Monday 19 September 2016

Who's Priorities Are You Working Towards?


If you are a sales leader, do you drive your sales people to solve your organisation's customers' problems, or do you drive them to solve your own problems or revenue or margin?

Many sales leaders I have worked for have been driven by spreadsheets.  Some have been deeply insecure, and craved recognition from their leaders.  This internal focus on their own needs has caused them to hit ceilings in their own performance, and in the performance of their teams.

I have contended for years that sales achievement (in terms of revenue or margin depending on your measurement criteria) are not a measure of success.  Rather they are a product of success.  Not all revenue is good revenue, and the cost of the business may outweigh the benefits.

What if you are in a business where the top line is great.  Customers buy your offering and are pleased with it, but you are not making enough money to pay the bills?  What if you get orders, but no loyalty and as a consequence you begin to lose business as word of mouth travels and it spreads that you talk a good game, but that's about it?

Or, what if you get your sales people to 'perform' and deliver their number but the despise you and can't wait for a better offer?  With a competitor.  Where they can hurt your revenue.

Getting the numbers in the door will happen if you focus on your customers.  I believe you need to establish 3 things to keep you focused on what's important to the person who ultimately pays you, your clients.  Is what you are offering going to help them with:
  1. Their organisation's priorities?
  2. Their manager's priorities?
  3. Their own professional priorities?
If you can't draw a direct line from what you are offering to these 3 things, you could be at risk of coming across as a peddler of snake oil, focused only on what you need from the deal.

Develop customer centricity and you will be better at qualifying, proposing and closing.

And you will more often than not exceed your sales targets.

Cheers!