Living Sales Excellence - Dennis Connelly's Blog

All month, Dave Kurlan, Frank Belzer, Chris Mott, and I have been writing on Sales Architecture as part of an ongoing series on what it takes to build a world-class sales organization.

We’ve touched on issues of enablement, management, infrastructure, and other critical areas this month as well.  These articles have been written in support of our upcoming webinar that you won’t want to miss if you are a business leader or sales leader who believes that sales could be a lot better at your company than they currently are.

In this fast-paced, one-hour webinar, we're going to cover sales architecture and other related issues in more depth.  If you're the person who needs to get the sales organization right, this webinar is for you.

Here is the webinar agenda:

• Sales Process - Optimizing Conversions
• Sales Methodology – Why It Matters
• Sales Messaging - How to Get It Right
• 3 Critical Conversations
• Executing in a Changing Economy
• Sales Model – Making It Scalable
• Channels - Optimizing Your Traction
• Sales Training - Critical Components for Maximum Impact
   

If you missed some of the articles specifically related to these issues and this webinar, here they are:

• Organic Sales Growth and Its Impact on Sales Architecture
• Overlooked Conversation Between Sales Managers and Salespeople
• Do Technical Salespeople Need Sales Training?
• Why Doesn't Sales Methodology Get More Attention?
• Getting a Sales Organization to Buy-In to Sales Training
• Marketing and Sales Feedback Loop Can Help You Grow
• Five Things VP’s Must Do To Insure Sales Enablement Has Impact
• Sales Execution - What Should You Pay Attention To?
• You May Be Expecting Too Much From Sales Training When...
• What is the Best Sales Model for Your Sales Force?

Today, I want to talk more about how sales and marketing must work together.  It's sort of nuts, in today's market, to let these two organizations work in a vacuum.  They must continually feed each other valuable market information in a healthy, robust, iterative process of information gathering and feedback.

Far from silos, the line between these two organizations has been mixed together like chemicals in a flask, producing a new kind of hybrid organization within the existing company structure.  Sales leadership and marketing leadership must have the right chemistry to drive results for the organization.  Let’s take a look at some of the questions we need to be asking:

Who are our customers?

So what are some of the ways that sales and marketing can help each other?  Of primary importance is answering the question of who we are targeting.  Who is our customer and what are their issues?  And another important and often overlooked question is who do we want as customers in the first place?

What is our strategy?

How are we getting in front of our customers?  How are we getting their attention?  What role is marketing playing and what does the handoff to sales look like?  Ideally, not only is marketing feeding the front end of the pipeline, but they are also planting seeds in the minds of your prospects, or more accurately "suspects."  These seeds or issues then serve as a conversational starting point from which the sales staff can probe further.  When marketing points out a source of frustration or a missed opportunity, it preframes the discussion for your sales people.

How do we gain traction?

No, not the kind where they drill holes in your head.  But more like a good snow tire.  Can sales move the prospect through the sales process effectively?  How can marketing help?  How far along the sales cycle is marketing bringing the prospect?  And how far should the salesperson back up the prospect in the process to ensure that the bases are properly covered? 

Marketing might be setting the stage, but sometimes they've shared so much information that it creates a false impression in the mind of the salesperson that they are further along the sales cycle than they really are.

How many of your sales people will recognize as a mirage, when a prospect only appears to be in a later stage of the sales cycle, but really isn't?  How many of them can properly bring this prospect back to an earlier point in the cycle, perhaps somewhere near that point discussed above where marketing might have identified a key source of frustration?  If you're not sure, you can click here to find out.

How do we get the business?

Finally, how are we getting the business?  Where do we fit in the market?  What kind of feedback can sales bring back to marketing to adjust the message and continue an iterative process that improves your results and desired outcomes with time?

 

Not long ago, marketing created the brand, researched the market, and positioned the products.  The job of sales was to close the business that marketing teed up for them.  The problem is that communication wasn't strong enough nor frequent enough, leading to complaints from both sides.  "The leads were no good."  Or, "Why can't those guys close the business?"

Today, a more iterative approach is needed.  The market is changing rapidly.  Marketing must solicit from sales real-time information gleaned from all interaction in the field to constantly adjust their message and ensure that their positioning statements are resonating with their intended audience.

Join me and a panel of sales experts for a powerful, one-hour webinar that will address the topics that the Kurlan team has been writing about this month.  The webinar is on February 5^th and we will discuss, "Leading Your Ideal Sales Force - Part 1"at 11 AM Eastern Time.

Image credit: kateleigh / 123RF Stock Photo
Diagram credit: Dennis Connelly, Kurlan & Associates

© Copyright  Dennis Connelly All Rights Reserved

I was recently at a marketing conference where the main theme was Inbound.  Thanks to Brian Halligan at Hubspot, “inbound” is now almost a household word.  He put a name to what is surely one of the more powerful phenomena shaping the business environment, and by extension the selling environment, today.  For the record, the conference to which I'm referring was not Hubspot’s own "Inbound13" held last fall.  At that event, the recurring theme was “Be Remarkable” and it was best embodied in Seth Godin’s brilliant keynote address.

The two recurring themes heard most at this other event, were that inbound marketing was, on average, bringing prospects 70 percent of the way to the sale, and that companies did better when technology people worked closely with the marketing department.  Each of these statements is true.  Yet each has a glaring hole.  You might have heard this before, but just because we know tomatoes are fruit, doesn’t mean we put them in fruit salad.

Let’s take the first one first - that prospects are 70 percent of the way toward making a purchase by the time marketing hands them off to sales.  Ask yourself if you have any salespeople at your company who possess a gazillion contacts, a stuffed pipeline, and lots of meetings and conferences to attend, but only a trickle of business falling out of the end of the funnel.  Marketing is doing a better job than ever, but the elite salesperson will understand the pitfalls inherent in the overdeveloped lead.

We normally like baseball analogies here, but ‘tis the season to talk gridiron.  So imagine you’re the Cincinnati Bengals offense, Ken Anderson, in September of 1976 up against the defense of Mean Joe Greene and Jack Lambert (pictured above), et al. of the Pittsburgh Steelers.  Don't worry if you're not sure what that means. The Steelers defense that year was arguably the best in the history of the NFL. Suffice it to say that being on the Steelers 30-yard line didn’t mean much. If you were up against their defense, you probably weren't going to close the deal if you were on the 2-yard line.  Ken scored 6 points in that game.  Later in the season, he played them again and scored 3 points. Again, for the uninitiated, that's not a lot of points.

There are actually two problems when a salesperson starts on the 70-yard line.  One is that the last 30 yards is the toughest, especially when you start there, and two is that you’re simply standing on the wrong part of the field.  At 70 yards, your prospect wants a proposal, a demo, pricing, and references.  An elite salesperson will not take the bait.  It will only lead to an endless chase scene in a bad movie.  Rather, thank your marketing department and then walk your prospect back to your own 25-yard line so you can drive them down the field properly.  In today’s world of selling, the salesperson makes the difference.  Marketing is an important ticket to the game, but when everyone’s website looks the same, the difference is the salesperson.

Now for the second theme - that marketing should work more closely with the IT folks.  That rings true to me.  Collaboration is a proven business fundamental.  And while that’s a good pair, it is as important that marketing collaborate with sales continuously.  Usually, these two groups do not always see the value that each provides.  Marketing people are often flustered that salespeople aren’t closing all the business they have handed them, especially when they believe it need only be walked over to the end zone.  And sales people keep telling marketing that while leads are up, the quality of the leads are down.  Wouldn’t it be better if it worked a little more like this:

1. Marketing focuses on perceived customer needs,
2. Marketing builds awareness,
3. Marketing generates leads and hands off to sales,
4. Sales questions leads using consultative skills,
5. Sales learns about key business issues,
6. Sales stays alert for other market trends,
7. Sales informs marketing about what’s truly important, and
8. Marketing adjusts message.

There is a glorious opportunity for companies who find the synergy in their marketing and sales departments.  Working together can create an upward spiral of feedback and progress to improve the quality of your leads.  Then, it’s critical to have the right sales people under the right sales leadership to take advantage of all the opportunities.  Today’s sales people must be more than just relationship people.  They must also be able to do the following well:

1. Listen,
2. Ask good questions,
3. Ask tough questions,
4. Ask enough questions,
5. Uncover truly compelling reasons to buy,
6. Make appropriately-timed presentations, and
7. Remain present and unemotional at the close.

This is a subset of the consultative skill set.  Can all of your sales people do that, every time?  Last week Frank Belzer, author of Sales Shift, wrote an important article on the Architecture of a Sales Force.  And Dave Kurlan, author of Baseline Selling, wrote a piece that you shouldn’t miss on Sales Methodologies, an often misunderstood concept.  If you’re wondering about the capabilities of your own sales force, it might be time for an evaluation.

Join me and a panel of sales experts for a powerful, one-hour webinar that will address the topics the Kurlan team has been writing about this month.  The webinar is on February 5^th and we will discuss, "Leading Your Ideal Sales Force - Part 1" at 11 AM Eastern Time.

Image credit: Sports Illustrated, 1984

© Copyright  Dennis Connelly All Rights Reserved