Track Your Propositions

Had one of those delicious moments of dawning earlier today.  Many sales teams I meet are disillusioned with their ‘crm’, to the point of jettisoning the whole shabang.  In their place, quasi-random spreadsheets or word process docs float around.

One omnipresent reason for such abandonment, is that reps simply hardly ever tap in (enough) relevant transactional data.  They make a call lasting an hour, and a single sentence appears in the crm.

Just now I came across one of the myriad sales training firms that are seeking to turn their training into a process that can be supported by software, thereby hopefully embedding it within their client’s sales fabric.  I generally support such endeavours.

One reason why these guys I’m talking with are onto a winner, is that one part of their process highlights the numbers of genuine ‘propositions’ that are made to prospect/customer organisations.

And naturally, this got my brain whirring.  I cannot recall seeing any crm that allows for an analysis of how many propositions are made and their outcomes.  On the simplest level, rather than focusing on the conversations you have with any given account, you should instead build on the number of propositions you make and their impact.  It’s a winner of an idea, and one I’m keen to help my training pals exploit.