Give Sales the Right Selling Tools

They get shot at every day and that constant rejection is not easy. Here are a few simple things you can do as a product manager to make their job easier.

Your job as a Product Marketing Manager is to make sure the sales force has all the training and weapons they will need to be successful. You first need to understand some basic principles of sales forces and channels:

• Salespeople follow the path of least resistance. They understandably prefer to spend their time on easier deals rather than pursuing complex, difficult opportunities.
• Salespeople follow the money. If management tells you, as the PMM, to drive $10 million of your product’s revenue this year but the sales force’s compensation plan (commission and quota) doesn’t include your product, you will not meet that revenue target.
• If you give your salespeople unqualified leads, they will find out the prospect was just interested in the T-Shirt or iPad giveaway and had no real interest in your product. The next time you give leads to that salesperson, they simply won’t use them.
• People buy from the people they trust.

Give your sales force and channel the tools they need for success. The sales force is your front line army. They get shot at every day and that constant rejection is not easy. If they don’t have everything they need to sell effectively, then they will be running back to you all the time to help with each sale. Thus you become a tactical operator instead of the strategic marketer you should be. Or your product will falter and somebody might notice that you are the one responsible.

The sales tools listed below need to be in available in print, in electronic format, and on the website.

Selling Tools Aimed at the Customer:

• Introductory paragraph about the product, which the salesperson will use as their oral pitch (“elevator pitch”) and in the cover letters (emails) with attachments. It needs to be short and punchy while positioning the product and motivating the prospective customer to want to learn more. Cover the key selling points derived by the unique selling proposition from the work the product manager did on product positioning, competitive research, and market research.
• Description of the product, its benefits, features, advantages, specifications. This is usually in the form of a brochure, sales sheet, or data sheet. This information is derived from the work product management did on business case, market requirements, product requirements, and competitive research including personas, product features, advantages and benefits.
• Draft proposal including terms and conditions.
• For trust and credibility building: customer collateral, depending on the type of product and customer, typically includes white papers and presentations, backgrounders, references, and quotes. If the product will save money, give the Return on Investment calculation or provide an ROI calculator.
• Sales presentation, covering all of the points in the bullet above.

Selling Tools Aimed At The Sales Person:

• Description of the qualifications and/or characteristics of the target customer based on work done on user personas, market research, and market segmentation.
• Why they should sell the product. How selling the product will be to the advantage of the salesperson.
• Sales training presentation covering the above.
• Selling Tools Aimed at the Channel (Distributor, Retailer, etc.) Principals:
  • Description of the qualifications and/or characteristics of the target channel (distributor, retailer, etc.) based on from work done in market research, competitive research, and market segmentation.
  • Why they should sell the product. How selling the product will be to the advantage of the channel.
  • Contact for each level of the distribution channel as appropriate.
  • Sales training presentation covering the above points.

With the right sales tools, salespeople can focus on their goal: to make sales.