Selling better case study: How to do it properly

Here is a brief snap shot of the current results of a major “Selling Better” project we started with one of our clients in 2015. The company has 60 salespeople, plus managers, and is a mid-tier speciality banking and finance company, Australia.

• 130% of sales budget year to date;
• Sales pipeline of confirmed business out to 24 weeks versus previous 14 week benchmark;
• Sales team realignment to match higher value customer market opportunities;
• Sales team finding and winning larger, more profitable sales with better quality clients;
• Customer retention (of the right kind of customers) at 100%;
• The CVP (customer value proposition) has been adopted across the whole sales team and business;
• The NPS (net promoter score) has lifted significantly;
• Regular and effective coaching happening across the sales team;
• Sales process has been adopted across the business and now is common practice, creating a shared common language;
• Better career paths and opportunities for team have been created;
• Chief executive fully endorsed and supported the change initiative; and
• This “Selling Better” project is one of four company-wide projects and has taken the lead in facilitating a complete culture and mindset shift across the whole organisation towards customer centricity and being sales fit, which has led to changes in operations, risk, and fulfilment to deliver great customer experience.

This is just some of the feedback we received last week from the national sales director of the company.

This feedback is a direct result of a two-year sales strategy and operations plan that his team and ours developed and implemented to help his sales team and overall business sell better.

It started with the Barrett Sales Strategy & Operations Audit and Planning Process in February 2015, which defined the sales strategy and go-to-market action plan, and a 50-point action plan to set the business up to deliver a robust sales strategy, sales process, and sales team capability.

What did we do to engineer the process and make this sales transformation project work so successfully?

Together, over two years, we implemented the following:

• focused sales strategy and sales market segmentation;
• sales messaging and CVP;
• sales operations framework;
• sales process mapping and resources refinement;
• sales benchmarking;
• sales scorecard;
• sales role clarity and competency framework (job descriptions);
• sales leadership benchmarks;
• sales leadership development in sales coaching;
• customised ongoing sales training (classroom, infield, online, using 70:20:10 model);
• continuous infield coaching support all underpinned by bloody good sales leadership; and
• team work, project management, and regular and effective communication.

Needless to say, this sales director is very happy. His sales scorecard is glowing. His chief financial officer and chief executive officer are singing him and his team praises, and are continuing to promote the immense value of such a well-planned change initiative that has led to better sales and customer satisfaction outcomes. And this is just the beginning.

We both agreed that this is what happens when you do sales transformation programs properly.

Remember everybody lives by selling something.

Sue Barrett is the founder and chief executive of the innovative and forward thinking sales advisory and education firm, Barrett and the online sales education & resource platform www.salesessentials.com. Striving to develop and deliver better sales standards and strategies to help people and businesses sell better, Sue is a sales philosopher, strategist, speaker, trainer, writer, adviser and selling better activist.