Guided Selling Is The Cornerstone
"Especially for a scaling business, they can deliver focus, alignment and consistency. And when you are scaling a revenue operation, they can be critical. They are a cornerstone of an effective sales process."
Matthew Kelleher
Chief Revenue Officer
High stakes narrative
- A strategic sales narrative that positions your solution as the answer to their pain. One that creates high stakes and a clear reason to move away from the status quo. Championing a movement and not being an arrogant doctor?
Cost of inaction
- Can they create Irrefutable pain and value impact that creates an urgency to change and a reason why inaction is not an option? Are they doubling down on ROI, not COI?
Buyer based exit criteria
- Is your team working on a defined sales process with clear guidelines on buyer-based exit criteria that are specific and can be verified? Do they know the skills needed to achieve the exit criteria or are multiple deals stuck?
Real deal management
- Does your team have a robust qualification method in place to navigate the deal, identify what's next, and disqualify quickly? Are they referring occasionally to something generic and ignoring critical components like quantifying the cost of inaction and establishing a critical event?
Enabling champions
- Is your team multi-threading and creating more than one champion? Are they enabling these champions to sell on your behalf? Are they actually champions? No champion(s) = no deal
Deepest discovery
- Most deals are won and lost at discovery. Does your team know how to identify and quantify pain and structure the meeting to ensure momentum is created? And are they doing it?
A need to scale
- Scaling is problematic if there isn't a repeatable model, consistency or alignment to a sales approach. It causes missed opportunities and slower growth. Aligning to an effective sales process, method, and message creates repeatability and improves win and growth rates
Founder-led selling
- Founders that are good at selling can continue to be involved and become a growth limiter to the business by not developing their C level skills and clipping the wings of the sales leader. Distilling the founders sales best practice into a sales playbook allows the rest of the sales orgs to kick on
Process alignment
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Sales teams using different sales approaches prevents benchmarking and insight into what is and isn't working. Alignment to a single method creates consistency, that consistency enables you to establish what is and isn't working
Make b2b sales easier
- Sellers aren't hitting targets because B2B sales is tough. Sellers don't have the proper training or level of sales enablement. Guided sales playbooks that distil best practices and guide the seller so they are more likely to achieve the in-stage exit criteria improve win rates and target attainment
Remove instability
- Ineffective sales execution causes instability. Distilling and reinforcing best practices throughout the process means that sales interactions are more likely to lead to another. This improves win rates and target attainment
Replicate success
- Expanding into new markets or segments, it can be challenging to replicate the success of the initial sales team. A sales playbook can help capture the best practices of top-performing salespeople and provide a roadmap for others to follow
Help sales leadership
- Help your sales leadership with a framework to manage and motivate the team
Reduce unspoken tension
- In scale mode, investor accountability can create tension between sales leadership and the C Suite. A guided sales playbook that is agreed upon by everyone can act as a contract, allowing sales leaders to do their jobs without interference
Ramp faster
- Sales playbooks get your new hires on the same page and fully productive faster