3 Challenges World-Class Sales Organizations Are Facing Differently
Written by: Wael Farah, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
For decades the differentiation war was fought on the product/services front, with companies looking to achieve functional superiority, specialization, and/or pricing advantages over the competition. However, over the past few years collapsing product life cycles have significantly shortened the time period where you can have a competitive edge based on what you sell. And solid customer experience is now the base requirement for doing business.
This is where companies started to shift their focus from “What to Sell” to “How to Sell” in order to create a competitive advantage in their marketplace. Surveying more than 1000 companies across the globe as part of CSO Insights now under the Miller Heiman Group, sales organizations that invested heavily in their people, processes, and commercial excellence showed a significant edge among their competitors:
17% improvement in revenue attainment
21% more salespeople are achieving their targets.
31% increase in their closing ratios
43% reduction in salesforce turnover
Challenges in today’s world and their best-fit solutions
Challenge 1: The sophistication of the customer expectations
Customer-Centricity: A customer-centric approach to sales can drive long-term growth and success for sales organizations by enhancing customer satisfaction, increasing sales revenue, improving sales productivity, and reducing customer churn.
This means understanding the customer's needs and preferences, providing personalized solutions and experience, as well as delivering a high level of support and service. To build a customer-centric sales process, you need to evolve the way your sales team relates to customers and consistently put your sales team in the shoes of customers every day and work to integrate the customer experience across pre-and post-sales.
Thus organizations are restructuring their sales & marketing teams to create less independent silos across departments and move into a Pod structure putting all the roles & focus on their customers.
Organizations are adopting a formal or in the best case scenario a dynamic client-centric sales process, where clients see their salespeople as long-term and trusted partners whose contributions – products, insights, processes, etc. – are viewed as key to their client’s long-term success.
Challenge 2: The new sales channels and innovations in the business landscape
Customer Digital Transformation: Successful sales organizations are leveraging digital tools and platforms to reach their customers and prospects. This includes utilizing CRM systems, social media, virtual events, and AI-powered analytics to optimize their sales process and gain insights into customer behavior. Successful sales organizations are using data and analytics to make informed decisions and drive performance. This includes analyzing customer data to identify trends and opportunities, tracking sales performance metrics, and using predictive analytics to forecast future sales.
B2B Leaders have diversified their business model into an omnichannel one; this transition embraces the inclusion of a digital service and a new sales approach to boost customer-centricity.
Buyers have shown a clear preference for cross-channel offerings, that is choosing between in-person, remote, and digital self-serve interactions in equal measure.
Overall, the self-serve option of e-commerce has significantly grown since last year; hence the need to be Omnichannel is imperative.
Two-thirds of customers tend to lean towards remote human interactions or digital self-service.
Challenge 3: Retaining good sales talent
Adopting a Common Vision & Culture: Creating and adopting a common vision and culture across sales teams can help align everyone towards the same goals and values, resulting in increased collaboration, higher morale, and improved performance. Thus, reducing salespeople and leaders turnover.
This is where leaders in the market truly believe in the importance of setting the right roles & responsibilities mapping them to the customer buying journey to create a frictionless customer experience through their pre and post-sales activities. What is crucial is aligning everyone’s role with their productivity metrics, and KPIs and driving their morale high through an incentivized commission scheme where good performers are rewarded and low performers are objectively evaluated.
How we can help
The size of the prize for optimizing sales performance is compelling enough that some firms will do it. Yet, this transformation is not easy, is not quick, and is not cheap. But there is another thing to consider: It is no longer optional.
HEED comes in to help you study your readiness for this disruption, planning and executing a balanced transformation; while putting your customers, your people, our sales expertise, and technology at the heart. This includes but is not limited to redefining your right sales strategy, re-engineering an end-end customer journey, identifying and integrating the right digital initiatives, and restructuring the sales and marketing organization to be equipped to orchestrate the new approach and processes.
Since its establishment in 2011, HEED has built an enviable reputation and profound practical experience in driving revenue growth. Being a boutique allows us to work closely with you and deliver practical, tailored, and pragmatic solutions. Our culture comes from our 3 main core values: Process Consultants, Disciplined Actions, and Scientific Approach. You can always discover more from our website.
To learn more about our revenue growth framework and how we can help you overcome your specific challenges, contact our Partner: To learn more about our revenue growth framework and how we can help you overcome your specific challenges, contact our Partner: WAEL FARAH Partner at HEED or schedule a quick call to map HEED solutions to your sales challenges.
Wael Farah, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Wael FARAH is an experienced management consultant, specializing in revenue growth strategies. Driven by science and industry best practices he takes pride in developing the most pragmatic and effective solutions. In addition to being a Partner at HEED, Wael has been recognized by several clients as a trusted advisor for his extraordinary commitment to bringing client success.
