Learnings from our sales thinkcamp yesterday
Our sales team got together in a room yesterday to review our sales process. Here are the key things we learned.
May is going well for us in sales. Our hitherto remote team members, Noel and Parth, are in Pune this month. And, so the parties and meetings are merging with each other seamlessly. :)
Yesterday, we got a bit serious and got into a room to review our key processes. We:
Reviewed our buyers’ journey and what they need at what time
Then looked at what we do as a company, and as the sales team, to provide what they need.
Then tried to question some steps and found some changes we could make to better serve our customers.
Also discussed how to quickly onboard our new team members so that they can be more successful, faster.
The meeting started at 6.30 pm and ran for 4 hours. But it was crazy energizing and fun. After some long hours we ended with a full whiteboard, some empty pizza boxes..
and these key take aways:
We often copy our sales process from other successful companies. But you need to keep in mind how your customers buy in your market. If you use an enterprise selling process in a SMB environment, it will often be counterproductive.
Every 6 months or so, zoom out and question every step in your sales process afresh. You may have been doing something that is no longer necessary. Or may be there is a new step you need to add to account for a change in your customers’ buying behavior.
As new members join the team, there is often a “transmission loss”. Your mission, the “promised land” for your customers, your key value propositions often start seeing “alterations” that need to be reaffirmed every 6 months or so. Else, sales might still happen - but you will start becoming less differentiated in the market - thus leading to a damage in long term.
What about you? Does your sales team get together to review the buyer journey regularly? How do you do it and are there any examples of when you arrived at a key insight?