Andrew is an International Lecturer and Consultant specializing in Sales Management and Sales Process Optimization. He helps companies define, measure, analyze, improve, and control their sales processes. Helps clients segment their entire sales process into four phases and apply techniques from Lean, Six-Sigma, Theory of Constraints and TRIZ. He has more than 30 years of sales experience and now consults globally on sales management.
Here we are discussing the following points:
- What can salespeople learn from their engineering counterparts?
- What can lean and lean principles teach salespeople?
- Updating the sales process is one of the essential things that the company must do on a regular basis and it is also seen that some of them don’t do that quite often. What all this may lead to?
- When it comes to sales, one thing that may go wrong is people don’t spend enough time looking at the process and seeing if every part of the process is working effectively. How to tackle that?
Looking from the customers’ perspective can help; especially when it comes to sales. At the end of the day, most people build processes to suit themselves.
Disciplines and Specialization:
Throughout centuries of scientific discovery, polymaths such as Leonardo da Vinci, Darwin, Galileo, and Richard Feynman stand out. They were able to take their knowledge from one discipline and bring it into others. The need to understand a plethora of topics has been replaced with specialization — in academia, medicine, and law, to name a few.
Using TRIZ methods can help. View each new hiring process as an opportunity to improve the entire system, rather than an end in itself.
Components of TRIZ:
- Ideal Final Result
Conduct blue-sky thinking and brainstorming about the perfect candidate. Leonardo said, “Think of the end before the beginning.” Know what you would like if you could have it all.
- Everyone’s Ideal Result
Look at the problem from all sides — not only your viewpoint but every stakeholder.
- Functionality, Harms, and Benefits
Analyze everything about the position. List all “must-haves” and “nice to have.” Now, what do you not want to see in a candidate? If you list skillsets, defend them — why are they important? Now, what does the role look like?
If you revisit your sales process before you replace your sales manager, you will probably find that you can recruit from a wider and more diverse group, enabling you to improve both the efficiency and effectiveness of your sales force.
Our Host
John is the Amazon bestselling author of Winning the Battle for Sales: Lessons on Closing Every Deal from the World’s Greatest Military Victories and Social Upheaval: How to Win at Social Selling. A globally acknowledged Sales & Marketing thought leader, speaker, and strategist. He is CSMO at Pipeliner CRM. In his spare time, John is an avid Martial Artist.
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