How to Build a High-Performing Sales Organization

High-performing sales organizations don’t get there by chance. It is a predictable and calculated path to growth. The best sales teams have the necessary foundation in place so reps and managers are able to (1) spend time on high-value revenue activities and 2) (effectively execute with buyers.

There is a sales motion in every organization that drives rep productivity and ultimately revenue growth. 

We call them the four areas of sales effectiveness

1. Sales Messaging - How are you articulating value of your solution and what makes it different from the competition?
2. Sales Process - How are you qualifying, advancing and closing opportunities – and then nurturing that customer relationship?
3. Sales Planning - How are you building qualified pipeline at the territory level and accurately forecasting your business?
4. Sales Talent - Finally how do you ensure you have the right recruiting bench for growth? 

Because all the areas are important and critical to building a high-performing sales organization, one of the questions we are most often asked is, where should you start? Our clients that have been most successful typically begin with driving alignment and consistency around the sales conversation.

Why Sales Messaging?

Building a high-performing sales organization requires your reps and front-line managers are equipped to execute your growth strategy at the point of sale. That’s where the rubber meets the road.  You can have everything else figured out, but if you can’t execute with the customer – none of it matters.

Getting that customer engagement process right helps you:

• increase your average deal size
• improve quota attainment
• improve customer churn rates because you are creating and capturing value along that customer engagement process.

A true sales messaging initiative is about building cross-functional alignment around the value and differentiation of your solution and equipping your salespeople to use that information with the customer.  

Do your salespeople know how to answer these four key questions?

• What problems do you solve for your customers?
• How do you specifically solve those problems?
• How do you do it differently than your competition?
• What’s your proof?

As a sales leader, how confident are you that your salespeople can speak about the above points in a way that has meaning to their buyers?

Here’s a test for you. If you asked your executive team, marketing, your sales reps, your managers, these questions how many different answers would you get? 

In lower-performing companies, there is a good amount of discrepancy. That’s why a sales messaging initiative can be the lynchpin to accelerating growth. If the people who are closest to your product or solution don’t have the same understanding of how you are different from the competition, what kind of message are you sending to your customers?

Aligning marketing, product, services with that same value message and differentiation ensures that you are effectively delivering on the promise of value along that customer engagement process.  This alignment is the one area where growth can be accelerated and your sales organization can deliver promised revenue goals.