In parts 1 and 2 of this series, we discussed the importance of getting to know your client base from a variety of perspectives and using that knowledge to design a sales process that is aligned to their buying process.  In this part, we’ll discuss how to set-up your sales information system in a way that promotes forecast accuracy.

In part one of this series, we discussed the importance of getting to know your client base.  Factors such as the criticality of your product to their success, the buyer’s attitude toward sales and salespeople, the financial and personal risks they face both from buying and NOT buying your product and the way in which they want to buy all provide data points that should inform the sales process you deploy.   In this part, we’ll discuss how to avoid the pitfalls we see in many sales processes and help you design a sales process that appropriately leverages what you know about your client base.

As we enter the second quarter of 2019, many companies on calendar fiscal years are asking their sales departments for revenue forecasts that reach out to the end of the year. In this four-part series, we’ll provide suggestions on how to improve the accuracy of revenue forecasts and the issues that can influence it.

Hi Does Your Sales Leadership Team Provide consistent Coaching & Mentoring For Your Sales Team?

I have been truly humbled in my career, by working with and for amazing sales leaders. Even today in my sales consulting firm, Sales Result inc., I am constantly amazed at how these amazing individuals, men and women,  exhibit these behaviors and assets. I have not included in this blog assets like honesty, values, proven skills, trust, leadership and communication. I will leave these for another time. 

Building an all-start sales team starts with your judgment. Because you’re hiring for sales reps, it can be difficult to distinguish true talent from sales talk. Therefore, having a well-define profile that outlines key characteristics you’re looking for, and corresponding questions to test for those skills, will help avoid poor judgment calls. 

Can every member of your sales team deliver strong value propositions and elevator pitches that address a prospect’s needs while building credibility and peaking interest? Is your team consistent and effective in their approach strategies, both individually and collectively?

As we all know and probably experienced in our career, there is a lot of sales training programs out there in the market place. We typically sit in a room for hours or sometimes days listening to an instructor tell you how to close more deals or improve a certain skillset. . 

One of my early experiences was with a company called Lanier. At the time we were selling a new concept for the B2B marketplace. The training was rigorous, why. They demanded that each of us trainees, could do an effective cold call, effective 1st meeting, effective discovery meeting, demo, solution presentation and close. It was "intense" to say the least. But it worked and I was very successful because of that rigor of sales certification that I implemented into my daily work life. 

While you likely already follow a sales process, we highly recommend all our clients to regularly revisit their sales process to make sure it aligns with constantly changing buyer expectations and how your team functions. If your sales process is not already aligned to your prospects buyer’s journey we highly recommend holding a brainstorming session with your team using our free B2B buyer’s journey alignment template.