It’s a wonderful time to be in the business of helping sales teams be more effective. Sales enablement is all the rage with conferences, pundits and sales automation systems everywhere you look. One thing you don’t see much about though is sales strategy. And why is that? We know about marketing strategies. Things like the 5 P’s, or competitive differentiation, or 1-to-1 marketing. And we know about sales methodologies. That would be your Challenger selling, SPIN selling, TAS, VITO or any of the many other useful formulas for a winning sales approach. But we don’t hear much about sales strategies.
Is it because we think that selling isn’t something one can approach strategically? Talk to any big-time enterprise computing sales executive and you quickly realize how strategic they are in so many dimensions. The complexity inherent in selling technology into enterprises, government agencies, and even SMB is mind-boggling.
We think sales strategy is a long-overlooked competency that is required for any complex selling situation. Done well, it can be the difference between winning and losing both at the account and the market level.