Outsell the competition: a new look at selling.

Your sales force is the lifeblood of your business. Yet, traditional ways of selling and managing the sales operation simply don’t work any more. The name of the game is no longer simply revenue growth. To remain viable, your company needs profitable customer growth.

The New Sales Organization

The new sales organization has an intense focus on building sales capacity—the people, processes, technology, and management approaches needed to attract and retain profitable business.

So, what does the new sales organization look like?

Their sales people solve business problems. Gone are the days of sales people chasing revenue alone, or being rewarding for having the “gift to gab”. Sales professionals have the business acumen to understand business problems, and the aptitude to creatively solve those problems in a way that creates economic value for their customer and their own company.

They have buyer-centered sales & service processes. Understanding that competitive advantage is built one customer conversation at a time, they measure success by how well they are delivering on their customer promise. Their processes are aligned to facilitate the ideal customer buying experience. Everything they do to find, close, and keep customers has unique value, which creates a severe barrier to competition.

They have a relentless focus on sales execution. High performing companies have the systems in place to know where team members stand on sales production, territory management, and sales account strategy. They are focused both on the quantity and quality of sales activities and continually strive for incremental improvements.

Managers are in the field. Managers have an intense focus on driving profitable revenue and are out in the field with sales reps, getting ground intelligence on what’s happening in the market. They partner with sales to remove roadblocks and solve customer problems in new, creative ways.

To compete in today’s competitive sales environment requires thinking and acting differently—and yes, a bit of work. But companies that do it right are on the one true path for creating a sustainable market advantage.