Sales consulting is a discipline that we simply cannot ignore. We can ‘lead the horse to water’ with our marketing, but we need our sales effort to ‘make it drink’. Without sales, and the supporting role of sales consulting, we would fail with our businesses.
The transformational changes in marketing over recent years have influenced the breadth and depth of sales consulting. For example, sales consulting associated with selling methodologies has been with us for a very long time. While some of these ‘old’ methodologies have kept up with the developments in marketing, many ‘new’ methodologies have emerged, hence the rise in sales coaching & training consulting. Read on for more sales consulting services.
Sales consulting services
- Account development refers to the farming of new business opportunities within existing accounts, and increasing share of wallet from clients.
- Optimising sales performance is achieved through the design, development and implementation of policies, processes and techniques, often leveraging the practices of high performers across the rest of the team.
- IT solutions for sales are mainly centred upon sales force automation, but be realistic with your IT needs and don’t over-automate.
- Sales coaching & training in the form of workshops, courses, coaching, mentoring … do invest in the follow-up and refresher coaching and training to embed and sustain.
- Salesforce design is important to review in step with changes to your organisation’s business model.
- Sales incentives have always been part of the equation but are often a bone of contention for salespeople, due to potential for misinterpretation. A consultant can help design an incentive program which is clear and rewarding to the high-performing sales people you want to retain.
- Sales strategy development and implementation will always be key, however don’t over-strategise and impede the rapid changes that your organisation’s business model will need to make.
- Sales outsourcing is an often neglected alternative to running a sales team in-house. Outsourcing sales can not only help companies move to a more flexible, performance-driven business model, it can drive speed of entry into new markets, and embed best practice and industry benchmarks which the outsourcer brings to the table. A consultant can advise on this model.
What to look for in a sales consultant
Sales is such a vital business function, with such a dramatic impact on a company’s sustainability and growth, that investing in a highly experienced sales consultant is easy to justify. . Given the critical involvement of people in the sales process, your consultant must have excellent people skills, and ideally will have operated a sales team themselves.
You may need to supplement your sales consultant’s effort with a change management consultant when faced with more radical change. Visit our Change Management page to evaluate this additional need.
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