Issue 3
Failing to Focus Salespeople’s Activity, which Reduces Efficiency and Consequently Reduces Results
There isn’t a salesperson alive who has enough time in their working week to complete all they want to achieve! Time is a huge constraint on salespeople’s activities so that when their manager asks
them for more, it’s no wonder that they are overwhelmed!
INEFFICIENT ACTIVITY
In his book Fundamentals of Selling, Charles Futrell identifies careful use of selling time as perhaps the distinguishing characteristic of the successful salesperson. Frequently there are two main
pitfalls that even experienced salespeople can fall into in terms of activities. First, they simply aren’t doing enough. What’s enough? Enough telephone calls to make appointments, enough face-to-face calls, enough calls that involve or influence the
decision-makers.
In general, the more focused sales activity that salespeople generate, the greater the number of sales opportunities they can create.
POOR QUALITY ACTIVITY
Second, but equally important, salespeople often aren’t clear about how to identify the prospects most likely to have a genuine need for their product or service. Without an objective way to
prioritize which prospects to contact first and/or an efficient strategy for contacting them, salespeople are doomed to waste a large percentage of their time.
Another huge dilemma for many salespeople is how to divide their time between servicing existing clients and generating new business from new prospects. Existing clients frequently make requests for
service that could be dealt with by support staff. But salespeople who lack a disciplined, future-oriented plan for generating new contacts and sales often find themselves spending more time attending to "urgent" tasks for existing accounts instead.
A common approach among salespeople can be summarized in the saying, "If you throw enough mud against the wall, some of it is bound to stick." This approach is exhausting, demoralizing, extremely
unproductive, and very expensive in the long term.
SPEED OF RELAYING CUSTOMER INFORMATION
Jonathan Ledwidge, Director, Learning & Development Financial Markets, ABN AMRO Bank, provides another interesting dimension to Activity Management. Apart from product or service knowledge,
salespeople require knowledge about prospects, clients, and market trends. Therefore, if the information those salespeople require isn’t relayed in an efficient manner, their "face-to-face" selling activities are dramatically reduced.
HARDER RATHER THAN SMARTER
In the book Emerson’s Essays, there is a section on "law of compensation," which can be summarized simply as "give more, get more." This is what most salespeople try to do, so they end up working
harder when they could be working smarter. This begs the question, are your sales activities deciding your strategy or is your strategy deciding your sales activities?
MANAGING EXISTING CUSTOMERS
A vitally important sales activity is that of managing existing customer accounts to consolidate and grow the relationship. Yet, unfortunately, when compared over time, the customers’ interest levels
increase while salespeople’s interest levels tend to decrease. This creates a "relationship gap."
Without a sustained approach to ongoing servicing and support activities, customers that took months to win are ultimately lost because there was a lack of interest from their supplier.
SOLUTIONS
"Maximizing a workforce around one common goal that creates value for the customer, the organization, and the employee is the only way to focus the activities of a sales team. It is
critical that each employee is able to measure the value of each activity undertaken during the day and can make the connection to the overarching goals of the organization.
"If there is no clear line of sight between what they are doing and the value to the customer, clearly they are doing the wrong thing."
Pavita Walker, Director, Organization and Leadership Development, Barclays Group
PARETO’S 80/20 RULE
The sales that a salesperson completes today were made possible only by activities performed in the past. Equally, it’s what they do today that will create their future sales results. Because there is
a time delay between activities and results, salespeople have an opportunity to improve their sales results by undertaking sales productivity planning and implementing an effective prospecting system.
Generally, since 80% of sales are generated from 20% of customers, 80% of salespeople’s time should be focused on 20% of the biggest customers/prospects.
NO RATING WILL KEEP SALES WAITING!
The more existing accounts that salespeople have, the less time they can devote to prospecting for new client business. Therefore, they need objective criteria to determine which of their prospects to
contact first. This can produce huge timesavings that have enabled several organizations to increase sales purely by introducing "prospect criteria."
The concept behind prospect criteria is that the salesperson creates a profile of the type of customers who offer the greatest potential for doing business. Factors that enter into a customer’s
priority score might include such things as level of business need, budget, and referenceable accounts in the same industry.
A simple rating system allows the salesperson to determine which prospects to contact first.
"Within Shell, we are constantly encouraging our sales managers to rethink and rework their approach to activity management. One sales manager reduced the distance salespeople drove
between calls from 56 kilometers to 41 kilometers. In three months, this led to a 15% increase in the number of face-to-face customer visits made, which then positively impacted on their sales results. We actively encourage salespeople to work smarter rather
than harder."
Giles Watkins, Global Competence and Learning Manager, Shell Lubricants.
QUESTIONS ARE THE ANSWER
When planning sales activities, the following five questions answered fully help maximize sales activity:
1. When looking at potential customers, how do your salespeople decide if they are right for your organization?
2. Which of your salespeople’s prospects do they contact first?
3. How can your salespeople objectively define the probability of new business?
4. What actions do your salespeople take to reduce the risk of losing their customers?
5. What actions do your salespeople take to develop new business from existing customers?
Only when Sales Directors have clear, comprehensive answers for these questions can real, effective activity management begin.
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