Industry Leadership: Easier Than You Think?

Few business owners strive for industry leadership…even though attaining and maintaining that position is easier than you think.

Many business owners are so focused on revenue and profit growth that industry leadership isn’t even on their radar screen. Those who occasionally entertain ideas of industry leadership often consider it a daunting task. That’s because they feel that a WOW effect is needed to achieve industry leadership. Nothing could be further from the truth.

The simple truth is that industry leadership can be gained and sustained by restructuring your sales approach. That’s true whether you’re a solo entrepreneur or have a salesforce.

Outdated sales approach

In the vast majority of organizations, the salesforce’s goal is generating new customers. While that’s a worthy goal, it shouldn’t be the only goal (see my Beware The One-Sided Goal blog).

When taken to the extreme, here’s what happens (based on an actual client experience).

I asked a client when he’d last raised prices. He said “5 years ago.” When asked why he hadn’t been raising prices, he responded “I’m not sure we’re providing the level of service to warrant asking for an increase.”

I asked him what feedback he was getting from customers. He responded “We haven’t surveyed them in quite awhile.” Then I asked him what his salespeople were telling him. He responded “You have to understand that our salespeople are compensated based on new accounts they generate.”

In other words, his salesforce had no reason to visit a customer once they landed the account. While this is admittedly and extreme position for the owner to have taken, it’s not unusual to see sales efforts placing greater emphasis on new accounts than existing accounts. It’s this outdated mindset that prevents most companies from becoming industry leaders.

Outdated marketing view

A second outdated view is that of marketing…particularly, that market research is the domain of marketing, not sales.

The strongest customer relationship is with your salesperson, not your marketing department. That’s why you’re likely to get the most honest responses from your customers when questions are posed by your salespeople, not your marketing department.

Involve your salespeople in market research and you’ll open the door to industry leadership with minimal time investment.

Industry leadership

Your salespeople should once a quarter, at the very least once every six months, meet with their existing customers and ask:

• How are your people using our products/services?
• What work arounds are they employing?
• What would you like our offering to do that it currently isn’t doing?
• How are your customers’ demands changing? What are they wanting from you that they’re not currently getting?

When your salespeople ask these questions they indicate a genuine interest in seeing that your customers are well taken care of and, more importantly, that they want to help your customers deal with their customers’ ever-changing needs. When your customers experience the genuine concern your salespeople have for their welfare, they’ll provide your salespeople with honest answers.

As your salespeople learn not only how your customers’ needs are changing, but how your customers’ customers’ needs are evolving, you know precisely how to position your company to be the first to meet these needs. That’s how you develop industry leadership.

In my 50+ years in business, I have yet to see a company employ this simple strategy. Indeed, when I’ve proposed this methodology to sales managers all but two have pooh-poohed the idea. In my opinion, there’s nothing more contrary to industry leadership than hanging onto traditional business practices.

Takeaways

Have your salespeople visit their existing customers at once every six months, preferably quarterly, to ask:

• How are your people using our products/services?
• What work arounds are they employing?
• What would you like our offering to do that it currently isn’t doing?
• How are your customers’ demands changing? What are they wanting from you that they’re not currently getting?

This adjustment in your salesforce’s activities will make you the envy of your competitors.

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Resources

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