The Sales Expeditor

Prospects buy products and services when you can demonstrate ROI. They make investments when you connect that ROI to their strategy.

Lets pretend you sell a widget that increases productivity. Raising productivity is good, but is there a compelling reason to accomplish this and what factors will be considered in the decision? How will the decision affect those invested in the current solution? What impact will it have on the user? How much time and energy is required?

Salespeople and sales organizations focus too much on ROI and not enough on how that ROI helps achieve the strategy. Sometimes a good investment is not well aligned with the strategy. Salespeople typically determine this late in the process; the result is wasted time and energy. If they had asked, “how will the investment help you achieve the departmental strategies” they may have uncovered this potential problem.

How effective is your sales force at uncovering and discussing a prospects business and personal strategy? Are they willing to push back and uncover potential conflicts and misalignment?

It’s rather obvious that if you improve your team’s ability to execute, increase adherence to a well-defined sales process and raise accountability there will be a positive outcome but unless you and the leadership team are 100% committed to this it likely won’t happen

How confident are you in your sales forces ability to achieve your business strategy, and what impact does this have on revenue and profit?