Keeping sales enablement simple
22nd May 2020 | Jim Preston
Breaking down complexity to boost sales performance.
There’s no denying it, the buying process is more complicated, longer and involves more stakeholders than ever before. But in contrast to this change, product life cycles are becoming much shorter and salespeople are feeling the pressure.
Getting to grips with increasingly complex products and solutions in a short time means salespeople not only have to work faster, but smarter too – and this is before they can even consider the evolving sales cycles, adapting to client needs or personalising their selling strategies. In this challenging new era, packed with potential obstacles and sales stallers, how can salespeople not only survive, but learn to thrive?
Reassess your real sales targets
With complex deals, there is often quite a lot happening behind the scenes, so it’s worth taking the time to understand the bigger picture. All too often, salespeople will only know their primary contact at the company and their contact’s boss. Today, that’s simply not enough. Expanding contact lists is becoming increasingly crucial to understanding and identifying who those key decision makers are in the buying process (Figure 1).
Not only are there usually at least five people directly involved in major purchases,1 each of those stakeholders will often have an entire team that influences their decisions. To stand out in today’s competitive climate, salespeople will need to understand not only the company, but its goals, its culture and the support their primary contact needs to get others on board. It’s likely that your primary contact will have to sell your product or solution internally as much as you do, if not more.
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