MOST Analysis

Mission Statement

There are four core weighted aims to reveal, analyze, evaluate, and calibrate at the beginning of defining your sales strategy. The first objective is to bring together the key managers, team members, and stakeholders in your client journey. Next is to map your sales process, uncover expectations, and assign key roles and responsibilities. Thirdly, we will tap into the humanity and psychology of sales. Fourth, we will establish the deliverables and individual commitments to take your organization to the next level in sales.

When bringing your team of change agents together, we will identify and define roles, responsibilities, timelines, and milestones. We will focus on the internal readiness and acceptance of the sales strategy program. This will include appraising the team member involvement motivations and related program workload. This will ensure full alignment within the organization to reach your goals.

Together, we will then map your existing sales journey. The client sales journey is the complete body of experiences that your clients go through when interacting with your organization. Bringing together team members from all over your business will ensure a rigorous and systematic approach.

Mapping your client journey requires methodically aligning the sales, relationship, and client stages. While charting the associated activities with each stage. We will be performing a deep dive to determine existing relationship assets, review market/industry reputation, evaluate networking effects, and assess resources, knowledge, skills, and experience.

Utilizing the proven assessment tools and exercises we have developed, we evaluate your current situation. We keep asking questions to gain a clear understanding of your critical business requirements. We will establish the foundation of your initial situation. By evaluating your current systems, we can look for patterns, identify blockers, understand purpose, question usefulness and validity, and lay the groundwork to formulate a new plan.

This hard work is the essential building block of good sales strategy, capturing the big picture of your client journey. When we know enough about the nature of the challenge ahead, we are able to define it.

Together, we identify the challenge to overcome. This is the diagnosis of what is holding your organization back from reaching the next level of sales performance. We break down the complexity of your situation by determining critical aspects of your sales framework. From this newfound perspective, we establish a domain of action.

Next we will explore the psychology of sales, so we will be able to effectively tap into humanity and power skills. Embracing a growth mindset is crucial to objectivity, transparency, blame-free introspection, and acceptance of alternate perspectives. Through exclusive exercises, we will help your team reject complacency, adopt candid expectations, and accept the mantle of continuous improvement.

Finally, we will establish the key deliverables for the program, stakeholders, and your organization. These are the mutual commitments we form to ensure your sales strategy program success. We will set the vision and outline the actions to thrive at each stage. Through this work, we will begin to diagnose the challenge to overcome and ultimately design your sales strategy.

Throughout the Client Journey workshop, we are laying the groundwork to build a coherent sales strategy to achieve your desired outcome. When we have successfully opened your paradigm, we are able to focus individual minds and energy in the right areas. This becomes our guiding principle to reinforce and support your sales program evolution.

---

Objectives

1. Obtain a clear understanding of the core objective of Workshop 1.

2. Bring together the key managers, team members, and stakeholders who will be actively engaged in all workshops.

3. Identify and engage at least one key stakeholder in every department for participation in Workshop 1.

4. Establish a regular meeting time, place, and information hub for the key managers, team members, and stakeholders to perform workshop tasks and related exercises.

5. For your pre-existing client journey map, regardless of age, review and have it available for Workshop 1.

6. Commitment by key managers, team members, and stakeholders to embrace a growth mindset.

7. Map client journey within the sales, relationship, and client stages.

8. Identify touchpoints and activities in the client journey, aligning with the sales, relationship, and client stages.

9. Associate the key influences of relationships, reputation, network effects, and ESK (experience, skills, knowledge) for each stage of the client journey.

10. Establish the essential deliverables for the key managers, team members, and stakeholders to ensure your sales strategy program success.

---

Strategies

1. Each key manager, team member, and stakeholder is to thoroughly study the content of Workshop 1.

2. Company to identify and engage a key manager to lead the internal team of key managers, team members, and stakeholders who will be actively engaged in all workshops. This individual will be referred to as the Program Lead Manager.

3. Program Lead manager to collaborate and coordinate with company department heads to identify and engage at least one of their team members as a key stakeholder for participation in Workshop 1.

4. Program Lead manager to coordinate and establish the regular meeting time, place, and information hub for the key managers, team members, and stakeholders for workshop tasks and related exercises.

5. Program Lead manager to collect any existing client journey map or client’s path-to-purchase chart, then distribute to the key managers, team members, and stakeholders for review prior to Workshop 1.

6. Program Lead Manager, key managers, team members, and stakeholders to research growth mindset. Recommend Carol Dweck’s books: Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, and Mindset: Changing The Way You Think To Fulfil Your Potential.

7. The Program Lead manager and each key manager, team member, and stakeholder to list the historical sales, relationship, and client stages within their departments.

8. The Program Lead manager and all key managers, team members, and stakeholders to identify and list the historical I touchpoints and activities in the client’s path-to-purchase.

9. The Program Lead manager and each key manager, team member, and stakeholder to review and identify key influences on the client journey.

10. The Program Lead manager to communicate with the department heads
regarding the core deliverables of their participating members to ensure program success.

---

Tasks

1. Read through the entire workshop content including: Profile, MOST, Introduction, Executive Summary, Curriculum, Distance Learning, Tutorial Support, How To Study, Preliminary Analysis, Course Manuals, Project Studies, and Benefits.

2. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, to complete the program team blueprint. The team blueprint will identify the Program Lead Manager, along with all key managers, team members, and stakeholders who will be actively engaged in the program workshops.

3. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, to identify and engage at least one team member from each department as a key stakeholder for participation in Workshop 1.

4. Set up the regular meeting time, place, and information hub for the key managers, team members, and stakeholders for workshop tasks and related exercises.

5. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, for the Program Lead manager to collect and distribute any existing client journey map or client’s path-to-purchase chart to the key managers, team members, and stakeholders for review prior to Workshop 1.

6. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, for the key managers, team members, and stakeholders to review any existing client journey map or client’s path-to-purchase chart prior to Workshop 1.

7. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, to read one of Carol Dweck’s books: Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, or Mindset: Changing The Way You Think To Fulfil Your Potential.

8. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, to review and list the historical sales, relationship, and client stages within their departments.

9. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, to identify and list the historical touchpoints and activities in the client’s path-to-purchase.

10. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, to review and identify key influences on the client journey.

11. Set up ongoing communication channels for the core deliverables of the participating members to ensure program success.

---

Introduction

Program Planning

Having a successful, thriving business is ultimately about the client experience. This is the true area where businesses compete with each other to attract, secure, and nurture client s, foster expansion, and boost profits. The key to delivering an excellent client experience lies in your approach to Sales Strategy, the essence of which is to engage, cultivate, close, and convert client s into champions. With our strategic and methodical approach, together, we will make it happen.

Sales strategy begins by bringing together the key managers, team members, and stakeholders in your Client Journey. To create an accurate client journey map, we must include people from all over the business. Team members from different areas of the organization will be more familiar with unique aspects of the journey, how they work, and how clients experience them.

We need input from enough sources so we can detect patterns. These patterns will guide our understanding of where clients are enjoying the least amount of friction in the journey – and suffering through the most. Our goal is to understand each step from the client’s point of view, starting with the process before your company even enters their mind.

We will ask questions that help elicit responses providing a complete view of the client journey. We need to understand your internal process and employee perspective as they relate to the client journey. The only way to fully capture the true client experience is to document it from every angle. Having a 360-degree view will play a major role in identifying opportunities to improve the Client Journey experience.

The team you assemble for the Sales Strategy program should include the key managers, team members, and stakeholders in your sales process. From a departmental perspective, this will include sales, marketing, management, and operations. These are the core groups that will attend every training module and be the change agents within your business.

With their boots on the ground, all members of the sales team should participate in the training. This includes sales management, support roles, and customer service. If it is not feasible to include the entire sales team, you may instead select individuals who are representative of the group as a whole, running the gamut of product and service experience, tenure, and volume.

Your highest marketing role with the organization, or their chosen representative, should participate in all training modules. Depending upon your business model, you may want to include several marketing team members. And certainly, a wider segment of the marketing department should be engaged in the Client Journey.

The marketing team has constant indirect and behind-the-scenes involvement in the client journey. Steps like creating lead magnets, managing social channels, and implementing email outreach campaigns barely scratch the surface of the marketing touchpoints in the client journey. They will also be heavily engaged, as they are now, in supporting the sales team in your evolving sales strategy.

Your management/leadership team will want to be present during all modules to drive the actions and steps required to achieve your strategic objectives. The Sales Strategy program is built to grow your sales, and therefore your business. While it may not be viable for your full management/leadership team to attend, choose the individual who will be the driving force for the program.

Getting the client journey mapping right is crucial for your business outlook. While in the past, businesses competed on products, price, and delivery, today a core competitive edge is with the experience you give your client. Clients have a different relationship with the businesses they buy from. Due to the increasingly global nature of business, B2B clients no longer have to choose from a select few local or national businesses. They have the power to choose from a whole world of suppliers.

Your operations team and management must be included in the Sales Strategy training. To capture the entire Client Journey, this first training module should include operations team members from manufacturing and production, shipping and logistics, and support services. People from different areas of the business bring fresh insights to the client touchpoints, how they work, and what the client experiences at these junctures. An example could be your customer service team who may interact with clients daily, hear their frustrations, and see areas of friction.

Finally, client interaction representatives from the administrative, IT, HR, finance, security, and supply chain departments should participate in this first training module. Accurately mapping your Client Journey relies on input from every client touchpoint, from accounts payable to the security requirements for a client plant tour.

When bringing your team of change agents together, we will identify and define roles, responsibilities, timelines, and milestones. We will focus on the internal readiness and acceptance of the Sales Strategy program. This will include appraising the team member involvement, motivations, and related program workload. This will ensure full alignment within the organization to reach your goals.

The following roles will be defined at this stage of the training to carry us through the entirety of the program: Program Lead Manager, Key Managers, Team Members, and Stakeholders.

The company will identify and engage a key manager to lead the internal team of key managers, team members, and stakeholders who will be actively engaged in all workshops. This individual will be referred to as the Program Lead Manager.

The Key Managers represented will include, but not be limited to, the leadership, sales, and marketing branches of the organization. And the Team Members will comprise of the sales department, along with a pick of marketing staff. Depending upon your business model, you may choose additional departments to have individuals in the role of Team Members.

Key stakeholders to be involved in the Sales Strategy program should include areas who serve the client. This may include a representative from your customer service call center, accounts payable unit, IT division, and product manufacturing. These individuals will participate in many of the training sessions, but not all.

Once your team of change agents is assembled, we will clarify and define their functional roles and responsibilities in regards to the Sales Strategy program. This will include the time requirements, tasks, and expectations outside and between the training sessions. Our goal is to provide the direction and facilitate positive engagement for the program team to thrive.

Bringing your team of change agents together is an important step to help them work together effectively. By setting context for what the overall team is responsible for, we can effectively clarify individual responsibilities and find gaps that need to be filled. From there, we will then discuss specific tasks, review ideas, establish dates, and prioritize.

To meet their responsibilities, your team of change agents requires a growth mindset. A growth mindset is where individuals believe that their abilities can be developed through dedication and hard work. Your team needs to embrace a love of learning and pushing their boundaries. A growth mindset encourages curiosity to ask why, pursue alternate viewpoints, and a resilience to move through challenges.

In addition to all team members attending and actively engaging in every workshop, they will meet between training sessions to further develop concepts acquired, complete assigned exercises, and seek opportunities to grow. It is vital to be actively listening to their counterparts in different silos to gain a high level of understanding of the client experience across the business.

Timelines are extremely important throughout the Sales Strategy program. They help the team visualize and synchronize tasks, set deadlines, and define potential delays. Clearly communicating expectations and schedule requirements will foster effective team building. Furthermore, we want, need, and deserve the full engagement of every team member.

Milestones are powerful components in this program because they showcase key stages, highlight accomplishments, and map the forward movement in your Sales Strategy. A milestone is a marker in the Sales Strategy program that signifies a change or stage in development. Milestones act as signposts through the course of your program, helping ensure your team members stay on track.

With careful planning, we will gain improved collaboration between and among the team members and departments, while reducing the possibilities of misunderstandings and disputes, especially between silos. By communicating their responsibilities and accountability to the Sales Strategy program team, we produce stronger teamwork, leading to higher productivity and better results.

To truly develop a highly effective team, a key component in the process is team building. An important area to start with in the development of team building is communication, which was discussed above.

Effective communication is the most straightforward, surefire way of creating a strong team. To have trust in your coworkers, a great deal of the initial foundation is built on the ability to communicate. When another team member can clearly express their expectations or needs to another member, then effective work can be done, but, perhaps most importantly, those team members have an understanding of their expectations. All team members in this program must consider what their colleagues need to know to be successful. Oftentimes, conflict within a team is rooted in the fact that there has been miscommunication about an important task or requirement. By clearly communicating a rubric for the work, teams can ensure they are on the same page.

Once this initial cornerstone of team building has been placed, more precise support systems can be developed. A group not only needs to have good communication—the best groups also have a deep understanding of everyone’s areas of expertise. Teams work more effectively when they take into account that, even if a task is assigned to one person, another group member may still make meaningful contributions if the task relates to their expertise. Members should therefore be encouraged to seek feedback and input from relevant team members.

A final building block to discuss in a strong team is respect. This goes beyond the basic respect expected not just in the workplace, but in every area of life. Recognize and respect that other team members are people, and that everyone will make mistakes. Make sure to keep in mind others’ successes even against their failures. In most teams, there will be an ebb and flow of intense work, and it is important that everyone keeps respect at the forefront of their thoughts in a stressful work period.

And, if there ever is a team member who you feel is not completing their tasks, it is a disservice to ignore them. If such a problem is ignored, then the issue will never be resolved. For whomever it is appropriate to do so, honestly address any problem with the other team member. Take care to understand why they are struggling. Would this team member be better off in another area of the project? Or do they simply need a weekly check-in if they have questions about their work? Additionally, a team member perceived to not be pulling their own weight may not realize they have a slow work output. If they are made aware of the problem, then they have the opportunity to work to improve it.

Now that our team is assembled and has clarity, we will begin mapping where we are: what your Client Journey looks like from the client’s perspective. We perform a deep dive into your current processes, systems, interrelated activities, and sales journey. This allows us to fully understand your starting point, processes that are working well, and the processes that need the most attention for full improvement. Utilizing the proven assessment tools and exercises we have developed, we formulate and assess your current situation. We keep asking questions to gain a clear understanding of your critical business requirements.

Ultimately, we are creating the process to build a client journey map that will deliver clarity to your business. It will enable us to see where the focus may need to be shifted, highlight much needed improvements, and identify areas that require tweaks and refinements. It delivers transparency across the organization, fostering a unified purpose, and supporting enhanced collaboration between silos.

Throughout the planning stage, we are laying the groundwork to build a coherent sales strategy to achieve your desired outcome. When we have successfully opened your paradigm, we are able to focus individual minds and energy in the right areas. This becomes our guiding principle to reinforce and support your sales program evolution.

---

Program Development

The definition of Client Journey is: the complete sum of experiences your clients go through when interacting with your company. Instead of looking at just a part of a sale or experience, the client journey documents the full experience of being a client.

Client journey maps are a visual representation of your client’s course with and through your business. They are a powerful tool and reference element when making business decisions. For your organization to thrive, all decisions must keep the client journey in the forefront to enhance and strengthen the client experience.

Client journey mapping encompasses visualizing the client’s journey and experiences as a means to create actionable goals. It is imperative to place yourself in the mind of the client. See and experience your business through their prism. Because, from inside your business, it can be difficult to understand the clients experience in the same way as they do from the outside. Throughout the Client journey mapping process we will be asking “why” to capture the clients viewpoint.

To effectively map your Client journey, we need to think like your clients. This includes understanding how they b