Big business selling secrets – Advice for SMEs

Fast-paced SMEs pride themselves on their ability to outwit and outsmart big business but the reality is, corporates continue to dominate many markets in terms of sales. How do they do it and what can you learn from it?

SMEs often believe they can innovate, respond quicker and offer personal service that the bureaucratic and slow-moving corporate can’t match. Whilst this belief has sometimes been valid, the majority of big businesses continue to grow fast, retain key accounts, maintain market shares, and occupy new segments that SMEs have developed, but the majors succeed in dominating.

So how do they do it? What continues to make them successful in the battle to win and keep customers? In a 20-year selling career that has spanned private start-ups to major multinational corporations, I have observed five key reasons why, and how, big business succeeds in selling.

1. Strong sales culture
2. Reward and recognition
3. Thirst for improvement
4. The value of process
5. Systems create value

Strong sales culture
Big businesses which sell well embrace a sales culture. It is evident from the leadership that winning and keeping customers is important. Sales is not a “function” or a department with CARE (Customers Are Really Everything) signs. Leaders in these businesses make it their business to keep in touch with customers, to personally engage on the big deals, and to assist the salespeople with practical insights or support. As a result, big business often have the edge over SMEs by having invested in multi-level relationships with a client over a long time. The value of this can be as simple as a phone call to suggest an account is at risk, or to smooth over a service failure, and even a nudge that a pencil should be sharpened on pricing.
Best practice sales organisations recognise that the role of the organisation is to support the sale. As a result there is a high level of alignment with marketing, and a genuine lack of  “us” and “them” between sales and other functions.

Reward and recognition
Yes, big business pays well. In fact they often set out to reward to a specific level against salary benchmarks. But importantly, they are also open to significant incentives. A transaction or period bonus could often propel sales staff earning levels over their bosses, and provided the incentive scheme is skilfully structured and administered, leaders respect rather than begrudge these payments.
Progressive companies are sensitive to creating “superstars,” however they also build significant non-monetary rewards for sales excellence. This could include annual or monthly recognition. In addition, companies may willingly invest in building non-sales skills such as marketing or management training, or providing opportunities for travel, or career extension to enhance retention of key sales talent.

Thirst for best practice
Best practice big businesses never convince themselves that things are going as well as they possibly could; they strive for improvement and change. It starts with recognising the value of training their sales team. Induction and product training are substantial, as is the provision of relevant sales skills training for strategic selling, account management or negotiation.

Sales management in these companies will engage and listen to reputable sales consultants and trainers. Many Fortune 500-size businesses will join the Sales Executive Council providing up-to-date research and best practices which are shared amongst members.
Big business will invest in engaging consultants and/or attending seminars to access latest thinking and sharing best practice. In fact, major global big businesses invest in sales learning centres that deliver front line training for sales professionals and become a focal point for spotting trends and absorbing new thinking.

Value of process
Big business doesn’t rely on luck for a good year, and they minimise the risk of relying on a “rainmaker” sales superstar. Instead they view the selling function as a process, and investigate and determine the best sales methodology that applies to their business.

They invest in planning, developing strategies, tactics and scenarios, prior to committing scarce selling resources. Plans are prepared to either a segment or account level, and when the plan is created, the best practice big businesses work the plan. Effective plans are living plans, not “snap frozen” and placed on a shelf. Plans need to live and adapt and update with changes in the customer, the business, the market and actions of competitors.

Big business can often be ruthless in applying segmentation to their marketing and sales effort because they know their efforts will be rewarded, and that not all customers are created equal. Sophisticated big business will align their sales and customer service efforts not only around the lifetime value of customers, but on their behavioural and buying preferences. A simple example of this is serving some customers by email/phone and allocating field executives where relationships are preferred (and valued!).

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