Absolutely nothing can enable sales if the hard work of developing a fully supported sales strategy is not done. This whitepaper discusses the importance of developing a strong sales process and provides a roadmap to building one.

1. STRATEGY AND
THE SALES PROCESS:
STAYING STRONG
ON THE BASICS

2. 2403 Sidney Street, Suite 150 Pittsburgh, PA 15203, Phone: 412.381.0230, Fax: 412.774.1992, Email: sales@mindmatrix.net, www.mindmatrix.net
Strategy and the Sales Process:
Staying Strong on the Basics
Being in sales is hard work. There is the constant
need to be “up” when engaging with clients, the
constant evaluating of what’s the best next step to
take with a prospect and the never-ending
pressure to meet quota. And then there’s that
disappointment when a long nurtured prospect
goes elsewhere and a sale is lost overnight. Some
of these pressures are in the nature of the job, but
there are things that marketing can do to enable
salespeople to make their job easier. New tools
such as automation now exist, and there are
multiple new platforms to engage consumers on.
The digital Internet era has created volumes of new
information that can help sales understand each
client better. But before marketing gets involved
with these new tools, it is very important not to
forget the basics. No automation system or server
full of Big Data will ever replace the core need for a
fully developed marketing strategy. Before looking
at automation software or other new toys,
marketing has to get back to the basics.
The first step in constructing any effective
marketing and sales strategy is a recognition of the
importance of the “buyer-focused sales process
model.” This model is one where the buyer is seen
as driving the entire process of purchasing. To help
explain, some background is necessary. In older,
traditional sales models from an earlier pre-digital
age (think Mad Men as a point of reference) the
“mover” of the whole buying process was sales,
not the consumer. These older “push” models
essentially viewed sales and marketing as the
driver of the entire sales cycle. In this outdated
model, sales and marketing were viewed as
“controlling” the process, taking actions that
“push” prospects along through the sales cycle.
Buyers, to oversimplify a bit, were reactors to
strategies that had been designed to entice a
purchase. Today, any effective sales enablement
strategy has to begin by accepting the inadequacy
of this model in the digital/internet/mobile
environment. Successful sales enablement begins
with the recognition of the efficacy of the buyer
sales process model. To simplify, today’s buyer
controls the sales process.
The Buyer Process Model
This new model views the buyer as in control.
Why? Because with the Internet, an unlimited
volume of information about any product or service
is available to anyone who is willing to spend the
time. From general information about product or
service verticals all the way to data about a specific
firm’s entire product line, any individual can
learn--on their own—an extensive amount of
information. Most importantly, all of this information
is acquired without the help, guidance or direction
of any sales representative. So instead of B2C and
B2B buyers initial introduction to a firm’s services
coming under the controlled direction of a
salesperson, it is now done without the firm even
knowing the prospect exists. Quite simply, a
prospect can be halfway through the sales funnel
before they have any live or virtual contact
with a seller.
As a result of this new buying model, sales
and marketing have, in essence, “ lost control”
of the prospect. They no longer have the luxury of
directing the lead along the path to a sale.
Now they have to figure where the buyer
is, and respond accordingly. Or conversely,
the buyer moves along at his or her own

3. 2403 Sidney Street, Suite 150 Pittsburgh, PA 15203, Phone: 412.381.0230, Fax: 412.774.1992, Email: sales@mindmatrix.net, www.mindmatrix.net
speed, and the salesperson that tracks them best,
likely gets the sale.
For example, in the old model a salesperson
generally met the lead at the start of the sales
cycle. Therefore, she knows the lead is in the
awareness stage and responds with the
appropriate quantity of introductory, general
knowledge sales collateral. After this, she knows
that the prospect is recognizing the specific value
of the product or service. As before, the rep
provides the appropriate, more specific
information. Shift ahead in time to the digital
Internet era, and this model fails. Sales is practically
in the dark. Under the new model, potential buyers
have been increasing their awareness of a product
and identifying how it might add value to their life or
business. All without the firm knowing. When they
do finally have contact with a salesperson, it may
be unclear where they are in the sales funnel. In this
scenario, the risk is that a sales rep will likely offer
them information that is not relevant to where they
sit in the sales funnel. If this happens, the lead will
view the messaging as irrelevant (and somewhat
annoying) and potentially be lost as a sale. The
buyer is now driving the sales process. Marketing
and sales need to develop strategies that can
respond within this different paradigm.
Sales Enablement and the Digital Environment
This brings us to determining what sales
enablement looks like in this new environment.
The key to designing a fully implemented sales
enablement model is to design a complete
lead to revenue plan that recognizes the
sales funnel and the necessity of understanding
where the buyer is in the sales process.
The sales funnel is the metaphor that illustrates the
start to finish process wherein a prospect moves
from the very first stages of awareness that a
particular category of product or service exists, all
the way to the purchase decision.
At the root of all good marketing are the specific
tactics that have been designed to respond to the
buyer wherever they are in the sales funnel. This
includes the full range of marketing collateral that
can be used on each of the several platforms that
buyers may be using to learn as they proceed
through the funnel. That means marketing has to
have determined all of its plans to deal with the buy.
Some examples include the development of drip
email campaigns, whitepapers that address
general topics relevant to the product category,
e-guides that are more product/service specific,
and on-going social media campaigns, as well as
digital and print brochures and catalogs. All of
these materials need to be designed and prepared
and be ready for use. If these are not done,
then sales is really left without any way to
respond to a buyer.
An organization has to be ready with the nuts and
bolts to put the plan together. There can be broad
strategies to respond to prospects all across the
sales funnel, but they won’t work if the collateral
and infrastructure isn’t there. The necessary
infrastructure includes the following areas
A) Lead Generation Strategies - Without
sufficient lead generation, there isn’t much
anyone can do to enable sales. Lead
generation strategies have to be in place.
Without them, everything else is a waste of
time. In particular, a good lead gen plan
recognizes the full range of platforms now
available for reaching prospective
customers. These platforms include social
media, including its opportunities for ramping
up your networking efforts, (LinkedIn, for
example) and email campaigns. Traditional
channels such as ads, word-of-mouth,
tele-sales and referral campaigns should still
be factored in as valuable lead generation

4. 2403 Sidney Street, Suite 150 Pittsburgh, PA 15203, Phone: 412.381.0230, Fax: 412.774.1992, Email: sales@mindmatrix.net, www.mindmatrix.net
opportunities. Also, it is important to conduct
ongoing SEO efforts to ensure good search
returns: even the best website has limited
value if it is never found.
B) Content Creation – All through the
lead-to-revenue process, salespeople need
to be enabled to respond fully and effectively.
They need a fully loaded playbook containing
articulate and relevant messaging for every
part of the sales funnel. Examples include drip
email campaigns and a generous supply
of whitepapers and e-guides that can
be sent out on demand. Additionally, a strong
blog presence that provides complementary
information about your industry,
as well as your service or product categories,
is necessary.
Content creation is a time-consuming and
demanding effort, but without it, salespeople
are unable to provide the responses that
prospects now expect.
C) Website – A bad or difficult to navigate
website loses leads faster than anything else.
How easy is it to find something quickly? Are
there any slow loading features that drive
away window shoppers? When a prospect
has found your site through a search engine,
they probably have a very specific goal, and if
they can’t find something immediately on
your site, they will return to the search
and go elsewhere.
D) Mobile – You may have a great website for the
desktop user, but what about mobile access?
The percentage of users who use mobile for
their primary or sole form of web access is
growing fast, especially in the younger
demographics and developing countries.
ComputerWorld reports that at the end of
2013, 20% of the world’s online activity
occurred on mobile phones. This was a 53%
annual increase over the preceding year. In
September 2009, desktop browsing
represented 98.8% of the total. This
means that optimizing for the small screen
is imperative.
E) Sales Ready Lead Metrics – What
determines when a lead is passed along to
sales for contact? A sales rep is not being
enabled when he receives a lead with only a
vague and unfocused product awareness.
That simply wastes sales resources that are
better used elsewhere. Marketing is
responsible for enabling sales and that
includes a well-researched and valid
definition of sales ready.
F) People Close Sales – The final component of
sales enablement is a sales staff that is
trained and ready to close a sale. All of the
above components enable sales. Technology
(which will be discussed below) can optimize
the effectiveness of all these channel efforts,
but it is still people that close sales.
Strategy Example: Going to a Trade Show
To provide a concrete example of the importance of
strategy, consider the process of deciding to
attend a trade show.
The first thing to decide is what the overall strategy
or objective for attending the trade show is. There
can be several possible objectives, and what they
are will determine specific marketing tactics.
Objectives could include greater brand awareness,
lead generation, networking with industry leaders,
or greater public relations with present clients. The
objective will determine what particular type of
event is attended.
Second, there is pre-event planning that must be
done. Emails and mailings that announce your
attendance, follow-up brochures, and teasers to
encourage visits to the booth. Brochures and
promotional items have to be designed and

5. 2403 Sidney Street, Suite 150 Pittsburgh, PA 15203, Phone: 412.381.0230, Fax: 412.774.1992, Email: sales@mindmatrix.net, www.mindmatrix.net
ordered in necessary quantities. And of course,
there is the very critical after-event planning. If the
goal has been lead generation, for example, there
will need to be a process for categorizing leads.
What type of follow-up is necessary? Where is
each lead in the sales funnel, and what manner of
messaging is appropriate to each? All of these
steps need to be planned out and the necessary
collateral created to support it.
How Automation Complements Sales Enablement
The last part of successful sales enablement is
automation. Automation should serve as the final
layer of a good sales and marketing strategy. Once
these components are in place, marketing
automation is an overlay that helps optimize these
components. It can never replace good strategy
and process. Instead, it optimizes resources
devoted to that strategy and adds more muscle to
the effort. It also enables sales by automating
functions that are otherwise time consuming, and
making sense of big data in ways that make the
sales funnel transparent.
A) Effectiveness in the buyer-focused model –
Technology is particularly useful in the
buyer-focused model. As already noted, the
sales staff must be poised to respond to
each prospect in a relevant fashion. The end
of the “push model” robbed sales of the
luxury of leading the prospect along the sales
cycle. Automation has the ability to identify in
real-time where a prospect is. With its ability
to use big data and get a 360-degree picture
of a prospect, sales can stay fully informed
24/7 of the status of any lead, and always be
able to respond with relevant messaging.
B) Automation is an excellent tool in the modern
multi-channel environment. Given the sheer
number of available sales channels, manually
tracking prospect activity becomes
overwhelming very quickly. Automation won’t
create good content, but it will disseminate it
effectively and efficiently. It will also track all
prospect activity and turn that data into
usable information for sales to use, thus
further enabling sales.
C) Another challenge created by the digitally
driven “pull” sales model is the need to avoid
poorly timed or off-key messages. With their
ability to educate themselves long before
contacting a vendor, leads are going to be
annoyed by messages that provide
information they’ve already learned or
promote solutions that aren’t a good match.
Ill-timed messages can lead a prospect to go
elsewhere – they’ll just assume that particular
vendor can’t offer the ideal value.
D) Better use of sales resources – Sales
enablement means helping sales sell better.
Anything that pulls staff away from effective
customer engagement needs to be evaluated
and minimized. The more that marketing can
provide the most accurate, up-to-date 360
degree view of a prospect, the more
sales is enabled.
In summary, absolutely nothing can enable sales
if the hard work of developing a fully supported
sales strategy is not done. Clever logos
and automation mean nothing without the
infrastructure to support it.