Entrepreneurship Blog
Sales Technology + Sales Methodology...Is This Really So Hard?
Denis Pombriant, one of the most influential executives in the CRM industry, makes the case for a combined SFA + SM implementation, which, despite that lack of brainpower that one needs to discern that these are inextricably connected functions that underlie an effective sales strategy, is not always the norm.
Sales methodologies and sales force automation (SFA) are a combination that should be a natural fit. In practice, however, method support is poor in most current forms of SFA. Sales managers want their representatives to follow the company's defined methodology, but often salespeople veer off course, wasting time and resources. Most importantly, when salespeople go off on a tangent, their data trails leave little hint of what they have accomplished, making it harder to coach them later.
In my experience, those companies who realize and capitalize on this link are far more successful in their sales technology and sales strategy execution than those that treat SFA as software, and hold someone like the 'training department' accountable for their version of sales methodology. Looking at companies like Siebel, who have baked the Targeted Account Selling (TAS) process into the workings of their SFA/CRM package, we can get a glimpse of the future 'best-practice' where all things technology and methodology are part and parcel of a comprehensive 'sales [sales management] operating system.'
For a bit more of a 'jumpstart' on the need to embrace both technology and process, have a gander at Tom Peters'
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Finding the Right Person to Sell To
One of the problems often cited by salesmen in the technology industry is how to find the right person to sell to. Do you sell at the CIO level or does it make more sense to sell at a more functional level?
There is no "one size fits all" solution for finding the right level to sell at - though if you do not have visibility at the "C-level", it can make it more difficult to sell a technology solution.
One organization I have worked with encourages salespeople to sell at the functional level and be introduced up through the chain versus coming in from the top down. The organizational culture is one which values the technical knowledge on the line and detest sales organizations which try to force themselves in from the top down. At a lunch a few weeks ago, a Systems Engineer described it like this, "we can't stand XYZ corporation. Their sales guy is always kissing up to our CTO but doesn't ever spend any time proving his products to us. We're the ones that have to live with the software day in and day out. Since he won't spend time with us, his products never make it through technical review."
This corporation always required technical buy-in from their System Engineering staff and this sales guy didn't sell at the right level.
The key to figuring where to sell is to figure out the culture at the company. It doesn't hurt to start at a C-Level person in the organization, but you should always use this as an introduction to the middle management staff and become familiar with the technical staff.
Having technical staff know and trust you can help significantly down the road as you develop sales opportunities.
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Rate Increases
Don't forget to plan out your rate increases for your consultants who are coming up on their annual renewals. Most budgets start over in January and the IT managers need to know what to ask for in their 2007 plans. Read More >>
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Why Administrative Assistants Should Be Your Best Friends
Salespeople who choose to ignore or downplay the role of an administrative assistant in their selling success are missing a huge opportunity. Let's face it, the higher up the corporate ladder you call the more likely the administrative assistant is controlling and booking meetings on their bosses' calendars.
I have honestly set up several meetings with Directors and VP's of IT who I never have spoken to or met with before by talking to their administrative assistants. I will say these were at large Fortune 500 companies where we had a contract and overall relationship with, but I still secured the meeting by working with the administrative assistant only.
My approach is to demonstrate an understanding of the prospects responsibilities and their group and clearly articulate my objectives for the meeting. I will usually ask for a 45 minute meeting as well so I am not trying to monopolize their calendar (even though they will most likely book you for an hour). It is not the only approach, but one worth trying if you are not able to reach the prospect directly by a phone call or email.
Give it a try and let me know how you did!
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Planning for 2007
If you are going to be in the office the week between Christmas and New Years, make sure you use your time wisely to do your call planning for 2007 and take care of any housekeeping items.
Call Planning can involve assessing your current client base and how you want to divide your time. This can be a certain number of days per week or month spent on each client, or a certain number of hours each day spent on a certain activity.
Housekeeping should include cleaning up your email inbox, voicemail, and of course doing a purge of all those documents you thought were critical to keep but now just need to be recycled.
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