From Pitch to Profit

CHAPTER 2WHO SHOULD DO SALES?

I have an engineering client who once hired a full-time business development manager (BDM — otherwise known as a salesperson) to help them supercharge their efforts in converting new clients. This was the first time they had hired for such a role; previously, sales was only an ‘inbound’ activity where the company took orders as they came in. They also didn't have much of an ‘outbound’ focus because the team were often caught up in delivery of the services. (Jump back to the previous chapter for more on the difference between inbound and outbound leads.)

When I commenced working with the team, the BDM was a new employee, so the team were all going through my training together. This salesperson brought with them more than 16 years in sales experience, across various industries, and the company was thrilled to have secured such a wonderfully experienced new team member.

In my early work with this team, however, I began to see that while this salesperson was experienced, they also carried a lot of bad habits. Their experience was in more high-volume, transactional sales, where the business relationship was not as important and the sales cycle was quick. The sales skills they demonstrated were not aligned with building trust first, before any attempt is made to sell anything. They were harder to coach and were the last person in the team to learn the recommended techniques or master the skills. The sales skills they did have were not strong and were ...