By John Holland, Chief Content Officer, CustomerCentric Selling®
Having watched this year’s Super Bowl, it was an amazing comeback driven by a coach who is being acknowledged as being the GOAT (greatest of all time). The Patriots don’t typically spend big money for “A Player” free agents. Bill Belichick has a way of breaking down the role of each position into teachable components. If and when injuries arise (or free agent defections occur) there’s no panic. The next man up usually fills in admirably.
The lifeblood of organizations is top-line revenue. It isn’t and shouldn’t just be up to the Sales organization.
Product Development, Product Marketing, Marketing and Sales all play a role in the overall result. The closer Product Development can be to having offerings that address buyer and market needs, the easier it is for top-line revenue objectives to be achieved. I suppose it is the equivalent of the Patriots’ General Manager providing Belichick the talent pool needed to be competitive.
Of the four organizations I mentioned, the largest headcount is often the Sales staff. A survey by Sales Benchmark Index found that having a sales process can allow organizations to:
Increase win rates from 19% to 33%- Increase average selling price by 10%
- Shorten sale cycles
The four (4) prerequisites to having a sales process to allow B/C Players to emulate A Players are:
- Standard milestones for the various types of transactions sellers must achieve
- A standard skill set for salespeople
- Sales ready messaging® to position offerings specific to titles and desired business outcomes
- Defined buyer actions so that sales managers can grade opportunities without solely having to rely upon seller opinions
In the same way Bill Belichick gets more out of his players by having them execute plays using a standard approach, so it is sales process can allow organizations to have A, B and C Players perform at higher levels. In the process they can make a superior buying experience a differentiator.