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Is Your Sales Force Enough? Too often, companies see their sales forces as the only employees who need to be prepared to sell. And, how thoroughly are they prepared to sell? Do they sell your business idea or do they just sell products? Do they sell the product, as well as the brand promise and a commitment to your customers’ success? What answer would you prefer? How often do your production people complain that the sales force is committing to things without understanding what it takes for the manufacturing arm to execute those commitments? Or that the sales reps sell things that manufacturing can’t make, or promise things that damage other efficiencies. Everyone needs to understand how the enterprise works as well as the broad ramifications of casual decisions. Many times, you’ll find that only a few select folks in a company are prepared to talk fully about the business idea. Is it so complex that it’s way over everyone else’s heads? That’s not usually the case. Even when those few managers share a common understanding, they believe that all they need to do is tell their people what to do in order to have them execute it deftly. This never works as well as when people, throughout the organization, understand the game plan and recognize how their roles contribute to the whole. It is even more powerful when they understand the roles of their teammates, and have input into planning the team’s execution of the idea. (See more in section 7.) Taking The Story Outside: In today’s marketplace, companies do best when they host the conversations between their people and their customers with an eye toward creating the most value possible from the efforts that are going to be expended. Technology enables you to talk about your idea. Desktop publishing, the Internet, discussion groups, industry forums, and your own Intranet are tools that empower you to communicate effectively. Before you can take a compelling story to your potential customers, you have to agree on the story itself within the business. Companies thrive when their stakeholders and investors understand the business idea, hold realistic expectations about how the business operates to support that idea, and everyone agrees on this agenda for the business. When family members have their own private agendas for the company’s resources that do not support the company’s stated business idea, or when some family members see the business as existing to make money for them, as opposed to existing to execute the business idea, the business is sure to decline. (See a deeper discussion in section 5.) 4. Using Storytelling To Build Business; The Storyteller’s Guide
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