Having a high performance sales culture is not just about having great sales people, but about supporting them with a wider team that supports the sales effort. This means different things in different industries, but the fundamentals remain the same.
The demand on salespeople is high. To succeed, you not only need to understand your product, your market and your clients, you have to understand the challenges and limitations of everyone else in your company.
You must understand the limitations of your product, if you over promise technically, you cause problems for the delivery team and this will become apparent in the discovery stage.
You must be aware of stock & supply chain limitations. If your pipeline includes a sale for 100 widgets and you only ever carry 10 in stock then this had better be on your radar.
If Project Managers are involved in the delivery of your solution, you better have a grasp of your preferred project methodology and the implementation strategy your clients will be subject to.
You need to understand the financial terms of trade your company offers and if your client will have an issue. There is no point finding out about problems after the deal is signed.
As a professional sales person you need a holistic overview, not only of your own job, but the challenges of every department that will be involved in delivering what you sell. This level of organisational empathy is however, rarely reciprocated.
It is quite common for the people in charge of these functions (Technical Specialists, Operations Managers, Professional Services Teams, Finance Teams etc.) to operate with little or no appreciation of how the sales function works.
You are not a 'sales led' business just because your GM says you are...
Many businesses consider themselves to have a 'sales led' culture, but what does that really mean? It is not just about having a great sales team and high performance, it is about having every department in the business get on board with the sales effort,
As a business you need to communicate to your sales and delivery teams the vision and the kind of company you want to be. How do you differentiate? Do you sell a rigid set of products? or, do you have room for bespoke solutions around your product set?
Whether you are a price driven, commoditised pusher of product, or an innovative, solver of problems, your delivery team better understand what you expect of them. Just as the structure of your sales team is dictated by your market and the cost of sale, you need to build a delivery team that is fit for purpose and understands your approach to market.
Don't get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with a pragmatic delivery team to set expectations with the client, and 'reign in' sales exuberance. This should always come from the position of "how do we get this deal done" instead of, "You have sold this wrong".
I have had the personal experience of a technical expert on my team telling a client they had the wrong architecture and they should change it, instead of designing a solution that would see our application work in their environment. This is a classic mistake of a very clever person advising a client on something out of scope - that does not help the sale.
Your delivery team may be absolutely outstanding at what they do, but do they understand what your sales people are out there trying to achieve?
It is hard enough to find good technical people, the real gems are the ones that can operate in front of a customer and add value to your sales process. Hiring the wrong delivery team because 'good people are hard to find' will have far reaching impact on your success, far beyond the cost of a bad hire.
Businesses need to understand what their position to the market is. If you want to be thought leaders be out there winning business based on 'solving customers' problems', then you need to accept that some customers' solutions may require you to break new ground. You cannot go back to customers and tell them that they have the wrong problem.
The fact of the matter is, a "Yes we can" - Sales team and a "Maybe we shouldn't" - Delivery team will not make magic together. Sales is not a dirty word and if you want to gain market share and win new business, that is not just the Sales team's responsibility - it is everyone's.
So, does your delivery team actively work to remove barriers to sales, or do you have a 'Sales Prevention Department'?
Mark Maughan
Kings Recruitment