your organization? We can help.
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Posted by Mansfield Sales Partners on Mon, Jul 19, 2010
Earlier today I came across an article that explained that the "cold call" was dead. The author claimed that in a world with LinkedIn, Twitter and other Social Media, a direct phone call to an unconnected person was wasted effort. At first I was nodding in agreement, but then I thought about it. Did this really make sense? Was a "cold call" in the pure sense ever an effective sales strategy?
Online networking is a great tool for creating and building business relationships. But it cannot replace the power and efficiency of a phone call or a personal sales call. Plus, combining social networking and a well-placed phone call can result in an unbeatable combination.
Combining networking with a personal phone call is a very powerful sales strategy
- One phone call can replace hours of online effort trying to connect with a prospect.
- One well-placed phone call can quickly provide you with the names of the key decision-makers.
- A phone call can be the best way to identify real sales barriers and objections that can easily be hidden in a virtual relationship.
A real one-two sales punch comes from combining the power of the internet to extend your reach and provide information with the immediacy and personal connection only possible in a real world contact. Long before the internet was created, top sales people knew how to make a cold call seem like something else – they knew how to work the phones to make a cold call into a referral. A pro would call someone in the company and ask for the name of the key decision-maker. Then they would use that person’s name in the next call so that now it was a referral. They used contacts in one part of a company to introduce them to other key prospects. They knew how to prepare an introductory sales letter that promised they would call in the near future then called as promised. To a pro, there was no such thing as a "cold call".
It is no different in today's ultra-connected digital world. The sales letter may have morphed into an email or other digital communication. And it is easier and faster to get recommendations and referrals online. But at some point, the best sales tool is still a personal call.
New technology and new communications methods provide new sales tools but can't change what makes a great sales effort effective – planning, persistence and a personal connection.
How do your reach out to your sales leads and customers?
Photo credit: vasta
Posted by Mansfield Sales Partners on Wed, Jul 14, 2010
One of your greatest assets is qualified sales leads, but many sales leads get lost. No one responds, because no one notices, or they end up in the wrong place, or no one has time. There are thousands of excuses, but the result is the same, sales are lower than they should be.
Every company loses some qualified leads, no matter how well they manage their leads. But some companies lose sales leads in very basic ways – that can easily be avoided.
Here are 10 ways we have actually seen otherwise well-run companies literally leak qualified sales leads.
Customer Service Roadblock: A buyer wants to make a purchase from a company. The first number she finds is a toll-free customer service number. When she calls and asks for a number to talk to a sales rep, she is informed that this number is not available. The buyer goes online and finds another company to fill the order. - Online Form Goes Nowhere: The buyer finds a beautiful website, reviews the promotional copy and is interested in placing an order, but she has some questions. She completes the online form requesting more information. The form goes to someone, somewhere, but there is no response. The buyer gets bids from 3 other companies.
- Secret Phone Numbers: The buyer wants to contact a company to get a bid. She goes to the company’s website and discovers that there are no phone numbers listed. She calls toll-free directory assistance and finds that the company does not have a toll-free number. She moves on.
- Unanswered E-Mail: The buyer sends an email to the address listed in a business directory inquiring about the company’s products. The E-Mail is out of date and goes to an unattended E-Mail account. No one ever responds.
- Phone Message Gets Buried: The buyer calls the company’s sales department and leaves a message. The receptionist promises a sales rep will call back but the message gets buried on someone’s desk. No one every calls the potential buyer. It is found 3 months later in a pile of paper on the former sales reps desk.
- Phone Tag: Everything seems to be working right. The potential buyer calls the sales department and gets to the right person. The sales rep takes the information and promises to call back with a quote. But the sales rep fails to get complete contact information and only has a mangled email address and a phone number. A game of phone tag ensues and the buyer does not get the bid in time to consider it.
- Territory Questions: The buyer contacts the company and requests a bid. No one is sure who "owns" this account and the request goes unanswered. "I thought it was his account…"
- Too Many Cooks: The buyer contacts a large corporation about a complex RFP. The order involved products from three divisions. No one is sure who should respond to the RFP and it goes unanswered.
- Wrong Rep: The buyer contacts the sales department and is directed to a sales rep. Unfortunately, this rep does not have expertise in the products the buyer is interested in purchasing. Rather than pass this lead on to someone qualified to handle it, the rep tries to respond and is completely ineffective. The buyer selects another company’s products.
- "I'm Too Busy": The buyer contacts the company and is directed to the #1 sales rep. He takes all the information and has a great call. The buyer is predisposed to purchase from the company. But the sales rep is really swamped and never gets back to the buyer. He’s just too busy.
What are your sales do's and don'ts? We can help improve your sales results.
Photo Credit: Zach Klein
Posted by Mansfield Sales Partners on Mon, Jul 12, 2010
We have all heard the stories about how a sales rep made a huge sale to someone that they just happened to sit next to on an airplane or met at a social event. They were just in the right place at the right time.
But can you really be successful without a sales process? Can you really depend on haphazard luck? Can you integrate internal and external sales functions if there is no process? Can you be sure that your sales team is following up with on leads without a lead management system? Can you maximize sales from existing customers without any customer relationship management tools?
The answer to all of these questions is "no"!
Don't let a few lucky wins deceive you – they will happen with or without a sales process. But you will never beat your competition depending solely on luck and instinct.
A formal sales process enables oversight and real sales management, and is essential to successful selling. A sales process allows you to maximize sales and better utilize your sales team. It also makes it possible to fully integrated outside vendors into your sales process – vendors who can supply qualified leads, assist with new market entries, provide sales support and lead follow-up services and so on.
If you want to win consistently and frequently, you need a sales process
No one would ever expect to win a football game without training, proper equipment and a highly-developed playbook. Why should sales be any different?
If your sales team is properly trained, has great tools and has a playbook of winning plays, they have the best shot at winning. When the real pressure is on, they will know how to execute flawlessly and professionally. Not only will your company win more often but your sales stars will be more likely to stay with your company.
Sure it’s fun to end up winning a football game with a lucky pass, but it is much more rewarding to have a winning season and win the championship with an unbeatable team and plan.
Contact us to discuss your sales plan and process.
Photo Credit: Alex
Posted by Mansfield Sales Partners on Thu, Jul 08, 2010
Possibly the most effective way to win new customers and retain existing customers is to form alliances and strategic partnerships. These relationships take some effort to create but the return on your investment can be tremendous.
Customer Alliances
Build an alliance, an informal or formal partnership, with your customers and you will be hard to beat. One way to do this by providing customers with information and support that your competitors cannot duplicate.
Industrial suppliers often use this customer relationship technique to give them a competitive advantage. Companies work with customers to plan ordering, offer supply chain management and warehousing, and other value-added services that elevate then from a vendor to an essential part of their customers' businesses.
But Customer Alliances are not limited to industrial suppliers. They are a critical part of the customer relationship in almost every sector. For example, a major food service company offered its restaurant customers weekly reports with pricing forecasts for key items including expected order quantities based upon each customers' past history. The restaurant owners could use this information to make sure that they were not blindsided by a dramatic price increase on a major ingredient, and could adjust their pricing and menus accordingly, or stock up prior to the price increase. The restaurateurs could also this information to plan specials and new menu items that featured lower cost items.
Not only was this a great tool for their existing customers, but the food service company found it provided an excellent way to start a dialog with prospects. The account reps offered to provide a pricing forecast for restaurant owners who were not customers. This gave the food service company a natural opportunity to also provide a pricing comparison with the prospects’ current supplier and bid on their business while demonstrating the unique value they could provide.
Of course, you can only offer a service like this if you can provide your customers with accurate price forecasts. Just imagine how angry a customer would be if they removed a very popular item from the restaurant menu because of an expected price increase and the price increase never happened. Or worse, if they ordered 100 lbs. of salmon fillets because the price was going up and instead the price went down. Two or three big mistakes like this and you would have an ex-customer.
Start with your core competencies. In the case of this food service company, they knew the future pricing because they purchased with long-term contracts. There was no risk that they would get the future price of salmon wrong, for example, because they already owned the salmon at a set price. All they needed to do was communicate this information to their customers who purchased salmon accurately and in an easily usable manner.
Strategic Partnerships
Establishing strategic partnerships is an extremely effective sales growth strategy. Find a company that offers a complementary service or product. Then develop a strategic partnership so that you can support each other's sales and customer relationship efforts.
The most difficult challenge is to identify the right partner(s). The best strategic partnerships are between companies that have similar target customers but different customer bases. This enables the companies to immediately cross-sell to their partner's customers and can result in significant, short-term sales.
Sometimes the best way to set up a strategic partnership is to hire a third party to negotiate the deal on your behalf. A third party can bring expertise about how to set up a strategic partnership that will be effective, how to structure the deal and protect confidential information throughout the process. It also gives you the opportunity to let the third party be aggressive about terms and conditions without damaging your future relationship with the partner.
There are countless ways to set up strategic partnerships but there is one requirement for success – all of the partners must both be advantaged by the arrangement.
What are your experiences with partnerships and alliances?
Posted by Mansfield Sales Partners on Tue, Jul 06, 2010
War Stories
Think about the words often used to describe sales: battle plans, price wars, market conquest, and so on. We sit down over drinks and share "war stories". We discuss new market entries like we were getting ready to invade another country. But sometimes, we seem to forget who we are at war with.
Never go to war with your customers.
Never let your sales team go to war with each other.
Never lose site of the fact that you are trying to beat the competition.
Convert your customers into allies
Convince your customers that you are allies in their battles with their competition. That is a sure way to win their confidence and forge a long-term relationship.
Don't let sales competitions turn into battles
Sales competitions are a great way to motivate your sales team. But design the competitions so that you strengthen your sales team and avoid creating battles. The last thing you want is to have an internal war zone where your own sales reps are working to derail the co-workers' sales success.
Focus your resources on winning the real war
The real war is with your competition. Build your plan carefully so that you don't just win a few battles but you win the war. Work to focus your entire organization on executing with precision so that you win.
Most importantly, use powerful sales tactics with care.
For example, do not engage in a price war you cannot afford. Once you fire the first shot in a price war, it is very hard to retreat and almost impossible for your competition not to respond. And if your competition tries to engage in a price war, spend some time determining if you really need or want to follow suit. Sometimes it really is better to lose a battle in order to win the war.
What are your favorite war stories from your sales strategy?
Photo Credit: PhilipC
Posted by Mansfield Sales Partners on Thu, Jul 01, 2010
In the majority of companies, from large multi-national firms to smaller high-growth companies, strict attention is paid to operational efficiency but little or no attention is paid to sales process optimization. Designing an efficient, effective sales process is an essential step in accelerating growth with a strategic approach to sales.
Most companies take a tactical approach to sales. The sales force is focused on acquiring another new client and getting the next reorder. They are playing a numbers game, but they often they do not hit the target. The big question then is, "Why aren't we hitting the sales goal?" The most common answer from internal experts and consultants is usually "low sales force productivity." And the solutions often include increased investment in lead generation, sales force automation software upgrades and additional price concessions.
The real problem is often quite different – the sales force, marketing and customer service are usually disconnected and the company's message is confused. The most effective solution is to move from disconnected, tactical efforts to a strategic sales process. Although this transition can be accomplished by a company's management team, a successful transition to a strategic selling organization usually requires an external consultant to facilitate the process and provide an objective, outside perspective – to challenge the status quo. The goal of establishing a strategic sales process is simple: get everyone on the same page and align all the efforts in the same direction. Like many simple goals, this is one that is easy to set but a difficult to achieve.
A step by step process
- The first step in taking a strategic approach to sales is to clearly define what the company stands for and how it should be presented to prospects, customers and employees – a formal mission statement. If this mission is created through a collaborative process then formalized, you have the best shot of having everyone understand and support it.
- Once you have a clear mission, move on to the value proposition. What can you offer to customers and prospects that will differentiate your company from the competition?
- Now define the target market so that the marketing department and sales support vendors can align your lead generation program to focus on this key target market. Many companies have found that carefully targeted lead generation programs are the most effective way to improve sales force productivity, increase close rates, increase sales revenue per customer and measurably increase sales revenues.
With a mission, value proposition and target market defined, your management team can get the advertising, sales presentations and service support to all communicate a clear, unified message to your prospects and customers.
Sales Process Review
Finally, examine all of your sales processes. Do all of your employees have easy access to the right information to make sure that key prospects become customers and customers prefer to do business with your company? Are your sales processes lean, fast and efficient? Is there a feedback system in place so the senior management team rapidly knows about issues and opportunities for growth? Which sales functions can be done more efficiently and effectively if outsourced and which are best done by internal staff?
There is no standardized template for sales process design and your company's sales processes will be as unique as your employees, your product and service offering, and your customers. But there are some basic principles:
- Abandon the concept of "big quick wins." Look for opportunities to make small, but meaningful changes. Small improvements made in a number of areas across the sales cycle will add up quickly and yield big results.
- No two organizations have the same requirements, the same challenges or the same assets. Take a cold, hard look at your organization to identify the real strengths and weaknesses. Then build on your strengths and take actions to minimize the weaknesses.
- Work to build and maintain shared ownership of the goals and tasks across your organization.
These are just a few of the observations we have made working with our clients. If you have any questions about your sales process, please contact us.