Building the Sales Force Infrastructure

Transcription

1 Building the Sales Force Infrastructure By Austin Higgins, MBA Principal Consultant Build. Invest. Grow.

2 Table of Contents Sales Infrastructure Planning Key Aspects Sales Support Goal Setting Training Design Product Training Market Training o Competitive Market Training o Customer Market Training Process Training Lead- to- Sale Process Evaluation Linking Sales with Marketing and Operations

3 Sales Infrastructure Planning There are four key aspects of sales force infrastructure planning: Goal Setting The sales force and sales division need to know their specific, measurable goals. Training Design Without proper training and tools, the sales force cannot achieve their goals. Lead- to- Sale Process Organizations need to have a distinct process by which sales go from potential lead to closed sale. Regular Evaluation Sales people and sales techniques need regular evaluation and improvements to ensure they are on the right path to achieve the organization s goals. This process is extremely important but often overlooked. The main benefits a company will have in documenting or creating a standard sales infrastructure are: Less risk of turnover in sales team Creating an environment of continuous improvement through evaluation Understand the best methods of marketing and operations to reach stated goals A sales group will not succeed without support, though. They need four key categories of support. 1. Management Support 2. Sales Support 3. Marketing Support 4. Product Support With these all acting in unison to fulfill the singular goal of an organization, a sales group can then be successful. Management Support A sales group is only as good as it s leader. Therefore, without proper management and leadership it cannot be expected to succeed. This also applies to the executive leadership of the company and not only the sales organization. Management must lead, manage and foster success. Sales Support There must be a successful management system in place to track and monitor all sales leads. No lead can go without notice and proper follow through.

4 Marketing Support Sales don t happen and leads can t be monitored without a lead generating process in place. Marketing channels are necessary to provide leads other than salesperson generated cold leads. Tying this support in with the sales organization so that the two understand the needs and nuances of the market is crucial. Product Support The salespeople must intimately understand the product or service they are selling. Also, a solid product or service support system in place for customers is key.

5 Goal Setting This is by far the simplest and, yet, most overlooked aspect of sales organizations. Without a clear goal, how can you determine if you are on track? This not only applies to individual salespeople, but to sales groups as a whole. There are common goal types for individual salespeople: Performance goals Activity goals Conversion goals Financial goals But, these only apply to the individual salesperson. What about the sales organization? This is even more important than the individual goals. Every organization within a company must adhere to the standard strategic vision. But, they must also develop their own strategy to compliment that of the company. Sales groups must answer specific questions about their purpose: What do they seek to accomplish within the organization? Where in the marketing and production cycle do they fit in? What is the desired outcome for the group on a daily, weekly, monthly and quarterly basis? When setting goals for the sales group think in both short term and long term. Set goals for: Daily Weekly Monthly Quarterly Annually Also, goals must be measurable. So, when you are setting the goals for your sales group and salespeople make sure these can be measured with definable metrics. If it cannot be measured, it is difficult to achieve.

6 Training Design Sales training is often neglected in major organizations. A common thought process is that cold calling and outside sales is based solely on volume. If you call 1,000 people, you will eventually get a sale. Quantity over quality is often a mantra in sales groups. But, true training rarely exists. There are three tenants of sales training that need to be available: 1. Product Training 2. Market Training 3. Process Training Product Training Sales people need to understand exactly what they are selling. This is true of a product or a service. And, it doesn t matter if they are selling to individuals, businesses, non- profits, governments or anything in between. Sales people need to know what they are selling. Specifically, they need to know: The value their offering brings o What financial benefits does the product bring? o What non- financial benefits does the product bring? o What intangible benefits does the product bring? The complete usability of the offering o What does the product do? o What is the implementation process like? o How can the product integrate with other products? What the offering can not accomplish o What is the limitation of the product or service? o What is the product not supposed to accomplish? o Are there other solutions to what the product cannot accomplish? Market Training Knowing what the product or service can accomplish is only the beginning. A sales force needs to understand the market in which their product or service exists. There are two key types of market training that needs to be available: 1. Competitive Market Training 2. Customer Market Training

7 Competitive Market Training This type of training involves understanding the market around the product or service the sales group is selling. Sales people need to understand what other offerings compete with the ones they sell. They need to understand the risks associated in this business. Specifically, Competitive Market Training must answer the following: What competitors are there for this product or service? What do other products have that this product doesn t have? What does this product have that other products don t have? What additional products or services can be used as a substitution? How strong are the competitors in this market? How long have competitors been in this market? What are the long- term trends of this market? Potential customers will eventually ask all of these questions. Customers want to know they are getting a great value in their products or services they purchase. So, having this information available to sales groups will help them communicate their value offering to customers. The goal is to have a well- informed and professional sales force. Customer Market Training The other aspect of market training revolves around customers and potential customers. It is rare that one product or service can be applicable to every person or business. With this in mind, sales groups need to know their ideal customer. This is especially true of sales groups without a strong lead development process. Specifically, the sales people must understand: Who is an ideal customer? Who is not an ideal customer? Is company size or location important? Are certain industries preferred to other industries? What level of management can purchase the product or service? Process Training All sales people must understand what happens from the moment a lead is delivered to when the sale is closed. This is where the Lead- to- Sale Process comes in.

8 Lead- to- Sale Process Think of an assembly line when it comes to LSP. An organization needs to understand each and every step of what it takes their sales people and support staff to achieve success. These are the basic steps in the LSP: 1. Engage the potential customer 2. Qualify the customer 3. Assess the needs of the customer 4. Propose the solution 5. Close the sale 6. Process the sale This process may vary from organization to organization, but the important matter still remains the same: it needs to be defined. All sales people need to understand the complete cycle of the LSP. Even more, they must understand how marketing and operations tie in to this cycle. Where do the leads come from? What happens after the sale? Everyone in the sales group must understand these two questions and have a readily available answer. Steps to Documenting the Lead- to- Sale Process 1. Define the Process a. Work with veteran sales people in the organization to understand what the current process is. Include what happens before the lead is given to the sales group. This will likely include the marketing group, as well. Also, include what happens after the sale is made. This will include information and processes from operations, distributions and fulfillment. Get as much information as possible. It is easier to exclude information than to create new information. 2. Document the Process a. After the information is gathered and defined, translate this in to visual form. The easiest and most popular method is with a process map or flow chart. Chart the milestones in the lead- to- sale process. Also, create a standard operating procedure for the sales force. Document every step of the process and what should be done and what should not be done.

9 3. Improve the Process a. After defining and documenting the process but before creating a new standard operating procedure, improve the LSP. There are always ways to increase efficiency or to streamline a process. Look at ways to make the current process better. 4. Develop a Communication Channel for Distribution a. Take the new information and work with an internal communications group to distribute the new information to the sales group as well as the marketing, operations and finance groups. Everyone involved must know what the new process is. Sales might be the lifeblood of an organization, but they still wouldn t exist without the support groups. Make sure there is sufficient buy- in and change management in place.

10 Evaluation How can you know if a process or a function is working unless you evaluate it? A process unevaluated isn t worth having. One of the key practices missing from many organizations is an appropriate evaluation method. But, the evaluation process must be beneficial. The things you track are the things that are important. So, when setting an evaluation method, mirror these metrics to goals. This cannot be said enough. Evaluation metrics must mirror stated goals. Set up an evaluation timeline for the process. Sales managers and operations managers may think they should only evaluate a process when they evaluate a person if they think they should evaluate a process at all. Consider this sample timeline: Revamp and redesign LSP First wave evaluation with minor changes Sales force and support staff interviews Second wave evaluation Market condition analysis Third wave evaluation There is still a major question left unanswered by many sales groups, and managers in other roles: what should our metrics be? Consider your goals and ask the question: how do I measure this goal? Goal Increase bottom line Decrease sales cycle Decrease payment float time Possible Metric Top line growth and expense reduction tracking Time from lead discovery to contract to delivery Time from delivery to payment and percent payment on time

11 Linking Sales with Marketing and Operations An entire organization needs to operate together. Many businesses miss out on additional revenue and lower costs by not creating an environment built on communication and cooperation. Sales groups must be directly tied to marketing and operations. The sales team is responsible for working with customers and filling needs to create sales. They are only one portion of the value stream. The entire value stream of an organization includes marketing and operations, as well. Operations Marketing Sales

12 Operations: This group is responsible for creating the actual product or delivering the service. After a sale is made, they come in and deliver. The operations group has a different subset of support groups that may include finance, accounting, strategy, planning or any number of other groups. But what is the operations group without sales? Sales: The sales group is the lifeblood of a company. They are responsible for taking the product or service to market and delivering contracts. They are the face of the company and make the deals to supply to operations. But, from where do the sales group get their leads? Marketing: Marketing is the primary lead generating group of most companies. They are the first line of delivering the message of the company to potential customers. Without this primary lead generating group the sales group could not deliver contracts for operations to fulfill. It is clear these three groups must be tied together. They are undeniable linked together in success and failure. If there is not direct communication of best practices across al groups, the organization cannot achieve its highest potential success. Plan together, or fail alone.