Use Case - Sales Process & Messaging

Overview

Everyday, your sales team is out there talking to prospects about your company and product. They are moving prospects through your funnel, using a sales process that you (or the company) have defined.

As a sales manager, how can you be sure your team is talking your product the way you want it positioned at each stage in your process?

Typically, sales reps will get trained on the 'sales process and messaging' when they come on board to a company. Each rep is usually shown a HUGE word or PPT doc that contains everything sales process related. It MIGHT get opened on occasion, but because it is 55 pages long, it is rarely updated and is out of date. In fact, it was probably out of date the day you received it. And because its 55 pages long, sales reps struggle to find what they need in a timely manner.

As a sales manager, you struggle to understand your team's needs, because you have no analytics on who is actually reading your material or not.

There are several issues we regularly hear about with this approach:

1. They aren’t located where your sales reps work.

Placing sales process and messaging docs in shared folders outside of the reps workflow makes it a real challenge for reps to find them when they actually need them. This leads to wasted time to find the doc which means it is less likely that doc is getting used across the team. And that leads to inconsistency amongst your reps in both sales messaging and following the sales process.

2. They are likely out of date.

In today’s world, you update your solution regularly; so you should be consistently looking at how your sales messaging is evolving as well. However, without a workflow telling you, as a sales manager, to keep your messaging and process up to date, those documents you put together often become obsolete quickly. Or worse, your team starts making different versions of the doc to account for this changing environment.

3. You don’t know who is even reading your Sales Process & Messaging docs.

Typical Sales Process & Messaging docs are usually long word documents or PPT that rarely get opened. But even when they are used, how do you know which reps are actually reading them?. Which reps are reading the docs the most? Which ones aren't reading it at all? How can you ensure everyone is 'speaking the same language' without this detail?

How Guru Helps

We believe Guru is a better way to provide your reps with the sales process & messaging they need to consistently talk about your solution. Guru was built to find the knowledge (such as sales process & messaging) you need right from your workflow. And when you do find that knowledge, you’ll know it’s accurate with our expert verification workflow.

So now, sales reps can find updated sales messaging right in their workflow. Sales reps will be shown your sales process at each stage based on the CRM opportunity record. And you, as a sales manager, can see which reps are reading your sales process & message and what else needed based on sales team usage of this knowledge.

Here are some specific ways Guru can help your sales team most effectively position against your competitors:

1. Make sales messaging & process part of your reps workflow.

Guru lives where your reps work, so they can access your sales messaging & process knowledge right at their fingertips as they are need it, rather than asking them to waste time trying to track it down.

2. Contextually show the sales process based on selling situation.

Take it one step further and actually show the rep your sales process by stage based on their CRM Opportunity record. Keep your sales process front and center for every opportunity your sales reps work.

3. Expert verified knowledge.

Guru will ping you, the sales manager, to ensure you keep your sales messaging fresh and verified for the sales entire team.

4. Analytics = Better Knowledge.

Guru provides analytics around which reps are using your sales messaging and process knowledge you can leverage for specific sales rep training or create additional knowledge where the sales team feels are gaps. And Guru also gives the reps the ability to comment on cards for easy collaboration around sales messaging that is working in the field.

How is this setup in Guru?

We see sales leaders using 2 different approaches when including Sales Process & Messaging in Guru:

1. Create Guru Cards & Group by Board

If you are just starting and don’t have your sales process & messaged defined already, Guru Cards are a great place to start. Cards are built so reps can quickly pull them up and read them right in their workflow, making them ideal for easy access to your sales process and for reinforcing a consistent sales message across the sales team.

For Sales Messaging:

We see users creating cards with variety of structures. If you have a structure already defined, go ahead and use it. However, the most common structure we see is the following, allowing the reps to use the info at the top of the card for quick reference and the info at the bottom of the card for more detail.

• Intro (Elevator) Pitch
• Short bulleted list of key messaging points: what are the 3 most important things you want a rep to be saying to a prospect about your product?
• Additional detail, or links to additional sales messaging assets.

You can also group cards into a Sales Messaging Board so reps can quickly and easily access all sales messaging. New reps that are ramping up will be able to browse all sales messaging across all your products in one location.

For Sales Process:

Again, if you have a structure already defined, go ahead and use it. However, most of our users will create a card per stage of the sales process, with summary at the top of the card for quick reference and the info at the bottom of the card for more detail.

• Stage/Description of Stage
• Short bulleted list of actions by stage: what is the checklist of most important actions a rep should be doing as this stage?

You can also group cards into a Sales Process Board so reps can quickly and easily access the entire sales process in one place. New reps that are ramping up will be able to browse the sales process in its entirety in one location.

2. Link to existing Sales Process & Messaging Assets

If you have existing Sales Process & Messaging assets you want to leverage, we recommend linking to your existing files in Guru. You’ll still get all the same benefits you see in the How Guru Helps Section.

We see users who take this approach link the existing Sales Process & Messaging document to Guru, but still provide a quick overview and short bulleted list of key elements in the File Card description field.

This way, reps can still quickly access high level detail they may need while working, but can also dig deeper into the actual document for additional detail if needed.

If you have any questions or would like additional information please reach out to us and we can assist you (Click your avatar (the settings menu) and select 'Contact Us’) or email info@getguru.com.