If you put 10 adults in a room together and asked them to tie their shoes, in about 7 seconds you would have 10 pairs of shoes with tied laces. But, if you played those 7 seconds back, you would see 10 unique ways of tying shoelaces. Some people double knot their laces while others still opt for the good old bunny ear technique.
You may be thinking “What does tying your shoes have to do with sales?”
Any company worth their salt has a sales process. The problem with sales processes is they don’t produce predictable and consistent results. Just like how every one of those 10 adults tied their shoes differently, every sales rep on your team executes your “standardized” sales process slightly differently.
All that every sales leader and C-Suite executive wants from their sales team is consistent and predictable revenue. So, you do what has driven success in the past.
Create a sales process, identify their ideal customer, set revenue goals, and tell their sales team to go get it.
But, you still aren’t getting what you hoped for.
The sales team doesn’t hit their goals. People get put on PIPs, people get fired, and the vicious cycle continues.
What’s missing is a tactical Sales Operating System.
So, what’s the difference between the sales process you already have and a Sales Operating System?
The sales process is WHAT to do. A Sales Operating System is HOW to do it.
Let’s use an example. Every sales process has a Discovery stage. Whether you call it a discovery call, strategy session, get-to-know you meeting, it’s all the same. You have this meeting in your sales process, but if you watched 10 sales reps at the same company run this call, you would see all of them do it slightly differently.
With a Sales Operating System, your reps are armed with tools that teach them how to run these calls. Some of the tools from the Blind Zebra Sales Operating System (BZSOS) that plug into any company’s discovery stage are the Mutual Timeline Agreement, Sales Agenda Formula, and Context Statement Generator.
Arming your sales team with a Sales Operating System and tools takes the guesswork out of sales. It gives leadership the predictability and clarity they need and gives the sales reps the ability to to stop obsessing over process and focus on the magic.