SALES ENGAGEMENT ‘‘
I meditate. I breathe out what I can’t control and focus on the positives. – DEEPIKA PADUKONE
help address the why. Even prod- ucts as prosaic as ball bearings or pipe fittings take on an entirely new dimension when people understand first-hand how critical these products are to equipment and infrastructure. Where would the world be without ball bearings and pipe fittings? Your com- munications platform will help address the why if it includes “stories” about how your products change lives. The goal is to ensure that salespeo- ple know more than their customers about the field – and that they have a passion for what they sell – so they can be viewed as useful resources who be- lieve in their product and are not just trying to make a sale to hit a quota.
LEARNING
When used strategically and proactive- ly, rather than ad hoc and reactively, learning strategies get baked into the sales organization in a way that specifi- cally aligns learning with the brand promises and the skills and knowledge that can help the sales team become trusted advisors rather than “dialers for dollars.” The best learning strategies are part of an overall system that aligns training with the brand, its promises, and the information salespeople need to feel confident about asking open- ended questions to customers without fear of looking like an idiot if they have nothing to say after the client or pros- pect bares their soul.
INNOVATION
Using innovation strategies (i.e., encouraging salespeople to speak up with new ideas or suggestions) is a simple and enduring way to fos- ter task value. That means creating a simple and authentic method for salespeople – and all employees, for that matter – to make suggestions
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about how to improve the operation, processes, products, or services, and to be acknowledged for that effort and meaningfully rewarded if their ideas are accepted. One of the most common frustrations of salespeople is the feeling that no one cares about their ideas.
COMMUNITY Create a specific plan to foster com- munity in the sales team so the most successful team members’ wisdom and emotional strength are shared with everyone else and so all team members know they have the support of their colleagues.
Connect the sales team to other people throughout the organization so salespeople understand the issues facing the internal organization in meeting their needs, and so the rest of the organization understands what salespeople face in the marketplace. One of the most common complaints in sales is the lack of understanding of their needs from the marketing and other departments that support them – and one of the most frequent com- plaints about the sales department from marketing and other depart- ments is that they aren’t following up on leads or are making promises the organization can’t keep. Having a strategic community- building process isn’t just good for morale; it’s essential to breaking down the silos that often result in poor lead follow-up or failure to close a sale or retain a customer.
REWARDS AND RECOGNITION Focusing people on achieving goals for the purposes of winning awards or recognition often leads to counter- productive behaviors such as “sand- bagging” – encouraging clients to
buy during the sales campaign period – or, worse yet, selling products or services clients don’t need. A properly designed program aligns with and supports the overall Enterprise Sales Engagement strate- gies and usually includes not only a results measure – an award for accom- plishment of the goals – but also ac- tion measures (i.e., the behaviors that, if done more often, have a higher likelihood of achieving results). No one should be encouraged to achieve a goal for the reward alone. The best results from incentive,
reward, and recognition programs occur when they are designed to pro- mote healthy and productive actions and skills development and to help communicate to the entire organiza- tion that management is committed to promoting those skills and actions. The worst results occur when sales managers desperate to hit a goal dangle ad hoc carrots that reward results with no focus on the underly- ing actions, behaviors, and values the organization seeks to encourage.
ANALYTICS
The best analyses specifically iden- tify the types of actions, information, lead sources, etc., that foster the best results, so both the marketing and sales teams are guided by actual data about which actions lead to better outcomes. Data achieves far greater value to the organization when it is used to provide guidance – not only to the marketing team as to which lead generation and sales tools pro- vide the best results, but what sales- people can do to improve their own results in terms of skills and actions. Organizations will achieve the best
results from sales management if they employ a strategic, CEO-led effort that connects the brand and its prom- ises to everyone in the organization – and when the sales team feels part of a strategic and systematic process that regularly incorporates market as well as their feedback to ensure the process dynamically adapts to chang- ing market conditions.
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