Sales as a Team Sport by Peggy Klingel

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Peggy Klingel
608-512-8830
Sales and Market Strategy Development and
Execution
Change Management, Startup Turnaround Expertise
Sales as a Team Sport
The benefits of a broad organizational
understanding.
PeggyKlingel_at_gmail.com
www.twitter.com/PeggyKlingel
www.linkedin.com/in/peggyklingel
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Sales roles are increasingly complex.

• Providing more technical product and service
  solutions.
• Acting as a customers business advisor.
• Leveraging broad competencies in competitive
  products and market trends.

Training programs alone cannot address all
learning.
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Top salespeople take advantage of all learning
resources.

• Sales training must be incorporated across the
  sales process and reinforced with ongoing
  training.
• Salespeople also need to assume responsibility
  for their own development.
• Competitive knowledge, market trends and
  financial acumen require ongoing research and
  learning.

Recruiting the right talent is increasingly
important as new technologies require updated
skills and sales approaches.
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The ability to learn becomes more important.
Candidate initiative in learning new skills and
roles can indicate aptitude in roles requiring
diverse knowledge and skills.
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Learning should occur across disciplines.

• Foundational training programs in sales process,
  technology and skills development continue to be
  important.

• Technology training should be conducted within
  the sales process to avoid the unintended
  consequence of sales teams spending less time
  selling as they interface with inefficient
  technology.

• Providing direction and access to additional
  learning through industry resources, trade
  publications and on business trends will help
  improve sales business acumen development.

Constant learning is a prerequisite for peak
sales performance.
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Business knowledge increases effectiveness.
In addition to technology, training and process
improvements, a 2013 Accenture sales force
optimization study identified enhanced
integration of marketing, sales and service
as one of five recommendations to
improve results.
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Plan to grow sales team business knowledge.

• In addition to training programs, industry
  conferences, trade journals and personal
  development, sales professionals can benefit from
  an understanding of functional business areas.
• This has been difficult to achieve with a goal to
  minimize time away from the field.
• Job shadowing often misses the target when
  used as a means to
  increase cross-functional
  knowledge.
• Engaging multiple business functions to
  develop
  relationships provides the best learning.

Increased sales understanding of business
functions can add value during
the sales process.
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Begin by understanding the background.

• Teams outside of sales dont understand the sales
  function giving the sales team a mystique.

• Sales is a visible and easily measured role.

• Quotas and at-risk compensation plans perpetuate
  the view that sales is difficult and risky.

• These views may result in limited sales team
  interaction with other functional business areas.

• Sales failures are often visible throughout the
  organization.

• Sales may be isolated, operating with a limited
  understanding of how other teams within the
  organization interact with customers.

Yet, everyone is talking to the same customers!
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More knowledge can improve the customer
experience.

• Serving customers requires sales to understand
  the customers business, the market and their
  products and services.
• Developing solutions pushes sales to know how
  their company provides products and services to
  position solutions that meet customer needs.
• Understanding the underlying solution financials
  allows a sales person to speak intelligently and
  confidently about pricing and when explaining why
  a discount is not available.
• Discussing implementation processes and their
  purpose helps sales properly set expectations
  during the sales process.

Increased sales understanding of business
functions will improve results.
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So how do we achieve this learning goal?
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Join the learning with the sale.

• Understand financials by sitting with finance
  while a solution is being priced.
• Spend time with the implementation team as they
  develop the customer implementation plan to learn
  the process.
• Attend an internal service meeting that includes
  a review of the upcoming implementation and
  service turnover plan.
• Sit with billing as they review the payment terms
  on the agreement to understand key dates in the
  process and their importance.
• Attend early implementation or development
  meetings to engage and support the team
  implementing the solution.
• Listen to the customers questions throughout the
  process to learn the answers.

And most importantly
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Keep the internal relationships growing.
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Better results are achieved with collaboration.

• Sales sets customer expectations during the sales
  process to minimize surprises.
• An internal network of cross-functional resources
  comes together when sales encounters a
  challenging opportunity.
• More complex solutions are proposed and won
  through increased team communication.

Ongoing cross-functional communication enhances
results.
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Resulting in higher customer satisfaction,
revenue and margin.
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Peggy Klingel
608-512-8830
Sales and Market Strategy Development and
Execution
Change Management, Startup Turnaround Expertise
Sales as a Team Sport
The benefits of a broad organizational
understanding.
PeggyKlingel_at_gmail.com
www.twitter.com/PeggyKlingel
www.linkedin.com/in/peggyklingel
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Other Presentations by Peggy Klingel
Other Presentations by Peggy Klingel
Leadership Principles for High Impact Results
Priorities to drive organizational change.
The Five Cs of a Company Review
Business areas to understand before joining or
partnering with a company.
Growth Strategy Execution
How to Start Fast and Deliver Results.
Building Bridges for Growth
A review of my history and philosophy behind
driving revenue growth.
PeggyKlingel_at_gmail.com
www.twitter.com/PeggyKlingel
www.linkedin.com/in/peggyklingel