Thought leadership on ashoestring budget
‘Feeding’ salespeople
The sales diet
Give your salespeople the "food" they need to fuel your success
The following article was excerpted from the upcoming Launch International
marketing brief, The Sales Diet: What Are You Feeding Your Channel?
Salespeople are like athletes—driven to win. What you "feed"
them affects their ability to succeed. A high-performance diet is not
feast or famine but a constant regimen of healthy, balanced ingredients.
Let’s face it: Sales determine your long-term success or failure.
If you’re one of the many who celebrated all night after signing
that big distribution contract only to be disappointed six months later
when the channel didn’t produce according to forecast, take a look
at the tools the salespeople have been using to understand, position,
and present your product. Because in the end, it’s all about sales.
And making sure your salespeople are on a high-performance, well-balanced
diet might very well be the most important thing you do to ensure your
company’s growth.
The right recipe for the occasion
A New England client of ours called a few years ago asking us to package
sales support materials for the launch of a hardware peripheral that would
be sold through distributors in 27 countries outside the United States.
Tight deadlines and heavy workloads on the existing staff forced the company
to seek outside support.
When we visited, the product manager had outlined his recommendations
on which tools would be critically important (a three-binder set) and
provided all the necessary background information.
After some discussion on the profile of the distribution channel, the
average sell price of the product versus the average price of a sale by
that channel, how it fit into the channel’s mix, and how the channel
was compensated, we recommended a more channel-friendly solution.
We developed a package that motivated the salesperson to participate in
the program; provided specific information on how to target, present,
and close sales; and identified where to go for help. The company’s
president said, "The project paid for itself in minutes." Feedback
from the company’s global channel was just as positive, as was reflected
in the immediate revenue jump—where it exceeded new product ramp-up
goals significantly.
The point? It doesn’t have to be big, flashy, or expensive. It has
to be right.
You must determine the mix of tools—including their length and level
of complexity—by reviewing some key factors:
- Who is selling the product?
- What else is in the product mix?
- How is information delivered to them today?
- What are the revenue (and commission) goals?
- What is the target customer profile?
The ultimate goal, of course, is to create mind share for your product.
At Launch, we like to think of it as building cranial shelf space. Think
of product placement at your grocery—you don’t have to reach
down or up for a liter of Pepsi®, right? With your channel, you must
earn the right to move into a more prominent cranial position. Although
signing a distribution agreement gets your product in the store, it does
not get it on the shelf. And, definitely not into the shopping cart!
For more information—or to receive a complimentary copy of this marketing
brief—email us at info@launchintl.com.
