Salespeople Eat What They Kill RFPs, Closed Deals, Total Revenue
"We Live or Die By the Numbers"
Sales-Marketing Alignment
Closing the deal is the only thing real.
Problem
Most marketing has autonomy from sales. Often, it doesn’t channel sales messages well. Frequently it pursues goals that don't prioritize revenue.
Hurdle
You can market like a media outlet that never mentions product, but people will never rely on you as the industry's magazine. Only pitching vs. pure information are extremes.
Solution
Create a unified overall brand narrative with messages and campaigns supporting all stages of the sales funnel from ideation to negotiation, so marketing reaches people in bulk while Sales does 1:1.
Mandate
"Organizations succeed by producing a single brand narrative, carrying the same messages throughout the organization AND externally to the market. They fail when they don't produce an end-to-end experience."
The company is a salesperson. It exists to sell or it starves. You have every right & reason to expect: increased RFPs & bids, more closed deals, & higher total revenue.
"Drive Hard"
(MadPipe Commercial)
You're always closing
or else you're just posing.
Life is easier and sweeter when we're all facing the same direction, bent on taking the same hill.
The strongest predictor of success is not the best product but the size and diversity of your network.
Sales Copilot
The pipeline is a straight line to the dotted line.
Problem
The salesperson always has the sales pipeline in mind, but the rest of the company doesn’t, so s/he's alone in taking on prospects.
Hurdle
That’s fine, unless you’re up against competitors with more budget & resources. But the best salespeople continually hone their game, and they can't do it alone.
Solution
A copilot extracts insights from the pipeline, brainstorms solutions to hurdles, and crafts messaging to help the pitch, so the lead salesperson can close the deal.
Mandate
Your sales team gains an edge, because the copilot can ride along on calls, order up collateral and assets as needed, provide a second set of eyes, and rally the team around challenging RFPs.
Call in a ringer. You're adding someone to your sales team with a solid grasp of business, selling, messaging, marketing, and bottom line goals. That mix amplifies the efforts of every member.
You can't hone
anything alone.
Success is Seeing the Needle Move!
And everything else is codswallop.
You can only improve
what you can prove.
Sales Transformation
Everyone can sell, just not very well.
Problem
The very survival of the organization requires revenue. You want to prioritize pitching, cut the dross, & bend every activity into supporting Sales.
Hurdle
Most people either think they can't sell or don't know how to support the organizational act of selling, without losing sight of their own crucial skills.
Solution
Let's identify how each team can further the company's mission on the inertia of each team member's intrinsic personal motivations.
Mandate
You can't achieve your goals if revenue doesn't drive, but you also won't achieve them if people are anxious, demotivated, or don't understand how to help.
You know your organization best. MadPipe will start where you say. No bamboozlement or theater, no eight months of top to bottom fact-finding culminating in a PowerPoint before we can act. An action plan and the shortest path to a total sales organization is our shared goal.
Whatever you peddle, hustle, or trade,
your own crew must be first to be swayed.
Selling is being part of an ecosystem, and choosing to fill a need where one is expressed or implied.
RE: Supporting the Sale
Since you're still here . . .
Social Selling
You need a network just to BE at work.
Problem
Most social media strategies conflate B2C, SMB, and retail approaches with B2B and enterprise. If you're a B2B sales team, that's tone-deaf.
Hurdle
You can use a one-size fits all tack ("Thursday Thoughts", "Fun Fridays", weekly quote") & get some likes but no help for your bottom line.
Solution
Learn social selling, get Marketing to support the revenue function of the company, & enlist Product in brand evangelism.
Mandate
Grow & engage a network of colleagues, advocates, and leads that increasingly 'get' what you do, what you’re about, and why it matters, while opening up a new channel for deliberate lead gen.
The best arguments for social selling are: 1) Everyone's there, and you can know their name. 2) Most salespeople won't do it, so you have an opening. 3) Most salespeople aren't taught to do it well; you WILL be, and you'll have ongoing support for implementation.
Go where they won't
and you close what they don't.