In this talk delivered during Denver Startup Week 2013 I discuss the structure and mechanics necessary for predictability in sales. The one thing a company needs as much as sales is predictability. In this talk I cover some strategies for understanding a sales process such as persona building and customer journey mapping. I explain how to use this information to document and track the sales process with a focus on using agile methods to evolve an effective and predictable sales process.

1. Sales 101
Structure & Mechanics
Jeremiah Fellows | Director, Sales and
Marketing

2. Structure and Mechanics
Constraints enable creative approaches
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3. Predictability
• You need one thing as much as you need sales: Predictability.
• Risk Management
• Changes in the pipeline can be early warning signs
• i.e. a lengthening proposal phase can indicate a new competitor or poor qualification
process
• Manage growth
• When, where and how to invest
• Evolve
• Need to treat sales like any lean startup
• Impossible to iterative efficiently without numbers
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4. Getting Started
• Don’t get a CRM
• If you don’t know your sales process you will use the default CRM sales process
• Cycles, stages and metrics are not relevant to your sales process. Understand
your sales process.
• Understand your customers
• Document the stages
• Test some hypothesis
• Now get a CRM
• Make it match your process
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5. The Foundation
• Three areas of research to understand your sales process
• Develop buyer and influencer personas
• Explains the Who
• Develop a customer journey map
• Explains the what & how
• Buy cycle will drive your sales process
• Develop system for prioritizing your efforts
• Prioritization and a compass
• Limited resources, cannot chase every opportunity.
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6. Who?
Understanding the people who buy your product or service.
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7. Personas
Understanding who buys your product or service
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8. Personas
• Persona for each buyer type & influencer
• No vacuums!
• B2B has team members, supervisors, executives, admins
• B2C has families, friends and peers
• They all interact and influence the decision to buy
• How Many?
• Go with too many then group
• Pictures - No Customer X
• Make them real
• A name and a job
• A picture
• Accurate demographics
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9. Personas
• What is unique to your product and services
• How do these features map tp your customers lives?
• i.e. Dog owner who went to school in the PAC12 college conference buy more
from you
• Mandatory elements
• Demographics
• Role – family, social or organizational
• Who influenced by
• Who do they influence
• Motivations
• Where do they go for information
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10. The Customer Journey Map
What are the interactions and influences that impact a customers decision
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11. The Customer Journey Map
• Map the stages of the buy cycle
• Map how the personas interact at each stage
• More complex sale requires a CJM for each persona
• Simple may only need one map
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12. The Customer Journey Map
• If you don’t know start with basics
• Awareness
• Research
• Consideration
• Decision
• Will probably be some sub stages
• Update as you learn
• Map how the personas interact at each stage
• More complex sale requires a CJM for each persona
• Simple may only need one map
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13. The Customer Journey Map
• Map the touchpoints at each stage
• Each interaction with your organization
• Website
• Twitter feed
• Tradeshow
• Sales call
• Include every persona active during that touchpoint
• Map the touchpoint details
• Emotions
• Influencing personas
• Information/resources they need to move to the next stageFrom others and from you
• Expectations
• Satisfaction with the interaction
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14. The Customer Journey Map
• Map your sales process to the Customer Journey Map
• List the information you need to qualify the prospect to move to the next stage.
• List the activities you need to do to move them to the next stage
• If the opportunity is right!
• List the resources your sales people need at each touchpoint
• Collateral, etc.
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15. Opportunity Value Assessments
Prioritize to optimize
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16. Opportunity Value
• You cannot and should not chase every opportunity
• Not every sale is a good sale. Not every customer is a good customer.
• Referenceable, collaborative etc.
• AW Prospect Ranking Criteria
• Culture
• Nature of work – cutting edge, fun or bigger purpose
• Referenceable
• Cool project with well known brand
• Social or environmental impact
• Looks at the things your best customers have in common
• characteristics of the company
• Type of work
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17. Opportunity Value
• Need a ranking for every opportunity but also for every customer
• Customer Quarterly Review – Opportunity values can change
• Staff changes
• Industry shifts
• Scores should be a percentage, not a flat number
• Your opportunity value criteria are going to change over time
• need the ability to compare values over history
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18. Learning and Iteration
Lean sales methodology
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19. Get it in Excel
• Start tracking
• The number each prospects in each stage and sub stage
• How long each prospect stays in each stage and sub stage
• Where each prospect falls out and why
• AW Example: Thought we had a lead generation issue, turned out to be a poor
qualifying issue.
• Iterate, iterate, iterate
• Now you can get a CRM
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20. Progress Review
• Regular cadence of meetings with a cross section of the organization
• Weekly - Pipeline meeting
• Numbers will indicate where you need focus your efforts for the upcoming week
• Sales retrospective (15 minute standup)
• Weekly or after each sales process depending on the length and complexity of
the sale
• Quarterly Customer Review
• Fire your bad customers
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21. Case Studies
What I have done right (and wrong).
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22. Case Study 1: Mythology
Managing using mythology.
Stop guessing about how you got that big deal.
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23. Case Study 2: Org Structure
More sales people does not create proportionally more sales.
Volume of sales might be limited by non-sales related organizational
structures
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24. Case Study 3: Process
You can’t create a hypothesis and test against it without a defined process.
Constraints enable creativity.
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25. Case Study: Opportunity Value Scoring
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26. Resources
Brilliant people and what they have to say.
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27. Links & Books
General information
• This is Service Design Thinking
• Sales should be a service. This book is the service design bible and can drive thinking about
how to design your sales as a service.
Customer Journey Maps
• Smaply: Customer Journey Mapping software.
• Tips for beginners
Personas
• What If Your Customers Were Actually People?
• The Foundation of a great user experience
Sales Process
• Lets Get Real or Let’s Not Play: Transforming the buyer/seller relationship
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28. Jeremiah Fellows
VP, Sales and Marketing
Aspenware
J.Fellows@aspenware.com
LinkedIn
@JwFellows