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Off the Cuff: Specializing Sales Roles
Off the Cuff / Sales Management / Sep 7, 2017 / Posted by Marylou Tyler / 4501

Off the Cuff: Specializing Sales Roles

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Off the Cuff Interview Question: What are the key advantages to specializing sales roles in a company?

Specializing sales roles can improve productivity, increase morale, simplify hiring and maximize return on effort in any size organization. Because very few sales executives are masters of each primary role in sales – prospecting, closing, servicing – specialization ensures more predictable outcomes from lead to revenue generation, effectively, with consistency.

One key advantage of specialization is that it better aligns behavioral characteristics of the sales representative. As an example, prospecting typically requires daily execution of activities geared towards starting conversations. A higher number of activities are grouped into blocks of time and performed habitually, day in and day out. It takes a special sales talent to thrive within this more controlled, less flexible sales environment.

Specialization also allows you to align skillsets more effectively. As you move further into the pipeline, different skillsets start to emerge. For example, a high level of negotiation expertise and strategy might be needed to move an opportunity to the revenue stage with desirable outcomes. More thought and planning are necessary to position the sale, and there are, likely, more working parts to manage. Contrast that directly to the role described earlier – one of daily, habitual, activity execution.

The more we learn about multitasking and its effect on performance, the more specialization makes sense. Instead of wearing 3-4 hats on any given day (prospecting, closing, servicing, managing), specialization allows for single-tasking of one primary purpose, with complete focus on achieving goals aligned with that purpose.

Metrics, measurements, and adherence to goals are easier to set, review, understand and act upon. Points of degradation or sluggishness in the pipeline are easier to spot and rectify. Specialization allows for delving into problem areas, one layer at a time, to thoroughly understand where trouble spots lie and how to fix them.

If you’re looking for more consistency and predictability from your sales teams, consider specialization of the sales roles. Start with one split, then work your way towards more specialization keeping in mind that you’re looking to maximize return on effort while at the same time reduce cost of sales.

What has been successful for you in specializing sales roles? Leave a comment and let us know. 

Pipeliner CRM allows sales management to precisely assign and specialize sales teams. Get your free trial of Pipeliner CRM now.

About Author

Marylou Tyler is a sales process expert, speaker, coach, and co-author of Predictable Revenue: Turn Your Company into a Sales Machine. Her company, Strategic Pipeline, delivers proven how-to strategies and tactics to companies who need new business NOW.

Author's Publications on Amazon

The proven system for rapid B2B sales growth from the coauthor of Predictable Revenue, the breakout bestseller hailed as a “sales bible” (Inc.) If your organization’s success is driven by B2B sales, you need to be an expert prospector to successfully target, qualify, and close…
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GROW REVENUE BY 300% OR MORE AND MAKE IT PREDICTABLE... "Alexander Graham Bell discovered the telephone, Thomas Edison discovered electricity and Aaron Ross discovered the Enterprise Market for Salesforce.com." SHELLY DAVENPORT - VP Worldwide Sales at Replicon & ex-VP Corporate Sales at Salesforce.com
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