Issue 1
A Poorly Defined Sales Process, which Dilutes Sales Revenues
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SUGGESTED SOLUTIONS
● INVOLVING CUSTOMERS
One of the most effective strategies of successful Sales Directors is to get customers involved by asking them how they want to be sold to. Customer feedback—which can be obtained via focus groups, surveys, and/or discussions conducted by the sales force—offers a number of potent benefits. It demonstrates to the customers that the organization really is ‘walking the talk’ when it comes to being customer-focused.
This external perception then has a salutary impact on thinking throughout the organization itself. And finally, the information collected from customers enables management to identify common trends and flesh out the details of a consultative sales process that systematically advances progress toward a sale while fitting with customers’ expectations and desires.
● IDENTIFYING BEST PRACTICES
Another successful strategy has been to identify best practices by gathering a representative number of top-performing salespeople to record what they do, how they do it, and their mindset and beliefs. Once a sales process has been identified, it must undergo a period of evaluation and testing to gain real feedback on whether it works or whether it needs some further amendments. The more salespeople involved in the testing of the process, the better. When the salespeople feel included, they will be far more committed to following the process that emerges because they contributed to creating it.
● A SALES PROCESS PROVIDES A FOUNDATION FOR COMPETENCY DEVELOPMENT
The very best Sales Directors use each step in the sales process to serve as part of the foundation for developing specific performance standards and expectations (often referred to as competencies) that will enable the salespeople to accomplish each step. These competencies, in turn, enable the organization to assess the development needs of each salesperson.
For example, if one of the steps in the sales process is to find out each client’s specific requirements, the salespeople need strong questioning and active listening skills to perform this step. Upon defining their sales process and competencies, many successful organizations have discovered that some of their most experienced salespeople—who were well-versed in traditional selling methods—nevertheless had a number of development gaps when working within the framework of a consultative sales process.
According to Giles Watkins, Global Competence and Learning Manager, Shell Lubricants, a properly used Competency Development Framework delivers three key benefits for an organization:
1. A clear benchmark for salespeople and sales managers so that they know what is expected of them
2. A clear career path for progression (which typically seems to motivate salespeople who operate in a business-to-business environment)
3. Evidence of the return on investment made in developing people so organizations are encouraged to sustain ongoing development
● ONGOING MONITORING AND MEASUREMENT
Once an effective sales process has been developed, top-performing Sales Directors take care to "sell" its benefits to their salespeople. Any change—particularly any new system that requires documentation and exposes people to close management observation—is bound to cause some fear and will initially unsettle people.
But salespeople who understand what their sales process is and come to appreciate its advantages to them are far more likely to embrace that process enthusiastically. This is especially so when they have an opportunity, in confidence, to use the sales process as a benchmark against which to evaluate their own performance, to identify their areas of strength and opportunities for improvement, and to seek training that can enhance their skills in vital areas.
● QUALITY CONTROL
Every manufacturing company has a system in place to monitor, control, and improve the quality of products they produce. Likewise, a sales organization—along with each individual salesperson in the organization—needs to implement a system that continually measures and monitors how well and faithfully its sales process is adhered to. And, when areas for possible improvement are identified, the organization must exploit them through training and vigorous reinforcement of the process itself.
"A sales process requires constant monitoring to ensure it is being properly implemented"
● FOUR VITAL COMPONENTS
The trend during the last eight years has been toward technology-based Customer Relationship Management Systems (CRMs). Research done by the Gartner Group (see diagram below) has
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