It is Time to  Create a Sales Funnel to Close Deal after Deal

One of the most interesting aspects of the work I do in the area of Strategic Business Selling™ (sales training that transforms the commercial organization by moving from traditional sales training to training that is based on using business acumen to develop and present solutions to the customer that helps their bottom line) is sitting in strategic account reviews and listening to the progress being made - or in a couple of cases last week -  the lack of progress being made delivering the right value proposition to the right customers to generate profitable account revenue.  In the accounts where the sales team is experiencing stalled sales deals, the one thing they do seem to be doing well is making a lot of excuses.

Last week I wrote a blog about how Business Acumen Skills Lead to Business Outcomes Skills.  I’m not sure exactly why, but it turned out to be one of the most popular blogs I’ve ever written so something hit home with the more than 3,000 subscribers who receive it, comment on it, and pass it on to others.  From the feedback, comments, and dialogues I’ve had about the blog with colleagues who are very close to me as well as people who were complete strangers before last week, it seems that the practical aspects of what I wrote about made sense and many found it extremely useful.  Here’s a comment from a participant of a High Potential Leader program I conducted several years ago who is now a General Manager:

One of the almost infinite challenges facing businesses today is understanding the system of customer engagement and who is responsible for executing the process to support it.  The digital age has disrupted everything and one of the most significant outcomes is that customer expectations regarding their experience and level of service has changed the ways companies need to react to customer engagement.

As I’ve shared previously in our live learning engagements and in these blog posts, one of the best parts of my job as a leader of Business Acumen, Business Leadership, and Strategic Business Selling skill development engagements for our clients is that I am continuously meeting new people at a variety of different types of companies with great and innovative ideas.  Last week during a call with a potential new client, who I instantly clicked with because we have similar approaches to learning and more importantly similar values to business and people, he introduced me to a new concept that I’m quite intrigued by and has stuck with me for several days; “Outcomes Skills.”  He defined Outcomes Skills as: