Categories: Front-line Managers | Sales Leadership | Sales Process
The team at Force Management loves sales. We love salespeople. We know elite sellers when we see them, and we're thankful for the ones who get it. In the spirit of Thanksgiving, we're sharing a little gratitude with five things we are thankful for in any sales organization:
1. Leaders who lead from the front
For every sales initiative that positively transforms a company, there are countless others that fall flat with time, money and resources wasted. Every sales leader facing up to a new change initiative has this thought stuck in the back of their mind. Fortunately, as a sales leader you have the power to commit to making your proposed transformation a reality.
We’re thankful for the sales leaders who own the leadership of their strategic sales initiatives. We call this type of leadership, “Leading from the Front”.
Anyone who’s been involved in a sales transformation knows that going from point A to point B, the desired future state, is no simple feat. The key to ensuring your change initiative’s success is to:
- Understand what it takes from the sales reps, managers and yourself as the leader to drive lasting outcomes.
- Stay involved and committed to making it happen.
Sales leaders who lead from the front are better equipped to drive lasting outcomes from their strategic initiatives. Ensure you’re equipped to successfully lead from the front and launch a results-driven initiative. Here are a few key strategies on leading from the front that you can use to avoid any common mistakes or setbacks.
2. Managers that provide the how
If you’ve spent any time as a sales rep, ask yourself, “Were you able to make a bigger impact in your deals when your managers gave you a to-do list, or when your managers worked with you to help you understand how to execute the most critical activities on your to-do list?”
During regular opportunity reviews or coaching sessions, it's not enough for managers to just tell their sales teams what to do to execute in their opportunities. Most of your sellers could likely list out a to-do list of high-value sales activities on their own, or gaps in their MEDDICC qualification, etc. It’s critical that your managers spend this time coaching reps on how to execute and building skills that reps can repeat in future opportunities.
The more managers can help reps map out their deals and provide the how — the more your reps will be able to build effective strategies on their own and achieve repeatable high-value outcomes. Providing the how is easier said than done, which is why we are thankful for managers who can provide the how and sales leaders who support their managers in building this skillset.
Help your managers develop the coaching skillset that drives impact with this Resource Library for Front-Line Managers. Use the ebooks, podcasts and infographics from this collection to help managers enact coaching strategies that define the how and drive consistent execution.
3. Sellers who know how to execute great discovery
Within any sales conversation, and especially in a noisy sales environment, it can be easy for salespeople to fall victim to the Seller Deficit Disorder. When we refer to this disorder, we’re referring to the assumed biases almost every buyer has about a salesperson, which are (1) you don’t understand my problems and (2) you don’t listen. Think of it this way, if you’ve ever been on the other end of a sales call and feel like the seller is just running through a script with you — then you’ve likely made similar assumptions.
We’re thankful for the sellers who leverage their frameworks in a way that enables them to overcome the seller deficit disorder, rather than run through a basic Q&A with their prospects.
Salespeople who are equipped with a buyer-focused framework and prepared to ask great discovery questions are able to overcome this disorder and make their prospects feel heard. The ability to execute a great discovery enables salespeople to dig deeper and get to the biggest business issues their prospects are facing. This skill set comes from great pre-call planning and the resources at your salespeople’s disposal that enable them to carry value-driven conversations.
In our Command of the Message® engagements with customers, we help sales leaders build a custom value-messaging framework and mantra that enables their sellers to dig deep in their discovery conversations. As your salespeople continue to face new challenges next year, you can support their success by equipping them with a similar, custom framework. Consider how you may be able to provide a repeatable mechanism that your reps can use to ask great discovery questions and articulate what they’re hearing in a way that’s meaningful to each of their individual buyers.
4. Sellers who take their time and don't move a deal forward until it's baked
With an unclear sales process and a heightened focus on hitting their number, it can be easy for even veteran sellers to skip over key steps in their sales conversations. Inaccurate forecasts are a clear red flag that one or both of these scenarios are at play.
We’re thankful for salespeople who aptly prepare for their sales conversations and voraciously qualify because of it. These sellers are likely your top sellers, and it’s because they understand the benefit of taking their time on the front-end of their deals to discover, qualify and capture all of the necessary information they need before they move on. We’re thankful for these sellers because they understand the benefit of taking more time early on in their sales process, so in the later stages of their deals, they’re not running into challenges that could hurt their predicted number. These skills become even more relevant when challenging markets lead to drawn-out deals and more rigorous buying processes.
In this podcast, John Kaplan perfectly analogizes the importance of not moving your deal forward unless you’ve solidified a champion. It’s a great listen for sales leaders, managers and reps who are looking to improve forecast accuracy and results.
5. Sellers who know how to walk away
When sales teams are up against difficult benchmarks and selling in a challenging environment, walking away from any deal is an afterthought. Every sales organization is facing different challenges, but one thing is certain — your sellers' time is valuable.
This is why we’re thankful for the salespeople who know what deals they don’t belong in. Salespeople who are equipped with a voracious qualification methodology and process will be able to ensure they’re spending their time effectively and qualifying out deals that they don’t belong in and/or aren’t going to happen.
Empower your sellers by implementing a consistent approach to qualification that answers the question, "Do we belong in this deal?" For B2B SaaS organizations, the time-tested industry standard for qualifying deals in and out is MEDDICC (or MEDDPICC). We developed the MEDDICC Maturity Model to help revenue teams adopt the method at the level best suited for their current size and growth stage. See the model and watch the video here.
Enable Your Team to Consistently Execute at an Elite Level
As a sales leader, you have the ability to support your team with mastering these skills and concepts. Manager coaching, robust qualification and deep discovery all rely on a powerful messaging framework for articulating value and differentiation. When revenue teams align on the key components of the sales conversation, organizations benefit by building processes around the cornerstone of elite messaging. Dig into this eBook for strategies and action items leaders can use to leverage a messaging framework for a competitive edge and revenue growth.
