Failing to get your sales team fully engaged can lead to three problems.
It’s critical that any sales colleague you involve in Blueprinting interviews fully understand what these interviews are all about and what their role is. If you email your sales reps about Blueprinting interviews without a good explanation, they'll likely ask, “A blue what?” You need them to be fully on-board and up-to-speed for three reasons:
Help in explaining interviews: If your sales colleague doesn't understand what a Discovery interview is and how it's conducted, what are the chances he or she will adequately explain it to customers? Unlikely, right? Chances are the customers will show up and ask, "So, what have you got to sell us today?"- Enthusiasm in scheduling interviews. It’s not just that your sales rep will do a poor job of explaining what a Discovery interview is to customers. It’s quite possible he’ll personally resist scheduling this interview, because he’s nervous about jeopardizing his customer relationship with “something different.” Of course, he won’t say he’s resisting the interview. What you’ll hear is, “The customer doesn’t want to have this interview.”
- Help in conducting interviews: Without some familiarity with what you're trying to accomplish, your sales colleague could harpoon your interview by trying to “sell” during the interview. And frankly, it won’t be his fault if you haven’t properly explained Blueprinting interviews. After all, this is what sales people do. They sell.
In some cases, your sales rep has had the full Blueprinting training, just like you. In such cases, he’s qualified to do any role… Moderator, Note-taker, or Observer. But most of the time, your sales colleague will take the Observer role. They tend to be ideally suite for this: They understand human behavior, are often keen observers, and—if this is an existing customer—they know the interviewees well.
In the next BlueHelp article, Using the website, www.blueprintingforsales.com, you see the first way you can begin engaging your sales colleagues.
Beyond helping you set up and conduct great customer interviews, there's another reason to fully engage your sales colleagues. This is a strong first step in moving them from just a sales force to also a "learning force." For more on this, check out the 2-minute video, Make your sales force a ‘learning force’, part of the B2B Organic Growth video series by Dan Adams.
Keywords: sales rep, sales colleague, sales professional, seller, selling during interviews, observer role