Sales doesn’t come naturally to everyone. But it can be made easier by systems, processes, and tools as part of our daily rhythm and routine.
The end goal that we’re all trying to achieve is a scalable, predictable, and sustainable sales engine. A repeatable system that delivers the trinity of scalability, predictability, and sustainability is the Holy Grail for any business.
But as we know, sales is a tough gig. And, sadly, because it’s tough, too many people shy away from it when it’s the reason your business survives and even thrives.
Because it’s tough, many businesses outsource their sales problems to an external provider – which is not the way forward. Which doesn’t help the problem.
But there’s a better way.
Taking ownership of your sales engine, bringing it back inside your business and owning the challenge is where it belongs and where the value comes from.
The end game – scalable, predictable, and sustainable
The ultimate goal for any sales engine should be to make it scalable, predictable, and sustainable. But what does it take to get there?
It’s about aligning the right people, process, technology, strategy and culture whilst delivering consistently – and then optimising.
Not a walk in the park by any stretch of the imagination.
So you need an engine that:
- Is scalable - meaning you can turn up or down your reach easily
- Is predictable - meaning you can demonstrate the likely outcome from any activity
- Is sustainable - meaning sustainability for your investment but also knowledge and repeatability
Sounds straightforward, right?
Well, yes and no.
When you get it right, there is no better feeling – but that comes with a lot of hard work and consistency.
But if you get critical elements of the engine wrong, it’s like pushing water uphill.
The key problems I see time and again are:
- Not enough focus on outbound - so there's not enough top of funnel opportunities
- Lack of consistency - seesawing between focusing on a sales and then dropping it when delivery gets busy
- Value proposition not cutting through - and not connecting with the current market challenges
- Poor nurturing - leads getting forgotten or ignored
- Expensive business development representatives - not being able to span the whole pipeline
- Too much or not enough tech - being paralysed at both ends of the spectrum
- No sales culture - usually meaning sales is a dirty word and no sales leadership
So let’s dig in a little deeper.
Scalable
Scalability starts by having the right people in the right place in your engine.
As we know, you have the fat end of the funnel, where the prospecting takes place. You need bodies here to prospect at scale, even with the use of tools to help you scale. You’ll need people good at nurturing in the middle of the pipeline to help get the prospects towards close and of course, you need your closers.
But let’s not forget your SMEs too. Whilst they are the least likely sales people in your team, they’re your best weapon at cutting through and building engagement with your prospects.
Now, sadly, a single BD representative isn’t going to cut it, unless they’re a unicorn.
Having one person running the pipeline end to end just won’t work. They don’t have the time. They just won’t be able to prospect, nurture, and close all at the same time. At least not at scale.
For a start, if someone approaches you and has ‘Business Development’ in their job title then there’s only one thing they’re after.
It also comes down to the energy aspect. You have to have the energy and motivation (as well as resilience) to go out to market time and again and potentially get knocked back.
You can, of course, have that robust, energetic person prospecting for you. Going to the market and finding the prospects that a subject matter expert can wow. Because, ultimately, prospects want to hear from those that know the problem and solution inside out. Not just a ‘sales person’.
In addition to having the right people in the right place, it’s also about having the right tools to enable you to achieve the scale.
Automation tools are not bad things. The problem is they’re often used badly. But scale comes from the sympathetic use of automation tools, AI tools, and CRM systems.
It’s about the tools you can use to x10 your talented people’s output. Anything that can help you increase your output and improve your consistency. The winners are the ones who can identify these tools, blend them into their sales process and adopt them with efficiency.
The combination of people and technology will give you a huge amount of scale in your funnel. And in turn you can resource the output you have on both sides.
Predictable
Without scale, you won’t be able to achieve predictability. With scale comes data, and with data comes the opportunity for insights.
The more you do the more you can see trends and what works. The data you collect will also allow you to start to predict the next step in the pipeline – whether that’s what your move should be, whether a deal is likely to land, or what the market might do next.
AI might be a buzzword at the moment, but it has the potential to exponentially increase our output as human beings. So, with the use of AI, we can analyse the data we’ve collected in the prospecting phase.
This could even be data about the businesses you’re targeting. The data will also allow you to spot trends in what’s working and what’s not across your markets and campaigns.
You can see which campaigns are working, and therefore which kind of messaging is resonating with your prospects and ICP. The more activity you layer in, the more data you get.
By prospecting at scale, we have the ability to learn from those we talk to and engage with. This means that you can optimise campaigns, outreach, go-to-market offers, and more predictable conversation planning. That data feeds the predictability element.
Sustainable
To make your sales engine sustainable, we have to create ownership. That means owning the channels and owning the sales engine as a whole – you have to recognise that the sales engine is your responsibility and fails without ownership.
You have to own the strategy, the tools, the tactics, and the campaigns – but do it consistently.
By owning your own sales engine with in-house resources, there's also no knowledge leak. You’re capturing and retaining all of the knowledge you learn along the way from all of the wins and mistakes you’ll go through. Don’t underestimate the importance of this insight not only to optimise your engine but also to learn from what works and what doesn’t.
You can control the engine and investment going into it – which ultimately leads to further sustainability and you get a better ROI.
Let’s wrap this up
Achieving scalability, predictability, and sustainability is no mean feat, however. It takes a lot of hard work and strategy to support it – but when you get it right it could just be the springboard your business needs.
But where to start?
It starts by having the right people in the right place to achieve scale. The more you put yourself out there, the more that you’re likely to be having conversations that matter.
And by putting yourself out there, you can learn more about the market, trends, and your audience. Using the right tools to help you decipher that data is key, as it can help you achieve the predictability element.
And predictability is crucial as a next step, as if you can predict the next move or trend, you’ll be in a far better position to react – or better, be proactive. It’ll also give you a headstart on your competition.
Finally, once you understand and have control of scalability, you have to ensure you’re owning the process and building a sales culture that everyone wants to be a part of. After all, sales is everyone’s opportunity – not everyone’s problem.
This leads to the sustainability principle – you now have your engine inside your business, where the value belongs. You can own it, control it, tweak it, and improve it.
Remember to lean on tech and tools where you can, and create that culture of ownership. Bringing your sales engine back inside your business matters more than you might think, and by achieving the trio of scalability, predictability, and sustainability you’ll start to reap the rewards.