I am continuing to report on findings from my new sales project. The project has already thrown up a few reminders I see time-and-time-again in the sales world.
To remind you of the story so far. I am taking over a sales territory from a salesperson that has recently left the client’s company. I am looking for some quick wins in this situation as this will help keep the project going. I have been looking through the “old dusty files” to see if the previous salesperson left any qualified opportunities that could be quickly closed.
Little left behind
My journey through the “old dusty files” did not turn up much. The salesperson was one that did not fill in the CRM. I found a few clues from the odd call note and the salesperson’s name attached to certain contacts in the CRM; however, nothing that would represent an opportunity ripe for closing.
I spoke to the salesperson’s manager, and they thought the salesperson was calling on all the accounts associated with them but just not making any CRM notes. Therefore, a real opportunity may lurk in these accounts that could be closable in the short-term but such hope rests mostly on hearsay at this point.
Reminder 1: Company owners, be nice to salespeople but make sure they leave notes in your CRM, or when they leave, you will have no clue what they did or where your investment went.
Placing bets
Since the salesperson’s account list might turn up some short-term deals, it is one potential source of the quick wins I seek. It is certainly not a given that any of the accounts the salesperson was allegedly calling are ready to do business. Given this, I started looking for other possibilities to close short term deals.
One of these seems to be healthcare accounts in certain relatively well-covered territories where current salespeople still have relationships. These accounts have not been sold everything that the company could provide. The challenge here becomes working with the salespeople still in place to cross-sell more products.
Reminder 2: Sales are driven by the customers. Salespeople cannot push sales to happen. Given that sales are not fully in our control, it’s wise to have a “portfolio” type approach and try several strategies to making sales.
Boil the ocean
A temptation that seems to creep in to this kind of new sales project is to “boil the ocean”. Rather than focusing on a tight ICP, someone will suggest that it’s a big world and there are 1,000’s of accounts that the sales team has not touched. They are a “green field”.
Once upon a time, this thinking made sense to me but having gotten a couple of more decades of selling under my belt, I have realized that this is the tough way to go about solving short-term revenue needs. These accounts know nothing about my client’s company and will take a lot of time and effort to warm up. Meanwhile my client has dozens of ICP type accounts that have at least spoken to the client’s salespeople in the past.
Reminder 3: The “grass is NOT usually greener” in the accounts you have never marketed or sold to before. They have not said “no” yet, but they don’t trust you at all either. Starting from scratch can take a bunch of time.
Internal selling
To move this project forward, discussions have had to occur with various management players in the client company. In each discussion there is an element of selling. People tend to stick with what they know and how things are done now unless new ideas are suggested, discussed and sold to them. Without these agreements the project would have much lower odds of succeeding.
Over the years I’ve seen salespeople that became very skilled at selling to clients but then when it came to getting their colleagues onboard did not put in the same level of sales effort to get internal support for what they were doing. Many of these salespeople did not last at their companies.
Reminder 4: Selling is not only something you only do with clients and prospects, but something you do all the time. Some of the “internal sales” you make, might be the biggest factor determining if you make your quota.
Summary
- If you own a company, be nice but make sure salespeople put notes in your CRM; otherwise, when they leave you won’t have anything for your investment in them.
- Have a “portfolio” approach to selling and try several strategies to make your sales goals.
- The “grass is NOT usually greener” in the accounts you have never marketed to before. Starting from scratch can take a bunch of time.
- Selling is not something you only do with clients and prospects, but something you do all the time. Some of the “internal sales” you make, might be the biggest factor determining if you make your quota.