Today’s market is demanding. The sales landscape has changed post-pandemic. Many companies are left with slowing growth and declining margins. Sales and marketing leaders are under pressure for results, and their reps are looking for answers to what they should be doing differently. Here are some of the strategies we’re working with our clients to implement:
1. Develop Targeted Sales Plays
Create a clear set of plays for your sales team to run:
- Different types of sales plays: The generic approach no longer works. Develop a clear set of plays with specific sales motions—be it a play for a specific industry vertical, targeting specific competitors, or expanding or renewing accounts.
- Focus on selling value: Slow down to speed up. When under pressure, sales feel the need to rush to the demo or proposal. Each sales play should outline the steps, activities, and tools to help reps build the case for change and deliver value throughout the sales process. Often, it takes a little longer on the front end to understand the buying process, meet the stakeholder, and understand their priorities and what they’re trying to accomplish. Deals don’t get done unless there is a clear link between the problems you solve and the impact and value your solutions provide.
2. Equip and Train Your Team
Credibility and confidence are critical in today’s environment. Both come from preparation and ongoing development. Here are a few ways to accomplish both:
- Utilize Enablement Platforms: There are a lot of good innovative enablement tools on the market. We’ve found that it is important to have a video-enabled platform to provide reps with videos of what good looks like. Include materials that will help a salesperson run the sales play — trends and pressures driving the need for change, value props, key themes for sales conversations, competitive traps to set, and how to handle common objections.
- Micro-Learning Modules: Offer bite-sized learning opportunities that allow reps to digest information easily.
3. Coach and Remove Friction
Sales reps often see more content, training, and tools as things that will take them away from selling time. Sales reps must see the value.
- Focused Coaching: Provide managers with coaching guides to bring value to the sales play. The manager’s role shouldn’t only be about inspection and accountability (although important!) but also about helping the rep think about what is working, what isn’t, and what they need to do differently to see success.
- Remove Friction: Make the sales plays and the enablement platform about helping the rep succeed, not filling out forms and checking boxes.
By adopting these strategies, companies can more effectively navigate today’s complex B2B landscape, leading to short-term and long-term success. Kodiak offers a video-based playbook platform. See SalesOptyx to learn more.
Schedule time with our Managing Partner to discuss how some of these ideas might benefit your team.
