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Sales Improvement Model
The Sales Improvement PropellerTM represents the four
major areas of skills and processes that drive business development and
sales improvement initiatives, as explained below.
Goals &
Accountability
Every business requires effective sales planning processes to ensure
business development goals are identified and pursued. This is the role of
Sales Management.
Best-practice is to start with thorough planning at the enterprise level
(a business plan). Following the strategic business objectives, sales management
decisions can be made to set a suitable sales strategy and determine
appropriate tasks and accountabilities for the sales team.
Unfortunately many organisations fail to monitor and formally review the progress of business development
objectives - they are often
overlooked in the busy-ness of day to day operations.
Reviewing top-line revenue results is the easy part. However many companies fall short
in monitoring business development results for individual sellers and taking remedial action to
empower each seller for future success.
In particular, sellers with a technical or professional competency often have a part-time
business development responsibility. That is, often their primary focus is
to deliver the service or technical knowledge they are trained to
provide (examples may be: a financial analyst; a water treatment
technician; advise on printing services; or an environmental consultant).
This can present a difficult sales management dilemma, as staff may view
'selling' as being less important, less personally satisfying, and
much more challenging to perform.
More about sales management >>
Lead Generation
Marketing Creates Leads... Sales Creates Clients
Many people make the mistake of generalising and categorising 'selling' as
'marketing', or vice-versa. However there is a very important distinction between
what we do to create sales opportunities (that is, marketing to generate
leads) and what we do to turn leads into paying clients (that is, selling skills and
sales process).
The Lead Generation blade of the Sales Improvement Propeller covers
the development and implementation of relevant marketing activities with
the objective of attracting attention from suitable potential clients.
Often overlooked, but of extreme importance to service-based firms and companies
that sell technical products, is the development of relevant and practical
marketing collateral (such as brochures, case studies, data sheets,
reports etc) and other documents that can be used by the business
development team as sales tools (e.g. product summary pages, written
testimonials, web-based material).
Of course other marketing tactics such as advertising, exhibiting at trade
shows, networking, direct mail, and targeted cold calling are also
assessed for suitability.
The objective of this phase is to create a tailored marketing program and
implementation plan that
consistently generates leads and is easily managed within the
organisation.
More about developing a sales strategy
>>
Selling Skills
Nothing Happens Until Somebody Sells Something
Depending on the type of business you are in, gaining commitment from your
prospect could be either... getting approval for further meetings; running
a trial; undertaking an assessment of their current situation; or actually
getting a Purchase Order.
Either way, the objective of the Selling Skills blade of the Sales Improvement Propeller
is to ensure the sales team have suitable skills and techniques to
initiate sales conversations, explore client requirements, and identify relevant
solutions.
Encouraging the adoption of suitable 'conversational' selling skills can
be a challenge if you have staff who have come from a technical,
professional or non-sales background. Often these staff have a
stereotypical view of selling that paints the seller as a 'hired gun' out
to manipulate the client into buying from them.
(Note: Read The Assassin Analogy
by Stuart Ayling for more detail on how to help technical and professional
staff overcome this reluctance.)
However it is possible to provide business development training for professionals
and technical staff that gives them a structure they can easily use in
client meetings without feeling like they need to be pushy or insincere.
More about inhouse sales
training >>
Presentation Skills
Conduct Your Presentations as Conversations
Business and sales presentations often focus on what the presenter wants
to say, rather than what the audience needs to hear. The result... a poor
connection with the audience, leading to inaction or a negative response.
Typical challenges faced by presenters include: talking off topic;
spending too much time on the wrong points; giving too much information;
poor presentation structure; lack of personal projection; and not having a
clear outcome in mind.
The concept of 'conducting your presentations as conversations' helps the
presenter to remain focused on creating two way communication, engaging with the
audience (the prospect or buyer), and listening to responses.
Presentations take place for a reason. Usually this is to communicate a
message to the audience (whether that be one person or hundreds) and ask
them to take some action. In this context 'action' may be making a
decision; changing their mind; or supporting the proposed recommendation.
Typically presentation situations include:
- Sellers presenting benefits/solutions
to the prospect.
- Executives presenting to investors (or their
board).
- Colleagues presenting
educational sessions to their peers.
- Presenting a keynote session at a
conference.
- During the tender process to elicit information and/or gain
acceptance as a panel member.
The Presentation Skills blade of the Sales Improvement Propeller considers the information
and personal skills required to create a strong impact (physical, verbal
and visual) and communicate real value for the audience, gaining a
positive response to the recommendation.
More about inhouse
presentation skills training >>
Alternately, request further information >>
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