We learned from CEB’s “The Challenger Sale” that top performing salespeople do 3 things very well — they teach, tailor and take control.
The buying journey has become much more complicated. There are more stakeholders involved, considering more options and with an abundance of information readily available. Sales organizations are investing more time with prospects but closing fewer deals. In fact, 38% of deals are lost to no decision.
Zoom Out
In order to “take and maintain control” of the sales process, there has to be a defined and repeatable sales process to begin with. This is the organization’s responsibility, not something that should be expected of each individual salesperson.
Zoom In
If you want your sales organization to sell like Challengers, it is your responsibility to design your sales process by defining “what good looks like” at each incremental stage.
Once you have done that work, then you can teach, train and expect your salespeople to take and maintain control of the sales process. They will be able to provide:
a high-level overview of the sales process
a unique purpose & goal for each key stage
stakeholder guidance - who needs to be involved at each key stage
a clear next step in the process
Outcome
You will win more of the “right” clients by confidently advancing aligned prospects, disqualifying misaligned prospects and securing “closed loops” (day & time in calendar) at each stage.
You’ll know you’ve done it right when you hear your salespeople saying, “The next step of our process is…”.
Go Deeper
Carver Peterson helps growth-minded leaders and organizations achieve predictable and sustainable revenue growth through a refined strategy, defined process and aligned structure.
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