Select Metrix | The Structure of a Selling System

It’s a Friday afternoon in early 1980 and I get the call to meet with the Regional Sales Manager. I’ve been promoted into sales! WOW, was I excited. I had no idea what I was getting into. The regional sales manager (I’ll call him Tom) asked me to be ready to attend my first sales meeting the following Monday morning at 9am. As the new sales guy, I was expected to bring the donuts!

Monday morning. Lots of donuts and coffee. Tom had a series of questions for each salesperson about their three top opportunities. Was it the caffeine, the sugar or all the questions? I’m not sure, but within 10 minutes my head was spinning like a top. Each salesperson had answers and a lot of information about their forecasted accounts. Hold on, I thought, this sounds like a lot of work! How will I ever get prospects to tell me what Tom wants to know?

After the group meeting, Tom and I had a one-on-one meeting to talk about his expectations for me. The expectations were very clear, structured and detailed. I also learned that I would be going to the home office in California for a week-long sales training program. His expectations of how I would “represent the region” were also very detailed. I was extremely fortunate to have my first sales position with a company that had a strong sales management team that knew what they wanted to do and how they wanted to do it.

Qualifying and Questions
It took me awhile to understand what was going on and why some of the things I was required to do were important. The key to the training was to understand and use a proven sales process. Tom assured me of success if I stayed within this structured approach. He also assured me I would fail if I didn’t use the process and techniques that had been refined by those who preceded me in this role. Tom told me repeatedly, “This structure and approach works.”

As an example, here are some of the questions from Tom’s structured system:

What lead them to consider our product or service?
Who are the people making the decision? Are their any hidden decision makers? What does the decision-making process look like?
How will the purchase be financed? Sale, lease? Any special terms & conditions?
When will delivery be required?
What other are products are being examined? What attracted the buyer to those products?
Does the ROI make sense? Has a cost justification been made? Is one required?

A funny thing happens to reps when they get asked these questions consistently – they go out and qualify the information from their prospects (as I learned to do). As Tom would say, “Everything in this structure will have to happen at some point in the sales cycle. You might as well do it now, rather than later, or when it’s too late. Spend your time on deals that will happen, don’t waste your time on deals that won’t, or on deals we don’t want.”

The sales training was the result of a clear understanding of the specifics of the sale. We, at Select Metrix, call it the profile of the sale. Using the information gained by profiling your sale will help you define the right structure or framework for success. Think of it as the sticks and bricks you set on top of a strong foundation (part 1 of this series).

Clarity and Consistency
Having built a strong foundation, you can now set a structure on that foundation that suits the way your business and industry operates. Forget a canned, one-size-fits-all approach. Put those DVD’s and general selling books you bought at some rah-rah session on the bookshelf. Role up your sleeves and get down to some very specific questions and information you will require from salespeople regarding any account they have forecasted.

For example, a recent client was frustrated with all the “work” a sale would create. He was also frustrated with the disconnect between sales and the fulfillment by the people charged with delivering the services. An order would come in and a mad scramble would ensue. The lack of structure, process and good information led to a sales team prepared to take any deal they could get.

Build your structure to suit the way you want to do business. Require your sales team to use the process and make it painful to not use the structure. Don’t let a seat-of-the-pants approach seep into your selling system structure. Salespeople have a “lone wolf” aspect to them that leads them to run their own system and build their own structure. Some leeway is advisable, but a unified, symmetrical structure used by all salespeople will provide the sales manager with the clearest understanding of the pipeline and a bankable forecast.

Next month we wrap up the series with the finishing work and decorating options available when your foundation and structure are sound.