George Colony, CEO of Forrester Research, Inc. (an independent research company) and known as “the Counterintuitive CEO,” presents the idea that many CEOs are ready to completely overhaul their sales forces. One of the issues he outlines in his blog is the problem with speed. Many CEOs are frustrated that the sales force is always 12-18 months behind strategy. The underlying business issue here is probably that your sales operations plan isn’t aligned with your corporate strategy.
To stay on strategy and up to speed with overall corporate strategy, best-in-class companies intentionally establish a repeatable rhythm to guide their sales planning and execution processes. A structured Management Operating Rhythm® – a sales cadence – will keep your focus consistently on your critical few high-value sales activities.
Putting structured Sales Planning, Sales Execution and Sales Talent processes in place will give you an unrestricted line of sight into your sales organizations. Without these processes, you risk:
- Missing quota goals
- Inaccurate forecasting of revenue
- Mis-qualifying deals.
Instead of constantly trying to “play catch up," make it a point to let your established rhythms govern the weekly, monthly, quarterly and annual sales operations. You’ll then have procedures that fill your pipeline with sales opportunities of sufficient capacity to generate expected sales results. Aligning the sales strategies with your company’s strategies will allow you to put a laser focus on the customer.
With the right tools in place you can improve the speed of your sales force.
