Upsales Growth Day took place on January 29 at Clarion Sign in Stockholm, in connection with the launch of the next generation of Upsales CRM and Marketing Automation systems.
The day was a success and offered interesting content about growth and sales as well as digital trends. The participants gained new insights, tools and inspiration to apply directly in their organization.
Quicksearch's CEO, Göran Almén, was invited as one of the speakers at the event under the theme How to create drive in a sales organization?
Göran Almén has 30 years of experience in sales and has held various leading positions in the telecommunications industry at, among others, Tele2, Telenor, Vodafone and TeliaSonera. Göran began by telling how his sales career started, how lonely he felt and the lack of feedback. Göran was terrified of his sales manager, who at the time was more of a judge that you met once a month, and wished that the career would be short-lived. Despite this start, he managed to turn it into something positive and became increasingly interested in sales.
Göran experienced over time that there was a lack of knowledge and insight into what can be achieved by measuring continuously and giving feedback directly in the organization, which led him to start working at Quicksearch, who are experts in this particular field.
The sales role has changed a lot over the years, says Göran. Today, both customers and the own organization place higher demands on the salesperson. The customer has the power and the seller needs to bring new insights, knowledge and ideas that create value. Göran believes that the sellers have the right to put demands back on their organization in the form of modern sales support and a coaching sales manager. "80% of the companies' marketing and sales departments feel that they deliver more value than the customer pays for and more value than the competitors, while as few as 8% of the buyers think that their suppliers deliver more value than they pay for," says Göran.
Sales managers need to adapt to developments and become better at creating drive and motivation in the sales team. Many sales managers still work according to 80s models and are triggered by reports and statistics. "Building experience is not repeating what you learned 20 years ago", says Göran. In today's business world, it is important as the sales manager to be interested in the customer and involved in building the deal together with the salesperson. As a sales manager, you need to support the seller through the entire process and help by, for example, using your own network. To achieve success today, the customer must be much more involved in the process and given an opportunity to influence. We must always have the customer in focus and manage the business and the organization in order to best meet the customer's requirements. We at Quicksearch see what an enormous impact on the business it has to early and continuously include the customer in the entire dialogue.
In general, salespeople have evolved from being loners to becoming team players. Today, it's about teamwork and transparency between different departments within the company. The entire organization must be involved and contribute concretely in the sales process where special interests are not allowed to rule. It's about always having the best player on the field and working to constantly top the team, based on the customer's needs.
Göran's example of how to facilitate business decisions and streamline the sales process is to minimize risk. The more complex and the more risk the buyer feels she is taking, the harder it is to close.
Sales managers need to give the salesperson a mandate and thus give him the opportunity to be a businessman/businesswoman. The point of having a physical salesperson is to give the customer ideas, thoughts, wise advice and to be able to tailor smart solutions. A modern salesperson can negotiate and give of himself and therefore cannot be automated.
What is most important in the follow-up of sales teams, according to Göran, is to actively work with what is in the pipeline and not get stuck in incoming reporting. The key is to focus on the sales board, ongoing and future business and activities. If you do the right things and find the personal path for each individual, sales will come automatically.
Other tips from Göran are to work with ongoing feedback from customers and sellers, focus on creating business and making it fun. Furthermore, living close to the customer and always prioritizing customer meetings. Continuously collecting feedback from all contact points from the customer is the key to this work.
QuickSearch helps to constantly ensure that you don't focus too much on the target, but ensure that the customer is on the whole journey, from the first meeting to delivery, support, up-selling and training. See the clip with Göran Almén here.
