I just finishedreading Strategies That Win Sales by Mark Marone & Seleste Lunsford. It’s worth a deeper read, and below are someof our favorite excerpts.
Supportdepends on complexity. “Organizations with highlytechnical products will require live support through distributors or in-housesales representatives, whereas those who sell less complex product sets maybenefit from self-service channels.”
Makesure the sales team has a travel budget. “Face-to-facewill always have more intimacy. Customers will always tend to cut it short whenyou are on the phone.”
Channelsales requiring giving up brand control. “Whilesuch partnerships can be a tremendous asset toward cost-effectively gaininggreater market coverage and presence, they also can reduce control over thebrand experience and ultimately inhibit an organization’s goal for creatingintimacy with its end users.”
Channelsales aren’t a free lunch. “Although a way tocost-effectively expand coverage, organizations should not underestimate theresources required to manage indirect sales resources. Once the decision ismade to leverage these kinds of relationships, the selling organization willoften need to support its partners with product knowledge training, marketingmaterials, industry information, and even sales or management skills training.Furthermore, these relationships frequently require a sales resource to managethem.”
CustomerSuccess should not be responsible for upgrades. “Thebiggest issue is that the service personnel often are not comfortable with theidea of selling and can be very resistant to it. Additionally, compensation andperformance evaluation can be barriers. Many times customer service agents areevaluated by their ability to resolve customer issues quickly. So it can beconfusing as a service representative to be instructed to try to get a customeroff the phone as quickly as possible and at the same time cross-sell them.”
Salesteams are constantly evolving. “What was consistent was thatalmost every organization we talked to was in the midst of restructuring theirsales force and, furthermore, the constant changes in customer expectations,solution sets, and channel strategies render it very unlikely that any sales forcedeployment strategy could be considered permanent.”
Sellingby product line is inferior. “Deploying a sales force byproduct line is one of the most traditional ways to go about allocatingresources. It is beneficial in supplying high levels of product expertise tobuying organizations. As organizations merge and extend solution sets into numerouslines, however, it becomes less common as a primary strategy. As a result of these mergers and investments,some of the sales organizations we studied found themselves in situations wherethey were deploying multiple sales representatives into the same customeraccount, each selling a different set of products. This createdinefficiencies. It is beneficial incases where the product sales and implementation may be highly technical or agreat deal of product detail is involved in the buying process.”
Verticalsales strategy is best. “Deploying sales resources againstspecific customer segments that exhibit common characteristics can be useful increating specialization within the sales force and supporting organizationalinitiatives around customer centricity. Verticalstrategy offers many advantages by being able to link solutions to specificbusiness issues that will resonate with members of an industry and giveorganizations an advantage over generalist competitors. Sales resources deployed against verticalstructures are usually deeply embedded in the industry having worked in itprior.”
Geographicsales can work as well. “Segmenting sales teams bygeography allows for extensive coverage, increased face time, and localresponsiveness to customer issues. This strategy works best in situations wherethe sales force is tasked with selling a relatively homogenous product set to abroad customer base.”
Sella solution, not a product. “Within a consultative salescycle, all sales conversations revolve around a customer need. This is a markeddeparture from the “product push” approach that still dominates many salescalls today. More specifically, the core of a sales call will be a mutualexchange of information where the salesperson uncovers and develops anunderstanding of customer needs (or helps the customer become aware of a need).Thus selling becomes a two-way street.”
Againselling a solution is far more effective. “Thelanguage the salesperson uses to provide information to the customer should bebenefit-orientated – not feature-orientated – and linked to these needs. It’sthe difference between a digital camera “with 3 megapixels and 3x2 opticalzoom” and one that “will allow you to take high-resolution pictures of yourupcoming cruise vacation.” Both are accurate statements but the latter helpsthe buyer see how the product will help meet needs.”
TheRFP was structured by a competitor if not by you. “Unlessa salesperson becomes involved with an account prior to the RFP being released,there is a significantly lower chance of winning the sale.”
CustomerSuccess is critical and valuable. “According to the study, customerssaid they would pay more if they could get excellent after-sales service, andthey placed premium value on service and product reputation. In fact, servicewas the most important factor they valued from their vendor organization.”
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