Your Sales Department is your future: #35
One of the signs that a company is headed for trouble is that the sales department gets overly wrapped up in today’s challenges. Too few people look ahead thinking positive change, possibilities or with great expectations. Probably 90% of the staff think tommorow will be a lot like today. The future looks a bit boring.
Look to your new, expansive sales process and see the future unfold:
Let’s say the sales process was probably designed for conditions 10 years back. That will not get you to the type of future you want. Here is what to do. Take a few days alone and write a complete description of your “upgraded” sales process. Design it to attract the kinds of sales people and customers who will serve you best. Make sure the process will bring you the new business you want, both volume and margins. Keep it simple, but make it good - something you can rely on to take you forward.
Out with the old:
If you can’t get it after three days, something is seriously wrong. Stop working on it. Instead, work with the sales department to craft an entirely new sales process. Think “out with the old; in with the better!” Really start from scratch. It will be easier than trying to adjust and tweak the old ways. It will also be more freeing. Here is a simple method to get you started.
Questions toward the new and improved sales department:
Think from a point 24 months out into the future and answer each of the following.
• Imagine the existing product is not as useful as it once was. What now?
• Pretend that your current sales approach is 10 years behind? What would you do to change it?
• What has not worked well with the current sales leadership approach? How will you want it to change?
• Decide as a team on the future of your product. What would customers love? If you don’t know, why?
• How much more value can you create with your top accounts? Start with one specific account. How can you improve there?
• Is this sales group motivated enough to create a value-driven approach to selling? It is not done in a flash.
These questions will force a different way of thinking. That is exactly what we all need to do – think differently if we are to thrive and produce well into the future.
Action idea
Make your own list of questions and points for discussion. Meet with those responsible for future sales. A lot is counting on your answers.
Cheers,
Richard
