Sales Growth: Five Proven Strategies from the World's Sales Leaders [NOOK Book]

Preface

Strategy One: Find Growth Before Your Competitors Do

The best sales leaders drive growth for their companies. They use data and insights to anticipate market momentum and pinpoint where untapped potential lies. They steal the march on competitors and lock in new customers first.

Chapter 1: Look 10 Quarters Ahead

Insights from economic, technological, and behavioral megatrends translate into opportunities at the front line. The best sales leaders invest ahead of emerging demand, and cultivate demand for products that won't be available for years. Peering into the future and harnessing tomorrow's trends is a job for sales leaders, not just visionary CEOs.

Interview: William J. Teuber Jr., EMC

Chapter 2: Mine Growth Beneath the Surface

Averages are misleading. Take a microscope to existing markets and see the opportunities that competitors routinely overlook. Drill down to the zip code level or look at customer segments by industry or demographic characteristics to reveal untapped pockets of growth. Then turn the analysis into a simple message for the front line.

Interview: Alejandro Munoz, Pioneer Hi-Bred

Chapter 3: Find Big Growth in Big Data

The explosion of “big data” (such as customer behavior, or social media chatter) opens up amazing sales opportunities. This is rocket science, but if you're left behind you'll miss out—perhaps for good. Retailers could boost operating margins by up to 25 percent, and all kinds of companies could follow suit if they build insights from a wide array of internal and external data sources and create tailored selling propositions based on personalization. But to maximize the benefits of big data, it needs to be at the very heart of the sales culture.

Interview: Shashi Upadhyay, Lattice Engines

Strategy Two: Sell the Way Your Customers Want

Sophisticated customers are not interested in traditional sales models. They demand faster, more seamless, and even enjoyable sales experiences; they want more information, more value, and they want it now. Delivering all this is hard enough—doing so profitably in both mature and emerging markets is a major challenge. Leading sales organizations are finding ways to improve digital, direct, and indirect channel performance, and are cracking the code of how to integrate them.

Chapter 4: Master Multichannel Sales

No company can compete using only a single sales channel today. But with so many channels to manage, how can you ensure consistency, maintain close contact with customers, and raise profitability? The best sales leaders blend remote and field sales, integrate online and offline channels, orchestrate direct and indirect sales teams, and even use service as a sales channel.

Interview: Gregory Lee, Samsung

Chapter 5: Power Growth through Digital Sales

You have a Web site, but can your company really claim to be cutting edge with its digital strategy? The most forward-thinking organizations see sales figures and conversion rates skyrocket when they get online and mobile platforms right. They test and tweak constantly to delight the customer and turn clicks into sales. They embrace social media and understand that “buzz” is only valuable if it hits the bottom line. Finally, they recognize that digital cannot stand alone—it is seamless integration with other channels that wins the day.

Interview: Margo Georgiadis, Google

Chapter 6: Innovate Direct Sales

When did you last change your direct sales approach? Leaders of the most successful direct sales forces have done just that. They now engage customers early—often before any sales pitch—for example, by putting customers in touch with the experts who will influence their decisions. Even for the biggest suppliers in the most highly developed markets, there are always new ways for hunters to land new customers.

Interview: Jan Geldmacher, Vodafone

Chapter 7: Invest in Partners for Mutual Profit

Often a partner is the best or only way to reach the fastest-growing markets, but the partner relationship can be fraught. The winning approach is simple: treat partners as an extension of the sales force, help them with their bottom lines, and set clear guidelines for channel conflict. Companies that master the challenge improve channel revenues by 10 to 20 percent and cut cost of sales by 5 to 10 percent.

Interview: Stu L. Levenick, Caterpillar

Chapter 8: Sell Like a Local in Emerging Markets

Fast-growing emerging economies present huge sales opportunities, but successful sales organizations don’t rush in. They balance the need for speed with a nuanced understanding of the specific local market; they overinvest in finding the right partners to spare a lot of grief later on; and they think big—building up sales capacity well in advance of needing it.

Interview: Mikhail Gerchuk, VimpelCom

Strategy Three: Soup up Your Sales Engine

Sales leaders can't deliver growth or optimize channels by waving a magic wand. No frontline effort can succeed without the right back-office capabilities. An efficient and effective sales support operation is critically important for supporting both the direct sales force and channel partners.

Chapter 9: Tune Sales Operations for Growth

Sales operations not only represent a huge opportunity for cost improvement (reducing back-office costs by 20 to 30 percent is not unusual), but they are also an important contributor to customer experience, sales force, and channel effectiveness. An effective back office can boost revenues by 10 to 25 percent by giving frontline sales teams 50 percent more time selling. Customers, meanwhile, love the smoother fulfillment and faster turnaround time.

Interview: Frank Strauβ, Deutsche Bank

Chapter 10: Build a Technological Advantage in Sales

Sales technology continues to evolve, but companies must ensure it enables success rather than gathering dust in a metaphorical backroom. Technology helps sales leaders pull ahead of their peers, arming account managers with killer insights or improving better integration with channel partners. It requires investment, but the top companies understand the benefits and focus on acquiring the right analytical tools and talent so that technology delivers the high returns it promises.

Interview: Frank van Veenendaal, salesforce.com

Strategy Four: Focus on Your People

Sales leaders can have all the market analysis, all the multichannel processes, and all the technological wizardry available, but without investing substantially in the right talent, they will achieve little.

Chapter 11: Manage Performance for Growth

Performance management is the bedrock of many sales organizations, especially as performance varies more in sales than other functions. The best invest enormous energy in this field and can see close rates rocket by 25 percent, higher customer satisfaction ratings, and up to 30 percent higher contract values. To achieve this, they coach rookies into stars, set the right tempo for reporting and intervention, and know motivation goes deeper than money.

Interview: Mario Weiss, Würth

Chapter 12: Build Sales DNA

Achieving excellence in sales for six months is great, embedding it in the genes of the organization is better. World-class companies create a culture fit for the long term. They give middle managers a starring role as agents of change, and they focus on creating crack teams, going beyond individuals’ skills to build institutional capabilities.

Interview: Ludwig Willisch, BMW

Strategy Five: Lead Sales Growth

It’s time to think about accelerating sales growth in your own company. Sales leaders need ambition, determination, and the persuasive skills to bring both the board and the front line with them on what can be a challenging, but extremely rewarding journey.

Chapter 13: Drive Growth from the Very Top

Sales leaders know they themselves must be at the vanguard of change. Without strong leadership any growth program will flounder. Best-practice leaders challenge the status quo, they galvanize their team, they model change, and they demand results above and beyond everything else.

Interview: Hubert Patricot, Coca-Cola Enterprises

Chapter 14: Make it Happen

The preceding chapters are rich with ideas, examples, case studies, and interviews with leading sales practitioners. Now it's over to you. For sales leaders determined to drive change and seek the sales growth on offer, we have a self-assessment guide and some benchmarks to get you started. Stakeholder alignment is essential, as is a clear vision of how to prioritize the transformation effort. Only 30 percent of change programs succeed—ensure yours is one of those that make the grade.

Interview: Huw Tippett, Novartis

Epilogue

About the Authors

Acknowledgments

Index