Everyone Sells: 5 Ways To Create A Company-wide Sales Attitude
Does everyone in your company have a sales attitude? This goes for the person who answers the phone, the engineering team, and even manufacturing. Because you never know when they'll end up talking with a prospect or customer.
Corporate marketing strategies that create a sales attitude build business differentiation and stand out from the competition. They also deliver an employee value proposition that makes every person, up and down your entire organization, an advocate.
Training them to deliver an "in your face" sales pitch isn't necessary. However, you have a responsibility to make sure that there is a culture of awareness and sensitivity to the customer's point of view. Each person needs to know why your business exists and understand that the health of the company ultimately depends on happy customers.
Your employees represent you and your brand and help provide business differentiation. You never know when they'll come in contact with customers. Assuming upfront that they may somehow be involved in the sales process is smart.
Get them used to it! If not, you're doomed.
Help them to be constantly thinking about customer interaction and how to handle it. At a deeper level, drill them with the basics, to be familiar with what your target audience wants and why your solution is better than anything else out there.
5 Ways You Can Help Everyone In Your Company Sell
As a company leader, you should constantly encourage a customer and sales attitude to individuals, departments, and across the entire company. If your business is small, much of the following can be done on a company-wide basis.
- Attitude is very important. Stress great customer service as a cornerstone of your company's brand. Small things will make a big difference. Here's a simple test: call your company to see how people answer the phone and ask yourself if you'd do business with that company;
- Make sure everyone can cite your value proposition and what it means;
- Let everyone know about new tools that are available and their purpose. When a new data sheet, PowerPoint presentation, or program is produced, don't assume everyone is aware of them and what they're for. Send out an email bulletin with a quick blurb – then add it to a list of available collateral material with revision numbers;
- Hold regular company-wide updates. Even if you have only a handful of employees this is important. Let them know what's going on and encourage your team to ask questions. Be a little selective with the financial information you give them. This is a good time to set expectations in a very positive way. Doing this once a month or so is a great way to build trust and a positive team spirit.
- For people that have any significant customer facing responsibility: Hold weekly sales review meetings lasting no more than an hour;
- Start off by going over the deals closed the previous week and highlight why you won. If you lost a deal, why you lost it;
- Then go through the prospect list, beginning with the highest close probability (based on meetings, product fit, project funding, buying signals, etc.) and discuss the next steps;
- This is a good time to ask for ideas that help move the ball forward from all participants, not just sales and marketing;
- Make sure every account and action item has a name of a person and a commitment date;
- End when the hour is up, even if you haven't gotten through all the prospects on the list. This is your priority list for the upcoming week.
It's all about a winning sales attitude. Great corporate marketing strategies build upon each individual employee value proposition to infuse a winning sales attitude.
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