How to Build a Winning Sales Motion

Each business has a unique sales motion that guides its approach to selling its products or services. A sales motion, sales process or go-to-market (GTM) sales motion comprises of various standardized processes a company uses to close sales. By standardizing sales processes, companies can align the brand and its sellers, streamline new team member training and establish repeatable tactics that are proven to lead to lead generation and conversion. Companies with well-defined sales motions typically have sales departments that are more adept at identifying potential customers and communicating the company’s value proposition. As such, this article will explore the components of a sales motion and discuss ways to build a successful GTM strategy.

What Is a Sales Motion?

Simply put, a sales motion is the approach a company uses to sell its products or services. A sales motion outlines the steps and strategies that guide how sellers connect with customers and close deals. Each motion caters to the organization’s goals define how its sellers should engage with customers.

Sales motions are made up of two components: sales processes and sales methodologies. Sales processes are typically repeatable steps that a sales team takes to move a prospect further down the funnel. The sales methodology is a philosophical framework that outlines how sellers should approach a sale and represent the organization in any sales motion.

An organization can apply various sales methodologies, ranging from addressing a customer’s pain points to accommodating their economic situation. Every methodology a sales motion uses will target a particular aspect of the buyer’s journey. The journey—and the buyer’s position within it—serves as the guiding light for the seller’s approach and decisions.

The Sales Motion Process

The primary goal of any successful sales motion is to advance the buyer’s journey closer to the finish line. All sales motion processes will follow six steps:

1. Lead prospecting: Any outbound sales process begins with prospecting to identify potential new customers and generate leads. Many companies use automated prospecting tools to generate leads based on certain criteria like job title, location, industry or other metrics.
2. Lead qualification: Sellers must evaluate the leads to determine if the leads are worth pursuing. Generally, sellers qualify lead prospects by connecting with them to gauge solvable pain points, learn their budget for new solutions and pinpoint other factors that could indicate a chance of converting into a paying customer.
3. Prospect research: Sellers will conduct research into a prospective organization to get a detailed understanding of their operations and then mold their value proposition to the prospect’s needs.
4. Engagement: The seller interacts with the prospect by holding a sales demonstration that highlights the product or solution’s value.
5. Handling objections: In some cases, a lead may object to the price, value, efficacy or urgency the seller proposed. They may feel the need for more time to evaluate or claim that the solution is too complex. The sales motion should account for this and guide how a seller can address likely objections.
6. Closing the deal: The last step in the sales process is closing the deal. This occurs when the prospect has enough trust and confidence in the seller and product/solution to make a purchase or enter into an agreement.

Sales Motion Examples

There are many types of sales motions. The best type of sales motion depends on influential factors like the type of product, the industry and the stage in the sales cycle. A few common sales motion examples include:

• Inbound sales: These types of sales motions occur when potential customers are attracted through online channels like social media or content marketing. With inbound sales, these prospects have already shown interest in a company’s products or services.
• Outbound sales: Outbound sales happen when a seller conducts targeted outreach via cold email or calls to potential customers.
• Direct sales: With this approach, sellers engage directly with prospective customers to build a relationship and provide customized solutions that fit the prospect’s needs.
• Needs-based selling: In this sales motion, sellers take on the role of consultants to offer expert advice and solutions to a potential customer. Sellers need to hone deep industry knowledge to effectively address the prospect’s needs.
• Value-based selling: With this strategy, sellers aim to emphasize the value of a particular product or service—such as ROI or productivity—that the prospective customer will gain by making a purchase.
• Solution selling: This strategy is similar to needs-based selling but is more focused on providing a comprehensive solution to prospective customers instead of individual products.

Building a Successful Sales Motion

Many elements come into play to ensure that a sales motion is successful. Commercial leaders can lean on the following steps as a guide for developing effective sales motions.

Define Sales Goals

Start by building a strong foundation with well-defined sales goals. Sales goals should target the specific desired outcomes of sales efforts as well as metrics that will adequately demonstrate progress toward those goals. For example, a sales department could set quarterly revenue goals and support them with others that target key performance indicators (KPIs). KPIs that target monthly sales growth, average sale length, new lead acquisitions and conversions per channel help to guide sellers and create a unified vision for success.

Identify the Target Audience

After specific goals have been outlined, it’s important to identify the target audience for these sales efforts. Knowing who the right audience is allows sales departments to then start searching for critical information about their ideal buyers, such as pain points, demographics, behaviors and needs. Target audience information allows the organization to refine the sales approach and craft messaging that resonates with potential buyers. After identifying these factors, sellers should strive to build credibility and trust with their target audience.

And credibility and trust stem from honest, transparent interactions with prospects. Leads respond to genuine engagements with sellers who demonstrate an understanding of their needs, provide relevant solutions and set the stage for a long-lasting partnership.

Establish an Evaluation System

Organizations will also need structured ways to evaluate their sales strategies and measure success. To determine which products, services and sales tactics work and which they should revise, sales departments should collect actionable sales data..

Alongside data collection, integrating sales technologies can streamline evaluation processes. Various tools automate sales processes and collect data at each phase. Sales organizations can make data-driven decisions by leveraging customer relationship management systems (CRMs), sales enablement platforms, chatbots and other technologies.

Strive for Retention

Lastly, organizations need to recognize that sales motions extend beyond closing the deal. After a prospect has converted into a customer, they’ll likely require post-sales support and onboarding to ensure they are set up for success. Supporting their needs after the initial sale is essential to secure future purchases from existing customers.