What It Takes to Win

Mid way through a 3 day sales performance workshop I facilitated in Kigali, Rwanda recently, a participant asked if ‘going door to door’ for the business to business sales team was a viable practice. Not really, was the immediate response, we can go door to door to sell sim cards and airtime but not so for clients who are trying to improve productivity and generate great return on their technology infrastructure. You don’t need a relationship with a customer to buy airtime on the street but you need one to deliver business solutions on a consistent basis. One is an event and the other is a relationship, especially when done well.

And that is what we learn from the yearly Sales Best Practices Survey conducted by Miller Heiman International – now MHI Global. In the introduction to the results from the 2014 survey, we are reminded that like any sport, sales has rules. Rules for the sales leader are the expense plan; headcount. Rules for the salesperson are their comp plan. It spells out the rules for how they win. Sales has a playing field—an account, an opportunity, a territory. For the business, it’s a market. Sales have opponents. What makes sales different from every other function in the enterprise, is, ‘we have someone working just as hard, just as focused, just as dedicated as we are, to win what we want to win.

According to the survey, there are 3 behaviors of world class sales performance, 6 elements of the sales system and 12 behaviors that impact performance. The 3 behaviors (and we will elaborate each one later) identified in the study which had over 26,000 respondents, are (1) Customer core (sales people need to provide perspective to the customer (2) great sales organizations must have a collaborative culture (at the individual sales person level, there is need for conscious collaboration and (3) Sales teams must be calibrated for success (need to hold sales people accountable for performance).

And in selling to key buying influences in businesses, these behaviors prove to be the differentiators. First Customer core – here the sales person is concerned with what the individual buying influence is trying to fix, avoid or accomplish. Not what products do we have or how many doors or phone calls I make today. While there is a place for some of these practices, especially in lead generation, the effective principle is based on what is the buying influence trying to get done. The cultural component of this principle is How do we connect and engage with our customers? While the individual sales person behavior is to provide perspective to the customer.

The related question from the study is: “We clearly understand our customer’s issues before we propose a solution.” And 92% of world-class sales organizations agreed with this assertion. Note that the 92% is of the small (6%) of the overall respondents who qualify as world class. A major 48% of all respondents agreed with this statement.

Most sales people make an honest effort to understand customers’ issues, but organizations will usually give their people a pitch – so called key selling points for each product and send them on their way. A more sophisticated method is to give them a presentation: train the reps and teach them enough to deliver a market presentation.

But the most effective approach is to coach sales professionals on customer management strategies to provide a customer perspective. What we want to be able to do is truly connect to the customer and the customer’s core.

And this is where we talk about the expertise of the sales professional. It builds on their experience, knowledge and fluency in customer management strategies, and their experience in having dealt with multiple people going through that same decision process. This is what the true sales professional brings.

Second Collaborative culture – here the sales person and team is concerned with a developing a win-win relationship with client. The intention is to consciously seek out the opportunity for both seller and buyer to see the interaction as mutually beneficial. The cultural component is How do we work together to achieve better results in a shorter amount of time. Not sign the order or contract.

Even the most individual of sports requires collaboration and teamwork to achieve world-class results. Coaches, practice partners and trainers all work closely together, combining their expertise to improve the performance of the athlete.

Collaborative sales teams use a common framework, language and terminology when they discuss how to connect to the customer and their issues. Conscious Collaboration begins with the customer. World-Class Sales Performance is the result of working closely with customers, understanding their context and concept to craft a solution.

Conscious Collaboration at the organizational level is evolving beyond the internal, personal knowledge networks every salesperson uses to access information, intelligence and resources. The salesperson works as the subject expertise and account specialist to develop the strategy (Account plan, opportunity plan, and sales call objective). Additionally, the salesperson is clear on customer communications and knowledge necessary to engage and close the sale.

The key question around this behavior is, “Our organization collaborates across all departments to pursue large deals.” Here we find a significant difference between World-Class and All Respondents—93% to 46% and this has been a consistent average over the past four years.

And thirdly, looking at calibrated success and performance accountability, the cultural component is “what do we measure, recognize and reward?” World-Class Sales Performers are first and foremost accountable to their customer.

The key question connected to this behavior is, “Our sales performance metrics are aligned with our business objectives.” And here we see a considerable difference between World-Cass—92%, and the All Respondents category at 43%. And also there is a consistent difference over the last four years.

World-Class Sales Performers also hold themselves accountable to the standards and expectations set by their frontline sales manager, who in turn must be accountable for the performance of their team and their contribution to the sales organization.

It is accountability that differentiates the sales professional from the sales rep. Sales professionals seek to develop and advance their skills. World-Class professionals predicate their success on their customer’s success. They know that their long term, sustained success is tied to the success of their customers.

So what it takes to win is far from a ‘door to door’ random exercise. It takes the discipline to understand the customers concept, context and returns – what is the customer trying to fix, avoid or accomplish. It takes the ability to collaborate across account strategy, key messages and superior knowledge to engage and close the sale. What it takes to win is what we offer through our sales performance practice that is focused on the customer in a sales system that is positioned to help customers create opportunities, manage those opportunities and translate those opportunities into long term profitable relationships.