The document discusses how companies should design their sales organizations and processes around their buyers' preferred buying experiences. It argues that most sales questions are best answered by understanding the buyer's perspective. Mapping the buying experience reveals how buyers want to purchase and allows tailoring sales and marketing accordingly. Rather than imposing standard sales models, companies should craft processes that facilitate each buyer's unique journey. Organizing sales teams to enable the desired buying process leads to more successful outcomes than traditional sales approaches.

1. Sales and The Buyer: Why You Should Let the Buyer Design Your Sales Organization
© TOPO 2013
TOPO
TOPO
Sales
and
The
Buyer:
Why
You
Should
Let
the
Buyer
Design
Your
Sales
Organization
A
TOPO
white
paper
for
marketing
and
sales
professionals
Learn
more:
www.topohq.com
blog.topohq.com

2. Sales and The Buyer: Why You Should Let the Buyer Design Your Sales Organization
© TOPO 2013
Why
you
should
let
the
buyer
design
your
sales
organization
Every
company
needs
to
map
their
target
buyer’s
buying
experience
before
they
make
any
decisions
about
the
design
of
their
sales
and
marketing
function.
TOPO
came
to
this
realization
as
we
worked
with
clients
over
the
last
year
to
solve
vexing
challenges
in
their
sales
and
marketing
organizations.
A
client
would
come
to
us
and
ask
a
critical
sales
or
marketing
question.
While
we
offered
best
practices
and
advice
to
the
client,
most
of
these
questions
were
best
answered
by
the
client’s
buyers.
For
example,
marketers
would
often
ask:
“What
content
types
do
buyers
prefer?”
or
“What
content
will
really
convert?”
The
more
questions
we
heard,
the
more
we
realized:
The
buyer
is
the
best
person
to
answer
these
questions:
The
buying
experience
will
tell
you
how
your
buyers
want
to
buy.
This
insight
will
allow
you
to
properly
design
your
sales
and
marketing
organization
to
deliver
the
buying
experience
your
buyers
want.
As
a
matter
of
fact,
our
research
has
found
that
the
buying
experience
is
more
important
than
product
and
price.
Homayoun
Hatami,
co-­‐leader
of
the
Sales
Growth
practice
at
McKinsey,
provides
his
take
on
the
importance
of
providing
a
buyer-­‐centric
sales
experience:
“Sophisticated
customers
are
not
interested
in
traditional
sales
models.
They
demand
faster,
more
seamless,
and
even
enjoyable
sales
experiences.”
Today’s
post
is
about
designing
your
sales
strategy
and
process
based
on
an
in-­‐depth
understanding
of

3. Sales and The Buyer: Why You Should Let the Buyer Design Your Sales Organization
© TOPO 2013
your
buyer
and
how
they
buy.
In
most
cases,
the
sales
leader
wants
to
build
their
organization
and
processes
based
on
their
past
experiences.
While
there
is
tremendous
value
in
proven
experience,
often
times
the
“proven”
sales
methodology
is
forced
upon
everyone,
especially
the
buyer.
It’s
not
that
the
sales
leader
is
wrong,
it’s
that
your
buyer
is
right.
Sales
leaders
who
craft
their
sales
process
based
on
their
target
buyer’s
preferred
buying
experience
are
typically
more
successful
than
others.
As
Dave
Stein
from
ES
Research
Group
says:
“The
best
sales
leaders
understand
that
they
have
to
have
the
right
people,
the
right
behaviors,
the
right
technology,
the
right
coaching
and
infrastructure
to
be
able
to
sell
how
their
customers
want
to
buy”.

4. Sales and The Buyer: Why You Should Let the Buyer Design Your Sales Organization
© TOPO 2013
Sales
process
design
The
most
common
questions
regarding
sales
process
design
are
“what
sales
processes
have
you
seen
work?”
or
“do
you
have
any
sales
process
models
we
can
use?”
Sometimes
there
isn’t
even
a
question,
it’s
a
statement:
“Here
is
the
sales
process
I
used
at
XXX
and
we
grew
the
business
from
0
to
100
million.
Let’s
implement
it.”
The
truth
is
that
the
most
effective
sales
process
should
be
designed
to
support
your
buyer’s
preferred
buying
process.
In
other
words,
the
real
question
organizations
should
be
asking
is:
“How
do
we
organize
our
sales
process
to
support
how
our
buyers
want
to
buy.”
Your
buyer
will
go
through
a
series
of
steps
to
buy
your
solution.
The
buying
experience
map
will
detail
each
step.
Then
you
design
your
sales
process
so
your
sales
people
can
help
facilitate
the
buying
process.
Dave
Stein:
“Evaluate
and
assess
how
the
selling
process
overlaps
with
the
buying
process.
If
an
organization
finds
that
60
percent
of
the
sales
process
maps
to
the
buying
process,
then
the
other
40
percent
is
a
gap
that
needs
to
be
addressed.”
Some
companies
create
a
completely
different
set
of
sales
processes
based
on
the
type
of
buyer.
Alex
Shootman
of
Eloqua
has
a
great
perspective
on
this.
His
sales
process
was
not
only
built
to
support
the
buying
experience,
they
actually
had
different
sales
processes
for
each
buyer
persona.
Another
example
is
of
a
company
who
sold
to
both
the
business
decision
maker
and
IT.
These
organizational
silos
had
completely
different
buying
processes.
The
business
decision
maker
was
an
evangelistic
sale.
They
weren’t
used
to
buying
technology
so
the
process
involved
helping
them
first
understand
that
they
needed
to
address
this
issue
and
then
actually
helping
them
with
their
internal
buying
process.
IT
was
a
group
of
professional
buyers.
They
knew
how
to
buy
technology
and
if
they
could
convince
IT,
the
deals
moved
faster
but
were

5. Sales and The Buyer: Why You Should Let the Buyer Design Your Sales Organization
© TOPO 2013
smaller.
IT
bought
on
features
and
functionality
and
required
a
completely
different
selling
process.
With
both
examples,
the
buying
process
decided
the
selling
process
with
incredible
results.

6. Sales and The Buyer: Why You Should Let the Buyer Design Your Sales Organization
© TOPO 2013
Product
and
messaging
design
Every
sales
team
is
trying
to
find
that
sales
messaging
that
will
resonate.
Sales
messaging
is
a
roulette-­‐
wheel
guessing
game
for
many
organizations.
Marketing
spends
lots
of
resources
coming
up
with
what
the
company
believes
is
the
best
overall
company
message
and
it
doesn’t
convert
with
buyers.
Most
companies
who
cracked
the
sales
messaging
code
do
so
by
trial
and
error
and
that
is
an
expensive
way
to
go-­‐to-­‐market.
Instead,
build
your
sales
messaging
based
on
direct
feedback
from
your
buyer
and
do
so
for
each
buyer
in
the
decision
making
process.
Not
only
that,
each
micro-­‐step
the
buyer
takes
in
their
buying
experience
will
require
it’s
own
set
of
messaging
sound
bytes.
For
example,
a
status
quo
prospect
is
not
ready
for
a
product
pitch
and
will
need
messaging
that
helps
them
understand
that
they
may
have
a
problem
or
they
can
do
better.
On
the
other
end
of
the
spectrum,
a
prospect
that
is
currently
evaluating
vendors
will
need
a
more
product-­‐centric
message.
Each
step
has
it’s
own
set
of
messages
both
of
which
are
based
on
who
the
buyer
is
and
where
they
are
in
the
buying
process.
Also,
each
buyer
will
require
his
or
her
own
set
of
sales
messaging.
We
recently
met
with
an
executive
who
told
us
how
as
his
company
moved
to
selling
to
marketing,
the
sales
reps
used
the
same
approach
and
as
a
result,
progress
has
been
slow.
The
company
failed
to
realize
that
marketing
was
a
completely
different
target
buyer.
Marketers
have
their
own
unique
buying
process.
Marketing
leaders
want
shorter
decks
without
a
features
and
functionality
discussion.
Instead
the
want
more
information
on
what
the
solution
is
and
what
it
will
do
for
their
organization.
They
certainly
don’t
want
a
Sales
Engineer
delivering
a
technology
presentation.
A
critical
step
in
a
go-­‐to-­‐market
design
is
a
thorough
understanding
of
your
target
buyers’
preferred
buying
experience
and
this
example
highlights
this
point.

7. Sales and The Buyer: Why You Should Let the Buyer Design Your Sales Organization
© TOPO 2013
Organizational
design
The
buying
experience
map
will
tell
you
who
should
interact
with
buyers
and
when.
The
first
question
we
get
from
founders
or
newly
minted
sales
leaders
are
about
organizational
design.
The
critical
decision
is
not
just
what
you
want
to
do
as
company
(product,
market,
fit),
but
it’s
how
the
buyers
want
to
buy.
At
the
Sales
2.0
conference
a
couple
years
ago,
Jim
Cyb
from
Zendesk,
a
leading
cloud
help-­‐desk
application
provider,
talked
about
how
they
had
customer
service
and
help
desk
professionals
on
the
sales
floor
supporting
the
sales
team.
Zendesk
had
realized
that
their
buyers
preferred
to
interact
with
their
peers
in
the
sales
process
and
organized
themselves
to
support
that
preferred
buying
experience.
This
is
one
of
my
favorite
examples
of
out-­‐of-­‐the-­‐box
sales
organizational
design
that
wasn’t
done
just
to
be
revolutionary,
but
was
done
because
that
is
what
their
buyers
wanted.
Inside
sales
is
one
of
the
hottest
trends
in
sales
management
right
now.
Many
organizations
are
attracted
to
what
they
perceive
as
lower-­‐cost,
easier-­‐
to-­‐manage
inside
sales
people
versus
the
expensive,
demanding
direct
reps.
Product
and
price
play
a
huge
part
in
deciding
whether
to
build
an
inside
sales
team,
but
the
most
important
factor
is
whether
the
buyers
want
to
buy
this
way.
Inside
sales
guru
Trish
Bertuzzi:
“The
key
for
sales
leaders
considering
inside
sales
is
to
look
at
the
buyer
variables
that
will
impact
their
ability
to
be
successful.
How
do
their
buyers
want
to
buy?
Do
their
buyers
utilize
online
resources
to
educate
themselves?
Do
their
buyers
feel
comfortable
communicating
over
phone
or
email?
Can
their
buyers
be
educated
over
phone
or
online?”
We
recently
spoke
with
VP
of
Sales
about
his
former
company’s
failed
experiment
with
inside
sales.
The
CEO
was
drawn
to
the
cost
savings
and
potential
scale
of
inside
sales.
They
created
a
cheaper
version
of
the
product
and
hired
10+
inside
sales
reps.
The
VP
of
Sales:
“He
never
considered
that
our
target
buyer

8. Sales and The Buyer: Why You Should Let the Buyer Design Your Sales Organization
© TOPO 2013
actually
preferred
to
spend
more
to
have
the
hands-­‐
on
buying
and
onboarding
experience.”
Ultimately,
the
inside
sales
experiment
failed
because
the
decision
to
move
sales
inside
was
what
the
company
wanted
not
to
do
with
little
regard
for
what
their
buyers
wanted.

9. Sales and The Buyer: Why You Should Let the Buyer Design Your Sales Organization
© TOPO 2013
Sourcing
and
hiring
sales
talent
Once
you
understand
who
the
buyer
is,
who
they
want
to
talk
to,
and
what
it
will
take
to
move
them
from
one
buying
step
to
the
next,
you
can
then
model
your
ideal
hiring
profile.
Bertuzzi:
“There
is
a
big
difference
between
selling
to
the
“C-­‐suite”
or
to
an
application
development
manager.”
The
hiring
profile
then
becomes
one
of
the
key
points
of
leverage
as
you
look
to
scale
the
business.
The
sales
organizations
that
scale
to
greatness
have
often
figured
out
what
type
of
sales
rep
they
need
to
execute.
Mark
Roberge
from
Hubspot
is
a
well-­‐respected
thought
leader
in
sales
management.
His
hiring
practices
have
been
frequently
chronicled.
I
always
point
people
to
his
methodology
as
an
example
of
a
buyer-­‐centric
hiring
profile
that
is
critical
to
a
sales
leaders
growth
strategy.
One
of
the
key
facets
to
Roberge’s
sales
strategy
is
hiring
the
“same
kind
of
sales
person”.
Here
is
his
description
of
how
they
came
to
their
hiring
profile:
“We
need
to
educate
people
over
the
phone
and
literally
convince
them
to
turn
their
sales
and
marketing
process
on
its
head.
To
do
so,
our
sales
team
needs
to
earn
the
prospect’s
trust,
gain
a
deep
understanding
of
the
prospect’s
business
goals,
understand
their
sophistication
with
sales
and
marketing,
and
articulate
an
adoption
plan
of
inbound
marketing
that
aligns
with
the
prospect’s
context…A
demo
of
the
entire
product
would
take
hours
and
would
overwhelm
the
prospect.
Sales
reps
need
to
be
sophisticated
enough
to
tailor
the
demo
to
the
prospect’s
context…[Based
on
this
criteria}
we
started
off
by
writing
down
a
set
of
attributes
that
we
thought
would
be
important,
and
used
these
during
interviews
to
evaluate
candidates.”
The
best
sales
person
at
another
company
may
not
be
the
best
fit
for
your
organization.
While
past
success
must
always
be
a
key
factor
when
hiring
sales
people,
the
other
key
attributes
should
be
based
on
what
type
of
sales
people
can
effectively
interact
with
your
target
buyer(s).

10. Sales and The Buyer: Why You Should Let the Buyer Design Your Sales Organization
© TOPO 2013
Sales
enablement
Sales
enablement
is
providing
the
tools
and
training
so
your
sales
people
can
successfully
execute
your
sales
process.
Content
is
a
hot
sales
enablement
topic
and
we
often
get
the
question:
“What
content
works?”
or
“Should
we
build
an
ROI
model?”
The
question
should
have
been:
“What
content
assets
does
my
buyer
need
to
advance
in
the
buying
process
process?”
The
buying
experience
map
will
tell
you
the
content
types
your
buyers
prefer
and
the
topics
that
will
resonate.
We
recently
met
with
an
executive
whose
last
company
targeted
application
developers.
As
part
of
their
original
selling
process,
they
would
push
prospects
to
a
webinar
and
only
small
numbers
signed
up
or
attended.
After
a
more
rigorous
review
of
their
buyer
and
their
preferences,
they
realized
that
a
product
demo
was
the
better
offer.
Their
target
buyer
did
not
want
to
go
to
thought
leadership
webinars.
They
wanted
a
deep
understanding
of
the
capabilities
of
the
product.
The
demo
was
a
breakthrough
content
type
and
they
began
to
get
1000’s
of
attendees
and
revenue
finally
started
to
hockey
stick
(click
here
to
learn
more
about
content
selling).

11. Sales and The Buyer: Why You Should Let the Buyer Design Your Sales Organization
© TOPO 2013
Key
sales
activities
Key
activities
are
the
plays
that
sales
people
make
at
each
step
in
the
process.
Key
activities
are
part
of
you
overall
sales
and
marketing
design
and
as
you
probably
have
guessed
by
now
are
best
determined
once
you
understand
what
your
buyers
prefer.
One
example
of
a
key
activity
is
deciding
what
channel
is
best
to
communicate
with
your
buyer
at
a
given
stage.
A
common
question
is
when
to
use
the
phone
versus
email.
Another
example
is
whether
to
use
social
or
not.
It’s
really
not
that
complicated.
If
your
buyers
are
social,
then
you
should
be
social.
At
TOPO
we
sell
to
marketing
and
sales.
We
know
that
many
of
our
buyers
interact
socially
via
Twitter
(marketing)
and
LinkedIn
(sales
and
marketing).
Social
has
proven
to
be
equally
if
not
more
effective
to
reach
prospects
than
the
phone.

12. Sales and The Buyer: Why You Should Let the Buyer Design Your Sales Organization
© TOPO 2013
Metrics
and
optimization
There
are
a
number
of
sales
metrics
that
can
be
used
across
most
businesses
such
as
retroactive
metrics
like
revenue
generated
or
closed/won,
etc.
Metrics
are
really
powerful
when
they
can
tell
you
where
you
are
BEFORE
you
close
the
business.
While
you
can’t
ask
the
buyer
which
metrics
you
should
use
to
track
them,
you
do
want
to
use
the
buying
experience
map
to
determine
what
the
true
milestones
are
in
the
buying
process
that
you
should
focus
on.
By
focusing
in
on
the
right
buyer
milestones,
you
can
better
manage
your
sales
people
and
understand
where
you
truly
stand
in
the
process.
For
instance,
at
TOPO,
an
absolutely
critical
step
in
our
customer’s
buying
process
is
called
the
stakeholder
meeting.
Our
first
meeting
is
a
critical
first
step
and
we
track
first
meetings.
However,
our
enterprise
buyers
cannot
move
to
their
next
buying
step
until
we
have
a
bigger
meeting
with
all
the
stakeholders.
The
first
meeting-­‐to-­‐stakeholder
meeting
conversion
rate
is
a
critical
metric
for
us
as
it
has
the
biggest
impact
on
pipeline
acceleration
and
ultimately
closed
business.
Because
we
track
these
metrics,
we
are
able
to
optimize
the
plays
(messaging,
champion
content)
our
sales
team
runs
in
that
very
specific
and
critical
point
in
the
buying
process.
Here
is
another
example
of
a
company
successfully
managing
metrics
based
on
their
buyers’
buying
process.
A
cloud
software
company
offers
both
demos
and
trials
during
their
sales
and
marketing
process.
Initially,
they
only
tracked
their
trial
metrics.
The
demo
was
just
an
activity
that
was
tracked
but
not
a
critical
milestone.
After
examining
their
buyers,
they
determined
that
their
larger
company
buyer
personas
did
not
do
a
trial.
As
a
matter
of
fact,
they
preferred
the
demo.
This
revelation
caused
major
renovations
to
the
sales
process,
messaging,
sales
plays,
and
it
became
a
critical
metric
to
track
and
optimize
for
going
forward.

13. Sales and The Buyer: Why You Should Let the Buyer Design Your Sales Organization
© TOPO 2013
Sales
technology
There
are
many
reasons
sales
technology
implementations
fail.
A
lack
of
training
and
product
ease
of
use
are
good
examples
of
this.
However,
another
major
reason
is
that
the
technology
is
not
relevant
to
supporting
your
interactions
with
your
target
buyer
(This
is
not
true
for
all
technology.
For
example,
compensation
management
is
internally
focused).
Sales
technology
is
a
very
popular
topic
right
now
and
sales
leaders
always
want
to
hear
about
the
latest
and
greatest
application.
Frankly,
a
lot
of
the
innovations
in
the
sales
technology
space
are
very
exciting.
Choosing
the
right
technology
to
support
your
sales
team
is
one
of
the
key
factors
to
consider
as
you
design
your
buyers’
buying
experience.
After
you
to
determine
each
step
the
buyer
will
take
during
their
buying
process,
then
you
will
determine
your
sales
process.
Once
you
have
built
your
sales
process,
only
then
should
you
determine
what
tools
are
needed.
For
example,
I
spoke
with
a
sales
operations
person
at
a
startup
where
the
VP
of
Sales
wanted
to
implement
an
elaborate
quoting
application
because
he
had
used
this
application
in
his
previous
position.
Their
buyers
are
IT
managers
who
want
simple
and
easy
buying
experiences.
Product
management
understood
this
about
the
buyer
and
created
a
downloadable
cloud
product,
but
clearly
the
VP
of
Sales
had
not.

14. Sales and The Buyer: Why You Should Let the Buyer Design Your Sales Organization
© TOPO 2013
TOPO
We
help
our
clients
design
and
deliver
great
buying
experiences.
Why?
Because
companies
that
deliver
great
buying
experiences
grow
2X
faster
than
those
that
don’t.
www.topohq.com
blog.topohq.com
Contact
TOPO:
Craig
Rosenberg
650-­‐630-­‐3321
craig@topohq.com