Helping Founders Establish The Right Sales Infrastructure For Growth

Feb 3, 2022

Author: collin stewart

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With over 20 years of experience in sales and a background in neuroscience, Moeed Amin was frustrated by the current approach to sales and persuasion. He founded Proverbial Door to help businesses improve their outbound sales function for radical growth.\u00a0\n

Moeed joined the Predictable Revenue podcast to discuss how founders can establish a sales infrastructure for profitable growth, from understanding your customers to hiring and managing an outbound sales team.\n

Moeed defines the sales infrastructure as \u201cthe setting in which salespeople perform\u201d. \u201cThink of it as the scaffolding,\u201d Moeed says. \u201cIf you don\u2019t have the right scaffolding, then you don\u2019t have the right support for your salespeople to shine and deliver on their promises.\u201d\n

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What most founders are missing in sales development\n

When it comes to scaling revenue, there are several mistakes Moeed sees founders make over and over. The most common is hiring a chief revenue officer (CRO) without really understanding the sales process.\n

\u201cSales is still a very misunderstood profession,\u201d Moeed says. Many founders come from a technical or subject matter background and haven\u2019t yet invested the time in learning what the outbound sales process needs to look like for their company.\u00a0\n

Oftentimes, founders will hire a CRO who has a great track record at other companies, but that person isn\u2019t the best fit for their organization. The CRO needs to have experience in your industry, and either understand your buyer or be able to uncover that information.\n

This is why founders need to understand the sales development process. \u201cThey hire a chief revenue officer and ask them to grow the business, to grow sales, and then they leave them to it,\u201d Moeed says.\n

But without understanding key sales metrics, the founder won\u2019t know whether or not their CRO is making the right decisions; they\u2019ll have no way to hold them accountable or measure their success.\u00a0\n

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Understanding the buyer is critical to outbound sales\n

Another common mistake Moeed sees with founders is they don\u2019t know their buyers well enough. They can\u2019t identify their ideal customer profile (ICP), and they have a very surface-level understanding of the buyer. If they have an ICP at all, it\u2019s most likely focused on a company and not the human beings who are making the buying decision.\n

This is where the buyer\u2019s journey comes into play. Successful sales development requires a clear understanding of the buyer\u2019s motivations, where they go to educate themselves, and how they make decisions.\u00a0\n

A mistake Moeed often sees is that after a cash injection, a founder will immediately jump to hiring more sales development reps. But without understanding the buyer\u2019s needs, this only results in high customer acquisition costs and low retention rates.\n

\u201cThey\u2019re not looking at growing their business,\u201d Moeed says. \u201cThey\u2019re just looking at making more sales at any cost, which is a hugely damaging approach.\u201d Instead, founders should prioritize understanding their buyers before growing their outbound sales team.\n

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How to win at outbound sales: become buyer-obsessed\n

According to Moeed, less than 1% of the companies he\u2019s worked with over the years truly understand their customers. That\u2019s a huge competitive advantage that\u2019s sitting untapped. But for maximum growth, Moeed recommends going beyond surface-level company traits to understand your buyers on an individual level.\n

\u201cTell me about the Management by Objectives (MBOs) or KPIs of your typical buyer, how they are being measured, what will determine their bonus, and what their responsibilities are for their performance reviews,\u201d Moeed says. These are the kind of metrics that are often overlooked in developing an ICP.\n

\u201cIf you don\u2019t know how your buyers are measured in terms of bonuses, promotions, and things they care about\u2013how could you possibly know what\u2019s going to motivate them?\u201d\u00a0\n

\u201cUnderstanding the world of your buyers is incredibly important,\u201d Moeed says. Since your position in the market is unique, to stand out from the competition, \u201cthe way you touch the buyers and affect their world has to be different.\u201d\n

That starts with a deeper understanding of your ideal customer. Everything has to be geared toward giving the buyer value, rather than your company\u2019s ROI. \u201cPeople buy from you because they trust you with their reputation.\u201d And to earn that trust, you need to provide value.\n

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Adopting a wider view of the buyer\u2019s journey\n

According to Moeed, the buyer\u2019s journey starts much sooner than most founders may believe. \u201cLet\u2019s say you\u2019re thinking about eating at a restaurant; the buyer\u2019s journey doesn\u2019t start with you deciding to eat out today.\u201d Instead, it starts with hearing about restaurants through friends, social media, or a culinary magazine.\u00a0\n

At every stage in the process, someone is influencing the buyer. What your outbound sales team needs to do is earn a seat at that influencing table. That starts with understanding where the buyer is on their journey, what triggers can identify the different stages, and who commands the buyer\u2019s attention at each stage.\n

Understanding the buyer\u2019s journey will inform your outbound sales approach, marketing, and the skills and traits of the salespeople you hire.\n

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Applying the buyer\u2019s journey to your outbound sales process\n

Once your sales development team understands the buyer\u2019s journey, they can adapt their approach based on what stage a prospect is in. Instead of always pushing for the sale, Moeed recommends asking, \u201cWhat information is going to be valuable to them at this stage?\u201d\n

If a sales development rep is trying to sell to someone who is still in the education stage, for instance\u2013that person doesn\u2019t want to be sold to yet. They\u2019re still gathering information.\n

If the buyer is in the stakeholder validation phase, they need information they can present to the stakeholders in their company so they can have those internal discussions. What\u2019s most helpful, then, is for your sales reps to provide that information without pressuring them to buy.\n

\"Helping-Founders-Establish-Right-Sales-Infrastructure-Growth\"\n

Who is responsible for mapping the buyer\u2019s journey?\n

According to Moeed, everyone at the company should contribute to mapping the buyer\u2019s journey, including the founder, sales development, marketing, consulting, customer success, and product teams. The more departments are involved, the more complete the picture will be.\n

However, ownership of the buyer\u2019s journey belongs to the outbound sales and marketing teams. These departments should hold other parts of the business accountable to ask customers the right questions and analyze that information to craft a strategy.\u00a0\n

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Forming an outbound sales strategy\n

Once you have a deep understanding of the buyer and their journey, the next step is to form a targeted outbound sales strategy. Moeed recommends asking the following questions:\u00a0\n

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