Carter Hopkins
Sales
Early Stage
Culture
At Pursuit, we get the opportunity to work with some of the top sales leaders and top sales talent across the country. We have hundreds of conversations each week with these sales leaders that bring us so much insight and value into the sales world, so we wanted to bring these industry leader conversations to you.
In our inaugural episode, Greg Stanley, President of Accelerant Consultants, talks us through the importance of sales leaders thinking like business owners. Greg is a sales expert with a unique vision for optimizing the revenue function of middle-market businesses. You can listen to the full episode here, but below is a quick outline of some of Greg’s main point! Let's dive into the conversation that can help businesses maximize their valuation.
“If you don’t get the revenue function right, none of the rest of the stuff matters.”
Throughout his research, Greg has found that almost no middle market business owners come from the revenue function, and as they start to scale the businesses where they have a high degree of operational effectiveness and discipline in other functional areas of their business, the revenue function seemed to be one that consistently stumbled. So he built a company that specializes in assisting middle-market business owners in optimizing their revenue functions. Unlike short-term solutions, Greg emphasizes the importance of taking a holistic perspective to help businesses build sustainable revenue machines that they can effectively run independently.
“Look at the revenue function, stop going to point solutions that generally don't have a lot of lasting impact, and build the revenue machine, if you will, that then they can take over and run and run effectively.”
By focusing on long-term strategies, businesses can create a strong foundation for growth and success. But what are those strategies that help you do that? *emoji*
What is FRRT? Greg created the FRRT concept based on his perspectives over the course of 25 years in sales, sales leadership, organizational leadership, and large team coaching. Greg observed how buying decisions are typically made and where we tend to avoid getting into in the sales training environment - thus, FRRT was born.
Frequency, Recency, Relevance, and Trust: these elements are crucial for organizations when making successful buying decisions.
Frequency - frequency of contact with the buyer; which doesn’t mean that more is better. Frequency is the right level of contact with the buyer showing them that you are, on a continuous basis, thinking about them and not necessarily just trying to sell them something.
Recency - right place, right time. Being top of mind in closest proximity as possible to when a buying decision is made.
Relevance - how are you making their lives better? You should be solving a problem that you can uniquely solve, that they can't solve through anyone else and therefore you are relevant relative to that business issue.
Trust - Investing in relationships. Calling them and not just saying ‘hey are you ready to buy now?’ It’s sending them thought leadership, case studies, introductions to your network - helping them in ways that your organization doesn't have a direct relationship to.
There is a ton of noise in the market these days, so how do sales reps stay ‘relevant’ when there’s so much competition with other solutions? Creating clear, compelling messaging is the best way to stand out and differentiate yourself in the market. If you’re not creating compelling messaging that conveys the value you bring, then the only thing people have left to make their decision on is price.
“Generally people don't want to be the Walmart of their space and compete on price. You want to compete on the value that you provide.”
Focusing on the results and outcomes you can create for your clients, ensures that the value you provide sets you apart from your competitors. By going above and beyond to create value, sales reps can move away from competing solely on price.
“We love all customers…we don’t love all customers the same. Every action we take as business owners comes with an opportunity cost.”
There is an importance in prioritizing high-value clients based on factors such as profitability and growth potential. Investing time and resources in low-value customers means less time for higher-value ones. You are choosing not to spend time with those that are of higher priority.
Through effective segmentation and a conversion strategy, businesses can attract new customers that align with their desired customer profile. Consistent execution and discipline over time can lead to a significantly more valuable customer portfolio.
“If I buy a house plant at the store and I bring it home and it dies, is it as a result of the fact that it was a bad house plant, or is it as a result of the fact that I put it in the wrong environment?”
Business owners have an obligation to create the right environment for their people. This means thinking through the strategy that’s in place, target market segmentation, market messaging, tools, expectations, and more.
Once the environment is set, the next portion of this is accountability on the sales team to execute the strategy and expectations that organizational leadership has set, in alignment with their compensation structure. And lastly, there is still accountability on the leadership team to ensure that the sales team is executing what they’re asked to execute on. Often, sales leaders don’t want to have those hard conversations, but they have an obligation to their organization as a whole to hold reps to the expectations set in front of them rather than avoid the hard conversation because it’s easier. This will help the sales rep and organization both be more successful.
Our conversation with Greg Stanley gave us valuable insight on the essential strategies and concepts that can help middle-market businesses optimize their revenue functions, including our own organization. Success in the industry requires a proactive and disciplined approach, and without any previous experience in the revenue function, it can be difficult to grasp the importance of these concepts!
To connect with Greg Stanley and find out more about how Accelerant Consultants can help your business, visit their website accelerantconsultants.com or reach out via email at gstanley@accelerantconsultants.com or info@accelerantconsultants.com.
We are releasing a few episodes of the Mavericks Podcast each month; you can find a full list of all of our episodes here.
