Sales Strategy Red Flags – LSA Global Featured in Selling Power Magazine

Sales Strategy Red Flags

With over 70 sales moves available for leaders to improve sales performance, many high growth companies struggle to decide where to focus their sales efforts.  Anyone that has ever led sales or worked for a company that is consistently growing over 20% per year knows that it is all about sales clarity and sales execution — making the right sales choices at the right time.

This is easier said than done.  IBM found that less than 10% of well-formulated strategies are effectively executed.  That means that 9 out of 10 strategies do not get the desired results.  Not a great return on investment for a process that takes a lot of time, energy, and resources.

Similarly, we have found that the majority of high growth leaders rate their sales strategy as 50% more clear, more believable, and more implementable than the sales, marketing, service, finance, legal, and delivery teams that are required to pull it off.  This misconception by sales leaders often creates just enough strategic ambiguity, chaos, and frustration to miss the wonderful market opportunities unique to fast growing companies.

For example, one recent client was growing at 30%+ per year, went public, and created 8 strategic pillars and 52 strategic priorities to meet their sales targets.  The leadership team, comprised of ex McKinsey, Bain, Accenture, Oracle, and  Goldman Sachs executes was frustrated that the level of sales execution and their ability to consultatively sell complex solutions was not where they wanted it to be.  Their sales attrition levels of top sales talent started to climb.

This client sales anecdote is a great example of sales strategy red flags #1 – Too many priorities.  High performing sales teams keep their focus on one or two big sales bets that matter most.

To see all of the sales strategy red flags that may be inhibiting your profitable growth, download our latest Sales Strategy Article in Selling Power Magazine