Qualities of a high performing sales growth partner
by
Today, business leaders are re-invigorating their growth strategies to amplify sales and revenue generation.
If you’re one of these business leaders, chances are you’ve been looking at potential partnerships to help drive sales performance and accelerate revenue growth. And if you haven’t already considered this, it’s something to add to the agenda.
But what exactly do you need for a successful sales partnership?
Complete understanding
“A true partnership is a two-way street, because you can’t just expect your supplier to understand everything about you.” - Frank Hattan, Global Head of Sales, Intertrust (RevGen Digital Summit)
As Frank says, it’s essential for both you and your partner to have total understanding of each other’s organisations for your partnership to be truly successful.
This means helping your partner to understand your sales pains and the outcomes you’re expecting, so there’s no confusion on either side when it comes to reviewing progress further down the line. It also means giving your partner a clear understanding of your product/service offering, which will enable them to formulate the best possible strategy.
For your partner’s part, they should give you total visibility of their processes so you know what to expect. This will ensure there are no surprises or complications when activity gets underway.
Proven capability
“We’ve embraced the need to restructure and be smarter about how we work. durhamlane has been a real part of that journey for us.” - Michael Horgan, Head of Sales (UK North & Midlands), Konica Minolta (RevGen Digital Summit)
The business environment has changed tremendously over the last 18 months, and this means many of your established lead generation methods now need to be thrown out the window. So, how do you solve this problem?
Simple – by partnering with an expert organisation who understands how to succeed in the digital sales & marketing space. Of course, this means finding a partner with a proven record of success, even during disruption.
What sets sales leaders apart is their ability to manage (and improve) the performance of their remote, hybrid and in-house sales teams. If your sales partner is able to demonstrate this ability, it’s a strong sign that they will be able to adapt and overcome as new challenges arise.
Input, output, outcomes & insight
“We look at four key measures at durhamlane: input, output, outcomes and insight. That insight piece is very important… If a prospect says ‘No’ to the proposition, we should be reporting back to the customer why they’ve said that. If someone says ‘Yes’, we should be explaining why.” - Richard Lane, CEO, durhamlane (RevGen Digital Summit)
Ultimately, when looking for a partner to drive your sales performance and revenue growth, you care about one thing: results!
Your partner should therefore provide regular insights into their day-to-day activity and the outcomes they’ve produced as a result – this goes back to the aforementioned importance of visibility. For most sales partnerships, the key outcomes will be the number and quality of Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs) and/or Sales Qualified Leads (SQLs).
It is also important, however, to understand the value of results outside of MQL and SQL numbers. One of the biggest benefits of partnering with a leading sales growth organisation is that it offers you a deep level of insight to untapped markets, verticals and buyer personas that are crucial to orchestrating future success.
A good sales partner will use these insights to inform and improve their own sales and marketing activity. In addition, you can use these insights to improve your own internal activity and operations. This can include optimising your sales strategy, value propositions, campaign messaging and sales outreach.