Diary of a DMS Guy

I'm not a Sales Guy

Everyone is a Sales person - so I'm told and I've always said.

However, I've not really done any selling since the early years of Navigator and none since I employed my first Sales Exec back in 2007.

Back in 2019, I felt that we needed to review our sales processes and methodology.  It was clear to me that the processes we were following were becoming less and less effective.   The early part of the pandemic reinforced this view !

I had done many hours reading and consulting in how we could be selling and marketing our products and had loads of ideas.

Sadly, my Sales Team didn't agree which ultimately lead us to part company .      

This won't work here...

"These won't work here, we're different" I was told... and they left when I persevered.

I should acknowledge the contributions of Jon Asquith of  Action Coach who has helped me   completely rebuild our Sales and Marketing processes and the contributions of the brilliant Marcus Sheridan - author of "They Ask, You Answer" (If you've not read it then you should!) and also Andy Bounds, author of "The Snowball Effect" and others (again you should read).

Will it work ?

This  lead me to :-

• Dispense with all traditional advertising
• Upgrade the information on our web site, with video demonstration, clear ideas on pricing and generally Answer the Questions that our prospective customers needed answers to, rather than simple "selling" our solutions.
• Go full out on Social Media
• Completely redesign the way that we approached sales - using technology such as Zoom

All items which I was told by my previous sales team would be commercial suicide.

I had made a decision when they left (at the end of Q2) not to replace them until the Sales Process was up, running and proven.    So i took on the sales department single handed - using about 1 day a week dedicated to Sales.

Ok - I lied, I *can* sell, it's just not my core skill!

The results have been phenomenal!

Since I actually started selling in early August, I've closely matched our last full pre-covid years sales!   Inbound enquiries have risen from a trickle to a healthy number.    

What I've also found is that even before I talk to people, they know me, know my product and already have a feeling that ours is a potential solution for them.    I rarely have to speak to "cold" buyers!    Better still, it would appear that those who aren't good fits for our organisation find that out before they even contact us - I see this as a massive win as it saves both their and my time.

I'm delighted that I've now found some replacement sales recruits - those that fit in with the philosophy that I want to drive and take the company forward in 2022 and beyond!    

Did I mention that 2021 has been a long hard year?!!  

In 2022 I'm looking forward to spending a little more time cycling, and let others do the sales work, which I don't consider to be a great skill of mine!

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