During recent years, I have assisted dozens of organizations in creating a simple and workable strategic plan. Along the way, I have seen some fl owery documents; content rich in fi ller but lacking the killer. I prefer simple, straightforward copy with lots of action, metrics and laser-focused documentation. My clients have discovered that a powerful bullet point outline trumps a 50-page cornucopia of buzz words. The right document turns into a guidepost; focuses the minds and long-term direction of the company. Each time you make a tactical decision, the longer-ranging strategic plan serves as a directional north star.
Experience dictates that companies with an effective strategic plan prove more successful than those that simply go with the flow. While I can name some pretty successful organizations that chose not to develop a plan, I have a deep-seated belief that a working plan still increases the odds for maximizing long-range success.
After reviewing “strat plans” for hundreds of businesses, I see a breakdown. Even though leadership teams have ideas about market conditions that might be exploitable, technologies to exploit and competitors that can easily be replaced, inspiring behaviors from their sales teams to capitalize on those ideas is a major obstacle.
Should Salespeople Have Strategic Plans?
Returning to my hotel from a very long day spent in a strategic planning session, I had an epiphany. Many of the very best salespeople operate as if their customer list is an independent business, albeit a standalone business fl ying in close formation with the rest of the mother organization. And most sales managers live with, perhaps even encourage, a certain level of controlled entrepreneurial spirit out in the field.
Being totally spent from the day of planning, I let the “entrepreneurial thing” rattle around in my subconscious mind. I wondered if it’s possible to push a strategic planning process onto those closest to the customers? During the next few weeks, I talked to some of the sellers most recognized as top performers in their companies and industries. A fundamental difference in the way they thought about customers emerged. Even though individual sales call activities were similar to their contemporaries’ activities and application acumen, product knowledge and problemsolving skills were about the same, they consistently outperformed the rest of the pack. They thought about accounts with a long-range strategy.
I discovered most salespeople with fi ve or more years of experience are profi cient in the transactional components of selling. They connect with their customers personally and professionally. They understand product and technology issues at the customer level and their business increases as a result. At fi rst glance, one could say they are headed down the road to success. But with time, their acceleration of growth slows, they hit a plateau and their overall development is hampered.
Even with journeyman-type experience, the average seller treats each customer interaction as a reactive event. It’s a never-ending carousel ride where they identify issues, solve problems and repeat the process with no end in mind. Any vision of account development is short-sighted with many sellers struggling to defi ne account development altogether. Sales skill improvement is tied to their ability to spur the rotation of their selling merry-go-round. It’s a reactional game.
Sales managers complain their teams lack the ability to properly utilize all the resources available to them. Business level conversations about customer management are seldom carried out and when they exist at all, the content rarely moves things forward. Selling time, resources and organizational energy are wasted on the wrong accounts or focused on the right account at the wrong time.
What would happen if we applied the principles of strategic planning to a sales team’s best accounts? As simple as it sounds on the surface, when salespeople apply the same processes found in their parent company’s strategic plan, customer-centric thinking improves. Sales effort shifts from a string of single events to a consequentially planned maneuver toward sales growth, competitive positioning and mutually-benefi cial partnerships.
Develop an Account-Oriented Strategic Plan
I could toss out a bunch of consultant speak, but cutting to the chase —strategic plans revolve around understanding current positioning and exploring options with the goal of impacting the future. Those responsible for the plan devote a great deal of time to completing a SWOT analysis and painstakingly identifying strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats with as much objectivity as possible. Even though the whole concept sounds relatively straight forward, many organizations struggle because today’s small issues become emotional barriers that stand in the way of longer-range thinking.
Salespeople planning for long-range success carry around a lot of emotional baggage. By its very nature, selling is a high-contact and visceral enterprise. Selling’s emotional aspect calls for management coaching and insistence on incremental steps to creating a meaningful plan.
To facilitate incremental thinking and provide the right level of coaching, break the strategic plan down into progressively important phases. Let’s think about the significance of each phase as applied to a substantive account.
Know Where You Stand
Wouldn’t it make sense to pause and ponder the question: What does this customer think of our organization? Or better yet: How does this customer see me in the context of a supplier? Does this customer respect my company or is ours just another one in a long litany they buy from? Is our organization noted for “dirty deeds done dirt cheap” pricing or as a value-producing machine standing ready to be called upon?
These questions are sometimes painful to ponder. In what Jonathan Bein refers to as the “Lake Wobegon effect,” everyone thinks their organization is the deal of the century. Maybe some accounts think of your company that way. But in account-based planning, you have to understand what customers think about your company today.
Learn About Your Accounts
Strangely, many sales types gloss over account knowledge. They have general ideas about the products and services their customers provide but lack deep understanding of the inner workings of their customers’ businesses. Even though most swear they are “solutionproviding” sellers, they don’t know enough about their customers’ labor rates, business costs and market sweet spots to effectively sell solutions.
Taking an inventory of knowledge about your company’s accounts can result in more strategic coaching points for sellers or the realization that you need to call in outside assistance. Thinking critically about this topic can help you direct salespeople to areas worthy of exploration.
Prioritize Accounts
Thomas Jefferson wrote “all men are created equal,” but trust me all accounts are not created equally. We don’t have time to create a strategic plan for every account on our list. And universal, one-size-fits-all plans don’t pack the same power. Somewhere along the way, we must objectively determine if an account fits the right criteria to justify our efforts.
Prioritization helps management ask the right questions to provide an outside opinion on an account-by-account basis. Good salespeople are universally optimistic; sometimes to their own detriment. Benchmarking data, previous experience with similar accounts and other guidance all help expand the chances of success with an account.
Think About Account Opportunities
Some accounts are easier to convert than others, some require high activity levels for a short duration of time and others take more time but require less involvement. Salespeople also have a habit of underestimating the amount of time required to achieve selling objectives. Time constraints may prohibit a salesperson from working on two time-intensive account opportunities simultaneously. However, salespeople with “too many balls in the air” increase the chances of costly errors and losing customer confidence and account opportunities. Some thought on this topic can result in more strategic scheduling and execution of plans.
Follow the Money
The truth is most salespeople consider technology, applications and customer needs and pursue friendly contacts when it comes to their accounts. Salespeople rarely follow the funds. I can’t help but wonder if a lot of salespeople actually feel they cheapen their work with the exchange of money. How many times have you heard a salesperson lament, “The proposal was perfect. The product is everything the customer wants. We are the best supplier on the planet. But, the customer doesn’t have any funding?”
Call me mercenary, but I believe today’s sales teams must consider finances. Just evaluate the cost of developing a decent proposal. When days are spent pulling information together, gathering details from suppliers and crafting a presentation, a proposal can cost the sales team thousands of dollars. Understanding who controls the purse strings (and if the purse has anything in it) for an account is critically important.
Know Top Brass
Why do so few sellers take the time to build relationships with high-level management? I regularly get calls to jump in and help save an account because the salesperson never developed a relationship with the person who writes the checks. Top brass calls the shots. Regardless of what the technical person or project manager says, if top brass says switch the business, you’ve lost an account. Sales managers also need to know how to approach the high-level executives in their accounts and whether they require a nod in the hall or a meaningful discussion about your company’s value.
Bring Value
Enough about your great service, fast delivery and wonderfully trained inside salespeople. Let’s get down to the meaty stuff. Directly and specifically address the value your company can provide. This isn’t part of the boilerplate on your website. Nor is it a list of nebulous goodies. Instead, precisely identify how you can help customers make more money, gain market share, boost efficiency or improve productivity. Name names, provide data and cite recent success stories.
Most sellers leave it to the customer to connect the dots to value. No salesperson has the time to explain it to every account. They do have time to put forth the effort with a select list of accounts. If they take the time to follow all of the previous steps, they will know which accounts to focus on.
Believe Me
You may be skimming over this article and nodding in agreement, but deep down you’re thinking, “My sales team is already doing all of this. My salespeople are professional, they’re smart and they’re all above average. This strategic planning thing is for everybody else.”
I have a simple way to test where your company stands in a matter of minutes. It’s the first chapter of my new book Strategic Planning for Accounts. And, because I am an all-around nice guy, it’s yours for the asking. Just shoot me an email. Then decide.