Set Up to Win

Three Frameworks to a High-Performing Sales Organization

Karl E Becker

• Publisher: Improving Sales Performance
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781087964607
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Betriebswirtschaft
• Subtopic: Business allgemein

Here's the hard truth: when your sales organization performance stalls, there's no single magic trick that can fix it. And when throwing money at digital lead generators, all-star sales recruits, and team-building retreats isn't boosting your sales, it's time to get back to basics.

Set Up to Win shows you Three Frameworks that will stabilize and grow your company's revenue long term using the power of your greatest asset-your team. (And yes, it also gives you a short-term roadmap to get your sales out of the danger zone.)

If you're ready to stop wasting your time, energy, and money, Set Up to Win is your guide to building a solid foundation for enduring sales success.

Framework #1:

The Revenue Equation

Chapter 4:

The Revenue Equation

Assessing the Factors That Make Your Business Successful

Over the years, I have worked with many different companies in many different industries. One thing that naturally occurs is referrals to other companies within the same industry as your clients. One such referral I received early in the development of my Revenue Equation framework was with another live events company called Midwest Event Production. The first week that I worked with this event production company, their Champion asked me to sit down with the Improvement Team. I introduced myself and started in on the introductory session.

This was before I had really developed my version of the Revenue Equation Diagnostic as it currently stands, so instead of using the worksheets that I do now, I started off with a simple question:

“What is an existing brand out there that you think is like yours?”

The idea was to go around the table and ask each person what they thought, get a couple of ideas, and explore them further to start figuring out who this company really was.

The first person I asked replied, “Costco.” When I asked her why, she said, “Well, we have everything the customer needs, and we have great prices, just like Costco.”

Being new to working with this company, I had no reason to doubt that what she said was true. I thanked her and moved on to the next person at the table.

When I asked him what company he thought they were like, he replied, “The Ritz-Carlton.”

I paused. I couldn’t think of a company more different from Costco than the Ritz-Carlton. I asked him to continue.

“The Ritz-Carlton is about creating an amazing, unique experience for their guests, and they empower their employees to do whatever it takes to make a guest happy. I feel like we’re like that. When somebody has an event that we work on, I really want to learn what experience they want to have and then work really hard to create that experience.”

As Change Agent, I’m there seeking to understand. At this moment, though, I could tell it was going to take a lot more discussion to determine what this company was really about. I turned to the next person at the table.

After hearing those two completely conflicting statements, the next salesperson sat thinking carefully about how to answer. We all waited for an uncomfortably long time in silence.

Finally, he said, “We’re like United Airlines.”

United Airlines had been getting some bad press at the time, so I was kind of surprised to hear that. “Why are you like United Airlines?” I asked.

“Or Southwest, or any airline, really. I just mean, when you have an event, we take you where you need to go, just like an airline does.” He was talking about airlines in general rather than a specific brand. I thanked him and moved on to the fourth team member, hoping another opinion would provide clarity.

“We’re like the little wine shop I go to around the corner from my house,” he said. “There are these wine experts who work there, and when I have a friend over for a nice dinner, I’ll go over to the shop, and they help me choose the right wine to buy. I feel like I’m a wine expert but for the event industry. I learn the type of event you want to have, and then I make a recommendation on how to achieve the outcomes you want.”

It was fascinating how misaligned this team was. They were totally unclear on the value that their company offered. The first person thought they sold on price, like Costco. The second was focused on creating exceptional experiences, like the Ritz-Carlton. The guy who was talking about airlines didn’t seem clear on what made the company special at all. The last guy was more aligned with the one who compared the company to the Ritz-Carlton, in that he focused on a customized, tailored outcome for the customer, but the scope was much smaller.

Two of these salespeople moved on from the company not long after we worked through their version of the Revenue Equation. Can you guess which ones?

When the salesperson who compared the company to Costco left, she also left behind her customers to be inherited by the other salespeople. Those customers soon moved on as well because she had been selling based on price rather than providing a unique customer experience the way that the next salesperson did.

This underscores the importance of having everyone on the same page about who you are as a company, what you are selling, who you are selling to, and how you are selling it. If each of your team members is operating under completely different understandings of those elements (or if they don’t really have an understanding at all), you are going to continue to miss out on the kind of business you really want to be doing, and the kinds of customers that you really want to have.

Measuring Perceptions on Your Team with the Revenue Equation

Sales Foundations + Sales Design + Sales Infrastructure = Revenue Stabilization and Growth

The kickoff activity when you’re building your highly profitable sales organization is getting clear on the concept of the Revenue Equation. The Revenue Equation is a construction based on understanding the root causes of an organization’s problems and the systems that will solve them. To reach the final goal of bringing in the revenue that you want, you’ll need the whole organization to get to an 80 percent or higher level of mastery of the Sales Foundations, Sales Design, and Sales Infrastructure of your business.

Before we get ahead of ourselves by diving into how to solve your equation, the first step is to diagnose the problem. It’s the Change Agent’s job to trace the path forward, hold the vision of the destination, and then keep everyone together as you go. No one can go about tackling that main problem without a plan; you can’t just start walking and be sure that you’re going to get where you want to go.

What I’m about to describe to you is slightly more systematized than going around the table to ask each person what brand they think compares to their own. A more standardized exercise called the Revenue Equation Diagnostic helps identify where misfires are happening. It asks participants to evaluate their organization in the following areas:

Sales Foundations: These are the problems your company solves, the value you create, what differentiates you from other companies, your offerings, and what kind of experience you provide your customers.

Sales Design: Here, you design your approach to sales by determining the type of customers you sell your solutions to, what is important to them, and why these customers buy your solutions.

Sales Infrastructure: This is how you organize, operate, manage, and optimize your sales organization.

First, I have everyone on the Improvement Team fill out the Revenue Equation Diagnostic, including the Decision Makers. They in particular might be surprised at the ratings that team members give, and this exercise can be one of the first that opens people’s eyes to the specific roots of their misalignments. The core purpose of the diagnostic is to seek to understand everyone’s level of alignment, make sure the whole group understands how these foundations intersect, and go from there to redefine the company’s Revenue Equation.

And bonus! Developing common understanding from doing this one exercise is going to have a major positive impact on your company. It provides an opportunity for teaming and the first chance for the Decision Makers to benefit from the Improvement Team’s feedback and insights for how the company can become more aligned.

Moderating the Process as the Change Agent

Just as you, if you are the Change Agent, will be helping this company work according to their Sales Foundations, you’ll also need to set ground rules for yourself. That’s why every time you lead an exercise, you need to remember to be guided by the three qualities of the Change Agent. Here are some ways that might present

Holding the Vision

At the...