How to grow sales exponentially ? Can a company survive without a product Sale ? Can a company grow just by building an awesome product? How to make marketing & product strategies drive successful business outcome ? How to accelerate deal closure ? How to shorten the buying cycle ? All these are possible through NEXTGEN SALES STRATEGY COMPLEMENTING MARKETING STRATEGIES AT EVERY STEP.
Key Stats :Around9 B sales people around the globe, Over 1 Trillion dollars are spent annually on sales, 30 – 50% of sales goes to vendor that responds first, 80% of sales requires 5 follow up call after meeting & 44% of sales folks give up after 1 follow up call, 78% of sales people using social media outsell their peers, Only 13% of customers believe sales persons understand their needs. All these portrays the significance of successful sales strategy complementing marketing efforts in accomplishing company goal.
The successful SALES STRATEGY: involves genuine desire to help customers solve their problems through deep innovative research, vision, AI/ML prediction models leveraging unified platforms like CRM,EDW, Social, Search along with out-of-the-world X-team handshake between Marketing, Sales, Delivery & Customer Service to accomplish mutually beneficial business outcome during Pre-Sales, Customer Engagement or Post Sales calls
MOST SUCCESSFUL SALES PEOPLE MINDSET: 3S FRAMEWORK :
Servant Mindset ,
Share your Experience ,
Solve Customer’s Problem
This process of SERVING, SHARING & SOLVING Customer’s problem generates authentic TRUST AND leads the customer to a place where they genuinely want your help to solve their problems.
STAGES OF BUYING BRAIN:
Safety,
Connection,
Trust,
Understanding,
Opportunity,
Credibility
To positively impact customer, we must follow the path from connection to credibility
Following this sets up for Optimal success,Sales sky rocket and also job satisfaction of helping others
LINGERING FEAR MOST SALES PEOPLE WAKE UP WITH
Fear of Rejection
Fear of not hitting quote
Fear of failure
And THAT MINDSET CAUSES OF SENSE OF DISTRUST & DISCONNECT WITH OUR CUSTOMERS
No 1 Job Of any sales person is to solve customers problem
IDEAL CUSTOMER PERSONAS:
Ready,Willing,Able
Are they Ready :: Do they have a problem to solve?Do they know they have a problem ? Do they have a sense of urgency to solve ?
Are they Willing :: Are they willing to solve the problem today ?
Are they Able :: Do they have money/budget ? Do they have permission , approval , decision making power ?
The mantra is to start with smallest market possible, identify a focused group of potential customers, gain credibility faster & expand customer base.
Approach is to build targeted customer persona mimicking current best customers, getting information from product & marketing team, leveraging google, linkedIn, facebook to target ideal customers whom we can most likely help quickly & effectively solve their problem providing solutions using features of our products & services
UNDERSTANDING CUSTOMER ISSUES: 4-I FRAMEWORK
1st I – UNCOVER THE ISSUE - If more than 1 , then ask customer to prioritize so that u can address most urgent issues 1st
2nd I – IMPACT THE ISSUE IS HAVING ON CUSTOMER – This will help in quantifying the problem & thereby determining the product price for your solution
3rd I – INVASIVENESS – Subset of Impact but reaches across customer’s organization
4th – ICEBERG – Giant barrier that has prevented the customer from solving the problem. KNOWLEDGE, TIME, BUDGET, MONEY. This will help to understand what will stop them from moving forward with the solution
BUYING MOTIVATOR:
1st motivator : PRICE – How much something cost is a large motivator in a buyer’s decision ?
2nd motivator : VALUE – Weighing the benefit of product compared to the price. The higher the perceived value , the more willing the customer is.
3RD motivator : QUALITY – Goes hand in hand with value . Value is perception of benefit vs price. But quality is primarily the caliber of the product regardless of price
4th motivator: SELF-PRESERVATION – To secure a promotion or prevent demotion , protect my family or myself
5th motivator : SOCIAL PRESSURE – What cell phone u have ? What car u drive ? Which neighborhood u live in ?
Once they know they have a problem & have decided to solve it , one of the above motivator will help them pull the trigger
Our goal is to determine through research & conversation , which motivator is having the largest impact on their decision
BARRIERS TO CHANGE:
AWARENESS : that they need to change
MOTIVATION : to make the change with optimal solution reducing their current pain
ABILITY: to implement the change in a decent time frame
Change seldom occurs until the pain of staying the same exceeds the pain of change
Other factors:
ANXIETY
FEELING OF ISOLATION
FEELING OF POTENTIAL LOSS
ONLY TAKE SO MUCH CHANGE AT ONE TIME
IT’S our ability to NAVIGATE our customers through awareness plus motivation plus ability equation along with other subconscious potential barriers to change . Doing effectively we will ensure sale and create trust & loyalty in the process
People BUY SOLUTIONS not products and therefore we should always be SOLUTION FOCUSSED instead of product focused.
We should make a list of all solutions our product provides
Customer Pain à Solutions à Features à Products is the sales success mantra
SUCCESSFUL SOLUTION APPROACH:
1. List Top 5 problems customer has.
2. For each problem, List the solution that we provide
3. For each solution,List the features of the product it provides to customer that solves his problem
4. Share the advantages that our product features has wrt Competition that customer might be considering
The above will definitely ensure Sales success.
PROVIDING PROOF SOURCE THAT SOLUTION WORKS:
1. THE EXPERT – Experts are there in every field & endorsement by them is a big proof
2. CELEBRITY ENDORSEMENTS – Quite powerful specially in B2C space
3. USER TESTIMONIALS & REVIEWS – Credibility through the eyes of end user
4. WISDOM OF THE CROWD- Mass effect to influence
5. WISDOM OF THE PEERS – Referral proof source – When u provide a reference the customer knows personally – it increases the trust 10 fold
THREE KEY THINGS CUSTOMERS WORRY AFTER DECIDING TO BUY:
1. SOLUTION– Will deliver what was promised
2.IMPLEMENT– Effectively in agreed timeframe
3. CUSTOMER SERVICE – Throughout implementation & afterwards.
Cross train your sales team : on delivery & customer service
Cross train your delivery team: on sales & customer service
Cross train your customer service team: on sales & delivery
In B2B space, these cross team strategies, a single POC, exceptional CS are critical to seamless implementation and will set you up for future sales in the same ac and true customer loyalty for life
EFFECTIVE SALES PROCESS:
1. PRE-SALES ACTIVITY
PLANNING:
Prospect Identification, Industry Research, Product research, Competitive Research, Call Strategy
Know about your prospect in & out, Buying cycle, How do they engage with you,
Know about the solution & the way it solves the problem
Know about the competition &Make a list of contrasting solution with theirs. We should understand their products as well as your own
PREPARATION :
Written call plan with clear objectives,
Create the appropriate presentation material and/ tool,
Build the best stories,
Anticipate customer objection and plans to address those ,
Practice for the call
This stage is the weakest link in the sales process
2. CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT STAGE:
Create Connection
Identify & Prioritize the Issue
Create credibility
Solve the problem
Handling any objections
Gaining commitment
3. AFTER THE SALES CALL
Solution Implementation
Customer Service & Support
Gather customer feedback
Feedback from manager or coach on what went well & what can be done better
This stage is critical to long term customer loyalty , X-sell, Up-sell opportunities
Research shows that it’s infinitely easier to see a current happy customer than trying to bring a brand new one
KEY PLATFORMS:
CRM
MDM
CUSTOMER REFERENCE PLATFORMS
MARKETING AUTOMATION PLATFORMS
OUTBOUND CALLS PLATFORM
ML/AI PLATFORMS
BI/EDW/REPORTING PLATFORMS
CPQ PLATFORMS
UNIVERSALPROFILE/ CUSTOMER ENRICHMENT PLATFORMS
SOCIAL PLATFORMS
SEARCH PLATFORMS
CUSTOMERSUCCESSPLATFORMS
Unified & Integrated and Accessible to all Sales Team Users
KEY METRICS:
SalesGrowth
Sales Opportunities
Product Performance
Average Purchase Value
Sales By Contact Method ( Email, Self Service, Phone, In Person )
Sales Bookings
Quote to Close Ratio
Sales per Rep
Sales Team Response Time
Shorten Sales Cycle
Reduce Customer Acquisition Cost
Channel Effectiveness
Asset Effectiveness
Pipeline Growth & Acceleration
ProductGrowth
With Innovative Sales Strategies leveraging AI/ML prediction models to research, identify & solve customer problems & needs complementing Marketing activities during the Pre Sales , Customer Engagement or Post Sales Stages , companies can accomplish exponential growth & success .
More Details about some of key Sales KPIs & strategies at every stages of customer journey in the upcoming posts !!!
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