What's Hurting Your Sales Process? A Discussion on Strategy

When it comes to research on strategy, execution and business growth strategies, Dr. Charles Bamford has worked with some of the biggest companies in the world. He’s published five books and dozens of journal articles on business strategy. He says two of the biggest mistakes businesses make are having inconsistent processes and not understanding their true differentiation. “Strategic decisions are the decisions that move mountains, rather than those that just move small parts of an organization,” says Bamford. “Throughout my career, I’ve seen that if strategy is well-done, well-articulated and implemented, it’s phenomenally powerful.”

At Force Management, we’ve seen those results with our customers as well. When executed successfully, aligning your growth strategy with your sales strategy can be transforming for an organization.

We spent some time picking Bamford’s brain about business strategy, how it integrates with the sales process and the challenge of articulating true differentiation.

You have worked with a lot of companies of all sizes, in all different stages of growth. What are the biggest mistakes that companies make when it comes to a growth strategy?

Bamford: I would say that targeting a growth number is a completely false approach to growing a business. Nobody comes to us or buys our products and services, because we need them to do it. They do it because they get something they want from us. They get food, clothes, satisfaction or whatever it is. So these artificial caps or statements such as, ‘well we want to grow at 40%’ are just numbers that sit out there. It’s simply luck if it happens.

Instead of growing by luck, grow by strategy. Get everybody in your organization aimed at accomplishing something -- whatever that something is. I would argue “that something” is your true resourced-based advantages, your true competitive advantages. What we want to do is make sure every customer walks away with the impression that we over-deliver. Or that every single customer is completely satisfied with the product we’re offering them. They’ll come back, and they’ll tell other people and then we’ll drive sales.

The other big mistake is execution. I think strategy, execution, implementation, or whatever term you want to use is the most difficult thing to do for organizations. They do a pretty good job coming up with a strategy. Once they’ve got it, it’s the execution that’s very difficult. It’s not a problem for the top management-level – they typically get it, but it’s making sure that everyone at the lower level gets it and can actually implement it. As opposed to just sitting there and assuming that everyone throughout your organization will understand what you want done. 

How does a company go about aligning its sales strategy with an over all growth strategy?

Bamford: I think it’s all about fit. What we’re trying to do is get an alignment between what we say we are in the back office, what we say we are to the customers and what we really do.
What customers will not forgive is a lack of consistency. They’ll forgive all kinds of things, if there’s relative consistency. I think that singular message of - we’re going to get it done, and we’re going to make it very consistent - really drives an implementation. The sales approach is one of the biggest elements in the implementation of a strategy. If I’m growing a company, the only person I care about is the person who parts with money.

What are the negative consequences of not alligning internal process to the overall growth strategy?

Bamford: What I see is that there are an awful lot of companies that just exist. They get their fair share of customers just because they exist in the market. They’re always struggling. They’re always wondering why customers seem to be pounding on them about prices, as opposed to what they’re delivering. They just don’t understand.

Think of the standard restaurant that can’t differentiate itself. It will get customers. People will come in, maybe not a lot, but people will eat there because it’s a restaurant, and it’s there. Think of a dry cleaner that opens up. They’re going to get X amount of business. The question becomes how do they differentiate themselves so customers come to them and are willing to pay them without fighting about price. When companies just exist, one of two things happen; they either deal with constant pricing pressures, or they try to increase their offerings. They will increase their SKUs or the services they have, so they can get an incremental amount of business, as opposed to really focusing on true differentiation and really thriving.

You talk a lot about consistency in your research and consulting work. How important is consistency in message when you’re talking to those people “who part with the money”? 

Bamford: I’m a huge believer in having that consistent message. My take is that every single employee is a sales person for their company, whether they’re in sales or not. Every single person at some point is going to end up at a cocktail party at Christmas. Someone will walk up to them and say where do you work? The answer should be consistent for all your employees. That consistent message is what is going to continually resonate with every constituency.

How does value play into a company's competitive advantage?

Bamford: You are who you are. Some may want to be Google or wish they were Twitter or whatever company. The reality is you are who you are so you have to have unique competitive advantages. If I’m formulating a growth strategy, what I want to do is say alright, for the competitive advantages that I have, which customer is going to get the most value from those competitive advantages? Then I want to ensure that I’m providing the most value for that particular customer-set, over and above what everyone else is doing. Not that I am trying to be everything to everybody, but I want to be the most valuable provider to my perfect customers.

That ensures your repeat business, referrals and that you are building a loyalty loop.

Bamford: It is interesting you use the term loyalty loop. That’s the perfect set-up -- when our perfect customer remains and stays with us and is not looking around.

We talk a lot about value in terms of the seller-buyer relationship. In order to be effective, a seller must be able to effectively articulate value and attach it to the customer’s key business problems. Why is creating consistency around this idea of articulating value a challenge for most companies?

Bamford: Wow. That’s a 12-hour answer. I think that it goes back to the fact that most companies, not all, but most don’t have a good handle on what their true competitive advantages are. They honestly believe that their true competitive advantages are their people. My line to that is always -- all your competitors have people.

So then companies say, ‘Well our people are better.’ Really? Did you hire them from different places? Did you do something unique? And they respond, ‘No, no Chuck. We have the best people, Chuck. It really is our people.”

I then say to them, “So if I go to your competitor and say, ‘What’s your competitive advantage?’ They’ll say ‘Shoot, I wish I could say it’s our people. Unfortunately, all the good people went over to company X. All we got left is the junk.” NO! They think their competitive advantage is their people.

People, in and of themselves aren’t a competitive advantage. What they do and how they do it might well be a competitive advantage. There are franchise employees at every company; however, there are also employees who don’t carry their weight at virtually every company. I believe that identifying those true competitive advantages really is the biggest issue that companies have. They don’t understand what their true advantages are and as a result, everyone is out there trying to pitch whatever they think will work, as opposed to what really works with the customer. 

What works?

Bamford: It’s whatever the customer sees as your competitive advantages. It’s what matters to your customer.

If you could sum up your research with one major takeaway what would it be?

Bamford: The biggest thing is to understand what I call orthodox and unorthodox. Some call it ordinary/extraordinary or standard/exceptional. Most customers have a list of orthodox elements in their mind, if they’re comparing you to something else. For example, if you’re comparing restaurants, you have a list of things you expect when you walk into a restaurant. You have expectations when you interact with whatever company. You have an expectation they will be able to do x.

By performing those orthodox functions, all that allows you to do is play in the game. Too many times, companies spend an extraordinary amount of money, time and resources building up the orthodox to a point that’s way above what any customer cares about or is willing to pay for. What I tell companies is to do the orthodox as well as you need to in order to be even with competitors. Then on the things that may separate your company, those factors that you believe are unorthodox. Figure out first, if they really are. Then, focus all the extra time, money, resources, and effort on those few unorthodox things. If everything else is equal, those are the factors that customers will use in making their decision to buy from you.

Most things that are unorthodox are fleeting, and that’s why strategy is a continuous process. We always need two, three, four things that help differentiate us. As our competition catches up with us, we have to move forward with new things. What was unorthodox yesterday could be orthodox today.

Chuck Bamford has worked with thousands of managers for the past 20 years improving their ability to generate significant revenue growth through strategic plans. Through his consulting company (Bamford Associates, LLC) he offers strategy development and implementation services. His books are available for sale on Amazon.