Organizations can operate with flawed sales models for a long time and not know it. Others are aware of their shortcomings, but chalk them up to budgetary, resourcing or technological issues. Sales teams can maintain stasis for years on inefficient sales models, obscuring the fact that there are significant ways to improve. Many companies don’t really move to correct a budding problem until it has to be dealt with. Organizations can spot inefficiencies, correct them, and keep them from cropping up again by using sales performance management. Is your sales model or business model the problem? It’s generally pretty clear if a business model isn’t working – you don’t have to read between the bottom lines to find it out. However, sales model inefficiencies, as just one component of the business model, can fly relatively under the radar. Over time, it can slowly deflate business model prospects like a balloon. It may take a company longer to figure out what isn’t working and then move to make a change. One way to improve sales models in accordance with the business model is integrate them more directly. Especially in the app economy and e-commerce, the pitch is increasingly the product. Inc.com contributor Craig Wortmann observed that sales models and business models are both more prepared for success if they’re closely calibrated. “Business models, of course, are as changeable as Chicago weather,” Wortmann wrote. “The chief reason a business model pivots is a flawed sales model. A sales model is everything that happens from the time you start asking, ‘Who will buy this?’ to the time you have sufficient performance metrics – not market research – to know that someone will buy this.” Using sales performance management to get ahead The sales cycle is fairly similar for most companies, even in the face of a radical diversification of business models. Sales performance management can ensure that lead generation and client development efforts don’t fall out of step with the overall business goals. Harvard Business Review contributor Steve Martin suggested that message building is one of the most difficult aspects of the business model/sales model alignment – and one of the most rewarding when done correctly. Sales performance management can help employees identify messaging practices that are less than productive, breaking down the sales cycle to get a more granular, data-based picture of approaches that can be improved. This makes sales teams more efficient and flexible, helping them adapt to business model needs and drive growth.
