Does your web site mirror your strategy?

Does your web site really serve to advance your business?

How well does your web site reflect your business strategy?  Does your web site proudly declare what you do and what you stand for?  Does it communicate why you are different...and better?  Are there 'calls to action'...that are easily found...and actioned...and measured? 

Many companies I meet answer 'NO' to the above questions.  Now many of the companies I meet are small to mid-sized businesses.   Many sell with a 'business to business' sales model and offer technology based solutions and services...and rely on their sales force.   Many have limited marketing resources and pump their dollars into fulfilling current business commitments - not building for the future.

How often have I heard...

• Our web site does not describe or showcase the products and services that we expect to fuel our growth over the next few years...
• Our market focus has changed and we have not updated our web site..
• We don't offer some of those services anymore...
• We need to get testimonials and publish them to the site..
• Our web site needs a complete refresh in terms of look and feel.  It was written 4 years ago and has not really been updated since...
• and on, and on.

Consider that in the current '2.0' world, the direct or channel sales force do not own the entire sales cycle the way they did, even a few short years ago.   Prospective customers visit your site, even before they contact you...and they start to form opinions - so is your site ready to deliver the message that you want?

Are you playing your strongest hand?

Here's another thought.  Often when I visit a web site, I check the 'news' or 'events' section to see what's new.  What has the company done recently that they are proud to share?  Have they announced new flagship customers, new products or services, industry presentations or presence at events, etc.  When the last entry on the news page is 2 years old, that raises a big warning flag for me.  Should it?

Consider the impressions your site creates.

And keep in mind that we have not even talked about SEO, web traffic, high impact calls to action, demand generation, page optimization, content management, etc. How do you want your web site to really perform for you?  Do you want your site to drive leads to your sales team to help build the top of the funnel? Do you want the web to nurture interest and help move along slower moving prospects while your sales team focuses on where they can have the most impact?  I'll cover more on this topic in a future post.

Your Sales Team and Your CEO – Alignment or Disconnect?

I recently read George Colony’s blog posting CEO’s Want Better Sales Forces.  George is CEO of Forrester Research.   George asked tech CEO’s if they are satisfied with how the sales force is advancing their strategy.   Generally CEO’s were not satisfied, citing that salesforces are 12 months + behind strategy and not effectively indentifying and articulating the alignment between market requirements and the full value of their available solution.

If you’re wrestling with some degree of CEO/Sales disconnect in your organization, here are a few steps you may be overlooking.

Consider the natural timeframes that each group is generally working in and bridge the
gap.  CEO’s and the senior executive team spend far more time working on long term strategy.  What kind of capabilities are required 3-5 years from now and what must be done NOW to build an organization to get there?  The executive team is focused on anticipating trends, and innovating to ensure they have differentiating solutions to enable them to continually improve their market osition.  The sales team  generally spends far less time discussing long term strategy, let alone acting on it.  Sales is focused on driving in revenue for the quarter and then the year.  Even when the CEO is focused on the next 12-18 months, the sales team is often focused on the quarter.  This drives different behavior and ultimately different results.

While CEO’s are compensated for building long term value, sales teams are rewarded for achieving and beating quarterly and annual quotas.  Sales teams generally focus on the solutions and services they can propose and close, in their time frames. 

Closing the sale - impact –What’s in it for the sales team to present the company’s longer term strategy when they are trying to close a sale this quarter?  Will sharing the company’s future help them close the sale (alignment of company and prospect’s interests) or will it potentially postpone the sale (prospect will wait to see) or does the sales rep consider it risky to introduce the topic if not asked.

Funnel building for the future – At what point should the sales funnel start including opportunities that align with the evolving strategy?  Will sales compensation plans be changing to align? Do the reps understand the impact and are they building their funnels
appropriately? Or will there be a late scramble?

Training – To the CEO, the longer term strategy may seem crystal clear, after all the CEO has been defining and refining it – it’s in his blood. If the sales people have only heard about it in an internal presentation, than they are prepared to present the story. And if they are not confident, they won’t naturally talk about it.   Educate your team.  And don’t just tell them – you won’t get the results.  Take the team through your process so that they really understand and believe in the direction.  That will help ensure the CEO gets the action he/she wants.

Arm your team – Once your sales team are believers in the longer term strategy, are they ready for battle?  How do you want the strategy presented and shared? Are sales and marketing aligned? Does the sales team have the content needed to deliver and support the message - consistently?   Think sales presentations, proposals, dialogues, with both existing customers and prospects.

Is your digital strategy aligned?  Do your web sites, blogs, social media initiatives all support your strategy? Or will the sales team be out of step?

Selling high – With a sales team that can competently tall about their company’s future strategy – in the context of benefit to their customers - they have the opportunity to engage at higher levels in their customers and prospects organizations.  Are you equipping your sales teams? Can they step up?

I have talked to a lot of CEO’s and Presidents that tell me that their web site and collateral does not reflect where they are taking the company.    Yet they often expect the sales division to continue to deliver.   And having been the VP Sales in a number of companies, I know that the team has to continue to bring in the revenue – no excuses.  Think and talk it through.   The above are just a few of the questions that CEO’s and executive teams should be asking when they perceive that the sales
teams are not ideally aligned with the company strategy. 

Close the gap and accelerate your sales growth!