Review your sales team’s pitch

This article first appeared July 28, 2011.

Yesterday I had the pleasure of accompanying one of my more recent sales team hires on a sales call to a potential client.

I love going on sales calls. When I was starting Taskmaster Enterprises, I did a lot of the initial selling myself, before I could afford to hire a crack sales person.

I love talking about my company, I love the back-and-forth of negotiating and I love helping customers grow their business.

But now I am attending sales calls for a different reason – to review the sales pitch the team is using.

This is something that should be done regularly – I’d say at least once a quarter you would want to get out with each sales person and see how they are tracking.

Don’t worry, I will remind you every now and again to keep on track.

What you are looking for in these reviews is alignment.

You want to know that the message being given by your sales person aligns with your value proposition and the way you want to be seen in the market.

For example, if you want to be seen in the market as having a features-packed product, make sure your sales people aren’t selling on price.

Similarly, if you want to be seen as a value offering, make sure this is being emphasised.

Hopefully, your sales people are on the right track. But you never know if you don’t go.

Get it done – today!