I was interested recently to read this post by Matt Green on LinkedIn. In it, he points out that when organizations hand down large growth targets like, say, 20%, the tendency is for sales teams to panic. And then to invest in one big change, like hiring a lot of SDRs to bring in a lot more leads or investing in a big new technology platform or sending out massive automated email campaigns. This almost always backfires.
I’ve been doing some work with a brilliant CRO. We’ve been reworking and implementing a revised selling/buying process. Their previous process was poorly defined, outdated, and people weren’t using it.
Traditional wisdom suggests that following a well-defined sales process can significantly improve both individual and organisational sales performance. The evidence certainly suggests that this approach can be effective in relatively simple, high-volume, predictable and repeatable sales environments.
One of the challenges sales leaders face when trying to help a team improve their sales performance, is resistance to the phrase “sales process.” In fact, sometimes when you wave the words “sales process” in front of a sales professional, they become like a bull with a red cape waved in front of its face.
Among manufacturers, the concept of Lean is well established and practically universal in its application. Along with Six Sigma and Just In Time (JIT), these approaches have transformed the manufacturing world so profoundly that it’s no longer possible to compete in manufacturing without some version of these practices in place.
I often talk about the importance of developing a sales system that is consistent, scalable, and continually improved.
But I haven’t really addressed the question of what happens when it’s NOT sustainable. The cost of not being sustainable is high, and, unfortunately, the vast majority of sales systems are not.
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