Economic indicators everywhere -- sales trends?

When it comes to trends and behaviors, the sales arena has its own set of “economic indicators.”  I had the privilege of moderating at a CEO Retreat last week.  There were around five recurring themes that surfaced throughout the 90 minute discussion.  I thought I would share them:

1. Creativity and Innovation: Selling success requires that businesses  continue to discover creative and innovative ways to engage customers and to improve the impact or effectiveness of their product offering.  Some examples provided were to add products and services to product offerings or create partnership programs in conjunction with offerings.
2. Process and Planning: Now more than ever, have a defined sales methodology that works.  Every successful sales process needs to be tracked and analyzed.  If you know what works, you can make the process repeatable.  Also, once you know what works, you can focus your team on the behaviors and planning that improves the likelihood of repeatable outcomes.
3. Metrics: Every sales manager needs to have their finger on the pulse of their team.  Creating metrics based on the process become excellent indicators of future success and provide the opportunity to be proactive to troubling trends and habits.
4. Ask the Right Questions: Listening has been emphasized to the point of near exhaustion.  Most salespeople still struggle with the notion of talk less and listen more.  Many more struggle with what questions to ask.  One panelist shared their success model.  They have created a list of questions that represent the required information from the customer in order to create a quote, place an order and install the system.  Their salespeople know that certain information is expected of them by others in the office.  As a result, they work through the list in their customer conversations.
5. Leadership: The panel could not emphasize enough the influence and impact that leadership has on the success formula.  Everything centered around an effective leadership model: strategy, hiring, development, training, performance, and motivation.  When businesses struggle, it is easy to blame the sales team; but, the person who really needs to step up and get the team on track is a great sales manager.

Of all the “economic indicators” for sale success, the one receiving the greatest emphasis was sales management.  The panel acknowledged that the sales manager was the toughest position in the sales department; but, it was also the one that was most critical to the success of the program.

Book Review: “Success Secrets of the Social Media Marketing Superstars”

Dave Cooke is CEO of Strategic Resource Group, llc an organization specializing in helping businesses increase their revenues through effective growth initiatives and employee development programs. His contributions and insights can be found on his blog posts, SalesCooke and Sustainable Revenues.  He has also developed a new program for sustainable revenues in a down economy, known as SuRF.  To download this case study go to: SurfWhitePaper.com.