Introduction to Sales - Part 2: Go-To-Market Strategy

A friend of mine is starting a commission only sales job and he asked me to help him with getting started. So I thought I would share my insights to him and ask for any feedback from the people out there. This series of posts will focus on an introduction to selling and how to get started from a zero base with no previous experience.

There is a good chance that if you’re new to sales you have little-to-no control over the overall sales strategy for your territory. In my opinion this is a massive shame. People who are simply given a list of clients to call or worse a copy of the yellow pages or an internet connection and told to “go get-‘em”, are in a terrible disadvantage to people given guidance and strategic direction. Sure you might be taught tactics like ‘how to close’ or ‘how to get past the gatekeeper’ or ‘offer a value proposition’, but these things mean nothing long term and don’t help with the big picture.

But even as a novice you do have control over how you’re going to go after new business. The problem is strategy takes time to implement and if you need to get quick wins on the board to avoid getting fired you might not have the time.

As a recruiter I’ve been tasked to find people who can develop a “go-to-market” strategy and then execute it. The one thing I’ve learned from this is the difference between a Salesperson and a Business Development person. It is the fine balance between long-term goals and quick wins. The things below are what I’ve learned from the people who have been successful in their industries.

The first element to strategy is “brand”. Does the company have a brand? Do you have a brand? You need to become an expert in your field, working for a company with expertise in the field, providing a value add product or service to your clients. The best way to convey that is with a consistent corporate identity. Marketing Collateral that looks the same as your website, that looks the same as your business card that looks the same as any formal documents (briefs, proposals, etc).

With your personal brand you need to have a solid LinkedIn profile, a solid bio on your company website and an ‘elevator pitch’. This great article at the Harvard Business Review covers how to have a good elevator pitch http://www.alumni.hbs.edu/careers/pitch/. This is the pitch you use when someone asks ‘what you do’ and even when you are making a sales call. My ‘Pitch’ as designed in their suggested style is: 80 words – 20 second estimated speaking time – 15 repeated words. So mine clearly needs a bit of work to be punchier and make better use of the short time I have, by not repeating myself.

Another aspect of your brand is your ‘title’. If your boss allows you to be flexible with titles consider adopting a vanity title, e.g. ‘consultant’, ‘specialist’, ‘client relationship director’, ‘associate director, client engagement’. It’s easier to call the CxO of a company if you are the “General Manager for XYZ Services at ABC Company” rather than a ‘salesperson’.

Once you have a brand, marketing material, website, etc, you need to consider how you are going to go after your market. Think about this:

• Can you afford, or is it possible to do, a ‘lead generation campaign’? This is a way of getting your name into the market place through marketing tactics that mean clients call you or willingly input their names and contact details into your company’s database (e.g. in exchange for a free sample or report)
• Are you going to target an ‘industry vertical’ and become a specialist in that industry? If you sell widgets to the automotive industry, you need to understand where automotive companies have troubles, where they bleed money, where they can use more efficiency and why your widget can help them achieve that goal.
• Are you going to identify market triggers and wait for those before making contact with a company? E.g. A power failure in a particular suburb means you could call to discuss potential power continuation devices or data back-up, or redundant phone systems, whatever the case may be.
• Are you going to do market research first to find out about the industry and use that for lead generation?
• Are you going to sell a small service or product to ‘get your foot in the door’ and then grow the account with the client later?
• How are you going to map your target market? Will you have online tools with contact information or will you make cold calls to gather your initial information? How will you group and organise prospects? Where will the data be stored?
• How are you going to get referrals? Are you going to set-up a referral scheme or is your product so good that people will want to help each other by referring you?
• What is the maximum size solution you’re capable of delivering? Will you target those clients first because it takes longer to build relationships at that level? Or will you target the smaller solutions to develop a better understanding of the market first?
• How are you going to organize long-term efforts to win prospects? Some deals can take months or years to close. How are you going to keep track of which clients you’ve called and when you should try them again?

The answers to these questions help you to develop your go-to-market strategy. This will help you work out which clients to go after and how you plan to go after them. Picking up the yellow pages or even an online database of contacts and making calls is a tactic – cold calling. What is your strategy around that tactic? Do you plan to get to know an industry sector so well that you become an expert and consultant in that industry? Do you plan to spread your personal brand as far into the market as you can so that you get referrals? Do you plan to sell big deals or small deals? If big, can you sell it? Do you have stock? Do you have the understanding?

Knowing these things before you pick-up the phone to make a call can make a world of difference over the long-term. If your employer discourages you from doing these things then do them in your own time.

Read Part 1 (Inner Game of Selling)

Read Part 3 (Research)