Don't Expect To Drive Revenue Just Because You Hire Sales People

When I mentor companies, I often get asked to help them"sell".

My answer is "sure". But most don't like my answer. 

Why?

Because my help is teaching them to fish. Not fishing for them.

First, sales is hard.

But it's is even harder when you don't have a plan.

You can improve your odds of success if you:

1. Have a very well defined target audience.
2. Understand your target user's buying process
3. Create compelling content and programs based on target customer buying process
4. Hire the right sales people, at the right time, with the right tools.
5. Measure your results - wash, rinse, repeat.

Target Audience

Your target audience are the accounts most likely to buy your solution. Segmentation is the process of identifying those opportunities. Once you have an initial hypothesis, you need to test and confirm your assumptions.In the segmentation process, you group target opportunities based on like attributes including:

• Outcomes are the end result and value achieved by the customer. Based on the tasks they perform, it includes the current status quo and impacts of that status quo. Finally, it defines how you reduce pain and create value.
• Firmographics are a series of attributes about the company. This includes industries (SIC, NAIC Codes), number of employees, revenue, and geography. This includes industries (SIC, NAIC Codes), number of employees, revenue, and geography. But, if you dig deeper to find unique identifiers, you will create even greater value. More on this later.
• Technographics are the applications and infrastructure that are relevant to your solution. It also includes an adoption profile (early adopter, etc.) and recent IT purchases.
• Personas are a way to characterize audience individuals by creating a semi-fictional archetype. Buyer attributes include demographics, and psychographics. Metrics4Success (how they measure job success) is important.
• Purchase Behavior describes how, where, when and why they buy products. It also describes how they learn about products as well as their key influencer.
• Value Chain attributes describe the audiences' business environment. It includes the product and services they sell, who they sell to, and how they sell.

Purchase Process

Validating your assumptions above should provide clear direction for sales and marketing team. The marketing team should know how to "get found.". The sales team should know the buying committee and buying process.

The marketing team should know what social media sites they are likely to visit. What trade shows they attend. Publications they read. Influencers for purchasing like products. And, key messages to create compelling content and thought leadership.

Sales teams should know the roles and responsibilities of the buying committee. They should have the tools to address each phase in the sales process. From first call, to demo, through close, it should all be well scripted based on your prior research.

Sales Enablement Before Salespeople

You know your targets. You know how they want to discover information. You know their pain points and the value you create. Now create compelling content and programs. Establish yourself as a trusted expert in your customers physical and digital world. Create your playbook.

Creating a segment playbook ensures sales and marketing alignment. Each playbook should deliver the segment-specific content and programs. It should provide the market size, the target accounts, and metrics for success.

Understanding the buying committee and process is also critical. Each account will have its idiosyncrasies. So, providing a best practices mapping is critical. Like target segments, each buyer role requires a clear persona definition. Tailor content and programs need to their role in the process.

Buyer Persona Attributes Overview

Hire The Right Sales Team

You have the tools, now what type of sales team do you need?

Each segment's buying process will impact your decision. Your company's stage and funding will also impact the process.

Based on your understanding of the above, you will need to pick your best route to market. Direct sales is not always the best path. Next, decide on the type of salesperson and make-up of the sales team (e.g. telesales, hunters and farmers, etc.). Each segment's buying process will impact your decision. Your company's stage and funding will also impact the process.

If you are early stage, target sales candidates with experience in similar ventures. Selling millions of dollars of software into a mature market is different. So success selling a new idea into an untapped market is more critical.

If your offering is very vertical specific, does your candidate have domain knowledge? This is not a disqualifier. But, ask how their prior experiences can apply to your situation.

For direct B2B sales, look for candidates with needs-based or consultative selling (e.g. Spin, Challenger, etc.)

If you are selling through partners, it does not make sense to hire someone who has done direct sales. So make sure their sales expertise align with your distribution strategy.

In almost every situation, your early hires need to be willing to "carry a bag" and build a team.

Have your lead sales person show success selling your products before bringing on a big team. This also helps vet your sales and marketing tools.

Don't hire your sales talent before you are ready. It can cost you millions of dollars. Hiring your sales talent should be a natural outcome of understanding your customers. Your segment playbooks should provide the required tools. Your learnings (wins and losses) from customer interactions will drive success.

Learning & Metrics for Success

There are lots of things you can measure. But to start focus on metrics that allow you to take action. Make sure your metrics are segment specific. You can do roll ups but success or failure is segment specific. This enables specific course corrections.

Revenue is the ultimate metric for sales. But getting to the optimal process requires other key performance indicators. It requires a clear definition of your sales and marketing cycle. The process itself is less important. Ensure that you have clear "ins" and "outs" between each step. Actionable information is key. So know what's coming in, the stage, time in stage, and wins and losses.

Remember, every sales engagement is a learning opportunity. Capture loss reasons. Use that to refine your targeting and messaging.

Go Fish

Selling is hard.

But with planning, you can make selling your product or service a little easier. It takes time. It takes some homework. It takes wins and losses. It takes a plan:

1. Target audience
2. A known buying process
3. Compelling value proposition and content
4. The right channel and the right team
5. A disciplined approach to learning and measuring success

Good luck. Go fishing.