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Back in 2009, the United States Congress spent weeks drafting the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Most companies simply followed the process, praying it would help kick-start sales that had been ravaged by the deep recession. But at one major high-tech equipment company, sales leaders weren’t waiting. They knew the legislation would create opportunities for them. They put together a dedicated team with a field sales leader to spearhead the stimulus program and made it a focus for the sales organization. This group was responsible for developing compelling offerings, finding target customers, and creating an investment plan.

As soon as the outline of the bill came into focus, the group got busy planning how to exploit the potential that the new law would provide. They saw that the legislation called for grants and tax rebates to encourage healthcare providers to upgrade IT infrastructure and transition to electronic medical records. This infrastructure included products the company made.

The sales group swung into action, quickly developing a tailored offering for hospitals over the first four to six weeks. This was not a case of working with product development to launch tailored products. There was no time. Instead, the group had to select the suite of products that best fit customers’ needs and that fell within the scope of the legislation. It also developed sales collateral that told hospitals exactly how to take advantage of the federal subsidies in the stimulus bill. The company quickly met with many hospitals and was able to secure multimillion-dollar deals within the first few weeks after the bill was passed. It was months ahead of its competitors.

This is a prime example of forward-looking sales management, an important differentiator of top-performing sales organizations. Certainly, all sales leaders know that they should pay attention to what is happening in the wider world to anticipate changes that could turn into opportunities or threats. But the best follow the example of this company; they make trend analysis a formal part of the sales planning process and, as a result, are perfectly poised to capture the opportunities created by sudden changes in the environment.

Turning the stimulus package into a coherent, on-the-ground program is just one example of capitalizing on a forward-looking view of the market. Another leading high-tech company’s sales leadership continuously monitors economics, consumer behavior, and other forces to identify two or three relevant trends each year, and then translates them into concrete sales programs. It develops cross-functional SWAT teams that work with customer account teams to educate customers on the nature of a trend and to sell them on its solution. These teams engage with potential clients over a set period, explaining their reasoning and how the particular trend translates into a business impact. Customers valued this forward thinking and, as a result, favored partnering with the high-tech vendor as a way to get ahead of their rivals.

Whether it’s ecobusiness or cloud computing, by linking sales activities with emerging trends the company has scored breakthrough wins at Fortune 500 customers.

Based on our research and the discussions with the 200 sales executives we interviewed, it is clear that great companies do three interrelated things to capture the benefits of forward thinking:

Sales leaders continuously monitor economics, consumer behavior, and other forces to identify two or three relevant trends each year.

1. Surf the trends. Good sales leaders know how to hit monthly and annual sales targets. Great sales leaders tap into the big picture, watching for strategic openings in economic trends or changes in customer sectors and regions. They know these can be real opportunities.

2. Invest ahead of demand. This might mean making a small investment in analytic capabilities or beefing up the number of frontline sales staff ahead of the emerging trend.

3. Make it a way of life. Programs that successfully exploit emerging trends are not one-off flukes or lucky bets. Leading sales organizations have a built-in forward perspective and mechanisms to turn insights into action.