Table of Contents
Summary Sales Development Playbook
Which companies win on the market with their products and what is the reason for this? Trish Bertuzzi’s groundbreaking book, The Sales Development Playbook, clears up some fundamental misunderstandings in sales.
What do I take from this book?
The book Sales Development Playbook provides valuable insights for the distribution of modern companies. Why are some products particularly successful and what do the winners do differently in the market? If you read the book, you take suggestions for working in your own company, understand more profoundly why good products sometimes fail on the market and what the company can change about them. For those responsible in sales, this book is no longer a way around.
This is the main message of the Sales Development Playbook
Companies invest a lot of money and human working time in the development of their products. Everyone wants to make the best offer in their field and be a technological leader. But what are the products that really prevail in the end? The author’s answer is astounding only at first glance.
The core message of the book is clear: not the best products win, but the products with the best sales model at market launch. If you want to understand this, you have to read this highly topical book. The author highlights the importance of sales development and explains why companies should invest at least as much in the development of the sales model as in the products.
Chapter 1: Strategy
The first chapter deals with successful strategies for the distribution of the 21st century. Companies need to be willing to give up well-worn thinking and turn more to customers in online marketing. The key is to understand customer interests. What service do customers expect, what products do they want and why should they buy from their own company?
In Sales Development, a good team manages to add value from day one. The author addresses the question of which approach is promising in introducing products into an undeveloped market. And it shows how companies should address the challenge of sales engineering in developed markets. How can online marketing companies develop a strategy that forms the basis for higher sales?
Chapter 2: Specialization
In this chapter, Trish Bertuzzi distances himself from the idea that companies should focus on inbound or outbound marketing. It counters this with all-bound marketing, an approach in which companies use all possibilities and thus inbound and outbound equally.
Companies need to develop a deep understanding of their customers. What does the ideal customer look like and what does he expect from my company? What are the mistakes that prevent and are absolutely necessary in online marketing deals? The author presents a so-called ABCD framework, which is intended to provide orientation for the meaningful segmentation of leads. After that, specialization can be done in roles for inbound and outbound marketing.
Chapter 3: Recruitment
Recruitment is one of the key factors for successful sales development. Finding the best employees for online marketing and other tasks can be one of the key strategic benefits. In order to weld the new employees together right at the beginning, the author recommends hiring in groups of, for example, three people. This should also reduce the costs of introducing employees.
The Sales Develpment Representatives, who specialise in lead qualification, should bring as much experience as possible in online marketing. Bertuzzi recommends hiring former military personnel and moving them into the civilian labour market. Applicants who have just graduated from university or experienced employees from other areas who want to enter sales also find it particularly interesting to implement the new sales model.
The sales staff for this critical task should have the necessary passion for the work, be assertive and curious. In order to attract the best sales employees, the company should consider strong compensation plans.
Chapter 4: Employee Retention
Once the right forces for sales engineering have been found, the company must strengthen the teams and bind them to themselves in the long term. Influencing factors include, for example, the radiance of the company name,a positive corporate culture and an environment that promotes learning. There should also be clearly defined career paths. According to Bertuzzi, all of these factors contribute to the fact that sales employees stay longer.
Dangerous are the hiring of inexperienced sales employees, too low remuneration or unclear career paths as well as a predatory competition. According to the author, coaching is an important element in tying up the employees for sales engineering in the long term and protecting the investment in this area. Ascent should be possible at regular intervals. Employees who no longer see development opportunities in marketing have a higher tendency to migrate.
Chapter 5: Implementation
Onboarding is often a lengthy process and companies need to take a long breath here. Expectations for the new employees are initially very high and fall sharply with the start of the onbaording process. After that, they rise again as soon as the first successes are shown and the employees are better introduced. In the end, employees achieve approximately the expected level of productivity and add value to the company with the new sales model.
The author suggests that employees should learn information in small pieces and that sequencing is required. Planning therefore includes the order in which the learning content occurs. A clear structuring at this point simplifies the onboarding process.
Onboarding is a process, not an event. Companies need to give the team time. In the end, it makes sense to run certification tests to determine whether the desired level of qualification for sales engineering is actually present.
Chapter 6: Leadership
To design the process described above, companies should hire additional executives for marketing. They should bring the experience, the necessary qualifications and, above all, the passionrequired for the successful implementation in sales development. Good leadership also includes the fact that the new Sales Development Representatives will have materials that clearly convey the company’s goals, strategy to be pursued and other important points. Employees should know which contact persons exist for them in the company and what quotas they should meet in sales engineering.
The author makes very concrete proposals for implementation in practice. This chapter is therefore particularly revealing. It also shows the importance of meaningful key figures. Companies now have a variety of data at their disposal. But to use them for improved decision-making, their analysis and interpretation are needed. Bertuzzi points to technologies and platforms that make this possible in marketing.
Conclusion: important food for thought in marketing
How do I build a successful sales development team in marketing and how do I optimize and receive it? If you read the Sales Development Playbook, Bertuzzi will answer it. Companies should integrate top talent into this team, make a clear distribution of roles, and consistently align the sales model with the market and the customer. The focus is also on the selection and motivation of the important field staff and Bertuzzi deals with what an optimal customer approach looks like.
According to the author, the distribution model is the key to more growth. Companies should focus on developing this model as relentlessly as their own products. The suggestions in this book are invaluable to all sales reps. Those who have not yet understood Sales Development understand it after this reading.