Aligning Strategy and Sales
#SalesChats: Episode 29
There has always been a tendency for salespeople to be more independent, and prefer to generate their own strategies. This becomes a challenge when you try to create alignment within an organization centered around a developed sales strategy. Frank Cespedes discusses aligning strategy and sales in this #SalesChat, hosted by John Golden and Martha Neumeister.
Cespedes explains:
• Scary statistics. Less than 50% of employees in companies say they understand their company strategy. The closer the employee is to the customer, the less they understand the strategy.
• The issues that arise when salespeople don’t understand the strategy, including problems forecasting, and confusion around strategy versus mission
• How value is either created or destroyed in the marketplace with customers
• The difficulties and challenges that come about if solid sales strategies are not integrated and utilized throughout the entire sales team
• The benefits of disseminating a written sales strategy on a laminated card
• How the front line sales manager plays an impact on aligning their sales team with a strategy in areas like hiring, consistent reviews and coaching, and compensation
• Common mistakes that companies make when trying to encourage salespeople to utilize a process
• The changes that have come about as business has become more complex and specialized, and how salespeople, sales managers, and upper-level executives have to adapt to these changes
• Examples of companies and business professionals that have been successful at aligning strategy and sales
Our Guest
Frank Cespedes
is the MBA Class of 1973 Senior Lecturer of Business Administration at Harvard Business School. He has run a business, served on boards for start-ups and corporations, and consulted to many companies around the world. He is the author of six books and many articles in Harvard Business Review, The Wall Street Journal, California Management Review, and other publications. His latest book is Aligning Strategy and Sales is available from the Sales POP! bookstore.
Links › frankcespedes.com | twitter.com | linkedin.com
Our Hosts
John Golden
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.
Martha Neumeister
Martha is social media strategist, responsible for all social media platforms of Pipeliner CRM. She is a communication expert with social media affinity, which she has been focusing on throughout her professional career. She has a bachelor´s degree in Entrepreneurship & Management and a master´s degree in Online Marketing which supports her in her career as Social Media Strategist.
About SalesChats
SalesChats is a fast-paced (no more than 30 minutes) multi-media series that provides leading strategies, tactics and thinking for sales professionals worldwide. It can be found on Twitter (#SalesChats), as a live Google+ Hangout, and as a podcast available on iTunes, SoundCloud and right here on SalesPOP! If you think you would make a great guest for #SalesChats, please contact co-host Martha Neumeister.
SalesChats is co-hosted by John Golden, CSO Pipeliner CRM, and Martha Neumeister, Social Media Strategist Pipeliner CRM.
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