Lead the way

In December 2009 we published The 12 Sales Trends of 2010 and invited readers to vote on what they thought are the most important trends in sales. Thank you to everyone who shared their views and voted. Each month we will explore one of the trends in more detail, starting with the trend voted as most important, Lead the Way. As voted by you, here are the sales trends for 2010 in order of importance:

1. Lead the Way
2. Everybody lives by selling something
3. Back to Basics
4. Social Sales
5. Noise Reduction
6. Culture Fit
7. The New Competition
8. Through the Looking Glass
9. Weathering the Storm
10. Sustainable Selling
11. A Sales Community
12. Hot Bath Turns Cold

Lead the Way was the trend voted as most important by you, our readers. As we discussed in The 12 Sales Trends of 2010 sales needs to be led from the top. In 2010, sales will be on the agenda of the ‘C’ suite and this will mean from the CEO down, including the CFO, COO, and CIO. Even if the ‘C’ suite never has contact with an external customer (which I strongly advise against) they need to know how to lead, sell in, and support the sales effort.

Why?

Despite millions, if not billions, of dollars being invested in sales training, CRM systems and the like, many leaders are realising that their frontend processes, backend systems, culture (including those staff who have not traditionally seen themselves involved in sales), and sales methodologies are not aligned with their customers. In many cases theses processes and systems are also not connected internally causing, amongst other things, duplication of effort, mixed messages, confusion, and lost sales opportunities.

Sadly, too many businesses still consider customers the sole responsibility of sales and marketing. This is just asking for trouble. For too long there has been a disconnect, if not a gulf, between those in ‘sales’ and those not in ‘sales’, often with the latter looking down their collective noses with disdain at anyone in a sales role. This has got to change, if nothing else, for purely commercial reasons. This is an issue for leaders.

Enlightened leaders will no longer tolerate or condone the domain of selling being isolated to the sales and marketing teams. A truly customer centric, value added, highly profitable, integrated business can only flourish under clear and decisive leadership that puts forward a compelling business case for change, everyone in the business understands and can put into real and accountable action.

Those leaders who make it clear to their business that, without everyone performing their roles in a spirit of collaboration and cooperation with the customer at the heart, there will be no business. This is sure to get their peoples’ attention. Those leaders will also place their key clients on their assets register, to ensure a conscious and actual value is accounted for by all.

Moving down the corporate ladder, businesses will make the most significant difference to sales through enlisting the support of all of their managers. By educating them in the values and thinking frameworks, skills, structures, and processes needed to run a sales centric business. In particular, by focusing their efforts on their Sales Managers they will also see better returns. As a profession, Sales Managers receive the least formal training, often leaving people to work it out by themselves, even though formally trained Sales Managers show the highest positive correlation between training and results. Time and time again, sales teams achieved higher performance and results when their Sales Managers were frequently and effectively trained and coached. Word of caution: training and coaching without proper, integrated support structures in place won’t be nearly as effective.

In addition, we propose that Sales Managers should be the ambassadors for sales culture transformation. Besides the obvious connection between leading and managing a sales team (which many Sales Managers would benefit from more training in), Sales Managers have a crucial leadership role to play within any business. By acting as a critical link between all departments and customers via their sales teams, Sales Managers can communicate key information and initiatives to the market, as well as reporting back key findings to the leadership teams. This role ensures any adjustments, actions, or communication can be made in a timely manner. Effective Sales Managers don’t get stuck behind a desk, they are out in-the-field reporting on marketing efforts and their effect, and they hear the real voices of customers firsthand and see the impact, good and bad, of initiatives. They are a real connection between the business and customers. They can, and should, be given a company-wide voice. Enlightened leaders will make sure their Sales Managers are not relegated to being glorified administrators endlessly reporting and attending meetings and free them up to do what they do best, be the conduit between customers, sales people, and the business.

Sales Managers are a key communication life line. How well does your business and leaders communicate with their teams and markets? What messages are you sending? How are they being received? Who is listening anyway? Who is taking action? How are you communicating? What are you hearing?

Communication is the key here. As Charlie Magee, author of the Imagination age states:

“Evolution equals survival of the fittest communicators. (One might protest and say that economics is more basic than communication because one must survive in order to communicate, i.e. an ancient hunter of 40,000 years ago, alone in the grasslands, had to eat before he could communicate. Consider this, however: to this hunter, the wind, by carrying smells, communicates the direction of prey. The sun, by its position in the sky, communicates which animals are at the water hole. The hunter’s stomach, by growling, communicates a sense of urgency. Communication happens first. Then the hunter can eat.)

It took the universe 10 billion years to create a species that could speak. It took that species 3 million years to create a communication tool called writing. Then just 12,000 years to create the printing press.
500 years to create the computer. Put these figures on a chart: billions, millions, thousands, hundreds, then … decades? We’re looking at exponential change. There are clues in the pattern of communication evolution.

The most successful groups throughout human history have had one thing in common: when compared to their competition they had the best system of communication. The fittest communicators-whether tribe, citystate, kingdom, corporation, nation-had (1) a larger percentage of people with (2) access to (3) higher quality information, (4) a greater ability to transform that information into knowledge and action, (5) and more freedom to communicate that new knowledge to the other members of their group.”

Those leaders and businesses who can integrate their frontend processes, backend systems, culture, people, sales methodologies, and communication strategies (including social media et al), underpinned with clear vision and values, and communicate their intentions clearly will lead the sales revolution.

Investing in properly training, educating, and supporting leaders and managers, especially Sales Managers, to be those crucial communication links will see significant lifts for businesses in 2010 and beyond. Many of these areas cannot be taken lightly; they take considered thinking, reflection, time, and courage to enact. If you cannot do a company-wide makeover in 2010 then at least invest in your Sales Managers so they can help you Lead the Way.

Remember everybody lives by selling something.

Author: Sue Barrett, www.barrett.com.au