Selling: A Customer-Focused Culture

by Kristin Slavin

ave we ever thought about all the positive energy we extend as we capture and maintain customers? That momentum, adrenaline and skill a sales team utilizes as they close business? During this time of change and upheaval, I have contemplated if there are consistent ways to capture this same energy throughout an organization so that it permeates every corner of the business.

While we all may strive for that customer-focused mindset with our employees, in this rapidly changing world how can we ensure that everyone is focused on understanding how the customer is changing and what they need from our organization? As we continue to look for ways to motivate and retain our employees, is there a simple way to teach employees one common language that will unify them around the customer?

PPP- Wilson Learning, The Counselor Salesperson- Purpose, Process Payoff.
Format- tool created for PPP by Strategic Enhancement Group.

A sales process can do that for your organization.

Let’s first align on a definition for a sales process. I think SuperOffice says it best: “A sales process is a set of repeatable steps that a salesperson takes to take a prospective customer from the early stages of awareness to a closed sale.” A sales process is usually comprised of 5-7 steps, they advise, yet this can vary depending on the sales process you are utilizing.

If you are not part of the sales organization, you might think, Wait, it’s a sales process, let’s leave that up to the sales team. Why would you need these skills beyond the sales team? Marketing teams often don’t want to sign up for a sales process, as they have a customer journey that unites them to the customer. And while most leaders throughout an organization agree that a well-practiced sales process is a key component to the success of their sales organization, it usually stays right there with the sales team.

Harvard Business Review repeatedly documents the power of the sales process, including in the article “Companies with a formal sales process generate more revenue,” by Jason Jordan and Robert Kelly. In this article, Jordan and Kelly claim that the most important success factor for a sales team is a well-executed sales process. Yet, in my opinion, what is equally, if not more important, is the impact that a sales process can have on all employees and how it can center your company culture around your customer. When you rely so much on a sales process in understanding your customers’ new world during these changing times, why not harness this same energy and focus into everything you do? Why not give this customer tool that your sales team utilizes to all your employees?

The Power of Unity

Initially this might seem like a challenge when you think of your own organization. I know it was for me. From the next drug to cure hypertension, to content to change medical education, to services and technology to inspire greatness in students, I’ve had the opportunity to work for companies where employees wholeheartedly thought the company’s products or services could change the world. The culture was 100 percent focused on what we had to offer. There is nothing like having many people excited about what an organization offers. Yet in this passionately focused culture, were we truly customer-focused? It seems we were focused on the company’s offering, not the customer.

Frankly, passion can become blinding. When does devotion to a shiny product or service and naiveté prevent your employees from understanding what your customer really needs? During this time of customer change, can a culture survive if it’s purely focused on what it does or what it creates? I have come to recognize potential warning signs: “we don’t really have salespeople, we have corporate evangelists,” or the product or service literally “sells itself.” While a product “selling itself” will depend on the Product Life Cycle, how can you ensure that from the launch of your product or service your employees are focused on your customer? How can you ensure that unbridled passion doesn’t negate the focus on your customer? What is an effective way to utilize that passion throughout your organization in a productive way to gain customer buy-in? That simple yet effective sales process you thought was only for your sales team can unite an organization around a common language and bring your customer to the forefront of everything you do.

Adopting a Sales Process

Gain funding and buy-in for a sales process

If you are looking to adopt a sales process and looking to explain the “why,” start with your sales team. I have found the ROI on a sales process is easy to prove within the first six months. Don’t hesitate to make this commitment. If you select the right sales process, do your homework around costs, and ensure your sales leadership adopts it, you will have impressive ROI results within the first six months to share with your executives, and ultimately be more successful moving the concept throughout the organization.

Select the right sales process for your organization

Some sales leaders say I am biased, but I have reviewed and worked with several sales processes and find The Counselor Salesperson by Wilson Learning to be the best. Why? Because it’s easy to learn and easy to adopt. Most importantly, it’s easy for employees outside of sales to adopt. When you are looking to invest in a sales process, look for one you can envision your team adopting and making a part of their everyday work life. Look for simplicity and adoptability. Try to find other organizations that have successfully adopted that sales process. If you can afford to utilize a consultant to assist you, even better. I have worked with Susan Hall, VP of business development and business improvement for Strategic Enhancement Group, who has assisted me with effective ways of launching and adopting the sales process, as well as overall ROI exercises.

Ensure you gain sales leadership buy-in from Day One

Leadership, leadership, leadership. The most important factor in adoption is the response of your sales leaders. You must gain their buy-in from Day One. Your sales team won’t adopt a process unless it is systematically adopted by your sales leaders. Bring the team in on the selection process and ensure they know how invested you are in adopting a sales process. Understand the tools that will help your team adopt the sales process. I have found e-mail templates, customer conversation guides, and effective question lists all provide simple yet effective tools to gain adoption.

Growth beyond the sales team

Ensure your sales leaders are not limiting the sales process to their customers; set expectations that this process is to be used for every internal meeting as well. When the sales team begins to walk and talk the talk, others will see the efficiencies gained and start to follow. Begin to inform other leaders throughout your organization as to why their team can benefit from learning and adopting a sales process. Ensure larger company-wide meetings follow your sales process; there is nothing like having everyone see the benefits of a customer-focused meeting.

Process, Process, Process

Whether I was a sales rep, sales leader or vice president of sales, once the sales team adopted and was well versed in a sales process, meaning they used it consistently with their customers and made it part of their day-to-day internal meetings, the rest of the company took their lead. The adoption of the sales process allowed the culture to evolve. We no longer internally focused on the product or service; we focused on what we could do for the customer with the product or service.

I find this change always starts in stages. Something as simple as a Purpose, Process, Payoff process (see diagram on page 10) at the start of an internal meeting puts the customer’s agenda and payoff at the center of the discussion. Meetings move from long, drawn-out, internally focused discussions to: how is everything we are discussing going to work for our customer?

Next, a good sales process asks a salesperson to anticipate their customer’s questions prior to the meeting. It makes you think, “What questions will my customer have for me? Is there going to be an elephant in the room that I should address up front?” Again, this is key not only for salespeople working with customers; this process can make a huge difference throughout your organization. Once the sales leaders take a hold of this process, they incorporate it into their internal meetings. This part of the process almost becomes viral as you start to hear your marketing team, your product engineers, and even finance people say, “I thought through a list of questions you might have for me and here they are. Now let me address them for you.” Members of your internal organization are now treating one another as customers. You will find through this process that your internal team is anticipating more customer needs and concerns.

Ask Questions

A solid sales process addresses the best type of questions to ask. How do you ensure you are asking open-ended questions that get to the heart of the issue? How do you avoid those questions that your customer can simply answer with a yes/no response? As your sales team’s questioning process becomes more sophisticated, non-sales employees mimic this questioning process: “If you had unlimited resources, what would your vision be?” “What does success mean to you?” “What is the budget and timeline for this project?” Eventually the tougher questions are asked in day-to-day internal meetings. Good questions become part of the culture, and now everyone, not just the sales team, begins to think about the customer earlier in the process.

Customer-Centric Cultures

Everyone wants that opportunity to present what their company is all about. During presentations, even the proudest marketing person in a pharmaceutical company, product manager in a technology company, or managing editor in a publishing company has a bit more focus on what the customer needs when they talk about their company’s offering. Their culture has gone from thing-centric to customer-centric.

Effective meetings have a specific process. Uncovering the elephant in the room at the start of a discussion, and always asking the tough questions that are focused on the customer, is a win for everyone. Why would you limit that to your sales team? The momentum, adrenaline and language utilized by your sales team can, and should, be everyone’s process. Ultimately, it will bring everyone much closer to their customer.