are you sales ready?
DESCRIPTION
Are You Sales Ready?. Robert Blair Solutions for Sales +447866 598859 [email protected]. What are we doing to our salespeople?. Account management not sales Sell solutions not products Ever-widening portfolio Ever-growing sales quotas - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
SfSFOR SA L E S
SOL UT IONS
Are You Sales Ready?
SOLUTIONS FOR SALES
What are we doing to our salespeople?
• Account management not sales
• Sell solutions not products
• Ever-widening portfolio
• Ever-growing sales quotas
“give them the brochures and let them work out how to sell it”– Not anymore
SOLUTIONS FOR SALES
What do Salespeople want to know?
• Why sell this solution• Who to sell to• Why buy it• Competitive standing• How to position to win• How to qualify• The sales process• Who can help
SOLUTIONS FOR SALES
Why they should sell this solution?
How would you describe a salesperson?
SOLUTIONS FOR SALES
Why they should sell this solution?
Prove to me
why I should
sell your solution
SOLUTIONS FOR SALES
Who they should sell it to?
Sales Out
Prospects
Suspects In “real and time wasters”
time
• Maximise the number of properly pre-qualified suspects entering the funnel
SOLUTIONS FOR SALES
Who they should sell it to?
• Market segmentation
• Target markets
• Target accounts
• Pre-qualification criteria
• Buying triggers
SOLUTIONS FOR SALES
Why they will buy it?
• Success is all important
• This means that:• low risk
• quick results
• measurable benefits
are always high on their priority list
• Notice price is not on that list
SOLUTIONS FOR SALES
Why they will buy it?
Vendor helps customer realise they have a problem
Vendor shows them that their problem has a solution
Vendor proves that the solution works
Vendor shows that they are the best source for solution
Vendor and customer work together on an action plan
to solve problem
Customer recognises they have a problem
Customer surveys market for solutions to problem
Customer launches formal procurement process
Customer selects supplier
Customer negotiates price and places contract
Procurement desires Vendor desires
Strong chance of a saleand a shorter sales cycle but:
Less understanding of the potential ROIMore competitive sale
Smaller budget
Longer sales cycle and more sales risk but:
Greater understanding of the ROIReduced competitive pressure
Bigger investment
How do I get the best of both worlds?
SOLUTIONS FOR SALES
Why they will buy it?
• You want to enable the salesforce • Find problems and opportunities
• You need to demonstrate how• Solve and exploit
• Product marketing needs to explain:• who to call on• the business issues/problems/pains/opportuntities to raise• how your solution addresses each issue• what results can be achieved
SOLUTIONS FOR SALES
Why they will buy it?
• A superior understanding of their needs:– Trust
– There is always a problem
– Future – nothing is short-term
SOLUTIONS FOR SALES
Competitive standing
• 2 types of competitive information
• Salespeople wants
• Its not just product performance
• Prove it
SOLUTIONS FOR SALES
Competitive standing
Who will win?
Scoring:
1 = Very poor
5 = Very good
You
Com
petitor
Price 1 4
Total cost of ownership 5 3
Features 3 3
Score 9 10
SOLUTIONS FOR SALES
Competitive standing
Now who will win?
Scoring:
1 = Very poor
5 = Very goodY
ou
Com
petitor
Weighting
Price 1 4 20%
Total cost of ownership 5 3 40%
Features 3 3 40%
Weighted Score 3.4 3.2
Which would you prefer your salesperson to spend their time changing – the price, or the customer’s weighting?
SOLUTIONS FOR SALES
Position to win
• “You ain’t bragging if you’ve done it”– (Mohamed Ali)
• Proof points
• Knock-out points
• Reference visits
SOLUTIONS FOR SALES
Qualification
Suspects In
Sales Out
Prospects
1
10
Qualification
Relative effort
SOLUTIONS FOR SALES
Qualification
• Don’t chase “no-hope” sales
• Converting a qualified prospect into a sale • 10x the effort of qualifying the prospect in the first place
• Better qualification means:• Less is more• Opportunity to close ratio goes up
• Qualified opportunities conversion ratio moves from 1:4 to 1:3 – Equivalent of 7 extra salespeople in a 100 hundred person salesforce
• 7 quotas at $2 million per annum = $14million in revenue• Loaded cost/ person $200,000 = $1.4 million in cost savings
Do your salespeople have a qualification check-list?Can you identify when they are wasting their time?
SOLUTIONS FOR SALES
The sales process
• No two sales are the same
• Maybe there is a process e.g defined “gates”
• Warn against common pitfalls, e.g.
• Behavioural factors• Late engagement
– Product Management
– Pro Svcs– Partners
Can you tell your salespeople how a typical sale runs?
SOLUTIONS FOR SALES
Who can help?
• Help people help themselves - save money - improve productivity
SOLUTIONS FOR SALES
Conclusions
• What do salespeople want?• “Gritty” information that they can use with customers• Facts, facts, facts
• What can we expect if we do Product Marketing better?
• Mindshare for your product• More sales• Fewer complaints from salespeople• More active engagement with salespeople and selling
SOLUTIONS FOR SALES
Customer samples
• Advantica • Amdocs • A No 1. Land
line carrier• Cramer • LogicaCMG • HP• Nortel Networks • Nuance• Openwave • A $billion Telco
S/W company• Thales
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