- Align your B2B sales offer with the client’s strategy to drive growth and create value.
- Achieve a 3x cost optimization through the use of strategy assessment and strategy map templates.
- Show strategic alignment with the client’s objectives to gain stakeholder buy-in and accelerate decision-making.
Strategic Sales in 2024
Strategic or consultative sales focus on establishing long-term relationships with clients, helping them achieve their strategic objectives.
In 2024/2025, there is an increased demand for strategic sales automation, attributed to the growing complexity of the operating environment, shaped by these trends:
- More complex stakeholder landscapes on the client’s side.
- Growing vendor-related risks, resulting in the increasing role of compliance in the sales process.
- An increasing influence of external factors — mainly economic, social, regulatory, and environmental — on the development and execution of the client’s strategy.
As a result, we observe longer sales cycles with more decision-makers involved. To stay effective in strategic sales, vendors are looking for strategy automation software that optimizes the cost of strategic sales.
Strategic Sales Process: Analysis, Interviews, Offer
The steps of the strategic sales process include:
- Initial analysis of the client’s segment, stakeholders involved, and high-level strategy
- Interviews with the client to complete the strategy picture
- Embedding the company’s offer into the strategy map and presenting it to the client
Step 1: Initial Analysis
The initial analysis of the client’s company focuses on assessing their strategy using public information.
This might include:
- Understanding the client’s mission, vision, and values
- Scanning news related to partnership, talent, investment, and acquisition decisions
- Analyzing stakeholders involved, their needs, and perceived value
To optimize the costs of the initial analysis, a template called ‘Strategy Assessment’ (available in the BSC Designer platform) can be used by vendor consultants. This template works as a checklist to map relevant answers:
- Investment and Acquisitions. How do recent investments and acquisitions reflect the company’s growth strategy and plans for the future?
- Innovation and Technology. What new technologies is the company adopting, and what do they say about its long-term goals?
- Partnerships. What do current partnerships tell us about where the company is headed in terms of growth and expansion?
- Market and Competitive Landscape. How is the company adjusting to competition and new market trends?
- Talent and Workforce. What do recent hires say about the company’s focus and future goals?
- Risk and Compliance. How is the company preparing for regulatory and environmental risks that could affect its future?
- Sustainability and Social Impact. How does the company’s focus on sustainability and social responsibility fit into its long-term plans?
Step 2: Interview Stage
Following the preparation stage, the company’s sales professionals follow up with the client to organize various interviews to better understand the client’s requirements and decision-making process.
During this stage, the understanding of the stakeholder landscape deepens, specifically regarding the stakeholders involved in decision-making. Typically, these types of stakeholders are identified:
- Decision-makers. Control the budget and care about overall performance and outcomes.
- End users. Focus on solving operational-level problems.
- Compliance. Ensure legal and security compliance.
- Facilitators. Insiders who facilitate understanding of the company’s stakeholders and their needs.
Sales professionals can use strategic planning templates to frame their questions. These templates include:
- A high-level strategy template, for example, K&N Balanced Scorecard
- Clarification of external factors that affect the organization using a PESTEL analysis template
- Understanding and mapping unique risks for the organization using a risk analysis and risk register template
- A stakeholder analysis template to confirm the needs of stakeholders and their perception of value
Step 3: Embedding the Offer into the Strategy
Using the results of various interviews, sales professionals formulate the output of the analysis in the form of several scorecards.
Strategy scorecard will include the client’s high-level strategy, formulated based on the interviews.
To explain the rationale behind the suggested offer, the main strategy scorecard will be aligned with supporting scorecards:
- Analysis of external factors (PESTEL)
- Competitive analysis (e.g., Five Forces)
- Stakeholder analysis and their needs
- Risk register
Ideally, the company’s offer should be embedded in this strategy to showcase:
- The impact on overall performance, with long-term projections based on the analysis of external factors
- The long-term outcomes, aligned with competitor positioning
- The impact on value creation for stakeholders (specific value metrics)
- Relevance in the context of identified risks
- Relevance within the regulatory and compliance landscape
When presenting the offer to the client, sales professionals follow a predefined structure:
- Overview of the client’s company strategy and the factors shaping it
- Projecting the offer onto the needs of relevant stakeholders and quantitatively estimating its impact on the stakeholders’ value metrics
- Presenting similar cases with analysis of achieved results
Economics of Strategic Sales
Strategic sales involve deep analysis of the client’s strategy, which is economically viable in the enterprise segment with high average checks.
The costs of strategic sales can be optimized by using standardized strategy templates and selling strategic analysis as a separate consulting service.
For example, using the BSC Designer platform, solution vendors can save the results of their analysis as a template scorecard and reuse it as a starting point for strategic sales to clients from similar segments.
This tactic enables vendors to scale strategic sales to target deals in segments with lower average checks.
Practical Example of Strategic Sales
To illustrate the application of the strategic sales process, let’s use the XYZ Eco Group as an example. The company is dedicated to creating and managing urban green spaces that contribute to the mitigation of climate change and rising temperatures.
- Access the XYZ Eco Group demo account as a view-only user.
Viability Analysis of Strategic Sales
The primary target segment of the Eco Group is enterprise-level real estate developers.
With a high volume of average deals and the long-term nature of established relationships, the strategic sales approach was recognized as relevant.
Initial Analysis
The analytics team at Eco Group defined the typical stakeholders of real estate developers relevant to closing deals:
- Management Team / Owners
- Developers and Contractors
- Investors, Banks, and Insurance Providers
- Regulatory Authorities, Environmental Groups
- Suppliers, Utilities Providers
- Legal Advisors, Tax Advisors
- Prospective Buyers/Renters, Local Communities, and Residents
The stakeholders, their needs, and perceived value metrics were formulated in a stakeholder analysis scorecard.
For the initial strategy assessment, sales consultants from Eco Group used public sources and followed the questions from the ‘Strategy Assessment’ template (available in BSC Designer). The main findings were mapped within the perspectives of the template:
- Partnerships. A partnership with local governments focused on creating smart cities that integrate transportation.
- Talent and Workforce. Recent hires of community engagement specialists.
- Investment and Acquisitions. The company’s investments in smart bike-sharing logistics.
- Market and Competitive Landscape. Financial resilience achieved through long-term contracts with local banks.
- Innovation and Technology. The adoption of artificial intelligence for predictive maintenance.
- Risk and Compliance. Investment in domestic production facilities.
- Sustainability and Social Impact. Alignment with governmental cultural heritage protection programs.
This analysis helped frame the initial version of the client’s strategy.
The goals within the “driver” perspectives were formulated as:
- Internal: Growth in new regions, localization of supply (domestic production facilities)
- Learning: Understanding community dynamics, focusing on environmental sustainability (smart city program)
The goals within the “outcome” perspectives were formulated as:
- Finance: Financial sustainability (materials, bank loans)
- Customer: Optimizing maintenance costs (AI for predictive maintenance), increasing perceived market value (aligning with cultural heritage programs)
The current perception of the client’s strategy gave the sales professionals at Eco Group the necessary points to address in their initial offer.
Interviews Stage
During the interview stage, some strategic directions of the client were clarified. For example:
- One issue of internal compliance was aligning the suggested green areas with the cultural heritage protection program that the real estate developer was involved in.
- The engineering team required information to estimate the changes needed in water and electricity supply.
- Senior management had doubts related to the ROI of the offer, as it was unclear if the existence of green areas would change the perception of buyers and justify assigning a premium price to the real estate.
The risk model was updated to account for risks such as:
- Changes in construction legislation
- Decreasing speed of construction
- Increasing maintenance costs
- Dependency on offshore supply
The stakeholder analysis was updated to include an additional group of stakeholders:
- Real Estate Agents and Brokers
Interviews showed that these stakeholders could validate the interest of potential buyers in green areas by offering personalized green spaces as an option.
Embedding the Offer and Presenting
To present the final offer, Eco Group used a combination of various strategic tools.
The analysis of external factors (PESTEL template) was used as a starting point for the presentation, covering areas such as:
- The overall climate change trend, specifically heat waves and their increasing frequency, helped present the perceived value of green areas.
- The sustainability aspect, specifically research data supporting the increasing demand for environmentally friendly real estate.
- From a legal perspective, expected regulations regarding CO2 emissions and absorption were mentioned to justify investment in green areas.
These trends were projected onto the results of the Stakeholder Analysis, with metrics used to quantify the value for stakeholders. For example:
- Homebuyers valued green spaces but were concerned about increasing maintenance costs. This risk was mitigated by introducing smart technologies that minimized maintenance costs.
- To facilitate communication with local governments, the ‘Air Quality Index (AQI)’ was established as a key rationale for supporting the expansion of green areas.
- The management team was informed about the projected ‘Cost per unit of area developed.’
The risk register was used to illustrate awareness of existing risks and to present mitigation plans. For example, for the risk of offshore supply chain disruption, Eco Group presented the possibility of an alternative supply chain dependent on local suppliers.
The strategy map of the client’s company showed:
- How the existing company strategy aligns with identified factors and stakeholder needs, and
- The gaps that could be addressed by using Eco Group’s green spaces.
During the final presentation, the requirements of the internal stakeholders were specifically addressed:
- Decision-makers received a clear estimation of projected costs, the expected return on the price premium, and long-term project sustainability.
- Relevant regulatory documentation and controls in place were presented to the internal compliance team.
- The engineering team was informed about the required design changes for compatibility with the green areas.
Training session: 'Strategic Sales with BSC Designer' is offered as part of our ongoing learning program and included with a BSC Designer subscription.
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Results Achieved
The consultative sales approach of Eco Group was well received by the client’s team:
- From the very beginning, the sales team demonstrated a deep understanding of the operating domain as well as captured the essence of the client’s strategy.
- The strategic way of presenting the offer created a clear picture for all stakeholders, facilitating approval at all levels.
- The combination of strategic tools used for the presentation became part of the strategy execution and reporting framework for actual project implementation.
- Eco Group was able to reuse the results of its strategic analysis (PESTEL analysis, stakeholder analysis, risk analysis) for other enterprise-level real estate developers.
- The reduction in the cost of the initial analysis allowed for adapting a similar approach for companies with lower deal volumes.
Alexis is a Senior Strategy Consultant and CEO at BSC Designer, with over 20 years of experience in strategic planning. Alexis developed the “5 Step Strategy Implementation System” that helps companies with the practical implementation of their strategies. He is a regular speaker at industry conferences and has published over 100 articles on strategy and performance management, including the book “10 Step KPI System”. His work is frequently cited in academic research.
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