Each one of us are sales people in an organization and need to take a minute and listen to our clients.  The old adage use your two ears and two eyes must have been written with sales people in mind.  The most successful follow this adage to a tee.   

How to do this?  …Walk in your client’s shoes, have compassion for their day to day challenges, worries and fears.  What keeps them up at night-- what is on fire,  what are their clients telling them?

Before making any presentation, ensure you understand and can articulate the ROI your product, solution or advice offers.  ROI is cost of entry to play today.   Don't waste your time or theirs until you understand it and have vetted it.   

In summary, think of the client, solve their problems with a differentiated solution ( and not just lower price) and follow through on everything you say you are going  to do.   That is how successful sales people operate and keep their clients for life!

        Manage your clients with consistency and passion.... and revenues will follow.

In your company who are the sales team members? 
Each and every one of your employees, and their families. 

Each time one of your team members talks to someone it is your unique touch point to share an antidotal piece of information.  

So many companies think about only training sales people, but not your other employees in your organization.   Ensure every person has a chance to learn about your products and solutions – and not just during new hire training which could have taken place 10 years earlier.  

Challenge all your employees to contests and let them feel they are a part in driving the success of your organization.  Use videos and self-paced learning modules to share and impart latest product information along with quarterly executive briefings and town halls!

Your next $10M dollar opportunity may not be from your team that has sales in their title or as their primary job responsibility.

Why do some partnerships work and others do not? 

Commitment to continual care and feeding of the respective relationship along with a jointly packaged solution that can resonate with your respective clients.

Eleven years ago, my team formed the first three legged partnership with the largest firms in the valley at that time.  Management targeted $5M revenue in the first quarter and we actually achieved $50M.  The following year we formed the first global independent carrier partnership that lead a friendly merger (five years later) and the third company was able to increase Venture Capital funding by 28% in the following round.  Overall the partnership wildly exceeded all forecasts by delivering a first year revenue equal to that of our 3rd year plan.  Obviously, not all partnerships work out so well though.

In setting up partnerships too often the focus for both companies is getting the partnership done, not on the ROI return that is required for each other company in the relationship.    Each partner must have a win-win relationship.  Each partner must see a path to immediate value and the sales teams a reason to do business together that will ensure a successful sale/client.  At the end of the day, C level agreements do not make the partnership work; it is the individual sales team members of both companies seeing  and delivering unique value for themselves and their clients.   It is literally the feet on the street who control the ultimate success….and carry the vision from the C suite.

Created effectively partnerships can offer incredible immediate benefits to all concerned.  They can elevate your brand and deepen client relationships where they may not already exist.  They can also foster stronger organizational ties, allowing for cross pollination of executives and team members, build the relationship to a joint venture level or in some cases even enable an outright purchase of one company.   When managed with executive support from both companies assigning  vice presidents/directors on behalf of their respective organizations, partnerships should thrive.  Step One- Set goals and targets, Step Two- Set your strategy.  Step Three – Focus on execution with weekly meetings.   In other words---Formalize your partner initiatives.