Deciding Your Sales Approach

Companies and therefore sales managers are continually challenged with driving exceptional results at the same time they lead, manage, train, review, and motivate their people – the company’s biggest investment.

To stay ahead most sales managers are interested in keeping up to date on the latest trends, advice from sales guru’s, and considering different approaches to the business.

In LinkedIn there are over 19,000 sales groups offering advice, generating articles, blog material and comments.

Two recent articles made some very interesting and provocative points:

• The best and latest version of top notch sales people ‘disrupt’ their customers in a positive way.  They encourage customers to recognize emerging trends and demands by their provocative insights and coaching.  They penetrate their customer’s organizations through ‘out of the box’ means and with different approaches. They become trusted advisors not just company representatives.  B2B sales has been worked so hard that companies ‘value’ the sales people who sell new emerging ideas to them more than sellers who concentrate on only the basics. *
• Understanding the dynamics of personality, self perception, and role of your sales people leads to setting the individual up for predictable success. Getting the ‘fit’ correct is more important than any other aspect of the hiring process. Great sales people have found a match between who they are and what they are required to do.  A manager has to identify the conflicts so selling feels as normal as possible to the sales people. **

My take-away on these articles:

• Focus on individual’s performance – an individual’s skills, knowledge and behavior drive their performance so focusing on this in a positive way will generate the best results.  Insuring that the sales people are suited for the role you have for them is key.  A relationship sales person may not be as successful in a transactional environment so fit to your market, product/service and customer base is key.
• A flexible but defined sales process – every company wants and deserves an effective sales process.  But to accommodate new approaches to sales the process must have some flexibility.  It should provide a basis for all sales people and the organization while allowing it to be flexible enough to encourage and support the ‘special’ sales person who performs at a different and higher level in a unique style.
• Flexibility with your people – individual personality and behavior in a knowledgeable and highly skilled sales person needs to be considered.  This approach lets great sales people develop and keeps the high potential candidates engaged and feeling appreciated.
• Clear definition of their role – creating an environment where people know the expectations, clearly understand their role and view that role as consistent with their goals will result in maximum effort and results.