Modelling Excellence
Which sales methodology does your company embrace?
How much money have you spent on buying someone else’s IP? How have you managed to shoehorn it into your company culture and way of doing thing?
Buying an off the shelf sales systems is better than nothing. Miller Heiman, SPIN..there are a few that promise that elusive silver bullet for ANY business. At the very least, they teach consistency and provide a platform for sales people to develop their styles on.
What they cannot do however, is model excellence for YOUR organisation.
And they’re not meant to because the business model for selling these systems is entirely based on doing the work once, and getting paid forever. One size will never fit all, but it will deliver SOME value. They seem safe, they’re easier to find but the question sales leaders must ask when considering any sales system for their organisation is: “Will this deliver the results we need and CONTINUE to improve performance?”
Here are some of the ticks to check off any program for your sales or service team:
ONE: Is it unique to your organisation?
Every organisation is organic with a unique interrelationship between functions. Sales doesn’t operate in a vacuum; it impacts a number of other areas in the business and vice versa. So, a sales system should be holistic in that it understands the value chain of the business so sales is delivering profit, margin and top line performance.
TWO: Does it build internal capability?
Sales systems need internal buy in and ownership. So anything that is done TO a sales team won’t have lasting impact. It must be something that becomes part of the mechanism of the business and that leaders are able to coach and reinforce it way beyond the initial component of the implementation stage.
THREE: Can you measure its success qualitatively and quantitatively?
If all you have to measure program success is results you can be waiting a long time. And if any changes need to be made, how will you be able to tell in the moment so you’re agile? Your sales program must have behavioural measures so your sales leaders can coach in the moment to constantly drive performance improvement.
FOUR: Will it shift the needle permanently?
Unfortunately, companies spend a lot of money on feel good workshops, expensive CRMs and leadership coaches but most only last for a little while. Incremental, lasting improvement is the goal. That requires an ongoing focus. So, who is the internal champion? Is it the WAY we engage customers? Is it part of the fabric of BAU?
FIVE: Does it deliver a branded experience?
The way we do anything is the way we do everything whether we like it or not. The way we treat every customer (internal AND external) IS the brand experience. Embodied. That’s scary and as much as we try to convince ourselves that it’s our online store, our website, our marketing, our solutions……it’s actually us. People. The face to face, email to email, phone to phone experience. If that’s poor, we’re missing the point. So, how consistent is that person to person experience? How great is it?
Sales is not separate. Fundamental to any organisation’s success is the long term ability to continually grow the top and bottom lines.
The WAY we do that matters.