Sales as a Team SportThe benefits of a broad organizational understanding.

Peggy Klingel608-512-8830

Sales and Market Strategy Development and Execution

Change Management, Startup & Turnaround Expertise

PeggyKlingel@gmail.comwww.linkedin.com/in/peggyklingel www.twitter.com/PeggyKlingel

Sales roles are increasingly complex.

• Providing more technical product and service solutions.

• Acting as a customer’s business advisor.

• Leveraging broad competencies in competitive products and market trends.

Training programs alone cannot address all learning.

Top salespeople take advantage of all learning resources.

• Sales training must be incorporated across the sales process and reinforced with ongoing training.

• Salespeople also need to assume responsibility for their own development.

• Competitive knowledge, market trends and financial acumen require ongoing research and learning.

Recruiting the right talent is increasingly important as new technologies require updated skills and sales approaches.

The ability to learn becomes more important.

Candidate initiative in learning new skills and roles can indicate aptitude in roles requiring diverse knowledge and skills.

Learning should occur across disciplines.

• Foundational training programs in sales process, technology and skills development continue to be important.

Constant learning is a prerequisite for peak sales performance.

• Technology training should be conducted within the sales process to avoid the unintended consequence of sales teams spending less time selling as they interface with inefficient technology.

• Providing direction and access to additional learning through industry resources, trade publications and on business trends will help improve sales business acumen development.

Business knowledge increases effectiveness.

In addition to technology, training and process improvements,

a 2013 Accenture sales force optimization study identified

enhanced integration of marketing, sales and service

as one of five recommendations to improve results.

Plan to grow sales team business knowledge.

• In addition to training programs, industry conferences, trade journals and personal development, sales professionals can benefit from an understanding of functional business areas.

• This has been difficult to achieve with a goal to minimize time away from the field.

• Job shadowing often misses the target when used as a means to increase cross-functional knowledge.

• Engaging multiple business functions to develop relationships provides the best learning.

Increased sales understanding of business functions can add value during the sales process.

Begin by understanding the background.

• Sales is a visible and easily measured role.

Yet, everyone is talking to the same customers!

• Quotas and at-risk compensation plans perpetuate the view that sales is difficult and risky.

• Teams outside of sales don’t understand the sales function giving the sales team a mystique.

• Sales failures are often visible throughout the organization.

• These views may result in limited sales team interaction with other functional business areas.

• Sales may be isolated, operating with a limited understanding of how other teams within the organization interact with customers.

More knowledge can improve the customer experience.

• Serving customers requires sales to understand the customer’s business, the market and their products and services.

• Developing solutions pushes sales to know how their company provides products and services to position solutions that meet customer needs.

• Understanding the underlying solution financials allows a sales person to speak intelligently and confidently about pricing and when explaining why a discount is not available.

• Discussing implementation processes and their purpose helps sales properly set expectations during the sales process.

Increased sales understanding of business functions will improve results.

So how do we achieve this learning goal?

Join the learning with the sale.

• Understand financials by sitting with finance while a solution is being priced.

• Spend time with the implementation team as they develop the customer implementation plan to learn the process.

• Attend an internal service meeting that includes a review of the upcoming implementation and service turnover plan.

• Sit with billing as they review the payment terms on the agreement to understand key dates in the process and their importance.

• Attend early implementation or development meetings to engage and support the team implementing the solution.

• Listen to the customer’s questions throughout the process to learn the answers.

And most importantly…

Keep the internal relationships growing.

Better results are achieved with collaboration.

• Sales sets customer expectations during the sales process to minimize surprises.

• An internal network of cross-functional resources comes together when sales encounters a challenging opportunity.

• More complex solutions are proposed and won through increased team communication.

Ongoing cross-functional communication enhances results.

Resulting in higher customer satisfaction, revenue and margin.

Sales as a Team SportThe benefits of a broad organizational understanding.

Peggy Klingel608-512-8830

Sales and Market Strategy Development and Execution

Change Management, Startup & Turnaround Expertise

PeggyKlingel@gmail.comwww.linkedin.com/in/peggyklingel www.twitter.com/PeggyKlingel

Other Presentations by Peggy Klingel

PeggyKlingel@gmail.comwww.linkedin.com/in/peggyklingel www.twitter.com/PeggyKlingel

Priorities to drive organizational change.

Business areas to understand before joining or partnering with a company.

How to Start Fast and Deliver Results.

A review of my history and philosophy behind driving revenue growth.

Other Presentations by Peggy Klingel

Leadership Principles for High Impact Results

The Five C’s of a Company Review

Growth Strategy Execution

Building Bridges for Growth