When we are assessing our enterprise sales training and competencies it’s easy to focus on the process and tactics that our sales team uses. We can get bogged down in milestones or key sales KPI’s such as the number of sales calls or discovery meetings our team does.
These activities can look good on a spreadsheet but they may not tell the whole story.
The number of meetings or sales calls an enterprise sales professional matters much less than the quality of conversation in each call. Quality of conversation require more than product knowledge or talking points supplied by the marketing or sales enablement team.
Quality conversation requires that enterprise sales professionals have solid business acumen in chosen target industries, regions and companies.
Building Sales Acumen in Enterprise Sales
In order to sell to senior executives we need to be able to relate to them, and display that we understand their world. We are unlikely going top be able to do this by also owning a yacht or being a member of an exclusive golf club.
We can however gain rapport and demonstrate value through business acumen.
Business acumen for sales professionals means developing the ability to think and see a situation from a senior executives perspective. It also means that we need to become an expert on our clients industry, competitors, clients, trends and culture.
To build business acumen some of the things any salesperson can do include:
- Attending industry conferences and events that these execs frequent
- Following thought leaders and influencers they follow online
- Studying their industry, regulations, competitors intently
- Keep up on company press releases and major milestones
- Reading the same books that are popular with senior executives in your target market
By immersing yourself in their world you become an insider and specialist. This insight will allow you to have conversations that are more in-depth and credible. It will also allow you to collaborate, develop and sell solutions that speak directly to their needs and perspective.
To sell at the top we need executive level thinking and perspective.
