How can I sell something if I don't know why someone would buy it?

Last we we introduced the three internal issues we believe are the key to creating a successful sales team; Message, Environment and Resources. As promised we are going to look at each area in more detail and share some of our experiences of how these have been addressed by successful sales organisations.

The first area we are going to focus on is the Message, which we describe as "sales ready messages". These need to be explicit and to enable customers and sales people to understand them and act upon them. The message is in reality the "WIIFM" (What's in it for me) for all audiences.

We already have Messages, it's what marketing do
We need to be clear from the outset, the Messages we are talking about here are not the standard marketing collateral which are themselves very important. What we are talking about are the tactical and, most importantly practical, messages that sales people should be able to use to engage with a customer, identify if they have a need and quickly qualify whether they are likely to be a prospect. These messages are the sharp end of the sales engagement, a pre-requsite in any end-to-end sales enablement process.

This is not your typical "glossy" or brochure
The easiest way to understand the importance of the message is to give you an example.

A multi-national organisation has decided to run a focussed campaign on promoting their latest "state-of-the art" solution. They have an award winning website that contains a range of information on the product including in-depth technical briefings. The objective of the sales campaign is to get their largest channel partner to initially target their existing customer base to offer them a competitively priced upgrade, with a view to selling additional services and applications on the back of this.

On the face of it they have everything that the sales team need to be able to execute a successful campaign, literature, some slides on potential configurations, the standard corporate presentation, analyst white papers on the value of their solution. Who could ask for more?

Does this marketing literature enable sales people to engage?
When we received the literature we asked ourselves some fundamental questions, the ones that a sales person who needs help would ask.

• Can you describe the customer problem we are addressing?
• Why would a customer want to upgrade now?
• What must the customer have in place to take advantage of the upgrade?
• What is the best way of engaging with a customer?
• Who is the target audience?
• Do I need to meet or can we do it all over the phone?
• What sales support do I get ?
• How do I differentiate from other solutions?
• Is it easy for the customer to buy and for me to sell?

Now on the face of it a good salesman should be able to answer these questions from all of the available literature. But you have to remember the reality of a sales person:

• They are being asked to sell multiple products, why should they sell this one?
• They have targets to hit, they will always take the path of least resistance
• Not all sales people are prepared to invest time to translate the myriad of content into an effective message.
• Those who do create their own message may be "off message", but if it works for them why should they care?

When we finished our initial audit of the existing content we discovered some gaps in the content, specifically there was an assumption that a specific technology would be available, it was not, as such all the literature promoted features and advantages that could not be delivered yet.

Interestingly when we spoke to the channel sales team they knew all of this, it was just the product marketing team who were unaware of this. Perhaps they had become too product centric in all their thinking and not customer centric.

So what did we all agree to do?

1. Create a story that both the sales team and the customer would understand - because we needed to start selling now and could not wait for technology to be available, we built a story that allowed sales to:
1. Identify specific customer types and map these to specific solutions
2. Link the solutions to a story that tells the customer what they will achieve in the short-term, medium term and long-term
2. Devise an engagement process that used an initial call to arrange a meeting whose objective is to review the customer's current solution, identify what needs to be done to meet the current and future needs and then propose a solution
3. To provide the sales team with specific content for the calls, meeting agenda and structure for the face-to-face meeting, 5-6 slides which can be used in the meeting.
4. Provide a briefing to all sales people explaining what we are doing, why we are doing it, what's in it for them, how we are helping them.

The customer is very happy with this approach as it allows them to go to market now with a clear engagement strategy which they can measure against. The channel partner is happy as they have clarity as to what they need to ask their sales people to do, and they have all the engagement material.

What can you, the reader, learn from this?

We have learnt a number of lessons over the last five years of putting these types of messages together and here are the top 3

• You should not assume that your sales team will analyse the information marketing provide and turn it into "engagement ready" material. You may have a limited number of sales people who do this, but these are the self starters who are already over-achieving against target
• You should not assume that marketing will provide this type of material unless you ask for it. Marketing focusses on the two key areas of, Product focussed information and Top level strategic, brand enhancing messages. They assume that sales will connect these to engagement activities. Sales need to ask for help
• Think sales engagement when creating the message and keep it simple. Remember, as sales people we will always take the path of least resistance. If it is too complicated it will not be used.

The acid test is do you feel confident to engage with a prospect using the information provided, if not why do you think your sales people will? If you do feel confident then engage with a customer and test it.

Just because you have a good message does not mean sales will engage customers

As we said in last weeks post, having a good message alone will not guarantee success. Next week we will examine what we need to do to focus on getting the right "sales environment"

Be prepared to ask for help

If you are not happy with your approach to your Messages feel free to contact Accredit. We can give you quick feedback just by placing a comment on this blog, or we can work with you to ensure you are best placed to start drive the activities that will help you be successful.

Do you want to know more?

Either read our "Helping business drive sales" document or contact either Mark Savinson or Fred Nelson and let Accredit help enable your sales organisation to maximise the opportunities your product set creates.