Sales and Marketing Alignment

The biggest challenge in organisations has been the tension between sales and marketing. More and more, organizations are solving this issue and not just hitting revenue goals but exceeding them. The companies that are able to excel at this are the ones that put the buyer at the center of it all.  They work at being able to monitor and map how their customers go through their buying processes.

The 4 steps organizations can take to improve sales and marketing alignment are as follows:
 

1.    Alignment effort between Sales and Marketing from top management

Getting agreement from the CEO is the important first step. Sales and marketing alignment is a leadership issue. If you don't get the buy-in from the head of the company, trying to do this becomes an academic exercise.  And you'd be surprised how many CEOs aren't interested in the change of management exercise that makes up the backbone of really bringing marketing and sales into alignment.

2.    Effective Lead Generation from Marketing Team

Marketing executives want to be treated as equals to their sales counterparts.  If that is so, then they need to have their performance and compensation needs at a  similar level of variable compensation as their sales counterparts. There's a lot of resistance to this in the marketing world. The logic goes, "we can open the door to a lead, but sales has to close it." That's hogwash. Marketing can do a lot to affect lead volume, quality, velocity and close of business. If it means one less doodad they produce and get out in the field to help close, so be it. By paying marketing in part on closed business, the organization puts its money where its alignment is.

3. Report on the same metrics

It becomes more apparent with the advances in lead generation, nurturing and conversion that if sales and marketing aren’t playing with the same rule book, things can go south quickly. Stop problems before they start by making sales and marketing alignment a priority. Both departments should be working together throughout the whole sales process: from the criteria you create for a productive lead scoring system, through the touch points marketing engages in with prospects to a clean hand off to sales through continued communications to close. If you ask sales and marketing leaders what they report to the management team (or the Board), very often you'll get things like this from them:

a.    Marketing: downloads, names of trade show attendees, "touches" (unless you are in the spa industry, this probably isn't an important metric), web traffic, social media mentions

b.    Sales: closed deals, total revenue, opportunity pipeline, sales forecast, qualified leads

c.    Make sure the management team cares about, and talks about, the same measures.

4.    Develop a unified process

The collaborative development of a process is one of the core issues that causes the gap that exists in many organizations. Companies that excel at sales and marketing alignment have processes and procedures that are mapped to how their customers buy.  With marketing and sales working together to address:

a.    Data Management

b.    Lead Planning

c.    Lead Routing (SLA's)

d.    Lead Qualification (including scoring and definition of every stage of the funnel)

e.    Lead Nurturing

f.    Content Blueprint

g.    Metrics

With the integration of companies CRM systems and many companies implementing marketing automation, the ability for the two previously separate silos aligning into a unified process with performance metrics, companies are now able to manage a complete revenue cycle that is mapped to how their customers buy throughout their buying cycle.

 

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Do Sales Training Really Help?

Research conducted by Revenue Storm during the Strategic Account Management Association Conference measured 100 Strategic Account Managers in 48 companies and showed they were 35% deficiency in allocating time to creating demand compared to Revenue Storm's best-in-class benchmark. One potential reason of spending less time in this critical area is the lack of competencies that Revenue Storm has identified; namely, managing pipeline, mapping politics, building momentum, establishing executive credibility, providing thought leadership, selling consultatively, messaging and probing. These competency deficiencies are further exacerbated when the market is like it is today.

In order to address these deficiencies, you could assess your sales force against the above competencies and develop specific training curricula to bring them up to best-in-class levels. From my experience, sales training is not enough. One approach would be to align the organization with the sales training initiative by starting with clarifying the Go-to-Market Strategy.
 
The Go-to-Market Strategy provides a direction not only for the sales force but also the rest of the organization. There are four Go-to-Market Strategies that companies can select. In fact, companies can deploy all of them, but each of the Go-to-Market Strategy needs to be aligned to each selling group. The four Go-to-Market Strategies are Transaction focus (example: low cost, commoditized offerings), Process focus (example: solution, one-stop shop selling), Business focus (example: business improvement), Partner focus (example: equal risk reward and gain sharing).
 
Once the Go-to-Market Strategy has been selected, sales process and sales roles including competencies need to be designed and aligned with the Go-to-Market Strategy. Sales management needs to be front and center in this step since they are the key role in successful implementation in the field. Sales management needs to be educated and trained so they can own and lead the implementation process.
 
Assessing the sales force against sales roles and competencies provides at least two important factors: fitting the right people into the right roles and identifying the competency deficiencies for each sales representative. Identifying the sales representative's competency deficiencies provides direction for both specific training and specific coaching from sales management.
 
Other functions need to be aligned to the Go-to-Market Strategy including Marketing, Delivery, Customer Service, Human Resources, Information Technology, Legal and Finance. All of these areas need to be educated and trained on the strategy. Marketing will need to provide specific inputs into sales such as developing market messages and customer case studies. Delivery and Customer Service outputs need to be aligned with the specific strategy. Human Resources function can assist with sales on assessment, hiring, selection and compensation. Information Technology manages the Customer Relationship Management application and needs to be aligned with the Go-to-Market strategy, not the other way around. Legal and Finance will also need to be aligned with the strategy. Large companies have a Sales Operations function that also assists and aligns the sales organization. When these functions are aligned with the Go-to-Market Strategy, the company will avert the often complaint from sales forces that it's much more difficult working with internal processes compared to working with customers.
 
This holistic approach starts with the Go-to-Market Strategy and purposely aligns all functions with the Go-to-Market Strategy. So it's not just about sales training, it's about building an aligned engine that can provide fast acceleration without the drag of sub-optimized, legacy, silo functions.

Advance’s Go-to-Market Strategy Programs are designed to give the learner comprehensive sales training and will provide essential training for new or less experienced sales professionals as well as the ideal means to refresh and update the skills of experienced sales professionals.

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Sales Training Programs for New and Less Experienced Sales Professionals

Most times, salespeople fail when they have less than excellent prospecting skills and don't spend sufficient time improving their performance. If you are a broker who works alone you can invest in the large selection of sales and coaching books available. Provide detectable value to your clients and they will less likely perceive you as a salesperson and more likely as a valued resource.

Ultimately, prospects buy from individuals, remember it's all about relationships and coaching improves your relationship skills. Coaching teaches reps how to pick the best prospects, how to really sell their services, and how to practice good stress management techniques. It focuses on development and what's truly on a sales reps mind. Most reps don't spend time thinking, "How Can I Close Better," but think, "How can I make sure I'm not missing out on opportunities?"

Because of today's economy, many Sales Manager's think that their only option is to cut back on training and instead look to recruit sales professionals who, in theory anyway, already possess the necessary skills needed to do the job. However, most of those same Sales Manager's are discovering just how difficult it is to find skilled salespeople, who have all of the essential skills and personal traits. Also, it is not possible to equate experience or longevity with success. Any organization that hires only experienced salespeople and fails to provide them with proper sales training is setting itself up for disaster. The reality is that selling in today's climate is both an art and a science. Selling is a profession that demands a far wider range of skills than ever before, skills that require continual fine-tuning and constant practice.

Consistency Is Key. Ongoing reinforcement and development is essential for success. The operative word here is "ongoing". Even if salespeople have undergone progressive sales training, there's no guarantee that they will be successful. It is common knowledge that skills grow rusty over time and salespeople are prone to pick up bad habits along the way or to simply skip steps and take shortcuts that can lead to long-term trouble. Even more important is the fact that markets, competition, technologies, and customer preferences are all in a constant and accelerating state of change. This fact requires that sales people are able and willing to rethink their sales approach frequently and receive regular skills and motivational coaching. Sales training generates goodwill and concrete skills that forge a path of excellence for your reps to follow.

Advance’s Sales Training Programs are designed to give the learner comprehensive sales training and will provide essential training for new or less experienced sales professionals as well as the ideal means to refresh and update the skills of experienced sales professionals.

Implement One-on-One Coaching in Sales by Advance

Advance’s Sales Workshop on Implement One-on-One Coaching in Sales

Sales coach Jeremy J. Ulmer, who lists among his credentials twice being ranked the No. 1 sales performer at two global Fortune 500 companies, says the first step to improving sales is talking directly to the team to find out what struggles they are facing. What makes their jobs difficult? What could they do better? What could they be provided with to do better?

"Sometimes they're very open and they tell you a lot of things," he says.

Other times you will have to pry a little by asking how they're managing time, what an average day looks like and to describe how they run sales call.

Then he picks one problem at a time to work on to get better results. That sometimes means removing technological distractions and giving additional management support.

Several experts recommend pairing low-performing sales representatives with successful ones. Ulmer says that strategy was a better learning experience at his first sales job with Xerox than the company's 10 weeks of official training.

Sometimes Ulmer will put a sales team on a strict schedule so they are making sales calls during dedicated blocks during the day, instead of sporadically throughout all work hours.

Limiting the coaching to specific groups of employees is often more effective than spreading it around the company as a whole, says Matt Dixon, managing director of the Corporate Executive Board.

"Coaching is not meant to be democratic," he says.

Too many managers fall back on what he calls "spreadsheet coaching," where the focus is on whether the sales staffs are hitting their numbers. Instead, you should be working closely with the individual sales representatives to understand the context of the problems.

"When it comes to coaching, they're so focused on that number and hitting that quota, they lose sight," he says. "The way that you do that is not focus on those outcomes but focus on behaviors."

Dermot Bradley who is the founder of Advance Selling Skills Academy (UK), creates what he calls a Performance Improvement Plan for each ailing salesperson he meets. It's essentially a battle plan to help the employee assault obstacles to productivity. Often times, the problem is a lack of follow through, which leads to fizzling sales momentum. Having an action plan helps keep track of things like that that might otherwise be overlooked, he says.

"That's why I try to document," he says. "I can show the sales person or manager that there's some growth or some success."

Advance’s sales workshop is a must attend for all sales professionals to get a proper road map of Sales Success.

Contact Details:
Advance Selling Skills Academy Limited
Web: http://www.as-sa.co.uk/
Email: customerservices@advancetm.com
Telephone: 0845 125 9098 (UK)

The Next Generation of Sales Training by Advance

We've come to acknowledge that different types of salespeople have different types of roles. For example, some salespeople manage a handful of major accounts, while others oversee vast territories with hundreds of customers and prospects. Typically these different types of sellers would be armed with different types of skills and tools.

What we haven't yet come to appreciate is that there also are different types of sales managers. Depending on the type of salespeople they manage, their required skill set also will differ. For instance, the manager of the major account rep will need to have strategic discussions with that seller about strategic alignment with his customer. Account management also has a heavy project management component, so the manager will need to be able to help the rep develop and execute a long-term plan.

However, the manager of the territory rep might need a completely different set of skills. For example, if a sales manager is managing a sales representative with 200 accounts in a fairly large geographic area, prioritization of sales effort is critical to sales success. That territory rep would need help segmenting the customer base, determining appropriate call cycles, and then mapping out a plan to cover the territory. Even though many organizations have segmentation strategies, we often see a lack of follow-up between sales managers and sales reps to determine if the sellers executed according to plan. In short, if the management tasks differ from sales manager to sales manager, so should their training.

In our research, we uncovered four salesperson activities that must be managed differently: account management, territory management, opportunity management, and call management (see table).

Account management is applicable when a seller has a few large accounts. Large accounts typically represent multiple opportunities for a seller and are worthy of a greater amount of planning. If an account manager has only three or four accounts, it is not necessary to segment them or develop differential call cycles. It is important, however, to strategically align the seller's solutions with the account's strategic objectives. It also is necessary to have a broad base of contacts in different business units within the same account. Account management training typically involves in-depth planning to include

• Different business units
• Strategic initiatives by business unit
• Key players and their political ties
• Action plans to navigate each business unit to generate new opportunities.

Territory management is applicable when the number of assigned accounts in a territory is too large for the seller to treat all accounts in the same manner. Segmentation and prioritization methods are critical elements of any training on territory management. Territory management training typically involves

• Prioritizing accounts
• Designing call patterns
• Executing calls according to the desired patterns.

Opportunity management is applicable when sellers are pursuing deals that require multiple interactions over time to close a sale. If a seller is involved in a transactional sale that is typically closed in one interaction, opportunity management is not relevant. Opportunity management involves educating sellers and sales managers on the process a buyer navigates when purchasing the seller's solution.

If it is effective, it also will compare and contrast the specific company sales process with the buying process. To effectively navigate an opportunity, the seller must understand the milestones and activities at each stage of the sales process and possess the necessary skills to move the customer through the various stages to a close.

Call management is necessary when a seller is involved in sales in which each sales call is important to the outcome of the deal and each interaction is different enough to warrant planning. If all calls are roughly the same, then planning for each interaction is impractical and unhelpful.

Depending on which types of processes a sales manager supervises, she will need a different set of skills and tools to manage her team appropriately. One-size-fits-all training doesn't work for varied salespeople, nor will it work for varied sales managers.

Therefore, the first task in designing relevant, practical sales manager training is to understand the unique management tasks of the individuals. Then build sales training that has direct applicability to what he does from Monday to Friday, which is to manage his sellers.

It has been our experience that when managers are exposed to training that equips them to better execute their day-to-day activities, they are extremely willing participants. Many even thank us. Research and experience tells us that generic sales management training needs to be a thing of the past.

You must have rhythm

Sales managers exist in a chaotic world, primarily because they serve two demanding groups—the salespeople below and the executives above. Consequently, they live reactive lives. They respond with haste to every fire their sellers encounter, and they feed constant information up the chain of command. Sales managers always tell us that no two days are ever the same—but perhaps they should be.

One of the key insights from our research and work with clients is that sales managers need more structure. It's difficult to coach a salesperson when the seller's hair is on fire. Unless some structure is given to a sales manager's week, ad hoc interactions will populate the day.

We have spent a significant amount of time observing manager-seller interactions, and we've found that little coaching takes place in ad-hoc discussions. Such discussions are hurried interruptions where the goal is to solve immediate problems, not to look farther down the road. Effective management and coaching is best done in a formal environment with an agenda and two parties who are prepared for the conversation.

Therefore, sales manager training needs to help them structure what they do during the course of a day, week, month, and year. They need a management process or rhythm to quell the chaos and let them interact with their sellers in an effective, value-added way.

Most managers we know need help thinking through the management rhythm that is right for their teams. How often do they need to meet? What is the purpose of each meeting? Are they best conducted one-on-one or in a group? What are the inputs and outputs of the interaction?

Sales managers need an operating manual that defines their specific jobs. They have been taught how to lead and coach; now they need to learn how to manage. An example of applicable structure and associated management rhythm for a sales manager managing a group of territory sales reps might include quarterly and monthly meetings.

Quarterly territory reviews with each sales rep. This quarterly meeting might be two hours in length; incorporate a segmented and prioritized list of accounts that the seller has prepared; and provide the venue for a facilitated discussion about the selected segmentation, top accounts in each segment, and then a desired call pattern over the course of the next three months.

Monthly one-on-one meetings with each sales rep. These monthly one-on-one discussions might be one hour in length, and include a discussion about overall pipeline health for the given seller, as well as a more extensive discussion about two or three early-stage opportunities. As appropriate, each of these opportunity coaching discussions may include a specific planning discussion for any upcoming sales call associated with this opportunity.

Clearly the comprehensive management rhythm would include additional interactions. However, what is critical is the inclusion of the most significant interactions—by sales role—needed to produce the desired results. We often find that sales managers are busy and are involved in many various types of activities with their sellers, but they are often not representative of the activities most likely to yield the best results.

Because the majority of manager-seller interactions are ad hoc, they are not conducive to the type of in-depth coaching that drives results and builds seller skill. The incorporation of intentional, planned manager-seller interactions also helps managers to focus their efforts on the most manageable aspects of their job—the activities being executed by their salespeople.

Focus on the manageable

The single greatest learning from our research was this: There are factors you can manage, and there are factors that you can't. While this might seem boringly obvious, it's not.

If you asked 10 sales managers to name their primary responsibility, more than half of them would respond with some form of the following: "To make sure my reps make their quota." And what do all 10 sales managers stare at each Friday afternoon? Reports of their salespeople's recent performance. Can a sales manager actually manage a quota? Of course not. Can sales managers manage historical performance? No, but they
sure do try.

In reality, the only factor managers can manage, and directly affect, are the activities of their sellers—which customers they call, what they say during those calls, which deals they pursue, and how they pursue them. In the end, all of these activities will determine whether they make their number and hit their revenue target, but the target itself can't be managed. You only can manage activities, not their outcomes.

Most managers we work with find this concept liberating. There's so much complexity and noise in a sales manager's world that she wants to simplify. Sales managers need to focus. Winnowing their attention to only what they can manage has two desirable effects. First, sales managers are more confident in the things they do because they know they will have an impact. Second, salespeople get better direction because the managers are focused on the tactics that will lead to the desired results—better sales management.

Training for sales managers needs to go beyond traditional leadership and coaching; it should emphasize the manageable. These manageable activities will look different for different management roles because, as we learned, one sales manager does not equal another sales manager. The activities will need to reside within a solid management rhythm to ensure consistency and impact. But the simplest concepts are often the most powerful. There are factors you can manage, and there are those you cannot.

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How to Generate Revenue through Up Selling and Cross Selling

Sales professionals need to use Up Selling and Cross Selling techniques according to needs of the customers to derive a win-win situation.

In many circumstances, it has been often found that the sales professionals get completely engrossed with a single product and totally ignore other possibilities to address the customers’ needs.

Cross-Selling

Cross-selling generally occurs when the sales representative has more than one type of product to offer consumers that might be beneficial to them. Some fields in which cross-selling is most evident include those of the banking and financial services industries. Banking customers may go into the bank and sign up for a checking account and later be sold various investment vehicles such as bonds or CDs as part of a retirement plan. Investment firms do much of the same, starting off clients within a specific investment product that they need and then later identifying additional needs that their company can meet on behalf of the client.

Up-Selling

Up-selling differs somewhat from cross-selling in that the salesperson is not so much concerned with selling an additional product to generate additional commissions, but rather with selling a higher-end version of the product the customer originally came to buy. The automobile salesman often engages in up-selling by showing the customer multiple versions of the same product. Each version may differ in quality, starting with a base model and progressing through more luxurious models with additional features.

One of the main differences between up-selling and cross-selling is in the approach that the salesperson takes when engaging in either method. When cross-selling, the salesperson identifies a definite need that the customer has and fulfils that need by recommending an additional product. Up-selling is somewhat less need-based in its orientation and typically involves the salesperson building value in the product being offered. In other words, a car customer may not need the top-of-the-line SUV with leather seating and a full entertainment centre, but the up-selling salesperson can help that customer see the value in having it by painting a picture of how much more comfortable the family vacation will be with these additional features.

In many ways, cross-selling and up-selling are similar in that they each offer customers additional value than what they would have otherwise received had they only bought what they were initially looking for. Some salespeople make the mistake of cataloging features of these additional products, rather than building value, or showing customers how they will benefit from these additional or higher-quality products. A successful cross-selling and up-selling salesperson will be able to paint a picture of the value that the customer will receive so that the customer will be able to visualize the benefits of making the purchase. Up-selling benefits the customer by providing higher quality, while cross-selling adds benefit by providing additional quality.

Every sales professional should be trained thoroughly about all supplementary and complementary products and their benefits and features. Advance’s Professional Selling Skills Program can be an ideal training course to be attended by sales professionals across all hierarchies.

To Read More Please Visit: http://www.as-sa.co.uk/programme/Professional+Selling+Skills+Programme_48

Quick Tips on How to Maximise Return from Sales Staffs

The Value of Field Selling

It can be argued that today brand, social media and marketing sell products and services. This can be the case, but only where the market is educated and prospects know how best to satisfy their needs..

Sales are the lifeblood of organisations. The route to market is either direct through employed sales people or via channels.

In either case, sales people are brand ambassadors who educate and build the need for products and services.

There are two fundamental types of need – recognised and unrecognised. Responding to recognised needs is relatively straightforward and driven by specified criteria such as performance and price. With unrecognised needs, you are dealing with an issue – problem or opportunity – and the selling skills required are very different. It is more of a consultative sale, still best handled face to face, either in the flesh, via one of the online conferencing services or a combination of both.

The Opportunity

There are over 750,000 people involved in sales in the UK alone. Worldwide, millions are being trained by thousands of sales trainers, consultants and sales methodology companies.

Professional and academic development is important to many sales people. This presents universities with a great opportunity.

The 70:20:10 Model

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