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Sales Coaching Corner
Strategies That Can't Fail
DSG Insight
A lot of companies place big bets on sales strategies that can't fail. Smart leadership teams consistently get the 'what,' but they miss the 'how.'
DSG, a partner firm with MXL, has found that there are four main areas to focus on: strategy, messaging, process, and leadership:
1. Strategy - Where to Go, which accounts, what solutions, who to engage.
2. Messaging - What to Say, on phone call, over lunch, or in a face-to-face meeting.
3. Process - What to Do, how to create demand, win an opportunity, penetrate an existing account, sell with channel partners.
4. Leadership - How to Coach. If managers don't have the right coaching conversations, results are at risk.
We leverage existing methodologies and tools, roll up our sleeves and produce custom Playbooks and/or interactive vPlaybook guides for online access.
More...
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Big Ideas and Big Bets
Many companies today are making big bets on big ideas; that is, large investments to drive meaningful change and growth strategies. This strategy change could be a new product, a new message, new branding, new market, or even an acquisition.
I've worked recently with a company launching a complex new product; another blending sales organizations; another seeking to penetrate deeper levels of their customer organizations.
Many of the best corporate initiatives never get fully operationalized and turned into successful execution at the field level. In fact, research says 70% of strategies fail.
We find it helpful for organizations to really think through 3 questions: the "what," the "why," and the "how."
- The "What" is about the changes you are making to drive future growth.
- The "Why" is the specific business reasons you are making those changes in the first place.
- The "How" is focused on the practical ways in which you will enable your sales channels to implement your strategy.
The challenge is balancing the tradeoff between investment in sales enablement and the effectiveness of implementing change in the organization. Not an easy task. But quite doable with careful consideration, planning, and rollout across the troops and managers with right tools, training and guidance.
How's your strategy implementation?
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Sales Mental Toughness
A company with a game-changing product is in a highly competitive marketplace teeming with large and established incumbents and upstart ankle-biters. Part of the sales team is robust and upbeat; another part are hanging their heads in discouragement and frustration.
What's happening here?
In my discussion with the CEO, he hit it right on the head: some of his reps were allowing the tough competitive landscape to drive them to distraction and discouragement. Certainly it's a difficult space, but someone is going to win - it may as well be them. They've got the goods; get out there and tell the world. But with skill and wisdom. We're helping them do that.
I reminded him of my experience years ago when selling in the IBM enterprise world and partnering with EMC salespeople. These young and aggressive EMC reps would amaze me with their resilience. I told the CEO that I would often watch them "get their head handed to them by a customer" but then they would simply pick it up and go on to the next customer. They kept going until they got the deal. They eventually dominated in a marketplace stacked against them.
Sales mental toughness can be developed but really is forged and arises out of challenging experiences. All salespeople go through tough times and discouragement. Great salespeople weather these storms and come out mentally tougher. Weak salespeople crumble and succumb to losses.
How's your sales mental toughness? |
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Rule #24 Master Your 30-60-90 Day Forecast
(from 42 Rules to Increase Sales Effectiveness)
There are two things I ask to look at first when I am brought in as a consultant for a sales organization.
The first is the documentation of their sales process (recall from Rule 10 that only 1/3 of firms have this clearly articulated); the second is their sales forecast report, or more specifically, their 30-60-90 day forecast report. These reports tell me everything. I can see how disciplined the sales and marketing teams are; how clear and knowledgeable the management is on their go-to-market strategies, and how tightly managed or not is the pipeline management and forecasting process.
The CEO of a Silicon Valley startup told me that he would potentially need my help if they missed their quarterly number. He showed me a forecast report that had 88 line items of opportunities that his VP of Sales said might happen, though he couldn't say which ones. Only one deal was closed two months into the quarter. I got a call from the CEO in the first week of the next quarter. My first question was, "How many deals did you bring in last quarter?" He said, "Three deals, and one of them wasn't even on the original forecast report!"
I spent the next 60 days working with the CEO, VP and the Inside and Outside sales team reconstituting their pipeline management and forecasting system....
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Lasorda on Forecasting
"No matter how good you are, you're going to lose one-third of your games. No matter how bad you are you're going to win one-third of your games. It's the other third that makes the difference." - Tommy Lasorda, former Dodger Manager |
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