What do we teach our sales people

After reading a bunch of books, having worked on major international projects, gained enormous experience in building sales departments from scratch, it appeared to me that the reality of our sales offices is not about the craft, it is about people sitting in the offices and writing letters.

Everyone is taught to write letters, to make sure that the client can break into the world of sales through writing and immediately actively communicate, and of course, in the process, buy what they offer. Everyone is taught to build online communication in such a way as to sell projects without travel and unnecessary activities. Even for me, basically, most of the requests come for a particular training format: “Anton, give us a stream of leads so that our sales click them through left and right.” Personally, I had only a couple of sales that closed remotely and on a small check. I managed to make the rest of the sales only in person, and these were companies and projects that have been running for 7-8 years with several dozens of developers. My feature is selling through a meeting and through contact with a client. I can immediately understand if I can go further with this client or not. I can play such games online for a very long time and spend my time on the hopelessness of the transaction as a result.

Why do we need Leadgen in this form? Why do we need online sales?

I asked this question for a long time, even long time ago, when the wave of setting up of IT companies in the CIS began, when everyone began to work according to the same sales model and to build a cheap option for lead generation. All methods went to work, if only the client would start talking, and everything converged to the model that people began preparing “chicken” for Twitter or talkers who could cause a quick reaction through online communication. Outsourcing still lives according to this model: fast ping (communication) from two sides, and if one of the parties does not respond quickly, then others become a target. This is how everyone lives, at an accelerated pace growing sales reps that cannot communicate live. They grow only those who can generate emoticons online and, preferably, custom ones.

We have moved away from the classic business model, where large deals and sales are still being made in real time. Now we are armed with all the tools of lead generation, which comfortably provide the flow with skillful use and organization. But what should salesmen do next when they  found a lead who replied: “Yes, it’s interesting, send me, please, more information about what you do”. We begin bombarding with messages, catch up with hundreds of follow-ups and wait for the client to mature before the next response. Sales reps in this case lose their grip because they are not fueled by the right emotions from the client and his experiences, but redirect this energy to explain to the management that it is necessary to travel.

I communicate with colleagues from different companies that operate with two lead generation machines and they have different processes. One is configured only to quickly attract leads and very rough sifting through the funnel, while the second colleague has targeted trips to the countries where their target audience is. And how do you think these sales reps look like? One sales dreams about going to the client and seeing them live, and the second sales dreams about getting enough sleep, because there are a lot of business trips. The balance is very difficult to find for the interaction of the sales department and the headquarters of the leadership, which manages the processes. But you need to look for it, because one replaces the other, but the sales structure itself does not withstand such a random process.

It is necessary to give the speed to the process and lead generation and find managers there who are diligently interested in building such a generation structure and find those who cannot sit at home and who have a pathological passion for customers, hotels and business trips. When you close the doors to the sales or limit them, you take away your time and opportunities. Sales knows exactly what he is doing well and what isn’t, and weak sales will only be glad that he doesn’t go to live meetings. Having meetings live is not so easy, so you will only be raising weak sales reps, who will be slightly better than Telegram bots in a couple of years. So the question is: why do you need such sales? Do you intend to stay constantly at this level of development of the sales department? Or do you want to grow an autonomous and winning department? Open the door to their business life, give them the opportunity to meet and go to their customers.

Why meeting?

Because every sales person wants to see the result of their work from going online to offline. Many of you will say, damn, it’s expensive to travel, first let’s sell at least some project and then we can take on new things. I’ll tell you, 2-3 years passed, companies sold small projects and are still selling in the hope that some projects will become long-term in the process. This is all the result of poor financial planning in the sales department and our own limitations that supposedly the online projects can simply multiply the company revenue by two. In my practice, such a miracle did not happen. I had to travel a lot and communicate a lot in order to start a suitable project. If I did this online, it would take years or projects would not go at all. Because most of the issues were resolved on the spot without long expectations and struggle. Everyone appreciates their time, both the client and the sales, and no one wants to lose the opportunity to find faster or sell faster.

Why do we need such sales?

If the company has a very fast development process and there is no strategic plan to go into a deeper expertise and do only a certain type of project – quickly and efficiently, then travel will result into nothing. But if, according to the plan of the founder and investor, there are completely different realities, then you need other sales and another sales process. Everything will be built on a different Sales platform. It will not be possible to sell small projects quickly or, conversely, then start looking only for large ones. Under these processes, completely different funnels, activities, investments are deployed.

What is the forecast?

Create a Sales Incubator, where new sales will hone their skills gradually and reach speed after the completed stage from the first letter to the meeting in London, Boston or Singapore. Separate your processes in such a way that it is more understandable to manage these sales expectations: quick sales means social activity + marketing; long sales are trips and long preparation. Accordingly, the decision-making threshold is different, in quick sales – easier, in long – more vigilant. Divide and focus on the important, on what you can do best.

Good and profitable sales to all!