Success is everything for sales people. But when everyone is working towards their own version of success, it leads to conflicts and chaos. Without a well-defined rules of engagement framework, sales teams can find themselves struggling to follow their sales plays efficiently. It can create friction between teams and the process, leading to missed opportunities and lost revenue.
We have all been there. You put in the hard work, you make the sale, and then someone else comes along and takes all the credit. It’s frustrating, demotivating, and it can lead to serious conflicts within your sales team. That’s why having clear rules of engagement is so critical. It helps you define how your team operates, from communication to individual responsibilities, ensuring everyone is held accountable for their actions.
Rules of Engagement
Rules of engagement is like a playbook for your sales team. It is defined as a set of guidelines and protocols for how your team interacts with prospects, customers, and with other team members. It ensures everyone on your sales team is on the same page. Without a well-defined framework, your sales teams can feel like they are flying blind – unclear about who is responsible for what accounts or unsure about how to handle certain situations. It can lead to confusion, frustration, and lost opportunities.
Establishing clear rules of engagement boosts efficiency and cross-functional coordination. For example, by defining who owns which accounts, you can avoid duplication of efforts and ensure that prospects are receiving a consistent message from your team. By establishing protocols for handling objections and following up on leads, you can streamline your sales process and improve your close rates.
But it’s not enough to just establish rules of engagement – you also need to ensure that they are being followed. It requires ongoing communication and collaboration within your sales team. By regularly reviewing your rules of engagement and seeking feedback from your team, you can identify areas of improvement and make adjustments as needed.
Challenges of Rules of Engagement
- Not all deals are made equal
In sales, the goal is always to close more deals, faster. But when it comes to rules of engagement, not all deals are created equal. Each account is unique, with its own set of needs, challenges, and preferences. And when you are dealing with a high volume of accounts, it can be challenging to create a rules of engagement framework that is both personalized and scalable.
- Standardization vs Personalization
A one-size-fits-all approach might seem easier to implement for a high volume of accounts. But it can result in missed opportunities and lost sales due to inconsistent messaging and lack of personalization. On the other hand, a highly personalized approach seems more effective, but it can be difficult to manage at scale.
- Complexity of the process
With so many variables at play, it can be difficult to create a set of guidelines that can be applied consistently across all accounts. And as your sales team grows, it can be even more challenging to ensure that everyone is on the same page.
- Frequent changes
Sales operations are highly dynamic and rules of engagement must keep pace with these changes. One of the major challenges of implementing rules of engagement is the frequent changes that take place both internally and externally.
- Internal changes
- Old reps leaving and new reps joining, which can disrupt the sales process and require updating the rules of engagement to reflect the changes.
- New product launches or features necessitate changes in existing go-to-market plays, which then require updates to the rules of engagement.
- External changes
- Evolving customer markets
- New competitors
- Changes in economic conditions
All of which can require changes to the rules of engagement to ensure sales teams remain effective.
- Team buy-in
Sales teams are often used to working in a certain way, and any change can be met with resistance. Establishing a rules of engagement framework involves changing the way sales teams work and how they’ve been doing things. Hence, team buy-in is crucial because salespeople often have concerns about how these rules will impact their autonomy in managing their accounts, ability to close deals and earn commissions. Lack of consensus leads to inconsistencies and misalignments in the sales process.
- Rigid framework
Limits reps’ ability to
- Build relationships with customers
- Adapt to changing circumstances
- Be creative & come up with unique solutions for each customer
- Use their own judgment and experience to make decisions.
- Handling exceptions to the rules in a fair & consistent manner
Rules of engagement (RoE) frameworks are meant to bring structure and consistency to the sales process. However, even with the best RoE framework in place, there are always exceptions to the rules that need to be handled in a fair and consistent manner.
- Salespeople often face unique situations that don’t fit neatly into the established rules. In such cases, you must deviate from the rules to meet the customer’s needs while still maintaining fairness and consistency across the team.
- The interpretation of the rules is often subjective. Different sales reps may have different ideas about what constitutes an exception and how to handle it, leading to conflicts and inconsistencies that can harm the overall effectiveness of the sales team.
To overcome these challenges, it’s important to have a clear process in place for handling exceptions to the rules. This process should be communicated clearly among the team along with a mechanism for resolving any disputes that arise. It’s also important to establish guidelines for what constitutes an exception and how it should be handled, so that sales reps have a clear understanding of what’s expected of them.
- Structure vs flexibility
Finding the right balance between structure and flexibility is an ongoing challenge. On one hand, structure is necessary to ensure consistency in the sales process, to clearly define roles and responsibilities, and to prevent confusion and conflicts. On the other hand, flexibility is essential to handle exceptions and unique situations that require deviation from the standard process.
Salespeople often prefer a more flexible approach, as they want the freedom to customize their sales strategy based on the specific needs of their prospects or customers. Too much structure can make the sales process rigid and reduce your ability to be creative and adaptive. However, too much flexibility can lead to chaos and inconsistency, as different salespeople may have different interpretations of the rules and may apply them inconsistently.
- Designing, maintaining and optimizing
The key to success is understanding and addressing the concerns of all stakeholders involved in the process, including sales reps, sales managers, marketing teams, and executives. But reflecting this comprehensive process in a workflow is a tedious task because it must strike a balance between being comprehensive enough to cover all scenarios and flexible enough to allow for exceptions and unique situations. Sales reps need clear guidelines to follow, but they also need the freedom to adapt to changing circumstances in order to close deals.
Creating and implementing a rules of engagement framework is not a one-and-done task. It requires ongoing effort to maintain and optimize the framework as market conditions, customer needs, and other factors change. It can be time-consuming and requires inputs from multiple stakeholders to ensure that all perspectives are considered. Sales managers must continually evaluate the framework and adjust it as necessary to ensure that it is having the desired effect.
Setting up the rules of engagement framework
- Clear account ownership
Account ownership is a crucial component in rules of engagement framework, yet it’s a challenging to handle ownerships effectively because of their dynamic nature. In the absence of clear guidelines and policies, conflicts over account ownership can arise, leading to strained relationships between sales teams and customers, and ultimately, lost revenue.
Account ownership determines who truly owns an account. It’s not always clear-cut and can lead to disputes among sales teams. Often, multiple sales reps may have had interactions with a contact in the account, making it difficult to determine who has primary ownership.
As customer relationships evolve, ownership of their account can transfer from one rep to another or team. Sales reps may move on to different roles, leaving their accounts behind. A new rep may take over the territory and may not be fully aware of the history and nuances of the account. It creates confusion and frustration among sales teams, leading to further conflicts over ownership.
The importance of account ownership becomes even more significant in complex sales environments with multiple stakeholders in the buying process. In these scenarios, sales reps need to work collaboratively to build relationships with decision-makers at each stage of the buying process. Collaborative selling, in these scenarios, ensures that they are all on the same page when it comes to managing the account.
- Account stage and status
In the high-pressure world of sales, every minute counts. And in order to make the most of those precious minutes, sales teams must have a clear understanding of where each account stands in the sales funnel. Without this understanding, teams may waste time and resources pursuing accounts that aren’t ready to buy or have already been engaged by another team member.
With a clear visibility into the account ownership and funnel stage, you can determine which team member or department should be responsible for engaging with the account at each stage of the sales process. It ensures that accounts are handed off to the right people at the right time for consistent and effective engagement throughout the buyer journey.
But it’s not just about handing off accounts from one team member to another. By understanding the different stages and statuses of accounts, teams can also develop more effective sales strategies and tactics. For example, accounts that are just starting to engage with the business may require a more educational approach, while accounts that are further along in the funnel may need more targeted and persuasive messaging.
- Structure vs flexibility
The right balance of structure and flexibility is essential for sales success. On the one hand, a structured approach ensures that all team members are aligned on the sales process and have a consistent set of guidelines to follow. It maintains quality control and ensures that every customer receives a similar level of attention, regardless of which team member they are working with.
On the other hand, flexibility is necessary to adapt to the unique needs and challenges of each customer. Without the ability to adjust the sales process to fit individual circumstances, teams risk losing valuable opportunities or failing to meet customer expectations.
In the end, it’s all about finding that sweet spot where structure and flexibility work together in harmony, empowering your teams to make the most of every opportunity, while ensuring consistent and effective engagement with your customers.
- Feedback loop
Imagine you’re a sales rep who’s been using a new rules of engagement framework for a few weeks. You’re following the guidelines as closely as possible, but you’ve noticed that some accounts seem to require different approaches. You’re not sure if it’s because the rules aren’t working or if there are just exceptions to the framework.
This is where a feedback loop becomes essential. By providing a channel for reps to share their experiences and insights, it allows for the framework to be adjusted and optimized over time. Without this feedback, the rules may become outdated or ineffective.
Incorporating a feedback loop allows for a more dynamic and responsive approach to sales engagement. By analyzing feedback data, sales leaders can spot trends and patterns that indicate where reps are struggling or where the rules may need to be clarified.
Final Thoughts
The rules of engagement in sales are not set in stone. They are constantly evolving as the business landscape changes. Many organizations struggle to implement an effective rules of engagement framework that helps their sales teams work smarter and more efficiently. The consequences of this can be severe – lost deals, wasted resources, and ultimately, a damaged bottom line.
If you’re not taking account ownership, stages and status, flexibility, feedback loops, and other key factors into consideration when designing your rules of engagement framework, you’re putting your sales team at a serious disadvantage. Your reps may be wasting time on the wrong accounts, failing to hand off accounts at the right time, or missing out on opportunities because of rigid processes that don’t allow for necessary flexibility.
The good news is that it’s never too late to start building a better framework for your sales team. By prioritizing account ownership, balancing structure and flexibility, and creating a feedback loop for continuous improvement, you can help your reps work more efficiently, make better use of their time, and close more deals.