THE NEXUS
Waging War : Make Sales Your Strategy
By Walter Chabala
Twenty-Five Hundred years ago , Sun Tzu wrote The Art of War . A classic military strategy book based on Chinese warfare and military thought . Since then , the book has proved a gem for military regimes across the globe , good fodder for political maneuvers and generally good teachings for everyday life as well . Given the continuous war the world is engaged with - this war with an invisible enemy , I find it fitting to adapt some of these teachings to the world of business .
In the book , Tzu notes that the most critical factor to a winning strategy is in the planning stage . He points out that it is extremely important that war should be thoroughly studied . Studying war is important because it could mean the difference between survival or death of a country .
Being a new year , this is a time for businesses to plan . It is a time for them to set goals , lay out strategies and adopt tact to win the war . And indeed it is war ; fight for market share , battle for staying ahead of competition , and the struggle for that evasive profit margin among others .
So , let ’ s face it ; whether you ’ re that corporate leader perched in your corner office , middle tier manager trying to draw-up your team ’ s work plans or that SME just happy to have made it alive post-2020 ; bottom line is , everyone is really looking forward to making some neat coin this new season . As the whole world is trying to recover from the slump and dump of Corona , the dilemma many a business leader is faced with is , what do I prioritize ?
To make my case , let me draw this parallel . A constant song continues to play perfect accompaniment throughout this pandemic . The song is , “ to realize success and win this war : personal responsibility in observing the protocols and our healthcare workers remain our most critical assets .” Infact , the healthcare
Use ideal customer profiles to teach your sales battalion how to listen to client needs , teach them how to position your product as the one thing that will solve the customers ’ problems , how to create differentiation from competition and most importantly , teach them how to quantify and sell value and eventually get the clients to sign the dotted line . workers have been branded-the Frontline soldiers in this war - rightly so . And just as should be the case in any war , the army out there must ( as a matter of priority ) be given utmost attention .
Shifting our attention to this war and battle that is business , there too , lies a special cadre of soldiers . Think about it , whether it ’ s B2B , B2C or even B2G , your sales guy is the frontline worker - the soldier out there fighting the battles . These guys are in the battlefield day in , day out ; shoving and boxing competition out of the way so as to sell your company ’ s goods and services in a very crowded space . I ’ ve been in sales for a while , majority of the time selling media space and this I know for a fact ; the terrain can get daunting , murky and outright exhausting . That indeed , this terrain is not for the faint hearted .
So , as businesses and business leaders retreat to the boardrooms to draw up plans and strategize on winning the war ahead , I put the case that , priority and emphasis be put on Sales Strategy . Give it 70 % of your attention and win the war at this planning stage . And what should a successful sales strategy entail ? To our Generals , ( the business leaders , managers and C-suite holders ), here are a few pointers from the technical bench .
Past Situational Analysis
Remember when they told you not to dwell in the past ? Well , in sales , the past is critical . This set of historical data is vital in understanding where you ’ re coming from and where you want to go . Before you can begin to plan the future , take a quick
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