Sales is one of the hardest jobs in any organization. There are daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, and yearly commitments to be made. And in organizations really serious about sales growth, a good portion of the salesperson’s compensation is at risk.
Sales and its sustained growth are requirements for long-term financial success in any organization. During my own career in technology sales, I lived by the mantra, “If you ain’t growing, you’re dying.” Done right, sales drives revenue. In turn, sales drives increases in profit margins, net income, and shareholder value (e.g., earnings per share). No sales, no growth. Period.
“If you ain’t growing, you’re dying.”
Yet the responsibility for improvement is not the sole purview of the salesperson. There are many building blocks to a successful sales growth strategy. They include marketing, sales support, contract administration, finance, billing, customer service, operations, implementation and post-implementation services, and virtually everyone in your organization, from the CEO on down.
In my view, everyone is a salesperson.
EVERYONE IS ACCOUNTABLE FOR GROWTH
Everyone is accountable for growing your organization. A sense of urgency, timely responses to emails and phone calls, and the prioritization of customer-impacting issues over internal projects and reports are some of the ways these other functional groups can help support sales growth.
If you’re looking for a simple way to keep everyone in your organization focused on your sales growth strategy, here’s an idea. Invest in a set of building blocks, like the ones you see in the image above. Spell out your growth strategy (I chose “sales” in my example). Then hand a building block to a representative from each functional area. Ask each person to display their spelled-out block word on his or her desk as a daily reminder. Bring them to your weekly team meetings. During each meeting, ask the block holders to report on what they’ve done in the time since you last met to support your strategy to grow your organization.
If your sales results are not meeting your growth expectations, take a closer look around the organization. Are the building blocks of a successful sales strategy in place?
Photography Source: © Copyright 2018, The Chief Storyteller®, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
