The Elephant in the Room

Happy Friday Friends,

Sales.
Sales, sales, sales.

Every B2B company needs a sales function. You cannot have a business without revenue. Generating revenue without a sales team is like trying to run a marathon without feet - difficult and rather unpleasant.

In every company I’ve worked in, sales have been the “elephant in the room” in board meetings and company all-hands.
I’m yet to figure out why Sales is a polarising discussion in many companies. Sales are the golden child of any B2B company but, at the same time, they are not perfect. But, every business leader expects them to be.

A salesperson in the zone closing deals is a glorious thing to behold. But, a salesperson in a dry spell is a depressing sight. 
I experienced 5 consistent challenges that deserve focus when it comes to sales. Get these right and your sales org will have a great foundation.

1. Don’t Sell, Educate

If you have product market fit and your business is growing revenue because customers want what you’re offering then you are off to the best start.
At this point, a key value I drill into sales teams’ heads is don’t sell, educate!

Way back in the day when I sold water coolers, I met with the head of a massive government agency. The head of procurement was interested but, after my 3rd meeting with him, I could tell I wasn’t getting anywhere. So, I asked to spend a day with some of the staff and I asked for some purchasing data.

Next time we met I presented him with feedback from 25 people around the business on their current “water solution.” Instead of showing him how much they were already spending on bottled water (he most likely knew and didn’t care). I spoke with an ops manager who showed me how much they spent on recycled waste collection. By purchasing coolers from me they would remove that cost entirely.

Guess what happened next? $$$

We know people need what we’re selling. We know it solves one or many problems. Our job as sales is to educate potential customers on what we solve and why they need it ASAP.
Understand your key target audience and the problem you solve for them. Once you do, it’s an education piece not a persuasive piece.
This simple mindset change is a powerful one.

2. Don’t Oversell

If I had a $1 for every time I spoke with a customer who said they were “promised a function or service and now don’t have it.” I would have a LOT more money invested in Bitcoin.

Picture this:
A deal is progressing well with the customer. You know their pains, you know your solution solves most of them. The salesperson is multiple meetings deep. They’re “sooooo close” to closing the deal.

Then the customer asks for a feature that isn’t in the product; “If you could only do XX I’d sign today.” The salesperson knows this feature is coming in the roadmap at some point. So they promise it’ll do XX for the customer. And they sign the contract! 

WAHOO?

No wahoos - you’re in for a world of pain!
Dumping this on Customer Success is one thing. Throwing your product manager into the viper pit is another. But, the WORST part about closing a deal like this is that you have broken the trust between your business and the customer. Without trust, there will be no longevity in the relationship. Fact!

As hard as it may be, put this deal off for a few months if the feature is that important to the deal. But, if you’re solving 60-70% of your customer’s pain you should be able to get them started and they’ll just add this to take them to 75% in a few months.

3. Under-Manager Expectations

Everyone knows the saying; under-promise and over-deliver. Well, sales teams often work in reverse.
Based on the previous point we know sales teams struggle to downplay anything. Their role is to create hype and excitement. How can they do that if they’re not promising the world?

Your sales teams will be telling customers everything they want to hear to close the deal. Be aware of that. A salesperson will struggle to tell a customer their onboarding will take 10 weeks when the customer says they want it done in 6. 

Again though, we need to stress how important trust is when it comes to customer relationships. If you promise them 6 weeks and it takes 10, not only will you have 4 weeks of complaining (and asking for refunds) but the customer will question whether you can deliver on any of your promises.

You’d do better to be upfront and honest with your customers. In fact, I leveraged honesty and transparency as a selling point. It’s easy because 9/10 companies will lie and bullshit at every opportunity. I guarantee the potential customer will appreciate the honesty. 

And when you actually get them onboard in 8 weeks instead of the 10 you said at the beginning you’ll be heroes.
Wahoo!

4. Take Responsibility

The golden child is only responsible for hockey stick growth. Anything else is everyone else's fault.
“The customer churned because the product didn’t do what we promised it would.”
“The customer churned because marketing sent us the wrong leads.”
“The customer churned because we took too long to onboard them.”

When I lead Customer Success and Product, I’d hear this from sales weekly. Firstly, the entire company needs to own churn but that’s a separate topic. Secondly, and more importantly, for today’s post Sales teams need to learn to take responsibility. 

Sales need to take responsibility for the customer even after they sign the contract.

Recently as CEO of a tech startup, I had a Director of Sales who embodied this in every way. It might have been because we were small so every contract counted, or it might have been because he gave a shit. Either way, he even helped with onboarding when a Customer Success Manager was sick. 
Our customers felt the love from day one to day 100+.

Of course, as you scale your sales teams can’t be involved forever but they are the first person your customers will meet. If they are great at what they do they’ll build trust early. Don’t let them forget about the customer after the deal is signed.

5. Sales Handover

Here’s the problem:
Up to this point, sales have had all the conversations with the customer. They know all their pain points and they also know the name of their dog and where their kids go to school. Almost all the information you gather about your customers is valuable.

When sales close the deal and the customer is handed over to Onboarding most of that flavour gets left behind in the pot. 
You’re missing out on some great sauce!

Make it easy for sales to pass that info over to the onboarding and retention teams. Now everyone will be on the same page.

Handover from your sales team to your onboarding team is an integral part of the customer experience. It’s not complicated nor is it hard to do. And, best of all you can almost fully automate the whole process.

There is a key theme that runs through all the elephants above - Consistent Experience for your customers. 
Consistent experiences build trust and when your customers trust you they will buy from you and support you forever!

Peace, Love and Growth,
Jarren

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If anything in the above article sounds familiar, here are 3 ways I can. help when you’re ready.

1. Book a free call and I’ll help you troubleshoot some sales challenges you’re having.

2. Sales-Customer Success handover document template

3. Customer onboarding template

For points 2 & 3 send me a DM and I’ll share the templates with you.

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