What’s your Sales DNA?

Every company has a unique Sales DNA. This is the unique “sales code” that makes an organization perform at peak sales efficiency. Identifying your company’s genetic sales code is the key to achieving sustainable, profitable sales growth, the key driver for creating long-term business value.

Do you think that the ability to sell successfully is something that can only be found embedded in the DNA of the talent you hire? Think again.

Sales DNA is determined by a broad array of factors that go beyond each individual salesperson. And while we would all like to wave a magic wand and improve revenue, the reality is that building sustainable, great sales results requires the proper sales infrastructure.  Put another way, before a sales organization can consistently produce great sales results, it must in effect be “ready to sell”.

Experience shows that these sales readiness factors fall into five key areas:  (1) overall sales strategy, (2) sales methodology, (3) integrated sales & marketing, (4) performance management systems and (5) sales organization & talent. Great sales organizations have successfully identified, documented, implemented and optimized these areas; they have built a truly scalable sales infrastructure – rather than a collection of individuals – that will consistently produce superior sales results.

Unfortunately, identifying and, if necessary, changing the Sales DNA of a company is an extremely difficult undertaking. Sales managers have little time to think about revamping their sales processes (if they even know where to start) or developing effective sales tools, and sales professionals  are better utilized executing a sales strategy as opposed to developing one. Moreover, the key sales readiness factors mentioned above are highly interrelated and in some cases cut across multiple disciplines within a company. This means it may be necessary to involve representatives from Sales, Marketing, Operations, IT and HR when conducting an assessment of a company’s sales readiness. Given this level of complexity, companies that are committed to improving their sales readiness may want to consider using outside resources to help them manage this process.

So how do you go about understanding and improving your organization’s Sales DNA?  The best results come from a process that consists of analysis, prioritization and implementation.

Analysis: a company should begin by conducting a candid, comprehensive assessment of their current sales function. This includes an analysis of each of the key sales readiness factors that impact sales results, and identifying strengths as well as areas for improvement. Taking one of these factors, Sales Methodology, as an example, a company might start the analysis by asking the  following questions:

• Have you developed a sales coverage model that deploys your sales resources based on customer segmentation and profitability?
• Does your sales organization have a  documented  sales process that is consistently followed by the sales team?
• Are there clearly defined rules of engagement regarding how the sales team should interact with prospects?
• How effective does you sales team manage existing customer relationships?
• Are you satisfied with the effectiveness of your sales force automation system? Is your sales team using it consistently?

A similar sort of checklist should be used to analyze each of the other areas impacting sales readiness.

Prioritization: based on this analysis, a company should develop a prioritized action plan in which targeted areas for improvement are stack ranked by factors such as return on investment, resource requirements, and time to completion.

Implementation: implementing the prioritized action plan requires developing, testing, and refining new systems, processes, procedures and tools. While the implementation phase can often take significant time and resources, it will result in your company successfully selling based on its unique Sales DNA.

While analyzing and improving an organization’s Sales DNA should be a top priority in building revenue, the truth is sadly the opposite. A recent report from CSO Insights titled 2010 Sales Performance Optimization Study confirms many companies have been cutting back on investments in their sales organizations despite the strong need to support them.
Unfortunately, a sales organization can’t cut its way to success.  Nor can it look to build a sustainable organization around a few superstars.  The ultimate key to sales success is improving your organization’s sales readiness – its overall Sales DNA.

By Norman Behar