Editor’s note: Paul Kirch is CEO of Actus Sales Intelligence, a Fort Worth, Texas, business and sales consulting agency. He can be reached at 214-295-6111 or at pkirch@actussales.com.

Does size really matter? I recently had the pleasure of hosting a three-day sales workshop for a management consulting firm that specializes in optimizing information technology spend within organizations with revenues greater than $500 million. In many cases, its clients are multibillion-dollar organizations with large IT infrastructures. Oddly enough, my client competes against some of the largest management consulting firms, such as McKinsey and Associates. Where’s the oddity? It is a firm with 12 full-time employees, half of whom are responsible for sales and client management. Call it playing against the odds or simply serving as the David to the Goliath competitors but this company's success has proven that size doesn’t really matter.

Hear me out. I’m not saying there aren’t challenges but no matter your size, with the right focus, beliefs and strategy, you can win. If you have ever lost work or faced challenges because you were selling against a firm that is larger or has greater resources, you can learn from the client I am showcasing. What it lacks in resources, it makes up for in confidence in its tools and processes. This is pretty much a necessity, considering its buying audience. Not only are the companies large but their decision maker is almost always the CIO or CFO, who can prove to be a tough audience, even in much smaller companies.

I hear the argument too often that it’s hard to differentiate from and sell against firms with more resources. The truth is, there are business challenges for firms of all sizes. Smaller firms may lack some of the ability to add staff, develop new products or market the same way larger firms can. On the other hand, larger agencies need to generate revenue in volumes that smaller agencies can’t comprehend. Publicly-traded firms must also focus on keeping shareholders happy. Regardless of your company size, it’s important to know how you’re going to stand out against the competition and beat them at their own game.

Clearly my client was experienced, selling against such formidable competitors and often winning the business. However, like most companies, it wasn’t winning as much business as it needed to grow and invest back in development, at least not at the rate it wanted. During the workshop, we looked at the challenges the company was facing and where it was missing opportunities.

Two challenges

When the CEO first approached me about working with the team, he spoke highly of his sales team, though he felt they weren’t effectively engaging the level of decision maker they needed. After further review, it turns out there were two challenges they faced. First off, they have a very solid lead-generation program, leveraging impactful Webinars and e-marketing efforts that lead to a highly engaged following. Unfortunately they were generally attracting individuals who were in mid-level management roles, who might be decision influencers at best. When they engaged with these professionals, they struggled to get them to make the introduction to the C-level executives who were key to the decision-making process.

The other challenge the salespeople faced is that most of them had worked for IBM and had completed their world-renowned sales training program - over 25 years ago. Unfortunately, the techniques and strategies they learned and were using throughout their careers are less effective today, especially with the sophisticated buyers they’re working with. Though your team may or may not face similar challenges to this, it’s always a good idea to evaluate what’s working and what isn’t. This allows for adaptation as buying behaviors change.

So what changed for these professionals? Several things, really. However, at the root of it was the idea that they needed to become better at engaging their prospects and clients. Of course, any C-level conversations they had needed to be strategic and not tactical, at least not until there was buy-in from that executive. Even then, most of the tactical conversations were going to occur with the C-level executive’s team. However, as I mentioned, most of their leads were coming from the lower levels so they had to find a way to sell up the ladder.

We focused on helping them get more traction. As experienced as their team was, they were used to selling through presentations and focusing on their products and services without really focusing on the client needs. Asking better and more effective questions was the starting point. We worked on developing a list of power questions they could leverage and started to focus on creating a mind-set shift that would be key to succeeding with this new approach.

Keep in mind they weren’t always working directly with the decision maker in the beginning. Where they were losing a significant amount of traction, previously, was when the contact they were engaging would try and “sell” them up the organization. The things that appealed to them were quickly dismissed by their superiors, who weren’t as interested in the tactical solutions. The salespeople weren’t arming their contacts with the right talking points or solutions. In many instances these strong leads went from highly interested to feeling they had made a mistake, since they had egg on their face after going to their boss with the wrong message. So in addition to methods for better engagement, we outlined a strategy for pulling sales and marketing tools that could give their clients an edge.

I’m a big fan of such strategies and so few companies effectively leverage them. If you think about marketing research, we’re often selling our services to people who need to get support or buy-in from their superiors. If your customers are corporate clients, then you’re dealing with this on a regular basis, as the market research team may be struggling to get a seat at the C-suite table and the upper-level executives are questioning what is coming from their team. For my client, we started working on a strategy to make the sales teams' contacts look good. In fact, when they had been successful going through the mid-level contact, they often saw those people getting promotions or accolades, due to the financial benefit they could guarantee. Therefore, we wanted to capitalize on those experiences and create a means of supporting the people who we wanted to turn into advocates.

Over three days, we focused on developing better questions and driving more engagement, as well as creating ways to support their non-decision-making contacts. We also worked on strategies for engaging the C-suite when given the opportunity. The third day was very focused on role-playing, which allowed them to learn from others while also challenging them to perform in front of their colleagues. No matter your opinion on trying to create “realistic” sales situations, the results were eye-opening and the CEO identified some areas of improvement. Fortunately, he had served as a CIO for a large firm prior to starting this company back in 2001. Therefore, he understood many of the challenges from a personal level. This made the process effective and it gave everyone a better perspective on how they should be selling.

There are several takeaway points that can be made here - many of which will apply to your company, especially if adapted to fit your culture and approach.

Sales strategy

You can never review your sales strategy too often. This doesn’t mean constantly changing your approach but if you understand what’s working and what isn’t, you can adapt your style or your company’s approach to meet the needs of your clients and the market.

Individual strengths

If you’re making excuses about not being able to differentiate, stop. It’s time to focus on why your clients are buying or why you’re losing business. Be confident with your offering and give yourself a chance to succeed.

Size challenges

No matter its size, every company faces market challenges. It is true that in some cases, the larger firms are going to win certain jobs just because of perceptions about stability and scalability. Smaller firms might be viewed as more customer-service oriented. No matter which side of the argument you end up on, be prepared to address the rebuttal. In the case of my client, it has a network of consultants who can be brought in at any time, providing strong scalability.

Experience

No matter the level of experience your salespeople possess, focus on developing their skills and approach. It’s not uncommon to continue to embrace the idea that if something isn’t effective, it might change if they do more of it. If you aren’t developing and reviewing their approach, you might be missing out on more sales than you realize.

Support for contacts

Have you ever had a “decision maker” tell you that they had to talk to their team before moving forward with a decision? Chances are they are not the ultimate decision maker if you get this message. Or perhaps this is their way of letting you down easy, as it’s easier to tell you this than to simply tell you no. We all face situations where our contact has to sell us to their team. Find ways to support them and arm them with talking points and tools that truly help them become your advocate.

Engagement

Business development and sales require you to be investigative but also engaging. Using stories and questions is the greatest way to accomplish this. If your idea of selling is simply talking about what you can do for them, without understanding what they really need, then you’re missing an opportunity. Focus on getting them talking and expressing interest in you and you’ll have all the opportunity you want to address your product offering. It just may not happen as you’ve done it in the past.

Knowing your audience

Depending on the size of the organization you’re targeting, the conversations you have may vary greatly from a director to a vice president. They’ll likely vary even greater if the audience is a C-level executive. For the latter group, don’t let your conversation dwell too much on the details of how you’re going to help. It needs to be a higher-level strategic conversation. Also, in many instances, the sooner you can get them to agree to meet with their team, the better. If this senior executive passes you down to someone on his team, just make sure you know what you’re walking into. The referral can be a golden opportunity but it can also be a landmine, depending on how your visit is perceived. When possible, ask the senior executive to be a part of the first meeting or at least give a personal introduction.

Always be developing

Never stop developing yourself or your team. Salespeople should be given the tools to succeed. Even top performers can find room to improve, so develop, train and review progress. I recommend attending in-person meetings or sitting in on phone calls to gather constructive, relevant feedback. I’m also a fan of role-playing and creating realistic sales situations.

Continually adapt

The world is changing in many exciting and also frightening ways. How business is being conducted is also changing and it’s important to continually adapt, without being overly reactionary. I find that sales teams that share with each other and are more team-oriented in their development are much more successful than when it’s every man for himself.

No matter who you compete against, there’s business to be won with the right approach and a confidence in your company and its solutions. If the client showcased in this article can succeed against some of the world’s largest management consulting firms, you can find ways to dominate against your competitors. Just remember, size doesn’t have to be a barrier.