6 Solution Selling Performance Levers to Improve

Which Solution Selling Performance Levers Matter Most?

Sales leaders in charge of improving the performance of their sales team need to know which moves make the greatest impact.  Most sales organizations have huge untapped potential for growth if they pulled the right what Solution Selling Performance Levers.

If your sales team is not firing on all cylinders, you first need to thoughtfully assess the current situation.  Second you need to know where you want to go.  Then you can focus on how best to get there.

6 Solution Selling Performance Levers

Know that there is typically not one thing that will drive your sales success. Rather, there will most likely be a mix of factors that will drive your sales performance to the next level — factors that fit your sales team, your sales culture, and your sales strategy.  

1.  Sales Strategy
We know from our organizational alignment research that strategic clarity accounts for 31% of the difference between high and low performing sales teams. Take a close look at the organization’s overall strategy and how your sales plans align with it.

• Have you identified your ideal target clients where you should win the majority of the time?
• Do you know what differentiates you from the competition in a way that drives premium pricing, increases qualified lead generation and improves customer retention?
• Have you collectively committed to an action plan to execute your sales strategy and overcome any key barriers?

2.  Sales Operations
Once your strategy is clear enough, it is time to evaluate sales operations in terms of sales structures, processes, and rewards to ensure you are supporting, reinforcing, and incentivizing the behaviors and practices to best execute your sales strategy. This includes reviewing how you assign sales territories and major sales accounts so that you put the right people where they will provide the most client value.

• Are sales success metrics clear, consistent, aligned, fair, accurate, and achievable enough?
• Are the critical few sales processes that matter most in terms of meeting your sales targets and executing your sales strategy?
• Are you organized in a way to maximize value?
• Do your solution sellers have the resources and tools they need to succeed?

3.  Sales Leadership
Effective sales managers can consistently lead, manage, and coach their teams to higher performance.  Sales coaching especially helps to maximizes sales performance.  Be sure you have a proven methodology in place, that your sales managers are skilled in performance management and that they know how to coach toward the behaviors that succeed in your sales environment and marketplace.

4.  Sales Talent
Sales talent accounts for 29% of the difference between high and low performing sales teams. You need to ensure that you have the sales talent to execute your strategy and the means to fully engage and retain them. A careful assessment of the sales competencies of your top sales producers will give you a profile of success that you should use to select and hire as well as to encourage the behaviors you know work.

5.  Solution selling skills
If there are gaps in the sales competencies of your current team, you need a proven way to fill them. Assess which “money making” sales skills are lacking and train for them. Without the sales knowledge and sales skills needed to succeed in your marketplace, your efforts to improve sales performance are doomed. Then design and deliver proven solution selling training to close the skill gaps that matter most.

6.  Sales Culture
Sales culture accounts for 40% of the difference between high and low performing sales teams. If your team feels supported and encouraged by the sales culture, and if that culture is aligned with the sales strategy in terms of customer intimacy, focus, decision making, information sharing, atmosphere, market approach, loyalty, and results, their motivation and commitment to the overall effort will be high.

 The Bottom Line

Neglect any one of these sales performance levers and your ability to consistently meet and exceed revenue targets is at risk. Your challenge is to find the right mix for your specific sales team and company strategy.

To learn more about creating a high performance sales team, download Surprising Research – How Much Pressure Should a Sales Leader Apply to Get Higher Performance