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With increasing complexities in technology, products and geographic reach, it is a challenging job for organizations to organize sales teams effectively. Traditionally, organizations were more product-centric. They focus on conveying information about the quality of products to the customers.  In recent times, organizations have shown inclination on customer-centric approach. The sales team is more focused on understanding the needs, preference, likes, and dislikes of the customers. Moreover, to gain customers’ trust, they make efforts to fulfill customer’s requirements.

To build a strong and cohesive sales team, it is essential to assign roles and responsibilities to the individuals of the sales team properly. Furthermore, the sales team should be organized suitably for the successful implementation of plans and strategies. To build a well-organized sales team, the sales force should be structured in the following categories:

• Geography: Geographic-based sales team is one of the most common forms of the sales organization. In this form, individuals are assigned to certain geographical regions. They are responsible to deal with the sales functions in that territory. Such form of organization is simple in structure and cost saving. This structure also facilitates a free flow of communication with the clients.
• Product: In product-based sales organization, a separate sales team is assigned to a specific product. They are responsible to sell only the  product line assigned to them. They interact with the customers about the quality, features of that product and persuade them to opt for that product. The biggest advantage of product-based organization is that apart from selling a tailored product, they also ensure delivery and after sales service of the product.
• Customer segment: In this type of organization, the sales team is assigned to different customer segments and is responsible for selling to that market alone.  This aids in the selling function by allowing the sales team to focus on the needs and requirements of the customer segment. Also, frequent interaction with customers helps the sales team focus on product features according to the unique needs of customers.
• Selling function: Organizing sales team members on selling function category ensures that specialized sales team can perform specialized selling functions. They will be responsible to carry out specialized selling functions such as pre-sales, prospecting, and post-sales. In addition, the sales force is divided into inside sales and field sales teams.

An efficient sales team can be an asset for the organization and provide better customer satisfaction and earn revenue. On the other hand, an inefficient sales team can be a liability causing loss of lucrative contracts. Hence, organizing an effective sales team is crucial for the success of the organization.

Corporate sales or Business to Business (B2B) sales involves sales activities between different businesses. For example, a firm that manufactures tyres sells its products to a firm that manufactures automobiles. 

Sales and Marketing existed way before currency came into existence. Corporate sales has evolved along with sales and marketing.  Let’s have a quick run through the evolution of sales and marketing along with it the evolution of Corporate Sales:

1. Barter System:

This was the first kind of sales activity that was practiced thousands of years ago when were no coins and other forms of money were not common. People used to give things they dealt in, in exchange of things they wanted to procure. For example, if a farmer wanted to purchase some wooden furniture, he could do so by giving some of his harvest to the carpenter. Though the barter system was practiced centuries ago, it still can replace money in conditions like unavailability or instability of currency due to high inflation.

2. Traditional Marketplace:

Traditional marketplaces are usually small markets where price negotiations and other decisions related to sales are made quickly—often by one or two persons. There may be significant flexibility regarding discounts and additional product benefits. The focus is more on short-term gains and less on long-term transactions and relationships. There is negligible branding and advertising; rather the objective is to sell what has been produced.

3. Seller’s Marketplace:

The main objective of the seller’s marketplace is to establish a supply chain to procure products, and then establish a distribution channel to sell the products to a wide variety of customers, often referred to as “mass marketing.” The practice of using channel partners to sell products was established during this period.  Emphasis on branding and advertising is minimal in a seller’s marketplace.

4. Conventional Mass Media Marketing:

The objective of conventional mass media marketing is for organizations to create strong brands and differentiated brand perceptions so that consumers will desire and purchase their products rather than those available from competitors. Thus, mass media marketing usually uses cumulative repetition over time to influence consumer attitudes and purchase actions. Mass media marketing also involves creating distribution channels and appropriate pricing and positioning strategies to ensure that desirable products are available to customers at specific price points. 

5. Fragmented New-Age Marketing:

In recent times, the media has become increasingly fragmented with several hundred television and radio channels, as well as a large variety of print media, including newspapers, magazines, and trade publications. Moreover, since the late nineteen nineties, with the increasing popularity of the Internet and, more recently, smartphones, many options now exist for advertisers to reach a global audience using digital media marketing methods such as cell phone apps, Google, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, QR codes, gamification, and proximity marketing (e.g., Foursquare).

6. Innovative Internet-Enabled Business Models:

The growing popularity of the Internet, smartphones, and digital media provide opportunities for a company to not only use fragmented new-age marketing effectively to promote existing products, but also to come up with innovative business models where product demo, customer acquisition, and order fulfillment can also take place online. 

Corporate sales has evolved concurrently with sales and marketing from barter system to being online and is evolving day by day as new methods and technologies come to the fore.
 

Experienced sales teams usually have an already set sales process. Based on the changing needs of the business this process may have to undergo some fine tuning or improvement. It is important to constantly monitor and evaluate your sales process for alignment with overall objectives of your business. A new company however would need to establish a sales process from scratch. They may use an established process already being used by a similar business or create a sales process of their own. This article briefly describes the five basic steps of a B2B sales process that can be used by any company or business involved in B2B sales.

Understanding these five steps and adapting them to suit the business requirements will help establish a framework for a comprehensive and effective sales process. The five steps are as follows:

Pre-sales—This first step in the sales process involves reviewing the current activities and selling processes. These activities include those carried out from the initial contact with a customer to the final delivery of a product or service. This step allows a developing company to assess its organizational capabilities to carry out the sales process. It includes understanding and strengthening the value proposition for customers. The different channels required to sell products in the future are also determined. Planning sales governance, setting sales targets, setting up the incentive structure for the sales team, and creating the marketing assets is also done at this stage. The sales team is also trained on products as well as the sales process and negotiation to prepare for selling activities.

Profiling of Target Customers—The first step in the prospecting stage, profiling target customers and decision makers, involves identifying and benchmarking profiling criteria for prospects and for decision makers. Characteristics of ideal customers, such as annual budget, are used to benchmark the profiling criteria.

Lead Generation and Qualification—The second step in the prospecting stage, lead generation, is the act of identifying prospective customers and generating ways to gain new customers. Profiled criteria and benchmarks are used to generate better leads. Lead generation uses various offline and online techniques and can be inbound or outbound.

Needs Assessment—Conversion starts with understanding customer needs for products or services. This understanding of needs is vital in the conversion process and enables the sales team to demonstrate to the customer how their product can fulfill the customer’s requirements.

Presentation, Negotiation, and Closure—This is the final stage in the conversion cycle. The corporate sales team presents the features, benefits, and advantages of the proposed products or services that can fulfill the needs of the prospects. At this stage, prospects present their objections to the sales proposal. It is the job of the corporate sales team to overcome these objections to close the deal. 

Whenever a sales person tries to propose a product or service, the prospect raises objections. An objection is a psychological or logical resistance. Learning to handle objections is one of the key skills to be acquired by the corporate sales team. Objections should never be ignored but rather addressed or resolved positively and with confidence. The team should anticipate and prepare for objections in advance in order to address them effectively. Impromptu responses to objections are rarely successful and drastically reduce the chance of closing a sale. Most objections are common and can be anticipated in advance. Some of the most common objections are related to cost, timelines, specific client requirements, and lack of authority. These and other types of objections are to be expected. Presenters need to listen to objections positively and answer in a manner that helps reduce a prospect’s anxiety and builds trust. Some specific techniques appear below.

Common Objections

• Satisfaction with the existing vendor—When faced with this obstacle, it is best to ask questions about the current vendor and try to understand situations where the prospect would consider switching to a new vendor. To do this, the team needs to do its homework before setting up the meeting with the prospect. It needs to research the current vendor and its weaknesses, current business challenges faced by the prospect, and any other relevant information that can gain the attention of the prospect. A prepared sales team can then start a presentation by suggesting solutions for problems or limitations. This can help prevent the prospect from speaking positively about the current vendor.

• High price—Most buyers note price as their primary concern with a product or proposed solution. Sellers who talk about their products or services at the beginning of a conversation will likely end up facing a price objection. Therefore, sellers should focus on the benefits of a product at the beginning of the presentation to avoid this type of objection. In addition, it is a good practice to inform the prospects about the cost savings achieved by using the company’s products or services.

• Budget constraints—With experience, the corporate sales team knows the time of year when prospects set their budgets. The team should meet prospects ahead of the budget cycle to get money allocated in the next budget for their product or service. If that does not happen, the team should try to explain the importance and advantages of the proposed product or service to the prospect. It is possible to get money allocated from the existing budget by diverting funds from lower priority projects.

• Too busy—With so many sellers approaching buyers regarding different types of products and services, it becomes impossible for buyers to listen to each and every proposal. When faced with this obstacle, the seller needs to generate interest by telling prospects about products or services that can make a significantly positive difference to their business. This requires a thorough knowledge of the value proposition.

• Undisclosed objections—Objections that are not stated by prospects need to be understood. These are objections that are noticeable by hesitations or implied reluctance as shown by the prospect’s tone or expressions. It is the responsibility of the seller to ask the prospect questions to encourage the prospect to talk about such objections. The seller can only address these objections when they are revealed.

Please visit www.smstudy.com to learn more about sales conversion.

A sales value proposition clearly communicates how a company’s offering can help a customer achieve better results. It presents measurable business outcomes and helps decision makers understand how the use of a particular product or service will help them. A sales value proposition should convey the following:

• Product features
• Product benefits relevant to the selected target segment
• Business outcomes for a selected target segment

Customer win-loss analysis is a process of understanding why sales opportunities are either won or lost. A careful win-loss analysis is a cost-effective and efficient tool to understand how customers perceive value.

The process for win-loss analysis starts after a sales opportunity has been won or lost. Meetings are held with important stakeholders, including the sales, product, account management, and customer service team members. After this meeting, the win-loss analysis interviewer must know the details of how the lead was generated, the events that took place during the sales process, and the product or products discussed. Customer interviews also need to be scheduled immediately after the opportunity has been won or lost to ensure maximum recall from customers about their experience in the sales process.

Customer feedback may be collected regarding customer perception in the following areas:

• Performance of the corporate sales team
• Quality of marketing materials
• Sales process 
• Product features 
• Comparison with competition
• Pricing

While a win-loss analysis may not possibly solve issues, it will help you understand how your customers or prospects evaluated your product, sales process or marketing practices. A win-loss analysis conducted for an opportunity that was not successful is especially useful. It not only helps you identify issues, but also conveys to the prospect about the importance you ascribe to each sales opportunity. It also offers you a chance to be considered as the next best option for the prospect and increases your chances of the converting the deal given a second opportunity.

Visit www.smstudy.com to learn more ways to understand and create your sales value proposition.

A successful organization needs to be future oriented. Establishing and managing a sales process for a product requires a forward looking goal. Sales forecasting provides that goal. Sales forecasting can be defined as estimating the sales and revenues of a particular product or a range of products for a given period of time. Sales forecasting is crucial not only for providing goals for the sales teams but also for planning and allocating resources. Forecasts are also used for evaluating the performance of sales units or channels.

Various methods of sales forecasting can be used to determine sales targets. The forecasting method used by an organization depends upon the organization’s specific requirements and the nature of the business.  These methods can be divided into two primary types:

• Qualitative Methods: Qualitative methods are subjective in nature. Forecasts are established using consumer expectations, sales force expectations, executive opinions, and the Delphi method.
  • Consumer Expectation: This method of forecasting depends on the response of customers with regards to the expected consumption in the forecasting period. It gives a forecast that is closer to market potential than it is to the expected revenue.
  • Sales Force Expectations: This method of sales forecast uses estimates of the sales force to arrive at the forecast number. Since sales people are closest to customers, they have a good understanding of the market and can often estimate future sales more accurately. These estimates are then adjusted by management, based on the past accuracy of the estimates and other factors, in order to arrive at a final forecast figure.
  • Executive Opinions: This method of sales forecast uses estimates given by the key executives within the company to arrive at the forecast number. These key executives represent various departments in the company, such as sales, finance, operations, marketing, etc. The estimates provided by executives can vary greatly and are often either averaged out to arrive at a forecast, or are determined when general consensus is reached following a group discussion.
  • Delphi Method: In this method, executives are interviewed separately and are asked to give their estimates about the forecast. It is an iterative method in which all the estimates are combined and a summary report is created post iteration. This report is then shared with all the executives who are required to give a revised estimate based on the feedback or arguments from other executives.

• Quantitative methods: Quantitative methods use empirical analysis to make forecasts. Two popular quantitative forecasting methods are time-series analysis and explanatory methods.
  • Time Series Analysis: Time-series analysis is the simplest method for quantitative forecasting. It takes into account historical data and trends to make predictions for the future. Past sales figures, when adjusted for market factors and growth rate, give a good estimate of future sales. Some popular methods used in time-series analysis are moving averages, exponential smoothing, and decomposition of time series.
  • Explanatory Methods: Explanatory methods are different from time-series analysis. They do not use historical sales data to predict future sales, but rather take into account different factors that can affect sales. Tools such as regression and econometric modeling are used to establish causality between other factors affecting sales.

After finalizing the sales forecast, the forecasted revenues are assigned to the sales units as sales targets. The forecasted revenues are further divided and sub-divided into different product units, geographical units, and eventually territories, resulting in targets for individual sales representatives. Since sales targets are directly linked to all sales and marketing and financial objectives, having a good sales forecasting process in place is essential for achieving the company’s overall objectives.

Please visit www.smstudy.com for more details on Qualitative and Quantitative Methods of Sales Forecasting.

In most companies, the sales force is the most critical part of the business; thus determining the sales force size is critical in planning for sales governance. Although the corporate sales team is one of the most valued assets of the company, it can also be expensive to maintain. Increasing the size of the sales force may increase sales volume but at a higher cost to the company. It is therefore necessary to determine the optimal sales force size. The size of the sales force will also affect territory design.

The three most commonly used methods to determine sales force size are as follows:

Breakdown Method

This is the simplest method among the three. In this method, each member of the corporate sales team is assumed to possess the same level of productivity. In order to determine the size of the sales force needed, the total sales figure forecasted for the company is divided by the sales likely to be generated by each individual.

However, this method fails to account for differences in the ability of salespeople and the difference in potential of each market or territory. It treats the sales force as a function of the sales volume, and does not take profitability into account.

Workload Method

The workload method is also known as the buildup method. In this method, the total workload (i.e., the number of hours required to serve the entire market) is estimated. This is divided by the selling time available per salesperson to forecast the size of the sales force. This method is commonly used since it is easy to understand and to recognize the effort required to serve different categories of customers.

However, this method also has some shortcomings. It assumes that all accounts in the same category require the same effort. Other differentiating factors such as cost of servicing, gross margins, etc. are not considered after the accounts are categorized. It also assumes that sales persons are equally efficient, which is generally not true.  One way to overcome this shortcoming is to adjust the sales force size, determined in the last step, for efficiency. The sales force can be classified into different categories based on their efficiency and the actual number of sales persons required can then be calculated with this adjusted number.

Incremental Method

The incremental method is the most precise method to calculate the sales force size. The underlying concept is to compare the marginal profit contribution with the incremental cost for each sales person. The optimal sales force size as per the incremental method is when the marginal profit becomes equal to the marginal cost and the total profit is maximized. Beyond the optimal sales force size, the profit reduces on addition of an extra sales person. Therefore, sales people need to be added as long as the incremental profit exceeds the incremental cost of adding sales people. The main shortcoming associated with this approach is that it is difficult to estimate the additional profit generated by the addition of one salesperson and is therefore difficult to develop.

Thus sales force needs to be properly organized, motivated and compensated in order to have the right size to do the workload, alignment to cover all needs, and keeping them happy and selling. At the end of the day, they are the ones who get the customer to give up their money for the company’s product or service. 

To read more articles about sales and marketing, visit www.smstudy.com/articles

In this competitive age an effective sales organization is supported by marketing assets and includes a proper sales structure. The sales organization and governance must be designed to optimally support sales targets and create visibility into the sales team’s performance to allow for adjustments and course corrections as necessary to ensure that the business meets its sales revenue objectives. Since sales targets are directly linked to all sales and marketing and financial objectives, they are essential components in the achievement of company’s overall objectives.

Most experienced sales teams have an existing sales process. If this is the case, it is important to constantly evaluate, improve, and fine tune different components of the process. A new company, however, must define a sales process by adapting established frameworks to suit the specific needs of the business, leveraging identified strengths, and identifying and filling gaps.

Five Basic Steps in Sales Process

1. Pre-sales—This first step in the sales process involves reviewing the current activities and selling processes. These activities include those carried out from the initial contact with a customer to the final delivery of a product or service. This step allows a developing company to assess its organizational capabilities to carry out the sales process. It includes understanding and strengthening the value proposition for customers. The different channels required to sell products in the future are also determined. Planning sales governance, setting sales targets, setting up the incentive structure for the sales team, and creating the marketing assets is also done at this stage. The sales team is also trained on products as well as the sales process and negotiation to prepare for selling activities.
    
2. Profiling of Target Customers—The first step in the prospecting stage, profiling target customers and decision makers, involves identifying and benchmarking profiling criteria for prospects, as well as decision makers. Characteristics of ideal customers, such as annual budget, are used to benchmark the profiling criteria.
    
3. Lead Generation and Qualification—The second step in the prospecting stage, lead generation, is the act of identifying prospective customers and generating ways to gain new customers. Profiled criteria and benchmarks are used to generate better leads. Lead generation uses various offline and online techniques and can be inbound or outbound.
    
4. Needs Assessment—Conversion starts with understanding customer needs for products or services. This understanding of needs is vital in the conversion process and enables the sales team to demonstrate to the customer how their product can fulfill the customer’s requirements.
    
5. Presentation, Negotiation, and Closure—This is the final stage in the conversion cycle. The corporate sales team presents the features, benefits, and advantages of the proposed products or services that can fulfill the needs of the prospects. At this stage, prospects present their objections to the sales proposal. It is the job of the corporate sales team to overcome these objections to close the deal. 

Understanding these five steps and adapting them to suit the business requirements will help establish a framework for a comprehensive and effective sales process. 

To learn more about the sales process, visit www.smstudy.com

Could a beer seller’s story about their purple wisteria saving the day help you?

When the story is an example of using psychology and emotion-driven sales, it can and probably should. London Pride accomplished this with their advertisement featuring a uniquely ancient wisteria plant: “The purple genus has been steadily scaling our brewery walls since 1816. It’s the oldest in England.”  It seems the Brits value their past, their national pride and their wisteria.

“London Pride beer uses emotion-driven marketing … that hooks the reader with a memorable story about something Londoners are familiar with and proud of,” says Kath Pay in Leveraging Psychology in Digital Marketing.

A Guide to the SMstudy® Sales and Marketing Body of Knowledge (SMstudy® Guide), makes a similar point: “The most popular blogs choose topics that are of interest to a large community. Successful blogs have something interesting, useful, or creative to share, and do that sharing with an engaging style.”

How does one leverage psychology in his or her marketing efforts? SMstudy® Guide’s book Marketing Strategy explains one of the ways: “Psychographic segmentation is primarily used for consumer markets and involves segmenting buyers along one or more psychological variables including, but not limited to, the following—Attitude, Personality, Values, Fears, Lifestyle, and Life stage (e.g., early childhood, youth, young adult, newly married, married with young children, married with teens, empty nester, elderly and retired).” This type of segmentation begins the process of researching and analyzing a target market’s psychological profile.

“To make the path to conversion clear, you must understand the psychological cues that prompt action, and then consider the entire customer journey, using both implicit and explicit directional cues,” says Pay.

How can you find the cues that prompt consumer actions? The SMstudy® Guide helps here, too, suggesting the use of behavioral segmentation and explaining, “There are five variables that can be used for behavioral segmentation.”

Needs: Users are segmented on the basis of their needs related to a product. Here it is important to understand the users’ category and brand purchasing motives, their value systems and their perceptions in order to draw a composite image of each user and his or her needs.

Consumption Behavior: Purchasers may not be the direct consumers or may not be the only consumers for a variety of products. Therefore, consumption patterns for these products should be considered separately.

Purchase Behavior: Users are segmented on the basis of their purchasing patterns. Some of the patterns are non-user, potential user, first-time user, one-time user (also referred to as “one and done purchasing”), repeat user, former user, product/brand loyalty-based user and early adopter.

Communication Behavior: Users are segmented on the basis of how much they communicate about the product with others before, during and after purchasing. In this respect, opinion leaders are particularly influential as they are knowledgeable about, or are regular users of, particular products; are very vocal about their views regarding such products; and command the attention of other potential customers. In addition to examining how these users communicate, it is also important to understand how they prefer to receive communication. For example, what types of media do they consume?

Consumer Purchasing Roles: Consumers can be categorized based on their roles in the purchasing process. Individuals take on one, several or all of the following roles in the purchasing process: initiator, influencer, decider, buyer and user. When segmenting based on consumer purchasing roles, businesses will often target influencers rather than buyers in an effort to connect with those with the most influence on the purchasing behavior of the group.

Looking at the traits that put consumers in each of these categories provides cues to their motivations and the directions those motivations will lead them.

Using some practical suggestions from www.SMstudy.com can help leverage psychology and make people think that buying from you is a good idea. Cheers.

Guts are squishy, often irritable, and can be irregular, yet, many sales and marketing professionals base their practices on “gut feelings” and hunches. 

“Marketing departments will continue to become less dependent on quantifying the value they are delivering to the organization based upon squishy, feel-good branding efforts and they will be even more driven to leverage data and analytics across all marketing channels,” says Russ Hearl, VP at DoubleDutch[1] in a collection of seven sales and marketing predictions for 2016.

To do this, marketing departments will need to borrow some tools and techniques used by other managers in their company. One such tool suggested by SMstudy in its book Marketing Strategy is Value Chain Analysis: “Value Chain Analysis is used to analyze the value created by a company’s current activities. It explores where more value can be added, as well as where value is not being added throughout the chain of activities.”

In addition to “quantifying the value [the marketing department] is delivering to the organization,” the data collected in the Value Chain Analysis can be used as benchmarks for evaluating the company’s existing accounts with a BCG Growth-Share matrix[2]. “Among the many things you should do is start by going backwards, not in how you sell, but how you plan and set yourself up for success,” suggests Tibor Shanto in “It’s A New Year – Let’s Go Backwards.”[3] Identifying which accounts are Cash Cows, Stars and Dogs can give great insights in how the company has set itself up for success in the past.

Shanto says that sales professionals need to make plans for the new year based on data. Among the data required, he includes “some core conversion rates: number of proposals that close, number of real prospects required to generate a REAL proposal, and number of people/companies you’ll need to engage to land one REAL prospect.” Based on a well-developed example, Shanto concludes, “The key is to execute a well-planned strategy, rooted in the real numbers to drive real results.”

“One of the most widely used criteria for lead qualification is BANT, which stands for Budget, Authority, Need, and Time frame,” says the SMstudy® Guide for corporate sales. An analysis in each of these areas produces real numbers that can be used to build successful strategies. SMstudy’s soon-to-be-released Corporate Sales book presents and analyzes the processes of lead generation, lead qualification, needs assessment, negotiation and closure—all within the arena of creating sales strategies that work.

Thinking about sales and marketing from a strategic point of view that leverages data and analytics demands a new approach. That approach is being championed by SMstudy and presented in our six-volume SMstudy® Guide because we want today’s sales and marketing professionals to be tomorrow’s success stories.

Find additional posts on sales and marketing at www.smstudy.com/articles. 

[1] Quoted by Erin Sherbert in “Seven Sales and Marketing Predictions for 2016” (12/7/2015) Salesforce Blog Retrieved on 1/26/2106 from https://www.salesforce.com/blog/2015/12/sales-marketing-predictions-2016.html?d=701300000021KSN&soc=LinkedIn

[2] The BCG Growth-Share matrix by the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) is discussed more fully in SMstudy® Guide; Marketing Strategy, book one of A Guide to the SMstudy Sales and marketing Body of Knowledge (SMBOK® Guide), pages 42+ [available at http://www.smstudy.com/SMBOKGuide/Overview-of-SMstudy-Guide]  

[3] Tibor Shanto. (1/7/2016) “It’s a New Year – Let’s Go backwards.” SellBetter. Retrieved on 1/25/2016 from http://www.sellbetter.ca/its-a-new-year-lets-go-backwards/

As companies continue the eternal pursuit of streamlining, a little bit of universal sales training can yield major benefits. Basic understanding of the aspects of the sales process is a benefit for all members of a company regardless of position or department.

Some very real advances in efficiency can be achieved when everyone speaks the same language.

Ever feel important communications get lost in translation from one branch of a company to the other? Since sales is usually a crucial element of any company, it benefits everyone to have an understanding of sales processes and its terminology.  When everyone speaks the same language, everything goes more smoothly.

According to Will Brooks, executive vice president and director of marketing at The Brooks Group, “Communication is enhanced once everyone is fluent in the selling process, when the dialogue around specific accounts and stages in the buyer’s journey becomes more efficient—both within the sales team and across departments. Congruent terminology and standard definitions of each stage in the buying process reduces miscommunication and unifies the sales and marketing departments.”

Continuity of Message = Efficiency

Another important benefit of universal sales training; the continuity of company communication, both internally and externally. A consistent informed message that permeates a company will make a stronger clearer message to potential customers. As customers are brought in to the sales cycle, they will continue to receive a consistent message that in turn leads to a seamless customer experience. 

Brooks notes, “Customer service can better understand the customer’s needs once they have received sales training, and when marketing understands the sales process, they can provide tools and resources that are aligned with how sales is selling. The promises sales makes to customers should mirror the messages that marketing sends out, and alignment between these departments ensures that’s always happening.”

SMstudy works very well for any company considering a company-wide sales training program. It’s convenient and offers flexible training opportunities that work within the timeframe of a staff members’ busy schedule. The SMstudy Guide® and all its resources, including training videos, study guides, test questions and more, is ideally positioned to provide a positive sales training experience for everyone. 

Find more interesting information on sales and marketing at smstudy.com.

[Spring Eselgroth, VMEdu staff writer contributed to this article.]

Sources:

How Sales Training Can Benefit More Than the Sales Team, Will Brooks. Sept. 21, 2015. https://www.trainingindustry.com/blog/blog-entries/how-sales-training-can-benefit-more-than-the-sales-team.aspx

A salesperson is the one who doesn’t think in term of sales rather believes in building a business.  A set of unique personal attributes along with approach to work makes a complete salesperson. It is always difficult to recruit and retain productive salespeople.

So, Sales training is essential for new sales team members as well as experienced professionals to hone their skills to deliver results. As the various Aspects of Sales and Marketing change over time, it is necessary for the corporate sales team to receive training on a regular basis. Sales training keeps the corporate sales team up-to-date about changes in the market, new sales techniques, gaps in existing processes, and changes in the industry with respect to PESTEL factors.

The corporate sales team is the company’s first point of contact with its customers.  Therefore, sales training for corporate sales team should be comprehensive and cover the entire range of processes, tools, and skills required from prospecting to closure.  And in designing sales training programs, the requirements and experience levels of the sales team members are taken into consideration.  If sales training does not match the team’s level of proficiency, it will not be effective and, its value may be questioned by the team.

Sales training should impart the following to the corporate sales team:

• Knowledge of sales processes: Sales training teaches the corporate sales team about the various processes involved in the sales cycle—prospecting, lead generation, qualification, needs assessment, presentation, and closure. For example, CRM training is essential for a sales team to learn how to plan sales activities by using a customer database to develop target lists and identify customer needs and customer potential for specific products and services.

• Knowledge of the industry, market, and target segment: This includes knowledge about competitors, understanding of the target segments, knowledge of macro-environmental factors that affect the industry, and knowledge of industry practices. For example, a supplier of manufacturing equipment needs to understand the production processes of its customers which will allow them to provide definite product recommendations to its customers to improve productivity, eliminate waste, or reduce manufacturing costs.

• Soft Skills: Soft Skills or People Skills are the personal traits that define an individual's ability to communicate and interact with others. The six critical soft-skills for sales person are communication, flexibility, teamwork, positivity, time management and confidence. Soft skills help the corporate sales team develop and maintain good relationships with prospects and customers.

• Knowledge of tools and marketing resources: In addition to understanding the CRM system, sales personnel need to be aware of existing marketing resources such as presentation templates, e-mail templates, videos and other internal and external marketing assets that can be used during the sales process. For example, In L’Oreal a gap was seen in product knowledge within its sales team, so they carry out an e-learning program for empowering their team.

• Motivation: Motivating the corporate sales team is necessary to prevent lags and burnout. Motivational training is more important for existing corporate sales team members than new ones because of their longer exposure to achieving sales targets. For example, Best Buy Company used Path to Excellence initiative. Best Buy awarded sales force badges to ones who implemented concepts taught in training and badges led to four distinct levels of recognition, ranging from bronze to platinum.

• Business values and ethics: A corporate sales team that demonstrates good business values and ethics will have a significant effect on the success of the organization. The corporate sales team must be trained on business values and ethics, irrespective of their experience prior to joining the company. 

There are various modes of delivering sales training to the corporate sales team:

• Classroom Training:  An instructor in a lecture hall or classroom typically conducts classroom training. This provides a setting for participants to learn new skills and concepts, and to practice and demonstrate the learned skills.

• E-learning:  In e-learning situations, training is delivered through electronic media and allows sales team to brush up their product knowledge. E-learning can be provided through instructor-led virtual sessions, using on-demand content stored in a central repository, or through online forums for collaborative learning.

• Libraries/Repositories:  Corporate sales team can use industry reports, sales books, research data, and other texts to increase knowledge about the industry and to improve existing sales processes.

• On-the-Job Training: For effective real world training, new sales team members are paired with senior sales team members to learn actual sales processes. On-the-job training is traditionally the most commonly used mode of sales training. In Walgreens, “Well Experience” training was given in pharmacy environment to get a hands-on experience. They used games like merchandise scavenger hunts for sales team to familiarize with new store layouts.

Sales training can be carried out using a combination of the above modes of training based on company requirements. Continuous sales training is recommended for the corporate sales team. 

A company enjoying a good reign must possess an assortment of umbrellas.

Beneath the wide umbrella of Corporate Strategy exists a smaller umbrella known as Corporate Marketing Strategy, which covers Business Unit and Geographic Strategies. Those, in turn, are further divided into particular Product or Brand Strategies for each product or brand.

This figure illustrates the relationship between the various strategies:

The Corporate Marketing Strategy is defined at a corporate level and outlines the overall marketing goals for the company. These general marketing goals drive more specific marketing strategies for each of the company’s business units or geographies. Each business unit or geography defines its own goals, which become relevant inputs for each area’s particular product or brand marketing strategies. Each product or brand marketing strategy defines sales and marketing objectives for each product or brand, which drive specific tactics that align with and often rely on other Marketing Aspects identified in the SMstudy® Guide (Marketing Research, Digital Marketing, Corporate Sales, Branding and Advertising and Retail Marketing).

Here is an example of Levels of Sales and Marketing Strategy:

Land Development Company

• Corporate Level—A land development company wants to grow to be among the top three land development companies in its state.
• Business Unit/Geographic Level—The land development company operates two business units: residential and retail. A goal of the residential business unit is to grow that unit by 12 percent within one year; a goal of the retail business unit is to grow that unit by 10 percent within the same time period.
• Product/Brand Level—Within the residential business unit, the company sells three products: condominiums, town homes and singles. The singles Product Marketing Strategy identifies an objective to grow the sale of single units by 15 percent. To achieve this objective, the teams responsible for building strategy within the various Aspects of Marketing establish specific objectives that are designed to support the overall product objectives and to align with one another.
• Marketing Aspect Level­—The company’s greatest strength is the fact that it is an award-winning leader in green sustainable development. Therefore, the branding and advertising team builds specific tactics that incorporate an increase in reach of its messaging around sustainable development. One specific tactic is to leverage billboard and newspaper advertising with the objective of increasing reach of green messaging by 30 percent. The digital marketing team incorporates tactics to support the objective of increasing the green sustainable development messaging, stressing the importance of this trend and positioning the company as a leader in the industry through the use of various social media channels. One specific tactic is to leverage blogs and online public relations with the objective of increasing the company's rankings in online searches related to keywords such as “sustainable development.” The tactics of each Marketing Aspect are aimed at achieving their own specific objectives; however, both support the overall singles Product Strategy objective of achieving a 15 percent growth in sales for this product line.

When seeking sustained success, a company should equip and adhere to a comprehensive Corporate Marketing Strategy. That umbrella has you covered.

Just because we’re in the twenty-first century doesn’t mean that all the earlier avenues of Sales and Marketing are obsolete. Some consumer goods companies still spend a good chunk of their marketing budget on conventional mass media marketing. Sometimes a seller’s marketplace is still your best bet for items with a limited number of producers, or where the production is highly regulated by the government or controlled by monopolies or duopolies. And traditional marketplaces continue to flourish today in some regions of the world.

The point is that sales and marketing isn’t anything new—it’s not even replacing earlier marketing practices. You can think of sales and marketing approaches as a continuum along which recent innovations co-exist with earlier practices. And any given company’s sales and marketing teams are the ones to make the strategic decisions that will work best to achieve the company’s wishes and needs. To do this, they need to keep in mind what works best with their potential consumers.

Sales and marketing students can find it tough to wade through various authors’ and teachers’ perspectives, which can come across as unpractical or outdated. The truth is that any authority on sales and marketing will vary according to individual or industry preferences and experiences on both the timeline and the map.

The SMstudy® Guide aims to simplify these biases by not limiting the concepts to the perspective of any particular author or industry. The SMstudy® Guide was developed by VMEdu, Inc., a professional education provider that has educated over 400,000 students worldwide in more than 3,500 companies. The fifty plus authors, advisors and reviewers of this book have worked in multiple marketing environments and geographic regions across an eclectic variety of industries. Thus, the insights provided in this book provide a comprehensive detail of the principles and concepts related to sales and marketing. It also articulates an action-oriented process approach that can be used by sales and marketing practitioners to gain a better understanding of the subject, and then construct a comprehensive and effective Sales and Marketing Strategy for their companies, including all relevant Aspects of Sales and Marketing.

A company that hopes for a prosperous future must have a sound plan. In the world of Sales and Marketing this is called Corporate Strategy.

Corporate Strategy is the overall direction of the company, defined by senior management, that takes into consideration an assessment of the existing capabilities of the company and external opportunities and threats. It usually coincides with the immediate future fiscal period or it could be developed with a longer-term view, such as a three-year plan.

It is important to understand the overall Corporate Strategy and its relationship to sales and marketing. The Marketing Strategy works within the direction provided by the overall Corporate Strategy of the company and also interacts with other elements of the Corporate Strategy.

Corporate Strategy is a combination of the following:

• Senior Management Direction and Insights: This is provided by senior management based on their experiences and insights related to the business.
• Corporate Product Strategy: This defines the products or services the company offers and the research and development efforts required to create them.
• Corporate Marketing Strategy: This defines how the company will target, position, market and sell the planned products and defines metrics, targets and budgets for all marketing activities.
• Corporate Operations Strategy: This defines how the company will manage operational activities, manufacture its products and provide the corresponding customer support and warranty.
• Corporate Finance Strategy: This defines how the company will manage its finances, attain funding and financially sustain its operations. The Finance Strategy should include forecasts and projections and summarize costs, income and investments.
• Corporate Human Resource Strategy: This maps the human resource capabilities within the company and considers talent management and acquisition needs to sustain growth.

Here are the components of Corporate Strategy:

Typically, companies have existing documentation regarding their component strategies. These must be considered in an integrated manner to define a coherent Corporate Strategy. The level and complexity of documentation for these strategies may vary depending on the size of the company and the breadth of its product portfolio and geographic reach. If formal documentation of these strategies is not available—for instance, as with a start-up company—the teams involved in strategic planning should consider the various strategies and decide on an overall Corporate Strategy, which can then become a benchmark to execute future plans. The SMstudy® Guide framework is a great help in this endeavor.

Finalizing the company’s Corporate Strategy can be a time-consuming and rigorous exercise that requires inputs from multiple stakeholders, particularly senior management. It is advisable to execute strategic planning exercises at appropriate and specific time intervals, such as once or twice a year, and then finalize a Corporate Strategy on which senior management and the heads of strategy teams agree. Following this process will help to ensure that the leadership team has coherently defined goals and strategies that align with the overall strategic goals of the organization.

The Corporate Strategy can be divided into lower level strategies depending on the complexity of the organization. For example, the Corporate Strategy for an entire company can be divided into strategies for each business unit or geographic region such as country, state, or city, and then subdivided further into a Product or Brand Strategy for each product or brand in a business unit or geographic region. The Product or Brand Strategy is the lowest level in this hierarchy.

This illustrates the relationship between Corporate Strategy, Business Unit/Geographic Strategy and Product/Brand Strategy:

Corporate strategy is an umbrella under which many components of a company plan for future profitability. When that umbrella operates at full force, the forecast calls for raining money. 

There are six Aspects of Sales and Marketing, and you can read about them all in the SMstudy® Guide.

1. Marketing Strategy
2. Marketing Research
3. Digital Marketing
4. Corporate Sales
5. Branding and Advertising
6. Retail Marketing

These six aspects are based on the six most common and distinct career fields related to sales and marketing. You can see here how they interact with each other.

The dotted lines encase the “Essential Marketing Aspects,” both of which are mandatory and should be used to define, measure and provide direction for the overall marketing efforts of a company. 

The other four Aspects are “Optional Marketing Aspects” because one or more of them could be used by a company to reach its marketing goals and, in some instances, not all are applicable. For example, a small company creating phone apps or online games might only use Digital Marketing; another company manufacturing heavy equipment might use Corporate Sales only; and a large consumer goods company or global fashion chain might decide to use all four Optional Marketing Aspects to reach its marketing goals. 

Marketing Strategy describes how the Aspect of Marketing Strategy aligns with a company’s overall Corporate Strategy and acts as a unifying framework to define and analyze the other Aspects of Sales and Marketing. It also helps align all the marketing resources among all Aspects.

Marketing Research explains the concepts of Marketing Research and provides a framework for conducting marketing research and to analyze Sales and Marketing data. It also demonstrates how marketing research findings can help the marketing team conceptualize and finalize product features and other components of a company’s Marketing Strategy.

Digital Marketing includes all marketing activities that use electronic devices connected to the Internet to engage with customers such as computers, tablets and smartphones. These include activities related to creating and managing effective websites and mobile apps as well as promoting a company’s products and brand through various online channels that help meet the company’s marketing objectives.

Corporate Sales outlines the best practices and processes to be followed for effective business-to-business sales. It provides guidance on activities related to building and maintaining strong business relationships.

Branding and Advertising includes concepts of product branding, consumer behavior, marketing communication, and public relations. Branding is the process of creating a distinct image of a product or range of products in the customer's mind. This image communicates the promise of value the customer will receive from the product or products. Branding should remain consistent across all channels of customer communications.

Retail Marketing presents concepts of all marketing activities related to persuading the end customer to purchase a company's products at a physical retail outlet or store, and efficiently managing the supply chain and distribution channels to improve the reach and sales for a company’s products.

Sales and marketing, though sharing the same objective, differ significantly. Sales can be considered the last stage of marketing. It would be interesting to explore how they differ, but we will reserve that discussion for another day. In this post, let us look at an equally interesting topic of how sales and marketing have evolved over time. Let us begin with one of the earliest forms of sales and marketing: the barter system.

More than a thousand years ago, when coins and other forms of money were not yet popular, the typical and most common way people procured their products or services was through the barter system--the direct exchange of goods or services without the use of money. For example, a farmer might have exchanged some of his harvest with a carpenter for some wooden furniture. Sales and marketing with the barter system relies on having access to the appropriate persons with whom things can be exchanged for mutual value. Then came the traditional marketplace.

The growing popularity of coins and other forms of money as a medium of exchange gave rise to the traditional marketplace in which producers such as farmers, craftsmen, and carpenters created products, sold wares from shops, and shouted out to crowds of potential customers in order to promote their products. Traditional marketplaces are usually small markets where price negotiations and other decisions related to sales are made quickly, often by one or two persons. Next came the sellers marketplace.

The Industrial Revolution in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries marked a shift toward mass production in factories such as textile manufacturing. Goods were produced more efficiently and economically and could be sold to a wider market. This created the sellers marketplace. The main objective of the sellers marketplace is to establish a supply chain to procure products and then establish a distribution channel to sell the products to a wide variety of customers, often referred to as mass marketing This was followed by conventional mass media marketing. We will discuss this along with the innovative fragmented new-age marketing of the twenty-first century in the next post. Until then, keep selling!