Most companies deploy a sales “force.” Too often, this means a bunch of people do things with good intentions, but their combined efforts do not meet company growth expectations. Most CEOs and Founders would like a better salesforce but struggle with how to impact the “art and science” of sales improvement. At Chief Outsiders, we believe more science can help uncover and develop the insights, strategies, and execution required to achieve breakthrough performance. 

Inspired by scientific theories of terraforming our moon and other planets to spark and sustain new life, Sales Terraformance is the process of creating a thriving company sales environment that enables sales teams to achieve and maintain repeatable success. Terraformance requires a science-forward approach to the sales process to ensure management discipline, leadership development, and sales velocity. Unlike theories, Sales Terraformance relies on proven best practices to generate quick wins and sustainable improvement. 

The Sales Terraformance process looks like this:

• Sales Assessment: the process starts with a comprehensive sales assessment to uncover and document specific opportunities, challenges, and obstacles.
• Distinguishing Leadership vs. Management: this session clarifies senior leadership expectations for these critical and very different sales disciplines. 
• Goal Conquest Summit: the final piece of the process is a session where critical team members meet to clarify and align on sales goals, opportunities, and obstacles and then jointly develop a Goal Conquest Action Plan.

The Sales Velocity Model then facilitates plan execution. In physics, Force (F) = mass (m) x acceleration (a). While increasing mass and acceleration can improve sales performance results, the F = ma formula lacks the quality of “direction.”

Why Force Alone Won’t Get Results

By way of example, a spinning top can increase Force by spinning faster (a). Or, in problematic sales situations, throwing more people, money, and time (m) at sales underperformance symptoms might increase Force. But nobody wants their sales team to simply chase its tail faster, and nobody wants to invest time and money on symptoms. By adding a desired direction to the Force formula, with KPIs directed “up and to the right,” we can create sales velocity where calculated efforts and investment can be managed and measured.

Supported by a Goal Conquest Action Plan and a KPI-sensitive Sales Velocity Model, we can measure and manage our Action Plan, key sales skills, and sales activity-related KPIs daily, and thereby improve sales performance at the team and individual salesperson levels through coaching and management. 

Next Steps

Ready to begin creating your new sales landscape? The first step is getting familiar with best practices, including the models and goals we’ve discussed in this article. Here are some helpful resources that can kick-start your journey:

• Leadership vs Management best practices
• “Trusted Coach” and “Respected Boss” Development Plans
• Goal Conquest Action Plan
• Customized Sales Velocity Models

As Carl Sagan said, “Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.” The Sales Terraformance process is a breakthrough-seeking endeavor that uncovers and makes known valuable performance insights and produces strategy and execution plans that everyone involved helps create and execute. Ultimately, “Terraformance-enabled” frontline sales leaders drive and sustain sales performance improvement, supported by the extended cross-functional teams.