Selling Through Someone Else: How to Use Agile Sales Networks and Partners to Sell More

Chapter 4

Time for a Refresh

The Updated Sales Strategy

Naveen Jain and Varun Ratta

 

Chapter Summary

• The Marketing Age is stalled; the chief sales officer must drive the next wave of growth strategy and execution.
• Weak sales strategies can cripple growth. They must be both actionable and understandable across the organization.
• The center of gravity for the sales strategy has to move from the boardroom to the field—centered around deeper and continuous customer understanding, clear optimization direction, and a premium on the field's ability to operationalize it.

As we described in Chapter 3, today's new multichannel environment requires companies to more fully engage other entities beyond their traditional direct sales force—including distributors, wholesalers, and value-added resellers, as well as the social and digital networks where companies' customers increasingly congregate. In this complex environment, chief sales officers have an opportunity to be the conductor of a “symphony” that is played across the ecosystem. Just as the conductor helps the various instruments in the symphony play in rhythm and harmony to entertain the audience, the CSO can articulate how the various functions of the organization and its channel partners work together to execute the company's go-to-market plan to delight the customer. And just as the conductor relies on his baton to communicate his directions to the orchestra's musicians, the CSO must have a powerful sales strategy that articulates ...