SALES MANAGER’S GUIDE
Customer centricity: coach and support your sales team to understand your customers and win more deals
MICRO-COMMITMENTS
Check what actions your sales
people have agreed with the
customer after each meeting.
Make sure the customer has
committed to a time-bound
action that will progress their
buying journey and agreed to a
shared next step with you.
No customer action
= Complete a SWOT analysis related directly to the opportunity
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YOUR CUSTOMER DOESN’T CARE WHO YOU ARE OR WHAT YOU DO.
THEY CARE ABOUT WHAT YOU CAN DO FOR THEM.
© Alate Business Growth Ltd
1. OPPORTUNITY COACHING
Work through the following with your team members for key ‘must win’
opportunities. Here are a few questions to guide your conversation using the
practices we covered in the training.
• Talk me through your stakeholder map, showing decision roles and stance?
• Have you identified all key customer stakeholders?
• What is your plan to identify and fill the gaps?
• What is your plan to engage and influence each stakeholder?
• What is important to each stakeholder (eg complete a persona template) and
how you will deliver value to each one?
• What proof do you have that you have Champions and Supporters?
• What is the customer’s buying process with key stages and milestones?
• Who is involved at each stage?
• Who are we competing against and what is our strategy to win against them?
• What is the specific differentiated value we can deliver? Why will the customer
choose us over competitors?
• What expertise do we need to involve internally to ensure we win the business?
2. TEAM ACTIVITIES
These activities are good for sales meetings or internal training workshops. You can
also delegate to sub-groups within the team
• Buyer personas: Choose the primary C-level contacts you need to influence to
sign off your proposals. Use the buyer persona template to research and better
understand and align with each persona. Use the team’s experiences of working
with each role.
• Competitor SWOT: Complete a SWOT analysis for each of your key
competitors and a comparison SWOT of your organization. Use your on-the-
ground knowledge of how your competitors operate in the field.
• Articulate your value: How do you align your value to customer needs? Share
real examples of why your customers buy and the compelling arguments that
work.