10 Tips for Supporting the Sales Team in Today's Environment
Once you have your target list, help sales prioritize based on the most promising opportunities. If you have more than one sales person on your team, assign accounts to ensure thorough coverage and avoid duplication of efforts.
We completed this activity when our retail team was first hired and found lists to get us started and NRF Stores and Internet Retailer. Our approach was to concentrate on the sub-segments in which we already have clients and then map out all the adjacent sub-categories where we would be likely to have credibility because of the work we've done and meaningful client references. The plan is to move outward as we gain relevant experience. We also assigned accounts based on geography because that made sense with our team covering retail sales.
2. Research the market
Beyond the names of possible accounts, the sales team needs to know about the industry challenges, the problems your product or service solves and the emerging trends. Sales can do a much better job talking about your offering when they understand the context. If you can create messaging and tools in the language and terms the segment uses, that is even better. People much prefer buying from those who understand them. Find out the industry associations, major trade shows, analysts that cover the space, must-read publications and LinkedIn groups that have influence and then engage with them.
What is effective for Affinity Express is to join associations and attend industry conferences because we get fully immersed in the segment. In January, our team went to the National Retail Federation's annual convention and expo and it was extremely effective and educational. The agendas tell us what is top-of-mind for the segment, the sessions provide interesting and relevant research so we can create content like this blog post on trends, networking events uncover leads and exhibit halls are great places to test our messaging and value proposition.
