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Storyboard Sales Play #3: Market Intelligence & Trends

Jamie Shanks
Jamie Shanks

Storyboard_Sales_Play_3_Market_Intelligence_&_Trends

For our third sales play (see https://salesforlife.com/blog/storyboard-sales-play-1-sphere-of-influence” & Storyboard Sales Play #2 – “Stack Ranking”), I recommend you bring the knowledge level to Pontification. The goal here is to present the prospective customer with a crystal ball view into the future. Showcase where the market is moving and provide ideas on futuristic trends that they need to be concerned with or focused on.

Ensure you know industry best-practices for skill-based training with this  executive kickoff planning kit.

The reality is that most customers live in a bubble. I live in a bubble. I’ve found over my last six years as a CEO that I’ve grown so focused on Digital Selling best practices that I haven’t been developing my financial acumen for professional services companies. I’m only learning now (six years in) what the benchmark of CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate) expectation is for the sales performance/sales training industry. We can’t know everything, we can’t learn everything… that’s why we buy your solutions.

For this sales play, think like you’re running the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, NV, each year. This show is a look into the future. Your rich-media assets will do the same.

HOT TREND—right now, we’re seeing many of our customers focus their customer base on 2020. This is 1.5 years from now, and companies need to think about their businesses in the next decade.

  • What will be the growth rates, EBITA, market potential, and expected market share in 2025?
  • How will your ecosystem morph by 2025?
  • What tools, platforms, and systems are companies beta testing right now that will be standard operating procedures in 2025?
  • Showcase the three stages for a company to self-assess—are you working at a best-in-class, best practices, or standard operating procedures level right now?

Get your customers off the plant floor and out of their offices, and help them see where the world is going. Whenever these moments happen for me (such as recently understanding our CAGR benchmark), it’s both exhilarating and frustrating at the same time (you wonder why it took you so long to understand the topic).

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