You were not hired to produce the same results as last year.

You were not hired to produce the same results as last year.

Can you continue to think and act in the same way and expect to achieve your next-level results?

The targets are bigger, the resources are less, and the environment is increasingly more challenging. This is nothing new, but it is the reason why optimising your sales system is so important.

In the last newsletter we focused on what it means to systematise sales and the exponential value this brings to your business. In the upcoming newsletter editions, we focus on ‘HOW’ to systematise sales through the lens of the four Cs:

·?????Capabilities

·?????Culture

·?????Compensation

·?????Company structure

Today, we start with capabilities.

At Transform2perform, we believe there are distinct parallels between high-performing sports teams and high-performing sales teams. They both intentionally develop a culture of high-performance; they are structurally set up for success and they both continuously work to hone and perfect their capabilities.

All professional sales teams should adopt a similar approach because consistent high-performance is not a product of chance, just as excellence is never accidental. Achieving peak performance happens because of an intentional commitment to developing, refining, and honing competency and capabilities. As Abraham Lincoln once said:

If I only had an hour to chop down a tree, I would spend the first 45 minutes sharpening my axe.”

Some sales teams don't even have an axe, let alone a sharp one!

The modern sales team needs to be equipped with the tools and knowhow to compete and win. Sprinkle in a healthy dose of discipline and process and you will be creating a recipe for success.

According to McKinsey and Company, 55% of sales leaders worldwide recognise that achieving B-B revenue growth will require significant capability development. Equipping salespeople with next-generation capabilities takes effort but, the payoff is significant. Top-quartile teams can deliver 4 to 5 times higher sales growth compared to bottom-quartile players.

How do we get our people to think and act differently to achieve the next-level results?

Success in modern-day sales requires a combination of both process and skill. Sales process tells you ‘What’ to do and ‘When’ to do it, whereas skills are the ‘How’ you do it.

We understand that process can be a charged word in many organisations, however we urge you to think of process as a ‘bridge’. A bridge between the current sales behaviours and the new desired behaviours you need to succeed.

Modern day B-B selling is complicated; multiple decision-makers, each with a different level of influence and their own individual perception of whether:

1.?????There is an issue to solve

2.????Should they do anything to solve it

3.????How to solve it

4.???Who/what to use to solve it

5.????How this will impact their own personal motivators

This level of complexity requires sales teams to adopt a more strategic approach across different aspects of the sales process, most notably Opportunity Pursuit and Account and Relationship Development.

The difference between strategy and tactics

Strategy defined: an arial view - 35,000 feet in the air, surveying a situation to determine positions of advantage – strengths; and positions of disadvantage – weaknesses. The strategy is actions that leverage your strengths to mitigate or eliminate your weaknesses to achieve your objective.

Continuing the sports team analogy; strategy is how you set yourself up for the game, whereas tactics are the decisions you make during the game.

Tactics are of course still important, but only focussing on tactics in complex selling situations is an impediment to success!

Sales teams are still too tactically focussed. They lack the frameworks to analyse information concerning a specific opportunity or a strategic client relationship, and this prevents them from developing highly targeted action orientated strategic plans.

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Sales teams need to become strategic thinkers and employ critical thinking in their approach to complex sales. When we have seen this shift happen in our clients, performance has taken an exponential lift.

The Strategic Account Plan

Account planning and relationship development is an underdeveloped area for many sales organisations. Many adopt ‘home-baked’ processes that are just not fit for purpose. There are three reasons why you should have an active, regularly updated strategic account plan:

1.?????To identify new opportunities earlier –Identifying potential sales opportunities earlier gives the selling team a head start in the opportunity. ?The sales team can try to shape and influence the customer’s perception on what to do and how to do it.

2.????To get in front of the buying process – According to Rolland Berger, 57% of the buying process is already completed before buyers reach out to sales teams for the first time. This limits the ability of sales teams to create meaningful differentiation.

Just waiting for the RFP to land in your inbox is strategically naive. Having an account plan means you can identify key people in the customer's business, build relationships and advance perceptions. When its time to sell, the connections will have already been made, hopefully before the RFP process blocks your access.

3.????To advance the perception of key players in the account – Buyers often struggle to see meaningful differentiation when selecting possible partners. The account plan allows you to create differentiation outside of the regular buying process. This authenticates you and gives you the ability to demonstrate real points of differentiation during your selling process.

The importance of strategy at the account planning level cannot be understated. Ask yourself, does your account planning process help you achieve these three key objectives?

The Strategic Opportunity Pursuit

Complexity occurs when there are three or more decision-makers involved in the decision-making process - the average is seven. The opportunity pursuit is complicated because each person has different experiences, levels of influence, beliefs, and perceptions. These are the key reasons why implementing a strategic selling process helps win more deals:

1.????Understand the strategic landscape of the opportunity

2.????Identify and map ALL the decision-makers and their perceptions

3.????Identify what alternative solutions are being considered

4.???Find sponsors and develop advocacy

5.????Create highly targeted actions to:

·???????Get the information you need to develop a clearer picture

·???????Qualify opportunities in/out to ensure optimal use of resources

·???????Align your internal team and resources collaboratively across the opportunity

·???????Get in front of decision-makers at the right time, with the right information and questions

We have seen exponential lift in sales metrics when businesses adopt a strategic approach to their opportunities.

It’s just evolution

Sales teams need to continuously develop their sales capabilities; many readers of this article will agree that continuing to think and act the same way WILL NOT get those next-level results.

A frequently held perception that we come across is that developing capabilities is about teaching more skills. ?Skills are tactical and whilst still an imperative for the modern sales team, they also need a range of strategic capabilities as well.

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We believe there are six essential competencies required throughout the sales organisation. How competent your sales teams are across these six capability areas will go a long way to determining whether you will be able to achieve your next-level results

If you are still unsure, get in touch and we will talk you through how we recently helped one client increase their win rate from 23% to 46%.

This is what we do at Transform2perform, we help you transform sales and business performance. Download our?eBook ?to get deeper into each of the four 'Cs’ and or connect or call us for a chat on how we can help you.

Until next time. Be well and stay safe!!

Fraser Morrison

CEO | Founder | SBN Ambassador | EGN | Global Scot | Endurance Athlete

2 年

Great article really useful resource. Love the concept you lay out that it’s not an accident. That it’s part of a bigger plan and set of processes.

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