By Mike Kunkle | Distribution Strategy Group
CEOs and senior sales leaders aiming to effectively steer their sales teams through the challenges of 2024 and unlock maximum growth potential require a thoughtful and comprehensive approach. In this article, I’ll explore methods to troubleshoot and audit your sales force, offering you the best chance of achieving that growth.
It’s important to acknowledge upfront that not all these recommendations will be applicable to everyone, and there might be some overlap in a few categories. Given the multitude of moving parts and performance levers in a sales organization, this is normal and expected. Consider the following recommendations as an audit checklist of sorts. As you go through the article, make notes about the ones that apply to your situation, deprioritize others if you believe they are already addressed (GEFN – good enough for now), or simply do not apply to your circumstances. Conduct a Comprehensive Sales Force Audit
Start with Buyer and Customer Acumen
One of the largest and most surprising gaps that I consistently see is in buyer and customer acumen. Often, executives confuse experience with understanding. We think we know everything about our customers, yet it’s mostly anecdotal without analysis or documentation.
To begin this diagnostic audit, prioritize a thorough evaluation of your buyer and customer acumen. For me, buyer acumen includes:
Roles & Goals: Document the roles and goals for your most common buyers.
Buyer Personas: Develop comprehensive buyer personas or buyer profiles, including their COIN-OP, meaning the Challenges they face, the Opportunities they can capitalize on, the Impacts of those challenges or opportunities, the Needs their situation creates, their desired Outcomes, and the Priorities of those needs and outcomes.
Metrics: How are they measured in their company? What are the “metrics that matter most” to them, and how do they and their leaders define success in their role?
Budgets: What are their typical budgets, their span of control, and their purchasing authority?