Which brings me to sales transformation. Perhaps you have read our white paper on Sales Transformation and are considering a project for your organization. Or possibly, you are looking to improve results and sales transformation is one of several possible approaches you are evaluating to achieve this end. Maybe you are simply curious about a term that is fast becoming one of the most talked about initiatives in business. Whatever the stage of your interest, you can quickly see that achieving trusted advisor status with your customers, and the corresponding impact on revenue and margins, involves more moving parts than Elaine’s famed “little kicks” dance move.
Successful sales transformation isn’t simply a training class, an improved CRM solution, anew comp plan or some updated set of sales tools and presentations. In fact, transforming your customer engagements may require all these things and more. And because of this, sequencing and choreographing your project can be the difference between Elaine’s random movements and a Baryshnikov masterpiece. So what is the appropriate order and how do you ensure your efforts produce the desired result?
For starters, consider what it is that you are trying to transform. Results? Of course. Customer perceptions? Absolutely. But these things change ONLY AFTER you transform the selling behavior of your people. Given that transforming behavior is the fundamental objective of your project, it only makes sense that the first order of business will be to define, clearly and completely, the desired behavior model for your sales team. This includes everything from how they should prospect for new opportunities to the manner in which they should present your solutions and address customer objections. It also extends to your sales managers and senior leaders and includes the methodology by which they will coach members of your team. Finally, this model must define the metrics that can be used to measure behavioral progress prior to the production of business results so that systems and reporting can be properly aligned. Absent a clear understanding of what you want people to do (process), how you want them to execute (methodology), and how you will track the degree to which they are executing effectively (reporting and metrics), it is extraordinarily difficult to make effective decisions about the other elements of transformation – all of which must support this fundamental change.
Does this mean that transformation projects must be a linear progression whereby each single step is completed before another can begin? Absolutely not. Your transformation projects are akin to independent parts of a single body in motion. Effective choreography will engage people responsible for each element early and continually throughout the project and sequence their activities for maximum impact and efficiency. Ongoing communication among the individual project owners is critical to keeping the project on track and properly coordinated.
By laying a proper foundation and defining your ideal behavior model while investigating alternatives for CRM, compensation, analytics, etc., you can ensure your project flows like a Baryshnikov ballet and delivers maximum results with tremendous efficiency.
