The final focus area for the foundational framework involves service and relationships with the customer after the sale. The closing of a new opportunity is just the beginning of what should become a long and mutually beneficial relationship with the customer. After all, the real value for the customer comes in successful implementation of the solution and its business value to their company. To truly differentiate one’s company from the competition and secure a foundation for the business relationship to follow, the technical seller needs to:

• Ensure the customer is taking advantage of training, additional services, etc. (i.e. follow up on all of the implementation readiness information that was provided during the Progressing stage, as sometimes this sort of information needs to be repeated to ensure customer awareness).
• Educate the customer on the process (also provided during Progressing) and broker initial interactions with the support organization. Although the customer may initially believe that calling the technical sales rep with questions is easier, the supplier’s dedicated support organization is much more capable of troubleshooting, retrieving information about other customer experiences, and logging/tracking customer support questions than someone with other customer facing responsibilities.
• Stay involved in key implementation activities. In particular, an on-site presence during particular “go live” milestones can be a very effective means of assuring the customer of the supplier’s dedication and allow the technical seller to act as an escalation point to the support organization if the need arises.
• Provide the customer with information about and invitations to conferences, webinars, local user groups, etc. to enable interaction with other customers, understand future product direction, and explore the possibilities of complimentary offerings to help the customer’s business.
• Always strive to understand the business value being provided by the solution — how is it helping the customer make money, save money, and/or mitigate risk?

I once read that few things can kill the productivity of a sales organization faster than getting bogged down in post-sales support. Similarly, customers are sometimes left with the impression that sales teams do everything possible to land a deal and then abandon the customer to their own devices after the sale. Both of these are likely true in some respects. Therefore, delivering a truly world class, best in industry customer experience requires the technical seller to follow up with the customer and ensure that the solution is delivering value for their company. As the Peter Drucker quote goes, “The purpose of business is to create and keep a customer”. Keeping and expanding a relationship with an existing customer is easier than creating a new one.

So there it is, a simple, foundational framework for operating an enterprise class technical sales organization. Driving the technical sales mission of assisting customers in the understanding, design, and deployment of solutions based on your company’s technology, thereby increasing customer business value and expanding your business is possible via Prospecting for new opportunities, Provoking customers with new ideas, Progressing opportunities through the sales cycle, and Partnering with the customer throughout solution implementation.