Recently I worked with a company who had a great deal of potential applying unique technology into a growing market. One thing has been true throughout my career; you learn the most from situations that are not good and I learned plenty of lessons working with this company.
During my initial discussions with the company they said all the right things about sales. Statements like “Growth has been slow so we need to focus on our sales pipeline” and “our investors are expecting commercial success soon” filled out conversations. I began working with them thinking that they wanted to change and grow.
Soon after I began working with them it became clear that their vision of sales and mine couldn’t have been further apart. A long time vice-president, an accountant by training, was engaged in “defining the sales process” in addition to their other duties surrounding investor relations. This VP was of the view that the sales process needed definition and documentation worthy of a government procurement contract. Flowcharts abounded, while many, many words were written to define how every step of the process was managed.
You might think from my comments that a sales process isn’t important and you would be wrong if you thought this. A sales process is important. However this organization was missing the point. The most important part of a sales process is customers and generating new business. You can have a beautiful process but if your sales funnel is unrealistic or non-existent then it doesn’t matter.
What lessons did I learn from this engagement? Lesson one, always be skeptical. Words are cheap and until you see the actions affirming the words then nothing has changed. Lesson two, you really don’t know anything about the culture of a company until you work there, engage with the staff and see how they respond to everyday business situations.
Dave Speed
Dave Speed
