Rule of 24

The Future of B2B Client Engagement

Robert D Riefstahl, J Daniel Conway

• Publisher: Peach Elephant Press
• Year: 2018
• eBook ISBN: 9780995110373
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Meetings & Presentations
• Index: Business

<p><strong>Time is running out.</strong></p><p>Massive change is upon us and business to business (B2B) sales organizations are breaking down. The old sales strategies aren’t working like they used to—you used to know exactly how to be effective, but now you’re not so sure. Competitors have raced ahead and there are only two options left: Embrace the change. Or ignore it and fall behind.<br></p><p><strong>Discover the new rules.</strong><strong></strong></p><p>Inside Rule of 24, authors Robert D. Riefstahl and Daniel J. Conway show you how to not only survive, but thrive and dominate selling software in the new digital landscape. The rules have changed —customers are more educated, resourceful and directive than at any other time in history. Future-proof yourself and your sales team, understand what’s coming next and how to deal with it.<br></p><p><strong>Inside <em>Rule of 24,</em> you will learn:</strong></p><ul><li>How to transform your sales process by utilizing the power of extreme personalization › What the Rule of 24 is, and how it changes the way you think about selling<br></li><li>How to audit yourself, your industry and learn exactly what your customer is expecting from you <br></li><li>How to become a master of all of your selling mediums and crush your competition<br></li><li>How to build seamless client interactions that thrill B2B buyers<br></li></ul><p>Written for companies who want to prosper and grow in the digital age, this book is your roadmap. After reading Rule of 24, you’ll be riding atop the wave of imminent change, instead of helplessly swimming against it.<br></p><p><strong> Rule of 24 changes everything.</strong><br></p>

CHAPTER 15:

ORGANIZATIONAL EXECUTION

The new battlefront across companies is the fight for the best customer experience—bringing the B2C experience to B2B, and meeting the new reality of client expectations, this is the Rule of 24. We have a saying at our firm: "The landscape is evolving; if buyers are waiting for you, you're losing!"

Integrating all aspects of this trend in your sales organization will help you rush ahead of the competition, stay more relevant with stakeholders who demand a B2C experience, accelerate your sales cycle, and differentiate your team from the status quo.

That's why you're reading this book, after all. Now it's time to link all that to organizational execution.

In this chapter, we will help you understand what it takes to execute Rule of 24 in organizations of every size.

ORGANIZATIONAL CHARACTERISTICS

Generalizations can be dangerous, but the simplification they offer can be extremely helpful. When it comes to organizational execution, we categorized sales engagement teams into five types of sales organizations, based on the number of sales engagement team professionals and geographic markets served:

1. Enterprise – 1,000 or more globally deployed sales professionals
   
2. Mid-Market – 100 to 999 sales professionals deployed globally and on a single continent
   
3. Small – 6 to 99 sales professionals deployed globally and on a single continent
   
4. Startup – 1 to 5 sales professionals in a single country.
   
5. Resellers – Various-sized organizations that are owned and operated independently of your company
   

Many of you reading this may find that your sales organization includes characteristics from multiple sales organizations described above. For example, many of our mid-market style clients service major markets with the direct sales organization, and developing markets with resellers. If you believe your sales organization adopts the characteristics of multiple categories from above, read each section that applies to you and execute accordingly.

One fact is consistent across all entities—the dynamics of the Rule of 24 aren't just a future prediction, they are today's reality. In fact, even in the time between the conceptualization of this book and its final print, we saw clients embracing a need for this change at an accelerating rate. Regardless of what size organization you lead, you need to secure budget, arrange resources, and begin training for the reality of today's B2B stakeholder. You need to own, execute, and fund these elements as part of your client engagement model.

Be aware that marketing may press you on your Rule of 24 initiative, as they are responsible for brand consistency and typically responsible for video content development and video automation tools. Take the example of a demo video content—your sales engagement team needs authentic content that is rapidly and efficiently developed by subject matter experts at a low cost. Remember the description of a demo video from Chapter 6:

"Unlike an impact video that relies on graphics, imagery, and keywords for its primary visual support, demo videos rely on the actual products, services, or solutions. A stakeholder watches a demo video to get a sense of using the product, service, or solution."

Marketing lacks the core expertise to rapidly and efficiently produce a video that gives a stakeholder a true sense of using your product. Their creative team will likely argue for sophisticated graphics and imagery to produce this style of video. They will also need to solicit members of your team as the talent for the video production because your team members have the tribal knowledge of how your products, services, or solutions are authentically demonstrated or presented in the "real world."

Additionally, marketing will likely go outside your organization and hire a video production firm to produce each demo video. Do you see the problem? Blown budget, long production times, and slick videos that don't pass the authenticity requirements of stakeholders. It is the antithesis of "scalable."

Solving this challenge within your sales team may seem overwhelming to you, as it was for many of our clients. The sales leadership of one of our enterprise clients recognized the need for owning the responsibility of their Rule of 24 initiative. They began the project with impact and demo video production with our assistance. After training them on our content development strategies and techniques, they were soon producing demo videos from concept to completion in four hours. That is the type of speed and scalability you need in your organization.

In this chapter, we offer Rule of 24 considerations that are consistent across all categories of sales organizations. We will describe how your sales team (large or small) can apply Rule of 24 tools and techniques as an opportunity progresses through a typical B2B sales process. Finally, we will provide suggestions that are specific to each type of sales organization from the list above.

CLIENT ENGAGEMENT MODEL CONSIDERATIONS

Start by looking at your current client expectations. Today's prospects aren't patient. They are researched and experienced, so once they engage with one of your sales engagement team members, they expect to move at their pace. Are you meeting the clients where they are? How would you assess your sales engagement team's speed to the client? How about the quality of those engagements? Speed and quality should be defined by what the client wants and expects, not necessarily by your measurements.

For example, if you get to a client within 2.4 seconds and they want to see the product, is your team member prepared to make that interaction effective? Are your salespeople demonstrating your services? If so, have you equipped your salespeople with the training and tools they need to make their demonstrations successful? What is your sales and subject matter expert structure? Are you structured to take advantage of the Rule of 24 in every step of your sales process? The answers to these questions are the first steps toward understanding your ideal client-engagement model.

Are you a new company or division that wants to think about your ideal model? Perhaps you are a mature company in an industry that is evolving, and you need to transition over time to a Rule of 24 organization.

From a tools perspective, what tools do you already have? What tools are you using to engage with clients? Are they helping you differentiate from your competition? Do your tools help drive efficiency and speed in sales cycles? While it is commonplace for sales organizations to leverage tools like CRM and marketing automation, most are ignoring the power of video.

Are you leveraging demo videos today? Do the videos adhere to the practices we described in this book? Are your demo videos too long? You would be shocked to find out how many companies use thirty- to sixty-minute-long webinars as demo videos. While that ...

Table of contents

• Acknowledgments
• Foreword
• Introduction
• ONE: Rule of 24
• TWO: B2B Complex Purchases
• THREE: Digital Selling, Presenting & Demonstrating
• FOUR: Guiding Principles of the Rule of 24
• FIVE: Video Automation
• SIX: Video Categories
• SEVEN: Personal Video
• EIGHT: Video Content Creation
• NINE: Virtual Demonstrations and Presentations
• TEN: The In-Person Master of 24
• ELEVEN: Coaching
• TWELVE: Teamwork
• THIRTEEN: SERIOUSLY?
• FOURTEEN: An Illustration of a Modern Rule of 24 Story
• FIFTEEN: Organizational Execution
• Conclusion