No one really knows how life will be different, post-Covid 19, or how selling in the B2B virtual world will change beyond the obvious. What we do know is that it will be different, and that driving sales will be more important than ever to driving profitable grown and capturing market share. That said, the stakes are actually higher. We not only need to sell smarter, with less actual customer contact, but we need to change our sales practices in a way that produces geometric and sustainable revenue growth. That means selling differently, while creating a corporate asset, which makes driving future business that much easier – increasing sales capacity and reaching quota sooner. But, there’s a challenge.
The asset we’re talking about is invisible. It’s made up of values and operating principles that influence and shape how we sell. Skilled sellers drive business, but not if their hands are tied, and that brings us to sales culture. For example, look back at a recent customer presentation. Was it all about your company and offerings? Or, did it first present how your offerings would advance a customer corporate executive priority, conveying strong value, insight, and thought leadership? Did it then map into the customer initiatives that they are depending on to advance that priority, along with the customer groups that will be key to enabling those initiatives, such as IT or perhaps marketing? Understanding this creates an opportunity to contribute to an entire customer value-chain vs. a single point of customer contact that often resides in operations.
So, the question is – what does your company value? Customer contribution and experience (CCX) or perpetuating an inward focus, perhaps evidenced by generic marketing messages that scale to near zero customer value. The difference is the distinction between selling for a company that has a Client-Centric Culture vs. a client-disruptive Looking Glass Culture.
Winning the battle and growing in strength is all about putting the customer first, as evidenced by your sales actions and the customer intimacy they drive, to win business and strengthen your company’s culture. Do both and you make future sales campaigns more successful, incur less business development cost, and actually shorten sales cycles.
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