Sales Teams

Organizations depend on their sales teams to position solutions and services to customers, and a good salesperson combines all the tools they’re given to focus a product or service on a particular customer.

But as markets swell and shrink through mergers and acquisitions, the offerings just don’t stay the same. So, the portfolio of offerings gets much broader or may pivot entirely as products are merged and sunset to make room for new versions.

Instead of expanding the storyline to match the company’s expansion, salespeople often narrow their focus to the products they know best and the proof points that validate the impact. When this happens, sales results reflect the confidence of a sales team and their ability to up-level a storyline to focus more broadly on capabilities rather than specific products.

Content: It takes a broader message about a company’s strategy to drive alignment with customers and buy-in to long-term value. Our methodology takes into consideration the customer perspective and gives a sales team an easy blueprint for starting with the end user’s priorities and challenges. We focus less on your products and more on your customers as we help a team think about setting a compelling message and leading a potential new client to a valued outcome.

Style: More than any other communication, the sales presentation has shifted to a sales conversation. It’s less about talking at them and more about connecting with them. And that’s a more open style and a more collaborative discussion. Our content methodology creates flexibility in the flow of a discussion, but it takes some added work on reading the room and engaging others to help a salesperson lead an interactive conversation.

Situational: Sales teams have leveraged SW&A in many ways to strengthen the storyline. For some groups, it’s building message consistency into their sales process. For other groups, it’s solving the communication gap when change has occurred, and marketing materials aren’t yet available. And for all teams, it’s about strengthening the most important communication in the company: the conversation with the customer. Take a look at our approach for working with sales teams here.

For teams, these three steps are the start of a Tailored Program.

For individuals, a combination of Open Programs helps you build your own toolkit.