In this competitive age, it seems obvious that a company's ability to sell well is key to its profitability and growth. Yet selling is poorly understood, even by senior executives, and is often regarded as anything but a core competence.
A sales organization is seen as being about pushing products. But a product is only valuable if the buyer believes it is worth buying. Salespeople therefore need to focus on what the customer wants, not on what the company wants to sell.
But how can a salesperson ever know what the customer wants?
In a complex sales situation, where the customer is buying from a range of suppliers, the customer's requirements are likely to be different for each supplier and are likely to change multiple times during the negotiation.
In this paper, Dr Philip Squire , CEO Consalia, Professor David Hennessey and Michael Hurley, Director, Hewlett Packard, look at how the values of salespeople directly impact the ability to create value in the sales process, particularly with complex and global contracts. It looks at research with customers and their expectations and proposes a paradigm shift in what companies look for in recruiting salespeople to meet those requirements. The article also examines how a change in approach led to success in closing over $5bn of deals and doubling the conversion rate in winning new business.