How the Best Companies Think Differently About Sales

What’s the difference between a successful company and an unsuccessful one? You can try to track it down to one or a handful of key procedural or structural differences; for example, you might pin it on the fact that one company has access to more funding, or that one has more talent.

But more often than not, the differences between the successful and unsuccessful comes down to a different way of thinking—a different underlying philosophy that gives rise to dozens of different habits, behaviors, and long-term decisions.

So how do the best companies think differently about sales?

They See Sales in Terms of Objective Data

First, they don’t see sales in terms of individual interactions, luck, or other subjective factors. Instead, they try to focus only on the objective data. They use email statistics to learn more about how sales communications tend to unfold, and chart broad patterns in close ratios and other metrics to pinpoint inefficiencies.

While there are some variables that are hard to measure, most strategies boil down to be “effective” or “not effective,” and only objective data can help you find the difference.

They Have Strong Core Ideals

Strong sales teams are united by a set of core, common ideals that guide their behaviors and decision-making. These ideals vary from company to company, but in any successful company, some set of powerful ideals will exert influence.

For example, if your business prides itself on teamwork, your salespeople will be more likely to work together. If it focuses on determination, they’ll be less likely to give up on a promising lead. There’s no set of “right” or “wrong” ideals, but they should help your salespeople align their goals with yours and provide a sense of group identity.

They Treat Team Members as Individuals

A group identity is important, but so are the individual identities of your team members. Your company might have a traditional process for securing more sales, but you should provide at least some flexibility for individuals’ preferences and personalities.

For example, a persuasive speaker might gravitate toward more phone calls than emails, or a math major might focus more on the mathematical advantages of your product than its subjective qualities.

They Use Experiments to Improve

Successful companies also don’t get complacent with their current sales results—even if they’re good. Instead, they constantly strive for improvement, and they use experiments to unlock those improvements.

They tinker with new tactics, new platforms, and new approaches, and take careful measurements to learn how those new additions affect their overall return. Too often, companies stick with the process they’re used to, and never venture to change things up.

Adopting these philosophies isn’t an overnight fix—it takes time to readjust your brand values, and change the mentality of an entire team. But if you can update the way you look at sales, and not get lost in fixing local issues, you could unlock your sales team’s true potential, and set a powerful course for future growth.

This article does not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editors or management of EconoTimes