Among all reasons, there is one singular factor that correlates with companies failing to meet their sales forecasts – product market fit.
Whilst companies so often turn internally, ranging from change in leadership, data management, upgrading their website or pay incentives, these ‘solutions’ don’t matter in the eyes of your market.
Fundamentally, buyers either have a problem that needs to be solved or a need they require to fulfilled. Until this becomes the primary focus, no matter how many changes are made, the outcome will continue to be the same, sales targets are left unmet.
Product market fit right is a sales problem, not just marketing.
The foundation of product market fit is getting in front of and speaking to the right buyers. These buyers first need to understand, and second, require the value your product provides. This value needs to be strong enough that they are willing to firstly listen and then buy from you.
However, when time is spent talking to non-buyers, who don’t truly understand the value or need for your product, pipelines become unpredictable and do not close.
In many companies it is the salespeople who are having those conversations. If they all are speaking to the right buyers, with a highly targeted message then the outcome is predictable sales. The qualification of prospects is a critical step however knowing how to pitch first to open the door rather than pitch to see if the prospect will buy is a skill sadly lacking.
It is often the case that “marketing” targets people ready to buy where as “salespeople” target people who may or may not buy, with different messaging.
Understanding the market, knowing how to create a message to spike their interest and turn that into messaging on LinkedIn, email and phone calls is an art form that few possess and if left to the individual is time-consuming, inconsistent, and for many poorly constructed, the outcome being the market is not listening and sales forecasts are unmet.
Traditionally CRMs focus the topic of conversation about the pipeline and what will close and when it will close which is outcome-focused. Understanding your product market fit is about making sure only real buyers are in the pipeline in the first place.
Many salespeople create their messaging in isolation, they decide their target market in isolation, and this creates varying outcomes across sales teams. We know the power of capturing the collective knowledge of all salespeople, marketing, customers, and management and building a single plan that is market-aligned. When that happens salespeople go to battle with the best messaging, the best sales support and build real pipelines that close.
Does the market have a problem and can you solve it, that’s the short version of everything GrowSure does to build highly detailed go-to-market plans. One plan was agreed upon by all and actioned by the sales teams.