Technique
There are hundreds of companies that teach sales skills presentation skills, objection handling, closing, etc. But the one skill many salespeople lack is the ability to effectively connect their solutions to the prospects business problems.
In addition to a greater understanding of the clients pain, refinements and techniques continue to advance in the areas of controlling politics, competition, and the decisionmaking process.
Innovations also have occurred in both deal coaching and overall performance coaching, as well as in the area of forecasting.
Teamwork
The salespersons contacts and calendar are a starting point, but they are not enough to manage an opportunity. To lead in a complex selling environment, you have to be able to communicate the plan to the rest of the team. You have to have a stakeholder analysis that identifies who is involved, what role they play, what their pains are, and how much power they have. Its not enough for salespeople to keep it in their heads anymore.
Also, the relationship between manager and salesperson needs to move from inspector and loner to one of coach and strategist. In the rare accounts where partnering is a possibility, the team also can include the client.
Everyone on your sales team who touches the account needs to know whats going on, what the strategy is, and must collaborate on execution and refinement of the plan.
Technology
Unfortunately, most client relationship management (CRM) applications havent lived up to their promiseespecially in the area of direct business-to-business (B2B) sales force effectiveness. And, if implemented badly, CRM technology actually can build a barrier between you and your best clients.
The first CRM applications for direct sales were contact managers, designed to capture the salespersons little black book (today, its their personal Outlook file) in case they left the company. In the complex sale, however, there is more to it than just contact information. The real valuable corporate asset isnt names and addresses its the customer relationships.
Nevertheless, information is an essential tool to create a better customer experience in the hands of the right talent, using the right process, with that objective in mind.
Trust
Everyone talks about relationships, when what they really mean is trust. You have to build trust in your company, your people, and the quality of your solutions so that you can win repeat business with less effort and lower cost. This is the currency of account management.
What people really want is someone who knows their business. Tell them something about their company they dont know dont just read information off a screen. You have to show the connection between your solutions and their issues and then sell up the chain of value. This is where salespeople themselves contribute their greatest value.
Partner is the most abused word in selling today. Buyers want more than lunch and a human brochure. They dont really need professional friends. What they want are people they can trust to solve their business problems. This means that salespeople need to
know as much or more about their customers as they do about their own products.
The result, unless you are in a small account, should be an integrated four-level strategy that focuses every resource on your sales team and the client organization for maximum leverage. Unfortunately, though, it usually doesnt happen this way.
As we move from selling to individuals to selling to departments that have a more complex decision-making process, each of the four levels of selling strategy requires different talents, techniques, technologies, teamwork, and messaging. The outcome is a unique strategy for that account, in that industry, that leads to the final outcome trust.
A brief definition of the four levels will help us to define one dimension of the scorecard, which we will then explore in greater depth in following chapters as we move through the Five Ts of Transformation.
Industry/Market
Not every industry buys the same benefits or makes decisions in the same way. Focusing on specific industries allows you to become more consultative in your sales approach and to differentiate yourself with focused benefits, differentiators, messages, and solutions. This approach yields not only competitive advantage but also less commoditization at negotiating time.
Smaller companies often focus on a single industry. And the added cost and travel of a vertical approach to multiple industries necessitates economies of scale. Some companies approach this by teaming industry experts with competitive salespeople. In rare instances, extensive relationships and industry expertise can be combined in one individual the industry networked consultant, the highest level of competency in selling.
Account Management
Few companies can afford to dedicate entire teams to all accounts in an industry. Choosing which ones to invest in requires purposeful segmentation and the clear setting of objectives in order to achieve incremental returns. Without a clear account plan, salespeople will wander the halls, building goodwill that never translates into additional revenue.