The easiest way to win over the business

1. Sales 101

Sales is responsible for…well, selling.

But at a higher level, sales is responsible for something even more important - revenue. A business could be doing everything right. It could have the most innovative product, the most efficient operations, and a strong brand. But without revenue, a business will never last.

This is why sales is so crucial. It’s also why sales teams experience a lot of pressure. They’re in a tight spot. The entire company is relying on them to bring in the income that will not only keep the business alive, but help it grow.

What does Sales actually do?

Sales is the process of converting prospects into buyers. In the next issue I’ll dive deeper into sales funnels and more details on what this process looks like.

For now, just understand that a core function of sales is to have conversations. These conversations are typically with prospects (potential buyers).

These conversations can include agenda items like:

• Discovering needs and pain points

• Generating interest In the product

• Building rapport (trust)

• Networking or building “social proof”

What Sales is not

Sales is not marketing.

It’s understandable why the two could be mixed up. Sales and Marketing work closely together, and should be closely aligned. But their responsibilities are different. I will cover marketing and how their responsibilities differ in another issue.

The responsibilities of Sales can also overlap with those of Customer Support or Customer Success. These responsibilities include:

• Onboarding

• Handling complaints

• Making sure customers are receiving value from the product or service

But more often, especially as companies grow, these responsibilities are handled by a separate team. These responsibliities are often referred to as post-sales. While Sales is responsible for bringing new customers, post-sales is responsible for retaining customers.

Conversations: a strategy for selling

There has been a trend shift in the sales world toward relationship-based selling. This is a selling strategy that focuses selling efforts on building rapport (or trust) with prospects (as opposed to talking about features).

Sales representatives will use conversations build trust with their prospects. These conversations are an opportunity for data professionals to help Sales build trust with customers, and grow revenue for the business. I’ll talk about this in the next section.

2. “Insight Selling” and how Data can partner with Sales

Most prospective buyers are inundated with information. Everyone is trying to get them to buy their products. These buyers are also able to go to any website and find information for themselves.

What buyers are looking for are insights that they couldn’t otherwise find on their own. Sales is counting on data to provide these insights.

Readers of this newsletter are likely familiar with this request for insights. Sales teams are notorious for nagging their data teams about this.

For data teams, searching for an insight can feel like sitting in a boat on a lake with a fishing pole, waiting for something to bite. But it might be helpful to understand the context for these requests, and what Sales will do with these insights.

Sales wants insights that they can use in their conversations with buyers. They are looking for ways to make these conversations more interesting. 

This additional information helps Sales build rapport, gain trust, and strengthen their relationship with the buyer. All of which help them bring in new business.

Data can be a great resource for these insights. These insights don’t need to be groundbreaking, just interesting. Ideally they involve information that helps the prospective buyer:

• Solve a problem

• See the value of the product more clearly

• Share more information about their needs with the Sales professional

This is why Sales can be an excellent partner for Data teams. No one understands the buyers needs like they do. They are talking to buyers and learning from them every single day.

3. Why Sales is so important to the business.

I mentioned in the first section why Sales is so important. Ultimately they are responsible for revenue. But why do executives and leaders care so much about revenue?

Revenue is an indicator that a product or service is not just a good idea, but also a viable business. This is critical for startup executives and investors to know, especially in the early stages.

With growing revenue, a business can attract more investors to raise money, make investments to grow the business even more, and ultimately increase the valuation of the business. Without revenue, the business can no longer pay its bills, and investors won’t see the business as a good investment, and eventually the business will die.

If you help the Sales team bring in more revenue, then you are essentially telling your company’s executives and investors:

“Congratulations, this was a great idea. There is a huge market for this product. We’re going to provide a ton of value to a ton of customers, and we’re going to make a lot of money.”

This is why founders and investments get into this business in the first place.

You will be loved for this, and you will win over the business.

We’ll dive deeper into Sales next week when I go over sales funnels. Thanks for reading.