One of the best sources for marketing research is frequently overlooked: our own sales people.
By the nature of their jobs, sales people – whether in personal sales, telesales, or online sales – come into daily contact with buyers. In doing so they quickly learn what the buying hot buttons are (attributes of an offering that resonate strongly and positively) as well as the red herrings (attributes of an offering to which buyers are indifferent or, worse, are outmuscled by the attributes of a competitive offering).
A Gold Mine in the Top 20%
The best sales people (i.e., those whose performance consistently ranks in the top, say, 20% of the sales organization) typically identify the hot buttons and red herrings quickly, adapting their sales engagements to account for the former and stay clear of the latter. The top 20% can let you know what is working, with whom, under what conditions, how often, and why; they can likewise apprise you of what doesn’t work, and why. The top-performing 20% of a sales organization serves well as a proxy for understanding how customers respond to an offering.
These are the people to talk with – ideally, all of them. It’s easier to do in a small organization than it is in one with hundreds or thousands of sales personnel. But, as large organizations tend to cover diverse markets, it’s important to determine if what applies in one market applies to others: New York and Tokyo; small businesses and enterprises; among discrete manufacturers and process manufacturers; younger and older buyers.
The Discipline to Succeed
Consistently successful product marketing organizations – especially in B2B – regularly survey their sales organizations for feedback. For example, some firms, following introduction of a new offering, will interview their the top 20% of sales performers at 60 days, 120 days, and 180 days post-introduction. They gather observations, look for trends and similarities, and then compare the feedback from customer interactions to the value-benefit model that marketing developed for the introduction.
Doing this enables three important conclusions about the value-benefit model to be drawn:
- what is working as expected (this is what needs to be tuned and amplified)
- what is not working as expected (serves as the basis for adjusting tactics)
- what is working that was not anticipated (potential incremental revenue)
Getting the Sales Organization is On Board
Firms that tap into the collective wisdom of their sales organizations do so in a way that is mindful of their time; in addition they act on what they learn, finding willing participants. Why not? Improvement that the firm makes in its offering and marketing tactics serve to assist the sales organization in being successful.
The key lies in acting on what is learned.
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