The hardest thing for me about sales leadership is the lack of control. The head of sales is responsible to the board for outcomes. However others are on the front lines.
My natural tendency is to put pressure on direct contributors which creates stress and anxiety hurting results. A hands off approach leads to drift and inefficient development of best practices.
A solution exists. Interview each sales team member and find out their perspective on what is needed to drive success. Here is the key. Don't conduct the interviews yourself. People will not tell you the full truth unless the comments are anonymous.
My suggestion is to have a neutral third party get the information. You will get honest feedback and ideas to help the team rise to their maximum level of performance. From a personal perspective you will feel a sense of control, which acts like a safety value releasing pressure.
Tuesday, October 30, 2012
Friday, October 12, 2012
Selling New Solutions to Satisfied Buyers
Keith Eades in Solution Selling defines what he calls "latent opportunities"as problems waiting to be solved that do not have known solutions. This is different from "active opportunities" where management is looking for ideas to fix known problems.
The book Selling is Dead introduces a different way to think about latent opportunities. The author believes that most sales organizations are not equipped to engage buyers who are satisfied but with the right help will adopt often disruptive new solutions.
It is critical, from their perspective, to build a business case showing the value change will deliver. Until that happens, even solutions that remove pain will not be adopted. Once this step is completed, risk mitigation strategies are needed. That is based on a full understanding of the potential for fear to derail the sales process.
I sold a large complex marketing solution to a major technology company. A manager was curious about my company and thought we could handle overflow work for an overburdened department. Because my questions were focused on larger organizational opportunities, she realized we could help enable a mission critical strategic growth initiative at the CEO level.
Before working for this company, I reported to a CEO whose perspective was limited to finding known opportunities. He wanted me to "get us on the RFP list" and stop wasting time talking to people who were not ready to buy from us. After selling a major product launch marketing solution to a corporation that was not looking for a vendor he changed his mind.
The book Selling is Dead introduces a different way to think about latent opportunities. The author believes that most sales organizations are not equipped to engage buyers who are satisfied but with the right help will adopt often disruptive new solutions.
It is critical, from their perspective, to build a business case showing the value change will deliver. Until that happens, even solutions that remove pain will not be adopted. Once this step is completed, risk mitigation strategies are needed. That is based on a full understanding of the potential for fear to derail the sales process.
I sold a large complex marketing solution to a major technology company. A manager was curious about my company and thought we could handle overflow work for an overburdened department. Because my questions were focused on larger organizational opportunities, she realized we could help enable a mission critical strategic growth initiative at the CEO level.
Before working for this company, I reported to a CEO whose perspective was limited to finding known opportunities. He wanted me to "get us on the RFP list" and stop wasting time talking to people who were not ready to buy from us. After selling a major product launch marketing solution to a corporation that was not looking for a vendor he changed his mind.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)