In short the answer is: Everything that’s needed to run a company. But for a more nuanced answer, read on:
Focusing on your role as a person who has to bring in business to the company, we’ll concentrate on activities that bring topline (revenue) growth. And to achieve that here are the five things that an IT (Information Technology) Sales professional is required to do:
1. Prospecting:
This is the bread and butter of sales professional. I have written more on the specifics of prospecting in some of my other blogs if you want to read it. This is how you start your sales cycle, hence skipping this step is not an option. What you can do though is to outsource it to a department that’ll do it for you. That’s where the inside sales team comes. This is how typically a large corporation works. There are different departments to perform various facets of the business. But make no mistake, you are still responsible for this activity, which means that you should be working along side the outsourced team to feed them the information to get you enough leads. It’s always a good idea to keep in touch with prospecting yourself. No matter how senior you are, pick up the phone or write those mails to bring in a meeting yourself.
2. Attending the discovery sales meetings/meeting the client:
The next step as a sales professional is to take the meeting set up from the prospecting exercise. There is a lot of groundwork that is needed for this meeting. Unlike meetings where you are interacting with a customer you’ve known for a while, this is a brand new experience. The fact that they’ve shown interest to meet you is a plus, hence the advantage shouldn’t be squandered away with a lack of preparation. Details such as the roles and responsibilities of the people you are about to meet, their background, common interests/groups are bare minimum information you should have on your fingertips. In the meeting itself various soft skills such as being presentable, listening well, making your prospect feel comfortable and building trust play an important role in getting you to the next meeting on the calendar.
3. Preparing for your next meeting:
Most first meetings, with very few exceptions, are generally good. You introduce yourselves, have some small talk, understand what the prospect requirement is, give a brief introduction about the company or product you represent and then call it off by fixing time for the next meeting. That’s when the clock starts ticking. The real work begins once the call is done and you have gathered all the information you wanted as part of the ‘discovery’ process. Now is the chance to bring in the right teams to make sense of the information and formulate a plan to get in front of the prospect a second time. This next call with the customer will ensure if all the effort you have put in so far has a potential of getting you a sale or not. Just a matter of caution that should be considered: Quite often sales folks who are trying to make a quick buck, will try and fit their solutions/products on any problem that the prospect poses. While this can get you the initial sale, it’ll dent your reputation severely. In all fairness you should only pursue an opportunity if it truly is a match to the solution, else the right thing to do is to explain the situation to your prospect and excuse yourself from the opportunity. I have personally seen so many cases wherein the prospects have respected this gesture and come back for business later on. These prospects are not just business partners but great friends too.
4. Subsequent meetings:
Armed with all the information that you have prepared based on your previous meeting, you get onto the next and possibly series of meetings to showcase the solution you have for the customer. Make sure to have a before and after state to help the prospect visualize what working with you/your company will help them achieve. Pay attention to the audience in the meeting and what their aspirations are to make you come up with a comprehensive proposal. Some of the finer aspects of handling such a meeting have been addressed in a previous blog. Answering any technical questions the client might have
5. Delivery:
Fast forward to the deal win (there is a lot more excitement involved than what I have shown here) and that’s when the rubber meets the road. A lot of sales professionals travel the road until here and see off the prospect from here on. That’s not just a bad idea in terms of loosening your customer ties, but also doesn’t make business sense. Being connected to the delivery and operations of the project will enable you as a sales professional to uncover more opportunities which the customer himself/herself is not aware of. They are sometimes banking on your (your team’s) expertise to help them through those issues they are encountering. This doesn’t mean that you should take off your sales hat and get into delivering the project. But keeping in touch with the project execution and the customer will pay you in the long run.
CONCLUSION
The roles and responsibilities of an IT Sales professional are plenty. When things are going up or down, the heads turn towards you in awe or in anticipation to move things along. The reason for that is simple: A company can only survive if they continue to generate business, which is achieved through sales, and that’s what your job as an IT Sales professional is.
As you can imagine, the steps listed out here cannot be executed in a day alone. In fact in most cases with the Information Technology Sales industry, deals run for months before they are decided. Putting in the required effort day in and day out will get the results you as an IT sales professional are aspiting for.
