Sales Planning Builds Winning Sales Teams
When you decided to build a sales team and started your sales planning, how much thought did you put into how it should be structured? That is, how did you design your team? How do your salespeople function within that design? Most sales teams today are structured just like they were in the 1950s. Why is that? We live in an age of innovation, but we’re relying on decades-old strategies for designing our sales team. We can do better.
I produced an audio podcast on strategic sales planning that considers the strategy, for sales planning, for sales team design. Take a moment to think about how you designed your team. How effective is it? Your design might not be *wrong*, but it also might not be the most efficient and productive design for your company. Think a redesign is in order?
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Other pertinent questions include: How productive is it for my team to have a sales engineer cold calling? Can my product salespeople effectively sell services? Does my current sales structure allow us to develop new customers and grow our existing customer base? Does your sales planning take this into account?
In the world of sales, we’ve always broken sales people into two camps: hunters, who like to go out and find new clients, and farmers, who are best at handling existing clients. Over the years, with a few exceptions, most sales planning standards gave us teams that were designed so one person did it all – functioning as both hunter and farmer. Consider your team as individuals. What type of salespeople are they? Are they better at hunting or farming? As they function in your organization today, are they producing the results you want? Success in sales requires operational effectiveness in three disciplines:
I. Lead generation and handling
II. Presentation, demonstration and closing
III. Client development and account penetration
When you hired your salespeople, they likely assured you they were good at all three – and some people may be, but more likely, each person has definitive strengths and weaknesses. When I started in sales, I used to do all three, just as most salespeople did. But the question is, although that’s the way we’ve always done it, is it the most effective way to develop business? Each of the three disciplines requires different skill sets to be effective.
Lead generation and handling
Lead generation and handling requires a strong hunter mentality, whether generating leads via phone, direct mail or email; responding to inbound calls; making cold calls or a combination. This is a skill set. This is a true hunter. How many of your current salespeople are true hunters who can fill this role?
Presentation, demonstration and closing
Presentation, demonstration and closing are representative of another skill set. When we look at this skill set, we say closer. When they get in front of the prospect, they can close the deal. Some products and services may be one-call closes, while others require multiple calls. Yet others may be more complex sales, requiring the ability to manage multiple stakeholders, inside and outside the company. Whatever the case, if they get the chance to present, demonstrate and close, they have a high probability of getting the deal. How many of your current salespeople are true closers who can fill this role?
Client development and account penetration
These salespeople are good at establishing and maintaining relationships. They are good at the consultative selling process and work with clients to gain trust; evaluate their short-, medium- and long-term needs and provide solutions. Most importantly, they bond with customers, learning everything about them and all the major players. This is a true definition of the farmer. How many of your current salespeople are true farmers who can fill this role?
I see far too many companies building sales plans on the principle that all salespeople are created equal. It worked for us in past decades, but that doesn’t mean it will work today. Sure, good salespeople can do it all, but how effectively? Once their account base starts to grow, they’ll spend all their time with existing clients. That means new business development suffers. Closers don’t do that well at prospecting; it’s not in their nature.
Think about the structure of your sales team. How many new opportunities are you missing because your top salespeople are spending all their time working with existing clients and ignoring new business development? Which sales people on your team have the ability to represent your products or services, but have trouble closing deals? Would they be better at developing the prospect for your closers?
You can’t generate exceptional results unless you have the right people doing the right job. Let your salespeople shine at what they’re best at by building your sales team around three distinct roles:
I. Lead Generators – Focused on developing and managing leads.
II. New Business Development Managers – Focused on bringing in new clients.
III. Account Managers – Focused on major accounts for retention and additional sales.
Key to success
To make this work, you must establish clear guidelines on how each position will function, establish a solid metric to manage by and develop a well-planned training and coaching program to support each of the disciplines. This should be included in your sales planning
Proper sales planning to developing a program like this could provide you with a solid sales team, rather than a group of salespeople all slogging away at the same stuff. After all, you can’t play football with 11 quarterbacks or baseball with nine left fielders. Built with each team member’s strengths and weaknesses in mind, you have a true team. Each member brings strengths that others may lack, making the sum of the team more productive than each member can be on his or her own. Why have a highly engineered salesperson spend his or her time knocking on doors? Is that the best use of their time? Isn’t success about working smarter, not harder? It’s something to think about if you aren’t already doing it. By capitalizing on your salespeople’s individual talents, you might discover they’re capable of more than you (and they) ever dreamed.
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Related podcast:
SMW 002 Developing your strategic sales plan – Part One
SMW 003 Developing your strategic sales plan – Part Two