Sales Engine – Cohegic

A broken sales engine is the root cause for lower sales productivity and efficiency.

What is a Sales Engine?

An engine is a mechanical process or system that reliably and consistently produces results. It is self-propagating and repeatable. Similarly, a Sales Engine is a well-oiled sales organization and sales process that generates sales on a regular and repeatable basis. A Sales Engine is about the science of selling and not the art of selling. It is less about individual sales-heroes and more about a systematic process to generate sales.

Building a Sales Engine

1. Sales Strategy

Your sales team must deliberate, crystallize and succinctly articulate a coherent and cohesive

Market Strategy
Product Strategy
Value Proposition Strategy
Sales Strategy

A clear strategy that is well understood within the organization helps drive sales effectiveness higher.

Without a clear strategy spending time and money on sales training often results in less than optimum results.

Sharpening the axe is important (i.e. training and coaching of the sales people) and yet choosing which trees to cut and how (strategy) is equally if not more important.

What are Top Sales Drivers?

Article: Driving Revenues

Sales Training and Coaching

2. Sales Process

A sales process is the sales person's best friend. Without a sales process a sales person is an amateur seller.

A sales process helps a sales person stay focused and guard his/her most valuable commodities — time and self-esteem. Following a sales process increases the sales success ratio and reduces sales cycle-time

A sales process is the organization's best friend too. Without a sales process the organization does not have insight into future sales. It does not have an understanding of which sales drivers are succeeding and which are not.

A sales process coupled with a sales software system helps drive sales efficiency.

Article: Addressing Risk During the Sales Process

3. Sales Organization

The design of the sales organization must facilitate and support the sales process. In complex sales, the sales process is often very involved. It may take different skills sets (for example prospectors versus closers) to work different parts of the sales process. In larger organizations, the role of supporting groups (marketing, risk management, deal structuring/pricing, legal, upper management) can be very important to the sales process. Roles, responsibilities and interaction within the sales group and with other groups must be clearly defined. How different team members get compensated for the sales effort must be clearly defined to drive sales efficiency and productivity.

4. Sales Training and Coaching

Sales training and coaching helps sales representatives re-wire their hidden habits so they can improve their sales productivity.

The typical sales training involves listening to a sales expert or motivational speaker.

Our sales coaching on the other hand is interactive and role-playing based. It helps the sales person realize how he or she acts and reacts in a sales situation. The sales coach acts like a mirror and is able to provide specific feedback to the sales person.

Clients love our role-playing based sales training and coaching.

Learn more about our Sales Training & Coaching sessions.

5. Sales Measurement

You cannot manage what you do not measure. Most companies measure their sales revenues - i.e. the outcome of sales. Sales revenues is, however, a lagging indicator — it tells you what has happened — like a rear view mirror. To manage the sales process and keep advancing the sales strategy it is important to measure the leading indicators of future sales. Without the right measurement it is very difficult for an organization to gain insight of future sales and know in advance how each sales person's performance is going to be respective to their sales plan or sales target.

“Due to your help we have improved the quality and quantity of our sales opportunities and are now pursuing millions of dollars worth of new, well-qualified opportunities.”

— KEN SCHROEDER, PARTNER, ERM

Piece Together the Pieces of Your Sales Engine

Sell Cohesively

Call Cohegic to learn how