Sales development: The complete B to B guide

‍Sales Development: What's the Scope of This Key Activity?  

What exactly is sales development?

Sales development is a somewhat nebulous concept. Is it about prospecting? The sales process? Commercial strategy? In reality, it involves a bit of all these elements, but not exclusively.

Simply put, sales development is the process whose mission is to ensure the most stable possible flow of sales within the company. And by "stable," we mean "stably growing".

Without effective sales development, a company won't last. That's the harsh reality; if your company is well-established and reputable, the decline might be slower, but it's certain.

Numerous roles ensure its operation, including:

• Sales Development Representatives / Prospecting Managers / Business Development Representatives  

• Sales Engineers / Salespeople / Business Developers / Sales Development Managers  

• Account Managers / Customer Success Managers* / Account Managers  

• Heads of Sales / Sales Directors  

And so on, and sometimes these titles can be interchangeable.

The idea here is that this process is complex enough to cover several professions.

Let's delve into the details.

A Complete and Complex Process  

Sales development is a complex process because it mobilizes many different skills and demands constant effort. It notably includes:

Commercial Strategy  

Who is the ideal client? What should you sell them? At what price? These are all questions that commercial strategy must address. But a good strategy also means defining the right long-term objectives to mobilize teams in this difficult task.

Cold Prospecting  

The first step is, of course, to identify new prospects, contact them, and provide enough value for them to find an interest in moving forward with your company. Prospecting is a VERY broad topic, so don't hesitate to consult our article on the subject.

Handling Inbound Leads  

This is an exercise often considered easy. That would be jumping the gun. The quality of inbound leads largely depends on the relevance of your company's marketing strategy, and you absolutely must not take this type of opportunity lightly.

Sales Cycle Management  

This is probably one of the most poorly managed activities by companies. A lot of importance and time are generally devoted to it. But it's very rare for the sales cycle to be "thought through" and truly mastered. Yet, this is where the ROI would be best if improved.

Selling isn't the end, but the beginning of a beautiful story. It's much easier to sell more to someone who already trusts you! Furthermore, your clients are your best ambassadors. Do not neglect this aspect.

Sales Team Training  

A greatly overlooked aspect by managers. Selling is often seen as an innate talent that one either possesses or not. Then, it would supposedly be enough to provide a generic sales presentation and the characteristics of your offer for things to run smoothly. Let me laugh.

Sales Team Tools  

CRM, Sales Automation, email extraction tools, open tracking. There's no shortage of tools, but these tools make an existing process more efficient; they don't replace it. Understood?  

‍The Essential Alignment Between Marketing and Sales  

I'm going to share an interesting statistic that will immediately make you understand what I mean.

‍57% of the B2B purchasing decision is made before speaking to a salesperson.

Do you understand why collaboration between marketing and sales departments is essential?

Furthermore, nothing is more effective than a sales team that can rely on a solid content strategy and an effective communication plan.

Unfortunately, today these are often two teams that don't communicate and whose skills and expertise are too rarely combined.

How to Structure an Effective Sales Development Strategy?  

Define Relevant Indicators for Your Sales Development  

As a sales manager, you're familiar with objectives.

Everyone "knows" how to set them up and structure a sales action plan. We do this at the end of the year for the following year. We set an annual revenue target, divide it by 12 for the monthly, put it in an Excel spreadsheet, and call it a dashboard.

We feel like we've accomplished something.

Great, right?  

If you want to be the sales manager of the year, you have two missions through objective setting: ensure company growth and mobilize your team. For each of these missions, I have what you need. You've probably heard of SMART objectives; they are:

• Specific  

• Measurable  

• Ambitious  

• Realistic  

• Time-bound  

To have a precise vision of activity, you need to detail objectives and sub-objectives that measure each step of the sales development process. This will allow you to identify your strengths (there are always some) and your weaknesses (unfortunately, there are always some too). We can imagine many objectives and sub-objectives to track:

• Number of cold prospecting appointments obtained each week  

• Number of commercial proposals sent each month  

• Number of clients signed per month  

• Revenue signed per month  

• Gross margin signed per month  

If you don't reach your revenue target, thanks to your SMART objectives, you'll immediately know if it's because you're not prospecting enough or if it's because you're not converting your offers enough.

SMART objectives are something that primarily concerns sales management; it's a steering tool. But if you're looking to manage and motivate the sales team, monitor your turnover.

The sales profession is tough; we have few weapons, we face more failures than successes, and our activity is an eternal recommencement. This demands unwavering commitment from management to motivate the team with goodwill and to have a clear vision of the company's sales development strategy.

There's an extraordinary tool for this: OKRs (Objectives and Key Results). This isn't a tool to evaluate your teams' performance, but a tool to gain agility and encourage surpassing expectations! We define three elements with OKRs:

• The Objective: This is where you want to get. It must be ambitious. For example: You sell a marketing automation solution and you want to become a leader in this market.

• The Key Result: This is the indicator that will let you know when the objective is met. Continuing our example, you will be the leader in the marketing automation market when your solution is used by 80% of SBF 120 companies.

• The Initiative: This is what you will put in place to achieve your objective. One or more action plans.

This is a vast and fascinating subject that will probably change the way you manage your team! I strongly recommend our dedicated article on OKRs; nothing will be the same!  

A Tip: Prospecting is a Value-Added Process: Stop the Brute Force!  

Now that you have great objectives and everyone is motivated, I suggest we work on a fundamental aspect of the sales development process: cold prospecting. It's probably one of the most difficult aspects for your sales force to manage, and in the absence of a comprehensive and effective digital marketing strategy, it will remain your primary lever for generating leads.

Prospecting has changed; you can't just prospect like a "brute," making 200 calls a day until a prospect on the verge of burnout gives in just to be left alone. Prospecting is part of sales development, and like all elements of this process, it must bring value to your prospect to increase your chances of selling them your products and services. To implement effective B2B prospecting, we've written a complete guide on B2B commercial prospecting in the digital age.

Create the Right Sales Process  

I have a question for you: "What is your sales process?" Think for a few seconds.

Got it?

Were you thinking of starting by telling me, "It depends"?

You don't have one. I'm serious.

I'm not saying there are no exceptions, but your sales process must be clearly defined and designed to convert. If you don't master the sales cycle, you'll be at the mercy of the process; you won't be able to estimate if deals are closed or not, and they'll drag on.

Each step of the process must have a clear objective and, at the end of each step, the next one must have been set with your prospect. The process will be much clearer for both you and your prospect, and it will be part of a real buying dynamic, not an endless window shopping experience with 17 demo requests and responses like "I'll talk to my team internally".

A good sales process will allow you to better manage your commercial pipeline, shorten the closing time, and play on powerful cognitive biases like availability bias or the commitment and consistency bias. These tools will help you close, but be careful, never at the prospect's expense. The approach is simple: shorten and simplify the decision. No scams.

Structure and Lead Your Sales Team: How to Become High-Performing?  

The Trendy Model: SDR - BDR - Customer Success Roles  

Of course, your sales development process is first and foremost a process that relies on your sales team! We talk a lot about the organization of sales teams; there are dozens and dozens of different models.

Each model has its advantages and disadvantages, and I don't believe there's an all-powerful model that dominates them all. Yet, I'm going to tell you about a model that is extremely effective and very popular, and that's widely discussed.

It's a model whose operation is based on task specialization with highly specialized teams that intervene one after the other:  

Their role is to secure appointments; they are champions of "lead gen". Cold calls, emailing—anything goes to generate qualified appointments. This function collaborates closely with the marketing teams also responsible for lead generation.

The Business Developer Team (Account Manager, Sales Engineer, Sales Development Manager)  

Their role is to manage the sales process from the first appointment to the closing. They will focus on delving deeper into the prospect's needs, conducting a demo, creating a tailored offer, and closing the project.

The Customer Success Managers Department  

I consider them an integral part of sales development. Their mission is to ensure that a client uses your solution as much as possible and to detect upsell opportunities. They also manage contract renewals.

This model is very powerful; it fosters the creation of highly competent teams and leads to exceptional results. But it's a model that, in reality, only suits a very particular type of company. It's a model that works for companies offering high-value-added solutions that will be used for years by the client and will be difficult to replace afterward.

For example: CRMs and ERPs. These are projects that in large companies can cost several hundred thousand euros per year (or even millions). The investments are such that these companies have no choice; they cannot expect to convert a key account simply with a demo form on their website.

Why is it only for these companies?

Because it's a very commercially intensive process that will lead to very high acquisition costs. Realize that even before signing a client, you will have at least 2 or 3 people (marketing team + SDR + BDR) working to convince your prospect. And only a small portion of prospects will ultimately be converted.

So, be careful, especially some startups: this model is interesting and inspiring because it propels some of the finest technology companies. But it may not be for you. Don't have an ego problem with that; there are plenty of exceptional companies that aren't Salesforce.

Build an effective team for your company that always manages customer relationships efficiently; don't copy what works for companies that aren't in the same business.

Sales Training

It's surprising, but salespeople aren't trained. When they join a company, we act as if selling is a talent, and most of the time, we just give them the results of a dubious market study, a generic sales presentation, and train them on the product or service they'll be selling. And even then, only if they're lucky.

Training your team is crucial; there are many highly effective sales techniques that can inspire them and challenge their habits. You cannot afford to neglect this aspect. As a sales team manager, if your team isn't performing, I'm sorry to say this, but... it's probably your fault. You recruited them, so you chose them, and you must train them to ensure long-term sustainability and development.

Furthermore, if you want your team to be truly excellent, you shouldn't spend 100% of training time mastering your products' features (regardless of the product quality). The best salespeople aren't those who know your products by heart; they are those who know your prospects' lives, their problems, and their challenges better than anyone.

The Role of the Sales Manager - Beware, Not Everyone Will Agree

Sales Odyssey was founded by 3 business developers. We've had good sales managers and less good ones. When we talk about those who inspired us and made us perform, we always describe exactly the same thing: They were the best salespeople in the company.

An excellent sales manager isn't just someone who coordinates sales actions. They are the best seller on the team. You can't imagine how motivating it is and with what seriousness a sales team will fight for its objectives if it's led by the best on the team. I personally had the chance to meet one of these sales leaders during one of my experiences. He managed several company sites, about ten salespeople, and hundreds of consultants. His sales performance humiliated all 80 salespeople in the company. So when he gave us the week's objectives, I can assure you that we took them seriously and did our utmost to achieve them.