Sales leaders organize their selling organization into several distinct areas, starting with the customer, to set overall strategy for customer interaction, improve and support the salesforce, and make decisions to continue to improve performance and drive growth. This sales system was created by Miller Heiman to illustrate how a world-class sales organization views the critical elements that define a high ­performance environment.

Customer: Everything starts with the customer at the heart of all strategy and actions.

Create opportunities: World-class sales organizations keep their sales funnels filled with high-quality opportunities by applying well-defined prospecting plans.

Manage opportunities: World-class sales organizations have a clearly defined methodology to guide them in winning new business.

Manage relationships: World-class sales organizations are proactive in managing relationships and spend more time with key accounts,especially at the executive level.

People and organization: World-class sales organizations know why their top performers are successful and use that information to improve their salesforce's performance.

Operations and enablement: World-class sales organizations use infrastructure, technology, and programs to enhance sales performance.

Management execution: Management in world-class sales organizations aligns the organization to meet the needs of customers, and executive leadership takes an active role in the sales process.

(Source Miller-Heiman)