Part 2: How relevant is your current sales strategy?
In the latest article, the first in this series, we discussed the importance of having the “right people on the bus.” I also mentioned the exciting opportunity in front of you right now, without having to rush and hire experienced rainmakers and salespeople; Because with the right tools and strategies, you can build your own team of highly motivated, process-driven salespeople yourself.
As a sales leader, it is within your own locus of control to build a consistent, repeatable, and predictable sales process, as well as train and develop a motivated, process-driven sales team. Imagine a team made up of highly trained, motivated, and process-driven salespeople? Well, the good news is that you can start this practice right away!
Key Code 1- Sales Strategy
The first element that will have an impact on the results you achieve is the “Sales Strategy”. Before you even consider any of the other 3 codes, you need to be sure that as Stephen Covey says “Your ladder is leaning against the right wall” Here’s the thing…whether you have a team of champions or not, if your sales strategy is wrong, in other words “if you’re selling analog systems and your market has moved digital” then your ladder is leaning against the wrong wall.
In this case, no matter who you have on the team, your sales efforts will fail. You are going in the wrong direction!
If I were sitting across from you at a table and sharing your concerns about your efforts to increase sales revenue, the first questions you would ask would be:
- Is your current customer acquisition (new business) and retention (growth of existing customers) strategy relevant and effective in today’s market? In other words, is your current sales strategy working, yes or no? How do you know?
- Is your current market shrinking or growing or has it just stagnated? How do you know?
Has your “cheese” moved?
In her landmark book, “Who Moved My Cheese?” author Spencer Johnson tells a simple parable that reveals profound truths about change. “Who moved my cheese?” is the story of four characters living in a “labyrinth” who are faced with an unexpected change when they discover that their “cheese” has disappeared. Let’s be honest; It’s no secret that over the past year for many of us in the business, our cheese has moved on as well. Many markets have changed and some have even disappeared entirely. So spending more sales activity or spending money on more sales training or sales process improvement just means your team won’t get anywhere faster.
If this is the case for you, then it is imperative that you look to implement a new customer acquisition and retention strategy as soon as possible. The sooner you recognize that your cheese may have moved and exists with crumbs or, in some cases, just a puff of what was once an entire warehouse of cheese, the sooner you can re-channel the energies of your production team. sales to new markets in search of new opportunities.
This means reassessing the value of your core capabilities*. It means clearly and objectively understanding what you are good at and what problems you solve and are your solutions still relevant? Then, if you suspect that your cheese has moved, you’ll need to find out who else is having such problems. Once you have determined “who else”, you will now need to assess what modifications you may be required to make at both the product and marketing assurance level to reflect your solution in the marketplace.
On the other hand, if there is still strong evidence of an abundance of “cheese” in your current market, then you have to ask yourself:
- How confident are we that our strategy to attract new customers and grow existing ones is still appropriate? As we know?
- If customer buying patterns have slowed or plateaued, how can you help your customer help your customers buy more?
- Does your marketing material accurately explain how you solve your customers’ current problems or help them achieve their current goals? How do you know? When was the last time you checked your sales messages? What exactly are your sellers saying? Are your sales messages compelling enough?
A year ago, most companies were interested in how you could help them grow. Today’s markets are focused on saving money, reducing costs and reducing risk. Do your sales messages reflect this massive shift in perception? Has your marketing collateral changed with the changing needs of your market?
An example of changing market strategy
I have been working with a risk management organization that specifically caters to the freight industry. They established profitable in-house insurance funds, allowing the shipping company to self-finance an insurance program for its customers’ goods and packages. Well, talk about a “cheese move”! As the economy swung south, his prospects nearly closed shop (in fact, many did), and going into full survival mode, most became completely insular, refusing to even take my client’s calls. .
Our challenge was to change strategy and go in search of a new market. By reviewing and answering some of the questions listed below, we came up with some new target markets. Some new market suggestions were a bit too right of center and would have required a lot of product development to ensure a good fit, but one market in particular, just a 5% shift to the left of their current existing market seemed potentially very lucrative . Web-based online merchants that ship products across the country seemed like a reasonable bet, without having to redesign the product too much. After doing some research and within a few weeks, my client had a number of great opportunities coming his way.
In the next article I will break down the details of the sales strategy.
* Core Capabilities: Alternative term for core competencies. Set of extraordinary skills or related “excellencies” that a company acquires from its founders, after constant effort over the years, and that cannot be easily imitated. Core competencies are those that give a business/organization one or more competitive advantages by creating and delivering value to their customers in their chosen field. (BusinessDictionary.com)
