BLOGGING WITH KA

Thu, 04 Mar 2010

Monetizing Sales and Marketing Investments

THE ENGAGEMENT PROCESS

Monetizing Investment in Sales and Marketing

More and more pressure is being placed on Demand Creation- both Sellers and Marketers- to generate qualified leads that hopefully lead to net new logos. Metrics are being gathered and analyzed to know how many leads were converted to a sale and everything in between on the sales "process" flowchart.

CSO Insights offers an annual research paper detailing industry averages for ratios such as leads-to-presentation, presentation-to-proposal, and proposal-to-close.

The industry is not at a loss for vendors peddling their sales and marketing automation wares. Suffice it to say that with CRM advancements, key activities can be tracked and measured. Except one. The Engagement Process.

In an article written by Tony Jaros, Sirius Decisions, he illuminates the "why not" around sales and marketing practices.

"Ask the engineers at General Electric how to manufacture jet engines, and you'll get a set of documents detailing a painstaking process followed by everyone with razor-like precision. Ask the software designers at Microsoft how they built Windows, and you'll get a hard-and-fast list of code provided in stepwise fashion. But ask these same companies the process they use to sell their jet engines, software or services, and you'll likely get as many different answers as people you ask."

While part of this may be true for some companies, over 93% lack a defined engagement process that can be taught, monitored, measured, and hold people accountable with full transparency.

Why not? Some say that a manager cannot be on every call with the rep and rationalize that the verbal debrief is effective.We call this subjective. Some say that selling has its own "style" and should not be disturbed by "scripted" or "canned" pitches. We couldn�t disagree more. Some say that every buyer is unique and requires slightly differing approaches and therefore intuition. We say intuition cannot be taught.

If your goal is to improve Demand Creation and Demand Monitoring in order to monetize investments and improve results, all the automation in the world will only report bad news from a flawed or non-existent Engagement Process.

Knowledge Advantage's Dimensions of Success Engagement Process will help your team "jet" to the top with the reliability and effectiveness of a GE Aircraft engine!

Free Download: Dimensions of Success (PDF)

Conducting Effective Sales Meetings

Advertising Gallery

VIDEO BLOG
This text will be replaced

PODCASTS
This text will be replaced

CLICK ON A LINK BELOW TO PLAY.
These podcasts focus on a day in the life of how real sales people use our system to overcome common challenges.

Going around your customer contact
Despite the warning, you feel it is the right thing to do to have this dialogue with an executive that you have been told explicitly to not call on.

Slowing down a customer's buying decision
How to use the Fast Path Assessment with your prospect or customer to slow down or rethink their decision to go with your competitor.

Attempting to intercept your competitor's sale
Initial dialogue with an executive after you have learned they are about to award a major piece of business to one of your competitors.

3rd party consultant keeping you at arms length
Dialogue introducing your intentions to go around a 3rd party consultant who is blocking or preventing you from doing your job on behalf of your customer or prospect.

WEBINARS

KA Overview

Curse of the Commons

Expect More... Get More...

Hard Way vs Easy Way - The Napkin

The only set of sales execution standards built and approved by buyers.

Are you employing the same sales methods today that you used 25 years ago?

Times have changed and so have your customers. Our platform is built specifically on customer preferences and recommendations.

Today’s fast-paced business climate doesn’t allow decision makers to sit through countless meetings with salespeople who may, or may not, be able to help them.

We’ll help you replace outdated and ineffective “interrogations” with thoughtful pre-call planning and selling techniques. We’re unlike conventional sales training programs that focus entirely on salespeople – and what they can “get” from their customers.

Your customers will really appreciate the time savings, proactive consultation and your understanding of their challenges and requirements. You can exceed your sales goals by centering on your customer and executing to their performance expectations.

 

Create and sustain a high performance sales culture.

Is your company’s sales culture what it should be?

You can develop a culture devoted to delighting customers and exceeding sales goals.

Providing the right training, tools and support is the best thing you can do to mold your sales force, let them know that you care about their personal success, and create a vibrant, high performing culture.

Our integrated approach ensures that your reps maximize their limited time, understand their customer’s requirements and receive ongoing feedback to ensure their behaviors are consistent with your company’s goals.

The result? A stable, high performing sales organization focused on serving customers and exceeding sales expectations.

 

Help your sales managers become effective coaches.

Have you given your sales managers the support they deserve?

Developing your sales management capability is the most important thing you can do to impact your culture.

That’s because sales managers have the ability to leverage smaller groups to create large-scale change and sustain long-term behavior.

Though the importance of good coaching is undisputed, the opportunity often goes unrealized by many sales organizations.

Our platform recognizes the key role of sales managers and equips them with the training, technology and ongoing support they require to become the leaders you need them to be.

 

Make sure your sales reps are productive, and not “just” busy.

Sure, your sales reps are busy, but are they productive?

Independent research has repeatedly shown that poor performing sales reps work just as hard as high performers.

However, the manner in which reps manage their time and activities is usually the difference between success and failure.

Our simple, yet proven methods help salespeople effectively execute against their sales objectives. Our proprietary suite of selling tools is designed to quickly separate good opportunities from bad and maximize the amount of meaningful time your team spends with customers.

By streamlining processes associated with account and pre-call planning, qualifying meetings and on-going customer interaction, your sales staff will be able to spend productive time with more customers.

And that’s good for business.

 

Transform your sales force from interrogators to collaborators.

Are your salespeople using “sell-to” or “sell-with” techniques?

Our methodology transforms standard “questioning” techniques to “collaborative dialogues”.

Knowledge-Advantage will enhance your team’s customer interactions and extend the value of your basic selling skills program.

That’s because most basic selling platforms focus inward on salesperson behavior and not on customer needs. While those basic selling skills are critical to sales development, they only mark the beginning of the training journey – not the end.

And here’s the big secret. Making customer needs the top priority is not at odds with company goals. In fact, when that alignment occurs, both suppliers and customers benefit. Replace your internally focused, static planning processes with jointly owned customer plans.