Is your selling system connected?
A sales organization is a system. Maximum performance requires maximal synch between internal components (Opportunity Management, Account Management, etc.) and complementary systems (Marketing, Manufacturing, Legal, Partners, Customers, etc.). Better connections make you quicker and more resolute than competitors. So, you win more often and more consistently.
Our mission at System Selling is to help clients design and adopt a systematic approach to selling that will give them a competitive advantage.
Understanding the Components of Your Selling System
The first critical task in applying the systems thinking approach to sales effectiveness is identifying and naming key system components. This critical first step allows us to consider interrelationships in every phase of design and implementation.
We start our engagement process using the functional components shown in the graphic below. Then working with your team we tailor the models to suit your needs.
Each of these components can be further reduced to specific selling capabilities to help you identify areas we might target with training or process design efforts.
Analyzing and naming your system components in this way allows you to target specific performance gaps with key elements of your sales effectiveness initiative, including:
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Sales execution methods
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Planning processes
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Management reviews
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Definition of roles and responsibilities
Are your sales enablement efforts failing?
Signs your project could be in trouble:
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It's considered as a free-standing “get well” project.
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Designed for just one or two functional components of the selling system (business development, demos, objection handling, etc.).
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Obsession with one or two specific short-term problems – forecasting, sales for THIS QUARTER, etc.
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Seeking to solve key problems by just getting “everybody trained up” on a specific name-brand sales methodology.
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Focusing on behavior of individual sellers with little attention to first line sales managers.
Key Selling System Components
