One of the questions I often receive regarding SAVO’s clients is: “If you had to identify one thing that made these organizations successful in enabling their salespeople, what would it be?” Although the list of success factors varies somewhat from client to client, virtually all of these companies came to a very simple conclusion at some point in the sales enablement process:
“We’re not solving a content problem; we’re solving a conversation problem.”
Often times, when we look at the sea of content flooding our companies, our instinct is to audit, organize, purge, update, refine, rewrite, and approve any information that might ever come in contact with our sales organization. Although the intent is noble, it’s simply not practical. Think of the number of sales interactions that are taking place as you read this newsletter. Now think of the number of interactions that will take place while you’re solving the “intergalactic content management problem” (IGCMP). Can you really afford to wait 18 months to start solving this problem? When it comes to enabling salespeople, “perfect” is most definitely the enemy of “good enough.”
Given that realization, SAVO’s clients had a very practical way of “scoping” the sales enablement effort. Specifically, they developed clear answers to the following questions:
What are the most critical revenue-generating “plays” or initiatives that we are trying to execute within the sales organization?
What are the sales conversations that we need to improve to execute those plays?
What are the sources of “genius” that our sales team must access to drive those conversations?
Focusing on the “plays, conversations, and genius” ensured that the sales enablement efforts were clearly aligned with the revenue objectives of each organization. Just as importantly, though, that focus allowed them to deploy a solution very quickly without getting caught up in the chaos and confusion of the IGCMP. Below I’ve outlined some of the common plays, conversations, and genius that many of our customers have identified as catalysts for their Sales Enablement efforts.
Execute the “Play”
“Plays” are the growth initiatives or tactics that a sales organization will implement to drive better execution across the entire team. They are typically codified best practices that are leveraged instinctively by top performers. Examples include::
· Solution Selling
· Cross-Selling
· Value Selling
· Targeting a Competitor
· Improving Bid-to-Win Ratios
In addition to these sales plays, an organization may be trying to grow revenue by launching new products, acquiring another company (and their sales team), or leveraging indirect sales channels.
Once we understand the behavior that we’re trying to change, or more specifically, the play we are trying to execute, we can then focus on the critical customer-facing conversations that need to be improved.
Drive the “Conversation”
Salespeople are constantly (we hope) interacting with customers. Obviously these conversations come in all shapes and sizes. What we’ve observed in our 10 years of enabling salespeople, however, is that the most significant conversations during a sales cycle fall into logical groups. At SAVO, we refer to these as the “7 Deadly Conversations:”
- Discovery
- Capabilities
- Value
- Urgency
- Differentiation
- Proof
- Objection Handling
For any “play,” there are usually one or two conversations that need to be improved in order to drive consistent execution across the team. As an example, if we are tying to get our sales team to do a better job of cross-selling, we may find that they’re not asking the right questions. As a result, we need to better enable the discovery conversation if we hope to drive adoption of cross-selling.
Once we understand the critical conversations, the next step is to identify the most critical sources of information or “genius” that is required to have an intelligent and effective customer interaction.
Harness the “Genius”
“Genius” comes in many forms and is produced by a myriad of subject matter experts within your company. It’s not limited to a single job role or level within your corporate hierarchy. Sometimes it’s captured in documents but oftentimes the most valuable insights are locked inside people’s heads. In fact, it’s usually that tribal knowledge that has the biggest impact on selling conversations. Examples include:
· Competitive Intelligence
· Customer Stories
· Objection Responses
· Discovery Questions
· Industry Knowledge
Returning to our example of cross-selling (the “play”), if we need to do better discovery (the “conversation”), our sellers may need insight into industry-relevant questions (the “genius”) that will uncover pain points aligned with our solutions. In this case, industry-specific discovery guides are often the most valuable assets for improving these conversations.
Two of the biggest challenges with sales enablement initiatives are always alignment and scope control; alignment of our enabling efforts and resources around the most revenue-producing behavior, and controlling project scope so that we don’t end up chasing the IGCMP. Leveraging this simple model of understanding the plays, conversations, and genius most critical to enabling the sales team is your best weapon for maximizing alignment, controlling scope, and most importantly, driving tangible results.
