A Common Marketing Language (part 2)

Business Terms

Bottom line and “net-net”

“The bottom line” is that line in a financial statement that shows net income or loss. On an income statement, “Net Income” is physically located at the very bottom of the form and is the last line on the form, thus it gets it’s name “the bottom line.” Net income (the bottom line) is the final accounting showing company profit or loss. The bottom line has come to mean “the final word on the subject” “get to the point,” or “I am about to say the only part of my long winded sales pitch that you will actually care about." Bottom line should not be used in formal business accounting communication as it is a somewhat vague term when used in that context.

“Net-net” means to get to the point or “the bottom line”. It is the net result after removing all unimportant details. I may be over-thinking it, but I tend to use “the bottom line” when talking about reducing all the details for one subject. When providing a summary of multiple concepts and “giving the bottom line of several bottom lines,” the final result of those combined concepts would be “net-net.”

If a rep feels that a long-winded buildup is necessary in a consultative sale, you are either talking to the wrong person or have not done your homework. Your goal is to consult with a decision maker regarding the things that person is responsible for. If you are talking “speeds and feeds” to a CFO you are having the wrong conversation with the wrong person. If your bottom line is increasing their bottom line a long-winded build up will not be necessary. You are in the right place having the right conversation with the right person.


Sales Enablement

Sales Enablement is providing the tools and techonlogy your sales force needs to be successful. When a successful lead puts your rep in the right place with the right message at the right time; sales enablement puts the the right information in the most useable format into the reps hands at the right time. They are the tools your rep will need to execute a successful consultative sale. Traditionally, marketing would throw a lead over the fence and expect the rep to pick up the ball and run with it. If you think about it though, the marketing person already has done much of the research and has obtained much of the enabling information the rep will need to approach the prospect intelligentally. They just need to get that information into the reps hands in a format they can use.

Marketing can provide enablement material in a general fashion: sales content, collateral, case studies, competitive information, best practices, product and solution materials. Taking enablement to the next step for a consulatative sales rep would include: key financial information, identifying: decisionmakers, projects, champions, internal politics, determining that there is a budget and timeframe for purchase and that the interest for the meeting matches your offering. Basically, to really enable a consulattive sales rep you want to provide a sales ready leat (BANT) and the information about that lead that will help them close the deal.


KPIs - Key Performance Indicators

Key Performance Indicators “KPIs” are a measure of performance for a company or group within a company. KPIs can be hard to measure compared to units produced or dollars saved but are key to a company’s success. As an example if your Board of Directors suggest to your CEO that the company must increase wallet share, cut costs, improve employee moral and become the leading company in your industry, some of these things are easier to measure than others. These would be the KPIs for the company that the Board wants to see the CEO deliver. It is how they will measure success. Successful movement toward these long-term organizational goals over a specific period of time defines how valuable the CEO is to the Board. The act of monitoring KPIs in real-time is known as business activity monitoring (BAM). This is where you will find the details regarding measurement, ROI, timeframes, decisionmakers…BANT stuff.


Why consultative sales people care...
When approaching a consultative sale, identify the company’s KPIs. You can bet these are the CEO’s performance goals, and that each affected department will have measurable performance goas in place that will roll up to help achieve the KPIs. You can also bet that the company has estimated what the proposed benefit will be for achieving the department goals and how they roll up to achieve the company KPIs. Improved productivity, cost cutting, improved profitability, increasing wallet share and improved rank in their industry all have a specific dollar value attached. Most consultative sales reps will talk in broad terms about putting a system in place that can help obtain desired results. If you can take this to a granular level and identify the tasks each effected employee currently does, figure out improved ways of doing it, roll it up to achieve department goals and then the CEO’s KPIs then you can determine ROI from the stated KPI benefit (which are always overstated) vs. the cost of your offering. You now have ROI and executive support. Pretty cool!