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I’m blessed to have developed a strong relationship with my fellow CEOs at sales training, consulting and advisory firms around the world. We chat at conferences, via email, and exchange notes quite often. There is one topic that we all unanimously see as high growth, and customers scrambling to level up – training/coaching for the Regional VP’s or Area VP’s of Sales.
When you walk the sales floor, or conduct your 1-on-1’s with your sales team this week, pay attention to the “random acts of prospecting”. Seller A is so different than Seller B, and Seller C has no plan, and Seller D is so objective with their process”. You’re not alone! These are very common things I see inside sales organizations around the world. Sales professionals are given so much latitude, that there is absolutely no real prospecting process. Yes, there are current or lagging indicators such as:
Does your sales team have 6-18 months sales cycles? Is the buying committee involves 5-10 people on every customer transaction? Does it feel like your sales team needs to draw from everything they’ve learnt in The Challenger Sale, Customer Centric Selling, and Value Selling… insert sales methodology here?
Do you have only 10 accounts? Does your entire sales division focus on only 100 global accounts? Digital sales is not a “prospecting” motion in your mind, as you’re looking for an account management motion. While these accounts may or may not be existing customers, the 500,000,000 user database in LinkedIn is of little consequence to you.
Are you implementing Account Based Marketing? If not! It’s time you started applying it in your organization! Studies have shown that the most effective marketing approach in recent times is proving to be Account-Based Marketing. This marketing strategy is more focused and results in better ROI compared to any other marketing method. Account Based Marketing entails identifying prospects that are key stakeholders and strategizing marketing to resonate with the specific personas.
Having participated in 100’s of tech company Sales Kickoffs (SKO) and witnessing the thousands of dollars to the multi-million dollar events, I thought it would be timely to share my observations, tips, do’s and don’ts in a blog.