Seven Reasons to Put Sales Executives into High Profile Buying Roles

As a sales executive, when was the last time you were deeply involved in a major buying decision for your company? Alternatively, as business leader, when was the last time you made one of your sales executives a primary decision-maker in a major company buying decision? By a “deeply involved primary decision-maker” I mean more than merely evaluating a new source of leads or a sales CRM tool. Instead, I am talking about involving the sales executive for the entire buying cycle as the number one, two or three deciding principal. Few readers can answer with currently or recently. For many, such things simply aren’t done that way and to do so would be a violation of company culture. But here are seven reasons this should be a regular occurance at any small, growing business-to-business enterprise, if not a larger established enterprise as well.

Training

Alone, this should justify the investment. Sales executives deal with prospects, buyers, buying committees and key stakeholders on a regular basis. These parties either go silent or withhold critical information on a regular basis. It is very difficult to read buying parties. But it becomes a whole lot easier to read between the proverbial lines when the sales executive has spent valuable time on the other side of the fence. Additionally, on the buying side of the fence a sales executive can gain valuable “full disclosure” from legal, financial, technical, end-user and senior executives at all points in the buying process. And finally, the sales exeuctive can witness another sales executive in action and may learn from his or her counterparty’s behavior.

A Deeper Sense of Ownership

Left to their primary responsibilities alone, sales executives can become myopic. By taking a small portion of a sales executive’s time to contribute to the company’s bottom line in another manner, the sales executive’s horizon expands within the overall enterprise. Sales turnover is absurdly high, and the cost of recruiting and train new sales executives is extremely high. By giving sales executives the chance to participate at a broader level, the company benefits from their full potential and they in turn can demonstrate their full potential for potential roles in the future.

Filter out More Junk

Sales executives are uniquely qualified to see through their counter-parts. They are also well qualified to ask the qualifying questions of both the internal team as well as of solution-providers. In the end, by adding a sales executive’s perspective to the evaluation process, less junk is going to be purchased.

Better-Negotiated Deals

Given their experience negotiating deals as sales executives, those same skills can be applied to negotiating the entire package: deliverables, services, financial terms and in some cases even legal terms.

Smoother Adoption

Sales executives are all too familiar with the warning signs associated with an enterprise that does not properly prepare to adopt a new solution. As insiders, sales executives can add significant value by ensuring the responsible individuals are properly equiped and supported for the adoption phase.

Happier End Users

With a sales executive’s expertise added to the buying process, the ultimate beneficiaries will be the end users who will reap both the benefits and the shortcomings of whatever solution is procured. Sales executives are trained to bring latent needs to the surface, meaning solutions procured will solve not only the most obvious problems, but also those problems that have been tolerated for years.

Improve Interdepartmental Relationships

As mentioned above, sales executives left to their primary responsibilities alone can become myopic. Over time what should be a healthy tension can spiral downward into toxic interdepartmental rivalries. By placing sales executives on interdepartmental teams for short periods of time, lines of communication can be developed that can catch and resolve interdepartmental problems early.