Levers for IT sales

Having been a part of the account reviews, penning down some of the levers I feel are relevant for IT sales.

Strategy:

a.) Set a clear direction that is mapped to the competitive advantage of the company

b.) Competitive difference

c.) Availability of GTM decks, Battle cards, Use cases

d.) Template for deal qualification

e.) Availability of Market intelligence for better targeting

Structure:

a.) Three in a box approach ( Account Manager, Delivery Manager & Pre-sales / Consulting) for better client engagement

b.) Availability of the Customer Organization chart for better targeting

Process:

A well defined process to ensure that the following points are taken care of

a.) There is a tendency to bump up the “no of sales opportunities” by responding to all the RFPs. A better suggested process would be to do a deal qualification and respond selectively. This will increase the win rate and decrease burn out

b.) The deal value is a key indicator of the trust that the customers have on the service provider. Hence # large deals speak more about the company & its sales rep rather than multiple small deals

c.) Margin pegged against competition

d.) While it is desired that the length of the sales cycle should be shortened, unfortunately there is not much the sales person can do about this

e.) Value adds, that have a higher probability to swing the deal in ones favour

While much can be discussed and debated on other very relevant points around strategy, structure, process & people, I have tried to highlight some of the areas that I felt need attention

Thoughts??