A Knowledge Library (KL) is an online database where information from your experts has been captured, organized, and categorized into highly useful knowledge tools. These tools are designed to help your sales people in every key step of the sales call and sell cycle process.

KL’s are normally specific to and then provided to sales people by:

  • The vertical markets you sell to,
  • The buyers, by job function, you sell to in each vertical, and
  • The critical business issues each of those buyers have.

From there, specific tools, such as Impact Trees™ (see the blog article at Impact Tree™), prospecting scripts and emails, success stories, need development tools, and sequences of events, can be provided.

Armed with your KL, your sales people should follow these three steps:

  1. Pre-Call Planning
  2. Conduct Successful Sales Calls
  3. Send the Buyer an Email (aka, a sales cycle control letter).

Lets review each.

Pre-Call Planning

We suggest two forms of pre-call planning.

The first form of pre-call planning is for a sales person to learn the content within a vertical market’s tool kit. The first tool kit a seller should select should be the one that will have the greatest impact on them and their sales. And, once they have gained expertise in it through field practice, they should move on to the next.

The second form of pre-call planning is to study the tools that will be relevant to an upcoming call. The seller should build a call introduction based on the specifics of the call, in particular the buyer’s job function, and study the associated need development tools.

Sales Call Execution

Using whatever sales methodology your organization has standardized on, conduct your call. We provide Adventace Methods (you can learn more at Methods), which is designed to help sales people maximize the results of their sales calls and then better execute their sales cycles. Note that if a seller has a particular sales skill that they are weak in, they should study and role-play the associated components from the methodology with their manager or colleague. Importantly, note that time and again we have found that the sales people who are willing to take the time to conduct a post call analysis on their performance from previous calls, and then make a real attempt to determine where they could have done better are able to quickly turn themselves into “sales eagles.”

 

Sellers should strive for the following outcomes from a sales call:

  • Needs identification
    • The buyer’s critical business issue,
    • The causes for that issue, and
    • Based on those causes, the capabilities the buyer needs to resolve their critical business issue
  • Agreement to relevant next steps
    • If the buyer is “below the power line,” an agreement to gain access to power, or
    • If the buyer is “above the power line,” an agreement to the sequence of events leading to a buyer decision.

Post-Call Follow-up for Opportunity Management & Control

After conducting a call the sales person should send a follow-up email to the buyer. It should include. It should include the above outcomes. The Adventace Sales Management System™ is designed to capture an organization’s KL to enable sellers, via pick lists, to generate and send these critical emails to their buyers in only a matter of minutes.