No, this is not going to be another one of those long lists of inspirational resolutions and aspirational predictions that seem to be so popular at the beginning of every new year.
Frankly, I’m already as tired of those as I am the leftovers in my fridge.
Rather, I’m referring to the growing trend amongst B2B sales operations toward becoming much more predictive and prescriptive about their growth.
As we discussed in the subscriber training session, Territory & Account Planning, leading sales operations have moved well-beyond the traditional approaches to planning and forecasting. They’re no longer simply relying on individual salespeople’s opinions about how and where growth is going to come.
And most certainly, they aren’t just throwing out a growth target, crossing their fingers, and hoping that the compensation plan will somehow incent salespeople to “figure it all out for themselves”.
Instead, leading sales operations are leveraging the data at their disposal to:
- Accurately identify and predict high-probability sales opportunities.
- Characterize, quantify, and prioritize the various sales opportunities.
- Provide a prescriptive, data-driven account plan for every customer.
While the traditional approaches to growth planning are much easier, these more predictive and prescriptive approaches are proving to be far more effective. And they aren’t just aspirations, either — we’ve spoken to a number of sales operations that are leveraging these approaches right now.
So…if you absolutely have to make a resolution this year, why not resolve to become more predictive and prescriptive about your sales growth? It’s definitely worthwhile, and you certainly won’t be alone.
