Luck, hope and serendipity a winning sales strategy?

I can't think of one sales leader who has ever told me that they leave their sales success down to luck, hope or serendipity. 

I equally can't think of one sales leader who has ever told me they that they rely solely on ambition to ensure the success of their sales team in finding and winning the deals they need to meet their individual targets either. 

They all have a plan to achieve their targets and sales numbers. 

What I've found marks out the consistently successful ones from those going with “luck, hope and serendipity” is when an organisation has really done the workbefore it presses the “go” button. 

And how can you tell that?

It means everyone involved in selling and marketing  the product or service (including the external agencies) can clearly and confidently explain:

• What priority business objective they were helping their prospects achieve 
• What a really “good fit” prospect organisation looked like 
• Who in each organisation was involved in making or contributing to the decision
• How each member of the decision making unit would benefit
• What the prospect would have to do/change/manage/stop doing in order to buy your product or solution
• How the board would see the risk/benefit assessment
• What the CFO/FD's hurdle rates are likely to be
• What the prospect's alternative options are
• Where the existing competition is playing and where the emergent competition is coming from
• How ideal customers group by segment/need and operational model – rather than a stab at a vertical or industry
• What products, services, skills and capabilities the organisation has (or where they need to find them) in order to address the need
• Why the prospect would be prepared to pay for a solution like this at all
• Why they would choose specifically to buy it from your company as opposed to anyone else
• The “real” (not a bland vertical analysis you can “Google”) view of the number of ideal prospects in the market you could feasibly address 
• The buying cycle/annual purchasing cycle of the ideal customer
• What your existing customers really think of your current and proposed proposition
• What prospective customers really think of your proposed proposition.

Those organisations that can answer these questions tend to have ALL of their resources (sales, marketing, lead generation, operations, support, channel etc.) lined up and pointing in the same direction. 

They equally have realistic targets and achievable strategic objectives based on knowing what deals can be done and where the money can come from. 

On the whole organisations that plan in this way spend more time on deals they can win and less time with their fingers crossed, stuffing their pipelines and throwing good money after bad at their marketing or lead generation engine. 

I know which I'd be going with. How about you?

Blueprint Strategy