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Wilf Prior's children shown in the Ardington School photograph taken in 1912.  Far right in the front row is Winnie Prior, my mother.  Far left front room is Kathleen Prior, Winnie' sister, and my aunt.

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This is 43 Ardington, Town's End taken approximately 1955.  This was home to George Prior and subsequently taken over by Winnie, my mother.

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43 Ardington taken in 1910.  Standing in front are Francis Prior (married to Mark Curtain) with Louisa, Eileen, Gweneth (children) and Victor Lewis (boarder).

 

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43 Ardington after the modernisation, shown in 1960.

 

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Wilfred and Annie Prior taken in the garden of 46 Ardington with family and friends.

 

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Annie Prior with 5 of her children.  Back row, from the left are Kathleen, Edith, and Winnie. In the front row are Wilfred and Iris.

 

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This is 46 Ardington, home of Wilf Prior shown in 1955.

 

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Wilf Prior with his pigeons, in 1920.

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Wilf Prior in the garden of 46 Ardington in 1950.

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Wilf Prior in his garden shown in 1944.

Is Your Sales Strategy Easy to Buy

Every sales strategy needs to be easy to buy.  Sorry if that's perverse, or trite, or over intellectual consulting speak.  It isn't meant to be.  But let me explain.

Your sales strategy needs to be easy to buy by everybody in your business, and especially to your sales and customer service teams.  It needs  to be easy to buy, by your customers and prospects and it needs to present the value proposition in a package which is easy for those prospects to buy.

The sales strategy needs to present exactly who will benefit from the proposition, why and how those people will buy from you, and how you'll deliver it to assure the customer maximum benefit at minimum risk.

Here's the detail.

Your Teams

Everybody in the business needs to buy into the proposition, believing in the genuine value it will deliver.

There's nothing more destructive to sales operations than a bunch of mavericks selling a different story, just because they don't like it.  Every sale exists within a market, and people within that market talk to each other, one way or another.  If one sales person pitches cost, another pitches quality and yet another promotes convenience, everybody gets confused.  Confused prospects rarely make good business partners.

Except maybe the customer service team can be more destructive.  The service rep who tells complaining customers "I wish they'd stop telling customers that" undermines everything you're working to achieve.

Your Customers

Explaining to customers the detail of your sales strategy may not sound a good idea.  Why go into that stuff when the prospect only cares about what's in the proposal for her.

Customers like to feel comfortable when making that final vendor selection.  They have to find ways of justifying to themselves the decision they're about to make.

When your entire business model is focused on delivering value to the customer's specific demographic that comfort comes easily.  Explaining to customers how your thinking specifically targets them and their needs makes them feel part of a special group, and more confident in your ability to deliver.

Your Value Proposition

This is the dimension you'd expect.  Prospects rarely decide to buy when the contract, or delivery is complicated.  That complexity simply gives them more reason to delay the decision.  When the value proposition is clear, credible and attractive the only barrier can be the buying process.  Simplifying that process makes you an attractive partner, because you are easy to buy from.

Sales Strategy

There are many more dimensions to developing an effective sales strategy than the ideas presented in this article but making it easy for everybody to buy into is fundamental.  We'll look at the other dimensions in future articles.

Sales Strategy Role for Value Proposition

What role does value proposition play in a sales strategy? Or maybe what is a sales strategy, and what is a value proposition, and why should anybody care? The answer to those questions depends on how much you enjoy kissing frogs.

You'll remember the Brothers Grimm fairy tale where the princess kissed the frog, and the frog turned into a handsome prince who married her. The happy couple lived together in marital bliss for the rest of their lives.

Unfortunately that silly story has influenced sales management philosophy ever since it was written. All any sales person has to do is call enough people, pitch the product as confidently as possible, and pray - this frog might be the prince. Pucker Up and ignore the smell. Still a frog :-( never mind - and on to the next.

Sales people who like the taste of frogs need read no further. Off you go the nearest street corner.

Those who don't enjoy the prospect of green lips will be pleased to know there is a better way. We'll call it a value proposition with a sales strategy for selling and delivering it.

The value proposition needs to be a clear, credible and unique explanation of how the customer will benefit from whatever the vendor wishes to provide. Defining a value proposition can be a tougher job than you might think, because it must be about customers, it must be real, and it must be unique.

Now that's tied down, the value proposition directs the development of the sales strategy.

The target customer is already defined, so any business which doesn't fit the demographic isn't going to be a prospect. There's no point in calling or even pitching.

Since the target proposal is similarly defined, the other dimensions of the strategy need to be developed, tested and refined. These will all be about process - how people within the demographic will find out about, understand, and take advantage of the benefit promised.

Of course it takes a lot of work to figure all this out and doesn't feel quite as active as cold calling every name on the list. It doesn't quite sit with the folklore about hot shot superstar sales people. But it does work.

Using this approach sales leaders can make sure every frog they talk to is a prince.

Promotion to Sales Manager - How to Get It

So you want to win promotion to sales manager, do you? Are you sure? It's not the soft option you might think.

The sales manager inevitably exists between the rock and the famous hard place. As the interface between independently minded individuals in the sales team and a CEO insisting on predictable performance.

For the CEO the sales guys never work hard enough, never try hard enough and fold too easily in the face of resistant customers. For the sales team the product doesn't have the right features, is too expensive, and marketing always leaves them on the back foot.

Doesn't sound a lot of fun does it? But, if you're still interested in climbing the corporate ladder, our tutorials in the Sales Insights Strategies Processes and Tools series should be particularly helpful, and especially two papers.

Sales Management Processes and Tools describes the various roles in sales management hierarchy and includes templates for forms and systems.

Sales Probability Process Management explains how your sales process can be integrated with the forecasting and review process.

Take all this knowledge into the job interview and you'll be odds on to get the job. Your knowledge best practice in sales operations management will be a real advantage.

Best of luck with the interviewing :-)

New Sales Manager in the 1st Quarter

So you took the promotion to sales manager.  Congratulations.  Well done.  But a word of caution.  Life at work is going to be considerably more difficult from now on.  Luckily in the 1st quarter everybody will give you some time to get settled, I hope at least.  Now's the time to set the agenda for the rest of your tenure.  Get the relationships and processes right now and you'll always be in charge.  On the other hand using this  time to win friends (and influence people)  will put everybody else in the driving seat, with you carrying responsibility without any authority.

Our Succeeding in Sales Management tutorial will give you a head start on both the sales team and your management.

It explains the dynamics in this unusual situation - who will try to do what, and how you can respond.  It suggests positive attitudes and actions you can take, and ways you can explain to both sales team members and your management  how you'll make a difference.

The sales manager's challenges come from both sides of the coin.  Reps want a manager who will fix their perceived problems with product, and pricing, and marketing.  Management want a manager who'll get the sales people doing what they're told, by Marketing, by Customer Service, by Human Resources, and by Accounting.  The 1st quarter is their opportunity to influence the new sales manager and set the agenda in their interests.

What they actually want is leadership.  Somebody who can point the way to improved business results without the usual tensions between those who make the money and the others who spend it.

That's what the new sales manager can, and needs to, do in the 1st quarter.

Best of Luck