The strategy of activating sales expectations is one of the most important. But what does it mean and how do you do it?
It means to set clear expectations for everyone involved in selling a major contract or assisting in a sales year. But activating expectations is more than setting clear expectations; it means prioritising selling activities and refining those that contribute to closing sales the most. Finally, specify a reward for completing each priority activity and you've activated expectations. Let's take a look.
The problem: Too general, untargeted expectations
A CEO's plan at the beginning of the year would never be stated as simply "grow revenue by 25 per cent". The Board expects specific accomplishments to be stated. Dollar expectations alone are far too general. Yet this is exactly what happens when salespeople or leaders talk only in terms of quotas and closes.
Leading a high-performance, cross-functional team often involves multiple contacts on both sides of the table. It also involves taking more than assigning numbers and tasks. Pushing accountability is counterproductive unless clear, two-way expectations that really contribute are established along the way.
The solution: Activate expectations
It is important to understand that this strategy is not about the common practice of measuring and rewarding sales activities, rather than results - we're not talking about call reports. It's also important to be clear that we are not talking about the obvious importance of rewarding revenue results. We all understand that accountability for final results is fundamental. We're talking about a third category of rewarded work that is commonly missing in a sales team's accountability. Work that consistently progresses sales situations to result - and not just achieving the final result.
Work that works
Ambiguity truly is death for a sales and prospect team. You have to chunk things down and keep tuning in to what works and hold people accountable for it. Absolutely everything needs to be clear, accountable, and automatic. This strategy requires describing work specifically and in a way that ensures it really contributes to results.
One key is to clearly define for your team - and customers - what critical steps were to come, not just the next steps.
By painting a picture of a roadmap, and then, highlighting which steps would be most critical and how they should transpire, the outcome becomes clear to all involved.
Steps to activate expectations
What are the characteristics to add to each activity, to activate them? Before starting, remember that the prerequisite is to look at the selling process and prioritise activities, selecting one or two that will impact sales most dramatically and consistently. Then, to activate the priority expectation requires adding specifics to that sales activity, such as:
- Spell out specific criteria that ensure the activity - the expectation - contributes directly, not indirectly, to a sales result
- Ensure that completion is verifiable
- Define guaranteed, specific rewards for each expectation
- Offer the appropriate people (or positions) the opportunity to achieve various expectations and prioritise them
By emphasising key actions, honing these and being rewarded, you'll create a team of Sales Blazers. Sales Blazers make it a common practice to make specific, short-term assignments based on priority - active expectations - and then reward people for achieving them.