GTM

Repeatable Sales Motions vs. Individual Selling Success

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A sales organization that consistently exceeds aggressive goals is the holy grail for growth-focused companies. A repeatable sales motion is often seen as the vehicle to make that happen. Unfortunately, few companies have translated salesmanship and the art of selling into the science of repeatable sales.

Often, one or two successful deals become the foundation for what is believed to be the repeatable sales motion. Two common scenarios are:

  1. You may have lookalike prospects to target based on a limited sample of sales. That doesn’t mean there is real scale potential, but it is a start.
    • This approach fails to address other independent variables, and often results in an approach that is neither repeatable nor scalable.
  2. You have one salesperson who is very successful, but their success has not been repeatable.
    • The nice thing about this scenario is that a repeatable sales motion is more likely, but understanding the subtleties of their approach can be difficult to quantify, document, and turn into something repeatable.

Let’s take a more analytical look at what works and why, which leads to a better understanding of how to develop repeatability.

As the Roman philosopher Seneca is quoted as saying, “Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.”

Preparation is more than understanding the prospect company, their competition and differences, the market they operate in, and what changes may be coming (technological, legislative, economic, etc.)—although that is often far more preparation than many Account Execs bring to a meeting. I’m always amazed at how unprepared many sellers are, and that is the quickest way to lose your prospect’s respect.

I’ve learned over the years that planning for the unexpected is planning for sustainable success. That can be as tough and nebulous as it sounds. You need to stay calm, unemotional, and in control while assessing the situation and adapting on the fly. Confidence definitely helps, as does logic. Composure is key to presenting a professional presence.

I like the Five Whys method of drilling into those statements or concerns to understand them. Sometimes it’s fluff, but often it helps you close the deal faster because you uncovered a pain that others missed. This can also help qualify a prospect out quickly and move on to a better fit that develops into a closed-won deal.

Salesmanship includes:

  • Being prepared.
  • Being friendly, approachable, and likable.
  • Relationship building. It starts with finding connections and common interests, then demonstrating your ability to help the prospect solve their problem (and at this stage they may be more focused on symptoms than root causes).
  • Understanding the need. Why is this important to them? Document this, including their phrases and terminology, as that can have a huge impact on their acceptance of your proposed solution.
  • Having value to add. This includes product knowledge, company knowledge (website, 10-K/10-Q, articles, etc.), competitive knowledge, industry knowledge, and more.
    • This gives you a perspective on their business that may not be 100% accurate, but it lets you make assertions the prospect will likely validate or correct. Your knowledge will also impress them and likely lead to deeper discussions about their needs and goals.
      • AI can significantly reduce your preparation time for this.
  • Being respectful. This starts with respecting their time.
    • Don’t be late to calls. Don’t spend time on things that are not relevant. Don’t ignore the people that you are speaking with by focusing on higher-level decision makers. And don’t badmouth other products they may be using or competitive solutions.
  • Being focused on solving their problems. Without this, you won’t build a loyal, lasting customer base.
    • To me, this is as much about reputation as it is about salesmanship.
  • Learning from failures (yours and others) as much as success. Evolution matters: improve and become your best.

These are all teachable/learnable skills. They also address the intangibles that fuel selling success.

So, which came first – the selling successes or the repeatable sales motions?

To me, they go hand-in-hand. By building a high-performance sales team, pooling information from sales discovery calls and other meetings, and focusing on patterns of unmet needs and the associated messaging, you can create and refine something repeatable. It takes more than one or two wins to prove a pattern exists, so create a hypothesis early and work to refine or refute it with every prospect interaction.

Selling may not come naturally to a lot of people (it wasn’t for me), but it is a muscle you can develop with hard work, practice, and a goal of improving every day. Your success may look like luck to others, but you will know better.

This entry was posted in Career, leadership, Marketing, Selling, strategy and tagged , , , , , , , , , , , .

Lessons Learned from GTM Consulting

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For the past two years, I have performed part-time, contract go-to-market consulting. My wife had a surgery that went wrong 18 months ago, so I needed something that would allow me to take care of her, stay sharp, earn money, and help companies grow. What I encountered was quite different from what I expected, so I thought I would pass it along.

A generated image of a male consultant working with a sales team.

Most of the work was with small to midsize companies, but the problems and needs mirrored what I have encountered at larger companies. The main difference is that large companies tend to look to software to address problems. In contrast, smaller companies often lack the budget for what they view as a solution that increases complexity.

Here are my Top 5 findings:

  1. GTM plans are often developed at the highest levels, often in isolation, without market testing and validation.
    • An interesting aside is that the company is often really seeking sales optimization but believes it is doing things “well enough” today and therefore needs to focus on new offerings and revenue streams.
    • New perspectives on past performance and failures are well received but more surprising than anticipated. This leads to a better understanding of needs, which builds consensus moving forward.
  2. Sales teams are sometimes pitted against one another, rather than working together to help everyone achieve more (Coopetition – “A rising tide lifts all boats.”)
    • Sometimes the competing team isn’t sales, but support. The team wants to help the customer (which is great), but works outside its defined scope instead of bringing in the services and sales teams to work jointly to solve the customer’s problem.
  3. Sales teams are focused on selling features rather than solving business problems.
    • Training those teams on solution selling and understanding the prospect’s needs pays off.
  4. CRMs are not consistently used and often reflect idealized fiction rather than reality.
    • Old, dead, or unqualified opportunities; lack of recent contact or interaction; deals that have slipped more than once; and a lack of understanding (company, needs, players, business environment) all point to an unrealistic pipeline.
  5. Sales management and teams are not leveraging AI to help focus their efforts.
    • Conversely, they may view AI as a panacea, investing time and money in tools that supplement a strong team rather than focusing on strengthening the team.

Here are the related Lessons Learned:

  1. Selling is a byproduct of problem-solving. You can’t solve problems if you don’t know what they are. Every interaction with a prospect should focus on gathering information, building trust and relationships, and leveraging prior interactions to demonstrate that your solution will solve their problem and ease their pain.
    • Here’s solution sales again. Teaching teams to ask better questions, listen more, and validate their understanding increases their standing with prospects.
  2. Identifying common business problems and describing how your product or service solves them should be the foundation of the plan.
    • Perform market analysis. How do other companies describe those problems? Their terminology, often found in job postings by competitors and your target audience, can help create effective messaging that resonates. Work to become the natural fit for what your prospects are seeking and the problems they are likely dealing with.
  3. Individual contributors get paid to win, but sales management needs to create incentives for collaborative efforts that lead to both wins and ongoing customer growth.
    • Paying sales teams for net new business only causes them to ignore install base expansion opportunities. And, if another vendor solves their problems, it is only a matter of time before they replace you.
    • For one company, I convinced them to implement a 2% SPIV (like a SPIFF, but team-focused) for every team member who actively contributed to team improvement. SPIV payments were quarterly, and there was a running total so the team could see the fund growth. Initial indications of a positive impact are good.
    • Another benefit of collaboration is that it helps teams focus on approaches that work due to ongoing testing and refinement. Collaboration also helps teams focus on a more accurate ICP (ideal customer profile). Sales management can then feed their findings back to Marketing to tailor and fine-tune their efforts.
  4. CRMs often either lack information or are full of wishful thinking. They focus on activities, and not progress and next steps.
    • Using MEDPICC as a foundation for qualification is a much better start.
    • Sales managers need to validate the information independently to ensure their teams are upfront and honest. Trust, coaching, and collaboration work together for the win.
    • Chasing deals that are unlikely to close wastes valuable resources.
  5. AI is not a panacea, but it is very effective for research, market validation, prospecting, and meeting preparation.
    • Going in prepared builds respect and credibility, saves time, and helps you quickly qualify prospects in or out.
    • There may be opportunities to nurture prospects who have potential but aren’t qualified for immediate deals, seeding the pipeline for future opportunities. This could be a great place to leverage AI for personalized journeys with highly relevant curated content.

So, what are your thoughts? Have you seen some of these problems yourself? How did you handle them? Let me know in the comments below.

And if you are looking for assistance with your business, contact me.

This entry was posted in Artificial Intelligence, Business Intelligence, Business Ownership and Management, Career, leadership, Selling, strategy, Technology and tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , .