Understanding how your company’s capabilities match up with a prospect or customers’ challenges is a key component to establishing VALUE. Regardless of where the conversation begins, sellers must be flexible enough to navigate through this dialogue. Click the video to hear more on this Sales Tip
When I think of the word “insights” as it relates to our business (sales process), the name Anthony Iannarino comes to mind. Anthony sees things differently, before and after they happen in the marketplace. I have relied on him for business and personal topics for several years, and am pleased to call him a friend and colleague.
And thanks for this GREAT article below. Pictured here at The Kennedy Space Center Selling Power 3.0 Conference hosted by Gerhard Gschwandtner in December 2022. We watched a rocket land upright that day….unbelievable!
Article Below By Anthony Iannarino
International Speaker, Sales Leader, Writer, Author
Strategy without tactics is like a blueprint with no builders—useless, no matter how brilliant it looks on paper.
Most of the time, leaders and managers are hyper-focused on strategy. That’s understandable. Strategy is the exciting part. It’s the big idea, the grand vision, the framework that’s going to guide the team toward a better future. But while strategy is important—crucial, even—it’s rarely enough to produce the outcomes we need in the real world.
To make this practical, let’s look at the idea through the lens of B2B sales. Sales leaders, sales managers, and frontline sellers often put their faith in the overarching strategy. They believe their sales approach—whether consultative, value-based, or insight-driven—is what’s going to produce results. And they’re half right.
My strategy, for example, is to be One-Up (see Elite Sales Strategies: A Guide to Being One-Up, Creating Value, and Becoming Truly Consultative). That means I show up as the expert in the conversation. I am the person with the authority, the insight, and the experience to create value for my clients—often in ways they didn’t expect.
But here’s the truth most people miss: even the best strategy dies on the vine without the right tactics. A strategy without tactical execution is impotent. It can’t do the heavy lifting. It can’t produce outcomes on its own. It’s nothing but an elegant theory.
Let me say it another way. A strategy without a supporting set of modern sales tactics is a failure waiting to happen.
Over time, through building sales methodologies and frameworks for hundreds of clients, I’ve identified the tactical levers that bring strategies to life. These tactics are not arbitrary. They’re designed to create value inside the sales conversation—where deals are won or lost. Below is a short list of effective B2B sales tactics that support any value-based or consultative strategy.
Modern B2B Sales Tactics That Make Strategy Work
Insight-Led Discovery – Don’t start by asking the same tired questions as your competitors. Begin discovery with insights about your client’s market, their industry shifts, or economic trends. This repositions you immediately and reframes how the client sees their challenges.
Problem Reframing – Most clients describe their symptoms, not their disease. One of your jobs is to help them see the root cause of their issues—often something deeper, more structural, and more strategic than they realized.
Gap Analysis – Use data to calculate the distance between where the client is now and where they want to be. Show them, in real terms, the ROI of making a change. This makes your solution a business decision, not just a purchase.
Strategic Questioning – Don’t just ask questions—craft questions that create clarity, uncover blind spots, and connect tactical pain to strategic risk. Your questions should do more than gather information; they should deliver value.
Pain Amplification – Not in a manipulative way—but in a real, ethical way. Clients often underestimate the cost of doing nothing. Help them explore the implications of inaction and align internal stakeholders around the urgency to change.
As a strategist, your job is not done until you’ve defined the tactics required to execute. If you’re a sales leader, a manager, or a consultant, you must also be a tactician. Otherwise, your strategy is nothing more than an aspiration.
The future belongs to those who can marry strategy with execution—who can connect ideas to actions that produce results. The tactics above are just a handful from a longer list I use with clients to drive real-world outcomes in enterprise sales environments.
If your sales strategy isn’t producing, don’t revise the strategy first. Look at your tactics. That’s where the gap almost always lives.
Watch the video to learn more about what sales leaders need to find out where revenue leaks are and what they should be checking for.
What are the three things that sales leaders can do to prevent or stop revenue leaks?
When a business undergoes an acquisition, upselling and cross-selling become essential strategies for integrating product lines and maximizing value. Upselling encourages customers to buy premium or enhanced products, while cross-selling offers complementary products from the newly combined company portfolio. During acquisitions, these tactics help drive immediate revenue by enhancing existing customer relationships with broader offerings. By strategically aligning sales teams and cross-promoting the acquired brand’s products, companies can create a unified customer experience and unlock new growth channels in the expanded business landscape.
Last week I had the distinct pleasure to guest lecture at Brown University in Providence, RI. As some of you know, my daughter Hannah is in her third year there, studying Economics and playing on the volleyball team. It is always rewarding to speak at a university, but to do so in an Ivy League school where your daughter is enrolled makes it extra special.
“Selling and Sales Leadership in the Entrepreneurial Environment” is the class I spoke with taught by Professor Howard Anderson. In his words, startups only have two problems: sales and all else. The topic we discussed was how Sales Process plays a critical role in the tactical execution of a company’s commercial strategy. The students participated actively in this dialogue throughout the 90-minute session.
At least four countries were represented in the room (Kosovo, Russia, Egypt, USA) which reflects the diversity of the Brown student community which will soon impact the global business community. What a great day-a memory I will hold on to for a long time. Thank you, Professor Anderson, and Go BRUNO (the Brown bear)!
In today’s competitive market, a well-defined commercial strategy is essential for achieving long-term success in sales. But what separates high-performing sales teams from those that struggle isn’t just the strategy itself—it’s how effectively that strategy is executed.
Tactical execution transforms a high-level commercial vision into real, measurable results.
Let’s explore the key elements of tactical execution in sales, and how businesses can align their teams to ensure every move propels them closer to their goals.
What Is TECS?
Tactical execution refers to the specific, actionable steps taken to bring a broader commercial strategy to life. While commercial strategy focuses on the long-term vision—such as market positioning, customer acquisition, and revenue goals—tactical execution is about the how. It’s the day-to-day Sales activities that ensure sales targets are met, pipelines are built, and relationships with customers are strengthened.
In essence, TECS translates your strategy into action. Without it, even the best commercial strategy will fall flat.
One of the first steps in tactical execution is ensuring every team member knows the specific objectives they are working toward. Sales leaders must communicate clear KPIs that align with strategic goals, such as:
Sales teams can no longer rely on instinct alone. The use of tools that are created for market specific applications for your product and services are essential. Forrester Research says only 26% of sellers know how to articulate the value their company provides. Don’t leave it to chance that the other 74% will get this right. Develop and adopt the use of tools in prep and Coaching calls.
Successful execution depends not just on sales but on a harmonious effort across marketing, customer success, and product teams. Cross-functional alignment ensures that everyone is rowing in the same direction.
Sales leaders must promote open communication between these departments to create a unified approach to achieving commercial goals. Regular interdepartmental meetings and collaboration tools, such as Slack or Microsoft Teams, can foster this alignment.
The business landscape is constantly evolving, and so too must sales tactics. TECS isn’t a one-time event; it’s an ongoing process of refinement. Adapting to changing market conditions or buyer preferences ensures that teams remain agile and ready to pivot when needed.
For tactical execution to succeed, every sales team member needs to be held accountable for their performance. Clear accountability fosters responsibility, but empowerment fuels innovation.
Finally, none of the tactics will work without the proper skill set. Continuous sales training and coaching are critical for ensuring that your team has the expertise needed to execute the strategy.
Sales teams must be equipped with:
Conclusion
Tactical execution bridges a company’s commercial strategy and its success in the marketplace. By breaking down big-picture goals into clear, measurable actions and aligning sales efforts with other departments, businesses can effectively execute their strategy to drive revenue growth.
Every Revenue Stream is vulnerable to leaks, those gaps where potential revenue slips away unnoticed. Whether it’s poor follow-up, misaligned sales and marketing efforts, or inefficient lead qualification, these leaks can quietly erode growth.
Identifying and sealing these leaks requires:
Regular pipeline reviews
Improved communication across teams
Data-driven insights to track lost opportunities
By proactively addressing these gaps, companies can ensure more revenue flows where it should: to the bottom line.
I have had the unique opportunity to train with one of the best athletes in the world. Michellie Jones is one of the most accomplished triathletes in the history of the sport to include first place at the infamous Ironman (Ironwoman?) in Hawaii and numerous other victories. When she was asked how she prepares for an event, Michellie said “lots of rest after lots of training”.
The setting was a local “Boot Camp” that is put on by her boyfriend, and it attracts a variety of amateur participants. I was paired up with Michellie to go through an 8 station loop course to be completed three times within the 55 minute session.
In a triathlon, the components are: Swim, Bike and Run. In Sales, it’s: Identify, Qualify, Develop and Close.
Half way through the first loop, I began to notice my heart rate rise and sweat level increase. How many times has Michellie done this routine vs. the amateur she was paired with? She didn’t appear to be nearly as flustered going into the second loop as I was, and she was even keeled as I struggled onto the tires for a resistance exercise on a two person pulley.
There were eight stations in the Boot Camp loop, and there are six skills in sales that we identify where mastery must be fluent in order to succeed: new business development, needs analysis, accessing key players, identification of value, opportunity control and negotiating/closing. How often do you run through all exercises to make sure you are in a position to win?
To compare myself to a professional athlete is silly, so I won’t go down that path. But what is the differential between an average sales person and the top performers in the field? Preparation and training are the key components.
How much time are you spending refining your skills so that you put yourself into a position to win?
As I recall limping around the office in the past, I was amazed at how sore certain parts of my body were and was reminded what it takes to succeed. And while I won’t be planning to compete in the next Iron Man, I will be practicing my sales skills so I am ready to win the next opportunity. How about you?
Over the past few years, the majority of the work that we have done with customers is on defining (or refining) their sales process. This was necessitated by the dramatic changes exhibited in buying behavior during the pandemic. And indeed, the most important aspect of our customer’s sales processes is that it mirrors how their customers buy from them. During conversations in both a formal and informal settings, we are asked “how many steps should there be in the sales process?” If we knew that exact answer for each of our customers, we would be retired and they would have Instagram-like success!
So instead of trying to pinpoint the exact number of steps in a sales process, here are the must have, Top Three milestones that each team/seller must have in place to assure success. Please note that very few of our B to B customers have only 3 milestones (or stages), but when pushed to the wall, here are the 3 you can’t live (or sell) without:
1- Access to the Key Players (Decision Maker): there is nothing new to the notion that you must get access to all of the key players, but the budget scrutiny that many organizations have placed on all expenditures since 2008 has made this step even more difficult. A clear articulation on how all important titles would benefit from the usage of your product/service is a mandatory requirement for completing this stage.
2- Clear Understanding of Value: once you have the access as described in #1, can the individuals understand the value that your offering provides. Without this, you will be dancing in the dark when it comes time to go into the evaluation phase.
3- An Approved Implementation Plan: approved as you co-develop the opportunity with your customer/prospect, not after the deal is signed. This sole step can help you to determine your “pole position” deep into opportunity development, and the seriousness of the participant’s gauges how “sticky” your solution will be thereafter.
One of our customers in the Medical Device industry was struggling to get into conversations with the key players in their existing customer base on a new offering they had obtained through an acquisition. The offering was an existing diagnostic test with a new enhanced feature. The challenge was that the enhanced feature provided a benefit that had never been completely commercialized. We sat down with a cross functional team from their organization and built a pro-forma model of what impact the solution had on the existing practices in the testing environment, and who would benefit from this. They went searching for data to substantiate their assertions of what value this add-on widget could provide. They found a reputable research company that had done a study that provided the information they were looking for. We were able to help build a dollar value and a testing value into a pro-forma model (Benefit Summary). The Benefit Summary provided all involved with a complete understanding of the value of their new enhanced feature.
Next, we helped them to create a prototype of an Implementation Plan that correlated with how they could roll this out to their customers. Once completed, the sales process plan was delivered and executed with their main customers. As a result, they have successfully sold an additional 12% in total revenue on this product alone in an $80 million dollar division.
What are you or your organization waiting for to drive more revenue? Let us help you to define (or refine) these steps and start picking up incremental revenue now!