Organisations, not just sales people, sell. Indeed, the most progressive organisations view business development, as everybody’s responsibility. For other companies that requires 4 significant organisational changes :
1. Getting Senior Management More Involved in supporting sales and an executive to executive (as opposed to sales person to executive) approach adopted. It is essential that in reviewing sales performance, setting financial targets and shaping business strategy that all senior management have had first hand exposure to the market. So, when is the last time the CEO, CFO, CTO, was in front of a customer, or a prospect?
2. Getting Sales and Marketing Working Together. That means overcoming the tensions that often arise, through improved communication and a more coordinated and sales-led approach. So, why isn’t marketing a full member of the sales team and why isn’t marketing measured in terms of leads generated and results achieved?
3. Grass roots involvement in business development. Account managers, project managers, customer support staff and just about everybody else has a role to play in maintaining and growing sales revenues. In the current economic climate this grass roots involvement is essential. But, how may senior staff have contacted a potential customer, attended a networking event, asked for a referral from a past customer, etc. in the past 6 weeks?
4. A team-based approach to sales. Just as purchase decisions are involving more people in the buying organisation, sales success requires the competences of a team, as opposed to just the individual. In fact there are up to 8 sales-related roles in your organisation.
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