building the structure and mechanics of a professional sales organization

Structure & Mechanics Sales 101

Jeremiah Fellows | Director, Sales and Marketing

Structure and Mechanics Constraints enable creative approaches

Jeremiah Fellows: Collaborative Selling 2

Predictability

3 Jeremiah Fellows: Collaborative Selling

•  You need one thing as much as you need sales: Predictability.

•  Risk Management •  Changes in the pipeline can be early warning signs •  i.e. a lengthening proposal phase can indicate a new competitor or poor qualification

process

•  Manage growth •  When, where and how to invest

•  Evolve •  Need to treat sales like any lean startup •  Impossible to iterative efficiently without numbers

Getting Started


•  Don’t get a CRM •  If you don’t know your sales process you will use the default CRM sales process

•  Cycles, stages and metrics are not relevant to your sales process. Understand your sales process.

•  Understand your customers •  Document the stages •  Test some hypothesis

•  Now get a CRM •  Make it match your process

The Foundation


•  Three areas of research to understand your sales process •  Develop buyer and influencer personas

•  Explains the Who •  Develop a customer journey map

•  Explains the what & how •  Buy cycle will drive your sales process

•  Develop system for prioritizing your efforts •  Prioritization and a compass •  Limited resources, cannot chase every opportunity.

Who?


Understanding the people who buy your product or service.

Personas


Understanding who buys your product or service

Personas


•  Persona for each buyer type & influencer

•  No vacuums! •  B2B has team members, supervisors, executives, admins •  B2C has families, friends and peers •  They all interact and influence the decision to buy

•  How Many? •  Go with too many then group

•  Pictures - No Customer X •  Make them real

•  A name and a job •  A picture •  Accurate demographics

Personas


•  What is unique to your product and services •  How do these features map tp your customers lives?

•  i.e. Dog owner who went to school in the PAC12 college conference buy more from you

•  Mandatory elements •  Demographics •  Role – family, social or organizational •  Who influenced by •  Who do they influence •  Motivations •  Where do they go for information

The Customer Journey Map


What are the interactions and influences that impact a customers decision



•  Map the stages of the buy cycle

•  Map how the personas interact at each stage •  More complex sale requires a CJM for each persona •  Simple may only need one map



•  If you don’t know start with basics •  Awareness •  Research •  Consideration •  Decision

•  Will probably be some sub stages •  Update as you learn

•  Map how the personas interact at each stage •  More complex sale requires a CJM for each persona •  Simple may only need one map



•  Map the touchpoints at each stage •  Each interaction with your organization

•  Website •  Twitter feed •  Tradeshow •  Sales call

•  Include every persona active during that touchpoint

•  Map the touchpoint details •  Emotions •  Influencing personas •  Information/resources they need to move to the next stageFrom others and from you •  Expectations •  Satisfaction with the interaction



•  Map your sales process to the Customer Journey Map •  List the information you need to qualify the prospect to move to the next stage. •  List the activities you need to do to move them to the next stage

•  If the opportunity is right! •  List the resources your sales people need at each touchpoint

•  Collateral, etc.

Opportunity Value Assessments


Prioritize to optimize

Opportunity Value


•  You cannot and should not chase every opportunity •  Not every sale is a good sale. Not every customer is a good customer.

•  Referenceable, collaborative etc. •  AW Prospect Ranking Criteria

•  Culture •  Nature of work – cutting edge, fun or bigger purpose •  Referenceable

•  Cool project with well known brand •  Social or environmental impact

•  Looks at the things your best customers have in common •  characteristics of the company •  Type of work

Opportunity Value


•  Need a ranking for every opportunity but also for every customer •  Customer Quarterly Review – Opportunity values can change

•  Staff changes •  Industry shifts

•  Scores should be a percentage, not a flat number •  Your opportunity value criteria are going to change over time •  need the ability to compare values over history

Learning and Iteration


Lean sales methodology

Get it in Excel


•  Start tracking •  The number each prospects in each stage and sub stage •  How long each prospect stays in each stage and sub stage •  Where each prospect falls out and why •  AW Example: Thought we had a lead generation issue, turned out to be a poor

qualifying issue. •  Iterate, iterate, iterate •  Now you can get a CRM

Progress Review


•  Regular cadence of meetings with a cross section of the organization •  Weekly - Pipeline meeting

•  Numbers will indicate where you need focus your efforts for the upcoming week •  Sales retrospective (15 minute standup)

•  Weekly or after each sales process depending on the length and complexity of the sale

•  Quarterly Customer Review •  Fire your bad customers

Case Studies


What I have done right (and wrong).

Case Study 1: Mythology Managing using mythology. Stop guessing about how you got that big deal.


Case Study 2: Org Structure More sales people does not create proportionally more sales. Volume of sales might be limited by non-sales related organizational structures


Case Study 3: Process You can’t create a hypothesis and test against it without a defined process. Constraints enable creativity.


Case Study: Opportunity Value Scoring


Resources


Brilliant people and what they have to say.

Links & Books


General information

•  This is Service Design Thinking •  Sales should be a service. This book is the service design bible and can drive thinking about

how to design your sales as a service.

Customer Journey Maps

•  Smaply: Customer Journey Mapping software.

•  Tips for beginners

Personas

•  What If Your Customers Were Actually People?

•  The Foundation of a great user experience

Sales Process

•  Lets Get Real or Let’s Not Play: Transforming the buyer/seller relationship

Jeremiah Fellows

VP, Sales and Marketing

Aspenware

[email protected]

LinkedIn

@JwFellows

building the structure and mechanics of a professional sales organization

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