Building with Pebbles

A friend of mine recently decided to leave their job. They had built up a very successful customer support department despite poor management and inadequate IT systems. Now after their return post Covid, the staff and their skills were scattered. My friend decided they didn’t have the energy to build this again as the IT, HR and management support systems were not there making the rebuild job so much harder.

As I listened to the conversation I was sitting in my garden where we were building a brick wall and I was surrounded by pebbles and bricks. I started to think how difficult it was for my friend to build that department in the first place: operating without a proper IT system, building a motivated team when poor management was always an external pressure. My friend had built a wall with pebbles instead of bricks and there were no fundamentals in place that they could return to.

It made me think of trying to build a successful Sales Function in a business without having the fundamental pillars of sales, the bricks so to speak!

So, what are these pillars, to ensure there is always a strong foundation of prospects and leads being generated.

·        Knowing who your ideal customers are and increasing this pool.

·        Knowing your product and what you uniquely offer your customers.

·        Having a regular process of communication with these customers that engages them.

·        Knowing and keeping up to date with your competitors’ offerings.

·        Ensuring that all customer interactions are on brand.

If these fundamentals are in place there will be a consistent stream of new potential leads coming on the horizon.

If not, you may find yourself scrabbling around among the pebbles to generate quick leads, which may work sometimes but is not a recipe for consistent in sales growth.

If you want to talk to ActOnSales about your sales fundamentals, contact me for a consultation any time.