Over the course of our projects, we’ve interacted with thousands of sales people. Given the nature of our work, that shouldn’t be surprising.
However a lesser known fact is that we also meet a lot of ‘non-sales’ people: from product, operations, recruitment, HR, purchase and others. We also speak to a lot of founders who come primarily from a product, tech background.
Here’s a somewhat imaginary conversations between a non-sales leader and us
Hey so we’re working with your sales team on some improvements. What do you think is wrong with sales?
So, each function has its own role and requires a specific skill set. So does sales. Our salespeople lack those skills. We need to upskill our sales team and are looking for someone who can help us with that.
Ahh interesting, what specifically do you think they do wrong?
Our sales team doesn’t do a great job of presenting/ positioning our product. They don’t explain the benefits of our product.
And how would you explain the benefits of the product/offering?
We’ve shared a product deck with the sales team explaining all the benefits. We also trained them on the product extensively. Ultimately, we’re product folks. Selling is not for us though. That’s the sales team’s job.
Got it. Have you had any customer conversations recently? How did they go?
Not recently. But some in the past. They were a mix, some were very good. Some clients were very traditional- couldn’t understand what we were trying to do. Some were just very price focussed.
The fun part is, this conversation will not seem odd to most people. In fact, most people would have been a part or heard such a conversation before.
The central theme in such conversations is that other teams don’t need to know ‘sales’; sales problems are sales team problems and sales training is about getting sales teams to explain the product better.
Here’s why we find this to be a problem
With very few exceptions, growth in most departments or functions involves working with a larger team, external parties & other leadership members. This involves “selling” your ideas to them. Founders sell ideas to investors all the time. Essentially, all of us are selling.
Your organization exists for customers. If the people at the top most level aren’t interacting with customers ( prospective AND existing), you’re operating in a vacuum.
Steve Jobs supposedly could tell what people wanted before people themselves could realize or express it. For the rest of us, customer feedback is the greatest input to our product.
Finally, once people realize that they’re selling all the time, they’re more likely to understand and empathize with the sales team.
Saurabh Sengupta, our founder, is coming up with a course on sales for founders & other functions. If this resonates with you, we recommend you check out his programs at www.saurabhsengupta.com
