Recently a CEO complained about a lack of closed deals. He opens the mail everyday to look for checks and found too few. So what was wrong?
Was it weak salespeople? Ironically, this firm had strong leadership. But that was all it had.
The marketing budget was zero. The website was particularly product/company centric. The lead generation approach was “dial for dollars.” The compensation plans were non-existent. (“Once they prove they can sell, then I’ll pay them.”) But what was the crux of the problem?
In my mind, sales is a manufacturing process. Put in good inputs, such as lead nurturing and scoring. webinars, white papers, etc. Work only on sales-ready leads. Use a customer centric, value-based selling process and your sales will click. But to complain about outputs only is like complaining about the weather — it may make one feel better, but it accomplishes nothing.
So what is a CEO to do? Map the sales process from the start to finish — just like a manufacturing process.
- What are we doing to get prospective customers interested in our products or services?
- When they are interested, what will be their next step? For instance, if they go to our website, will what they find move them further in their buying process?
- How will our salespeople be alerted to true sales-ready opportunities?
- What is the buying process our clients use and how to we match our selling process?
Good selling and good luck.
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Jeff Ogden