Today’s post is by Anita Greenland, vice president of sales at The Brooks Group, where she brings 25+ years of customer service, sales, sales management, and sales training experience. In her role, Anita is responsible for leading and executing The Brooks Group’s sales growth strategy.
Organizations with a strong sales focus consistently outperform those that leave selling up to chance. Establishing a strong sales focus doesn’t happen overnight, however. It takes intentional planning and support from the top levels of your organization.
Here’s how leading companies align their organization with a sales focus to achieve exceptional revenue growth.
1. They Schedule Regular Sales and Marketing Alignment Meetings
Research from Marketo reveals that businesses are 67 percent better at closing deals when sales and marketing work together.
Sales-focused organizations bring the sales and marketing teams together to establish clear goals for both parties – and strategies for achieving them. They align criteria for lead generation and qualification, and keep lines of communication open.
Most importantly, they operate around a consistent sales process and stay aligned on what collateral, education, and touch points prospects and customers need through every stage of the buyer’s journey.
Set aside a time for regular alignment meetings – and stick to them. Whether it’s once a week or once a month, a collaborative meeting between sales and marketing offers the chance for leaders from both teams to determine the strategies and processes that best position your organization and sales team in the eyes of your prospects.
2. They Align Sales and Customer Service
Happy customers become repeat customers, and loyal customers become sources of valuable referrals. Consistently solving problems at every stage of the customer relationship not only leads to a positive client experience, it also can reveal untapped revenue opportunities.
Forward-thinking sales organizations align their sales and customer service teams to improve customer experience, and to increase cross-selling and upselling opportunities.
Create open lines of communication and hold both service reps and salespeople accountable for sharing problems and challenges with each other, as well as knowledge and insights. Encourage team problem solving and reward collaborative behavior among departments.
You should also consider training your service reps to be more effective in providing an excellent customer experience and identifying additional solutions. IMPACT for Customer Service is a training program that teaches your team how to serve and delight customers – and translate their efforts into additional revenue for your organization.
3. They Extend CRM Software beyond the Sales Team
Sales-focused organizations make sure everyone on the team understands and stays connected with the sales process, and has access to a common database of knowledge.
Extend your CRM to provide access to marketing, customer service, finance, and any other departments that could benefit from the information it contains. Most CRMs now offer limited licenses for non-sales roles, making this an affordable and effective way to provide everyone with access to customer information in a centralized location.
4. They Establish a Strong Company-wide Sales Culture
Sales-focused organizations know the sales team is not the only department needed to make a sale. Successful selling is like a relay race: Regardless of who crosses the finish line with a win, there was a team behind them working together to move the baton forward.
A strong sales culture is one that encourages every member of the team to support the sales function, and to think about how they can provide value to customers during every interaction.
Consider including non-sales team members in sales methodology and sales process training. When all your people speak the same sales language, your sales process can become your operating system.
Conclusion
To strengthen your sales focus and improve your organization’s performance, you must lay the foundation with a well-planned sales enablement strategy.
Maximum IMPACT Sales Enablement (MISE) will help you establish a sales process as your operating system, and align your organization to achieve both your short- and long-term goals.
Learn more about MISE here, and how it can help meet your team where it is today, while giving you a roadmap to get you where you need to be in the future.
Comments