Re-align your sales approach to ensure coverage of all decision stakeholders

Step four is re-working the steps / tools / best practices of your sales approach to more effectively sell to multiple decision stakeholders.

This would entail a hard and thorough examination of your end-to-end sales process. Assign a team that includes sales management, product marketing, sales reps and maybe your CFO. Lock them in a room for a day and task them with the following:

• Document the steps of the current sales process. For each step, define the goal of the step, the conversations / meetings that occur, documentation that is shared between you and the customer, who all the participants are on both sides, and when to move to the next step. Then identify:
• What do we do well?
• Where do we run into challenges?
• At what point do we lose deals? Why?
• What is our best competitor doing that is causing us to lose?
• Document how your current customers / target customers BUY products like yours
• How do IT initiatives get conceived and started?
• How does the budgeting process work?
• How does the buying process work?
• Who are all the above stakeholders, what is their role, what do they care about?
• Now create a new sales approach that best:
• Maps to how our customers buy
• Maximizes our strengths, minimize our weaknesses
• Reaches AND connects with all decision stakeholders

Analyze the differences between your new approach and old approach. Did you change any steps? Did you identify new decision stakeholders? Do you feel more confident that you are pro-actively involving decision stakeholders?

A logical next step from this exercise is to re-tool the sales team (Step 2) via a training session. This session should include a detailed walk through of the new approach (steps, goal of the step, the conversations / meetings that occur, documentation that is shared between you and the customer, who all the participants are on both sides, and when to move to the next step). Sales rep should also learn when and how to have “conversations” with all decision stakeholders. The optimal way to teach this skill is to create a model “script” for each conversation then has the reps practice via role plays. A two-day session is probably optimal - long enough to cover details but short enough to minimize sales downtime.

Why change to a multiple decision stakeholder selling approach?

This question has a very simple answer – because that is how companies buy. Failure to recognize this fact will result in declining revenue growth, lower close ratios, and higher cost of sales.

Companies (and sales people) that embrace and execute upon this change will put themselves in a better position to win their fair share of IT budget dollars.

Read More:

• Selling to Multiple Decision Stakeholders
• Identifying decision stakeholders and their needs
• Re-align your sales approach to ensure coverage of all decision stakeholders

Other Whitepapers:

• Technology Sales People – The New Success Profile
• Diagnosing Your Revenue Generation Issues
• Building a Client Service - Minded Staff
• High Impact Returns from Strategic Account Management
• How to Steer Your Firm to Greater Revenues when you're not in the Driver's Seat
• Sales Tip – Building credibility through "Discovery" Letters
• Selling to Multiple Decision Stakeholders
• Firm Leadership's Role in Retaining and Growing Clients
• The Pursuit Drill ™: Improve Your Sales Team's Ability to Close Deals

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