I want you to deliver more:
- Profit
- Sales
- Productivity
- Customers
- Quality
And, by the way, you’ve got less:
- Money
- Staff
- Time
Sound familiar? Year on year, sales leaders are being asked to achieve improved results with fewer resources or, at least, more from the same. To most Sales Directors, the attainment of a permanent increase in sales revenues must seem like the search for eternal youth; unending and, ultimately, unavailing.
Unfortunately, the task of selling never becomes any easier and as competition continues to intensify, sales people will face issues that can be extremely difficult to deal with e.g. decreased product uniqueness, increased competition within ‘safe’ markets, longer sales cycles and shorter product life spans.
The reality is that whatever got you where you are today will not be sufficient to keep you there. A rapidly changing environment is the regular background against which organisations must develop.
Change is continuous and will become more rapid as we move forward over time. Sales management must be capable of reacting to those changes, be prepared to take advantage of them and yet stay within the overall framework of a formalised strategy.
The role of strategy is fundamental if the people within an organisation are to be enabled to make the level of contribution of which they are capable. Strategy, based on a good grasp of the core competencies of a business, is an essential precursor to achieving optimal shareholder value.
Getting more for less or more from the same level of resources, is my simple definition of efficiency.
Here then are six steps you can take in 2007 that will help you achieve those increased targets:
Step One: Understand your operation
- Do you know your operation well enough to improve it?
Step Two: Set the right objectives
- Do you have the right objectives to steer improvement?
Step Three: Check customer perception
- How can you identify non-value-added (wasteful) activity?
- How can you remove it?
Step Four: Increase capacity
- Are you meeting demand?
- What action(s) can you take?
- How efficient are your resources?
Step Five: Continuously improve
- Do you have a systematic approach to constant improvement?
Step Six: Check customer perception
- How effective have your efforts been?
- How can you tell?
And finally, when you review your performance in 2006, consider benchmarking yourself against the Sales Management Acid Test:
The Acid Test – When thinking about your own sales force,
- Did you understand their motivators – what was driving them?
- Did you always have visibility of their numbers – year to date, forecast vs. required performance?
- Activity levels – did they work hard and smart enough?
- Engagement – did they always meet with the right level in their prospects/accounts?
- Messaging – were they capable of delivering an appropriate message at the right level?
- Qualification – did they only spend time on deals where they could compete and ultimately win?
- Closing – did they construct successful campaigns and close enough business?
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
Are You Fully Prepared For A Fresh Set Of Challenges? A Sales Management Checklist
Essentially, the task of the Sales Manager is to produce revenue for their company through the operations of the sales staff for whom they are responsible. The size of this revenue, and the profit (however defined) which it should show, are usually predetermined in order to achieve the aims of company policy. The objectives which they set for the various activities which are involved in carrying out this task should therefore be derived from, and be compatible with, company objectives, such as return on capital employed, cash flow, market position, growth.
Since, like other managers, the Sales Manager depends on those who work for them to produce the results by which they are judged, consideration can usefully continue by regularly examining the nature and characteristics of their role.
As we near the end of the year, this is an excellent time to take stock and ask yourself some important questions to ensure that you are totally prepared for the fresh set of challenges that lay ahead next year
* What are the objectives of my department, function and company?
* Am I satisfied that I feel these can be achieved - that I have a plan for this?
* In what ways can my department/company be improved?
* Is the work in my area altering in nature, quantity or quality?
* Can the work be done it a better way?
* Have I the right equipment and facilities?
* Have I the right number of staff?
* Am I happy that all my subordinates are correctly placed and loaded?
* Is my staff doing what I want them to do?
* Do any of my staff need further training? Have I a training plan?
* What are the staffing trends?
* Are my staff happy? Do I spend enough time with them?
* Have I a trained deputy?
* Am I satisfied personally?
* Is my authority defined and adequate?
* Is my relationship with senior management satisfactory?
* Where is my next promotion coming from?
* Am I doing too much routine or administrative/clerical work?
* Have I enough time for thinking?
Summary:
For a group of people to remain “consciously competent” at optimum performance levels, they require frequent injections of stimulation, motivational guidance and prompting otherwise they can easily lapse into” unconsciously competent”, or worse, “unconsciously incompetent”
The primary objective of a professional Sales Manager has to be:
“To achieve consistently superior results, through the performance of every key individual.”
However, you can only achieve that objective if you, yourself, are fully committed and focussed on what will be required.
Since, like other managers, the Sales Manager depends on those who work for them to produce the results by which they are judged, consideration can usefully continue by regularly examining the nature and characteristics of their role.
As we near the end of the year, this is an excellent time to take stock and ask yourself some important questions to ensure that you are totally prepared for the fresh set of challenges that lay ahead next year
* What are the objectives of my department, function and company?
* Am I satisfied that I feel these can be achieved - that I have a plan for this?
* In what ways can my department/company be improved?
* Is the work in my area altering in nature, quantity or quality?
* Can the work be done it a better way?
* Have I the right equipment and facilities?
* Have I the right number of staff?
* Am I happy that all my subordinates are correctly placed and loaded?
* Is my staff doing what I want them to do?
* Do any of my staff need further training? Have I a training plan?
* What are the staffing trends?
* Are my staff happy? Do I spend enough time with them?
* Have I a trained deputy?
* Am I satisfied personally?
* Is my authority defined and adequate?
* Is my relationship with senior management satisfactory?
* Where is my next promotion coming from?
* Am I doing too much routine or administrative/clerical work?
* Have I enough time for thinking?
Summary:
For a group of people to remain “consciously competent” at optimum performance levels, they require frequent injections of stimulation, motivational guidance and prompting otherwise they can easily lapse into” unconsciously competent”, or worse, “unconsciously incompetent”
The primary objective of a professional Sales Manager has to be:
“To achieve consistently superior results, through the performance of every key individual.”
However, you can only achieve that objective if you, yourself, are fully committed and focussed on what will be required.
Getting The Right CRM Software Package
Learning how to use a complex software package is usually a daunting task, and trying to learn all the ins and outs within the time limits of a free trial is even harder. Not only do you need to find out how the CRM software package works, but you need also to learn if you can apply it to the specific needs of your business.
For the inexperienced person, choosing the best Customer Relationship Management system can be a difficult. Does your business need an on demand solution, meaning a hosted, accessible over the Internet platform, or can your organization use a real run-on-Windows application.
The basic acronyms CRM (Customer Relations Management), ERP (Enterprise resource planning, integrating all data and processes of an organization into a unified system), SFA (Sales Force Automation, automated, time saving systems that help the sales people) can be intimidating, but you should know them. A simple Google search will usually tell you what the acronym means.
To make the best of it, you should stick to a few simple rules that can show you what systems are worth looking into and what packages should be avoided. Having these pointers will let you quickly find a system that will work for you.
First, you should make sure the product can be customized to fit your needs. There are many systems out there but most likely none of them will work for your business right out of the box.
To make sure a system can be customized, look for companies that sell multiple editions of their product, this usually means they have tailored their products to other customers and that they will be willing to meet your needs, and make the product work for you.
Also, you should look for a road map for the product. Having a road map usually indicates that the company believes in their product and that they are here to stay. You want a product that stays in the market as you grow and grows with you.
A product that is usable for you entire company is desirable, paying for a fully hosted CRM you should make sure that it is backed by a Service Level Agreement as well.
Getting the right CRM software package is no easy task, but if you use the above rules as you research the field you should be able to find a system that works for you and your organization.
For the inexperienced person, choosing the best Customer Relationship Management system can be a difficult. Does your business need an on demand solution, meaning a hosted, accessible over the Internet platform, or can your organization use a real run-on-Windows application.
The basic acronyms CRM (Customer Relations Management), ERP (Enterprise resource planning, integrating all data and processes of an organization into a unified system), SFA (Sales Force Automation, automated, time saving systems that help the sales people) can be intimidating, but you should know them. A simple Google search will usually tell you what the acronym means.
To make the best of it, you should stick to a few simple rules that can show you what systems are worth looking into and what packages should be avoided. Having these pointers will let you quickly find a system that will work for you.
First, you should make sure the product can be customized to fit your needs. There are many systems out there but most likely none of them will work for your business right out of the box.
To make sure a system can be customized, look for companies that sell multiple editions of their product, this usually means they have tailored their products to other customers and that they will be willing to meet your needs, and make the product work for you.
Also, you should look for a road map for the product. Having a road map usually indicates that the company believes in their product and that they are here to stay. You want a product that stays in the market as you grow and grows with you.
A product that is usable for you entire company is desirable, paying for a fully hosted CRM you should make sure that it is backed by a Service Level Agreement as well.
Getting the right CRM software package is no easy task, but if you use the above rules as you research the field you should be able to find a system that works for you and your organization.
Five Reasons Why Business Development Is So Difficult To Get Right
Every conversation I have with a CEO of a middle-sized company eventually touches on the same conundrum … ‘How in the world does a company of our size get traction in new markets with new clients?’ This challenge seems to rank right up there with problems of arranging sufficient financial resources and getting top people to commit to a small but growing company.
This is often a challenge that did not limit growth in the early stages. During that early growth, the contacts and reputation of the founders and key executives drove the ‘top line’. Most often the client base came to resemble a silo in a corn field … one client dominating the business mix surrounded by other smaller clients that represent stunted attempts at broadening the base.
To be sure, this start up strategy is one of the preferred ways forward during the initial phase. In fact it is an early indicator if the management team has any business starting the business at all. If they don’t have ready clients for their product of service, they should get them before going forward.
But why, once the early growth phase is over, is it so difficult to get business development going? Why do the business development slots look so much like revolving doors? And, why is it that growing a company from nil to ten or fifteen million in annual revenues often does not seem to prepare management to take it to thirty or fifty million?
Here are some suggestions that might serve to channel discussions towards productive areas.
One: The senior management (particularly the CEO) is not really committed to making the journey. This is more common that you might think. Corporate growth requires significant self-reinvention among key members of the senior team. Often they are not prepared to give up control or manage a larger operation. Some prefer ‘writing code’ or whatever the company’s principal business happens to be. But whatever their ‘rationale’, they don’t want to or can’t become managers. In this case, expenditures on business development can just be a waste of resources. Better save the money and buy the new car.
Two: The structure pretty much guarantees failure. Business development is often an afterthought add-on to the evolved organizational structure. It seems to operate in a quasi-independent status with loose reporting arrangements to the CEO or COO. It is an appendage after the fact. Business development has to be integral to the company’s organizational structure and the CEO needs to be the senior business development member of the team. I once attended an all-hands retreat of a company where the COO gave the business development report. That spoke volumes on how the company saw the three business development employees standing in the wings. They were, of course, replaced by newer models by the next retreat and the revolving door was kept in good working order.
Three: Business development is seen as the province of middle-level people. Think of the message that such an approach gives potential new clients. “Talk to the ‘lessers’ and, if we deem you worthy, we will let you talk to the senior people.” New clients need/want to see the top person right off the get-go. It is the CEO that represents the Company’s commitment to client satisfaction, the ability of the company to commit as well as the ability of the client to find some person to rely on. Each time a decision-maker chooses to go with a new company they take a huge risk. If it goes wrong … how much faith do you think such a person would put in a middle level person with no real connection to the Company’s culture or senior management team?
Four: The wrong people for the job: A company often will bring in ‘business development’ types as a first attempt to attack the problem of widening the client base. These people are ‘specialists’ in chasing business … but frequently not specialists in the business of the company. Most often they are walled-off from the Company’s principal clients and are limited to higher risk longer cycle targets. What is most interesting about this approach is that it resource-starves functions that a company needs to provide in order to successfully grow its top line. Money is spent on business development types while the proposal development, capture team and red-teaming are radically under-resourced. In the end it is often the case of a middle level employee identifying a marginal piece of business that the company cannot properly pursue and capture.
Five: What is all this making us look like in the market place? The process is called branding … establishing the reputation of the company in the minds of actual and potential customers. It is by far the least understood and most dangerous threat to any company’s future. How is your company known … what is its reputation? How well do you understand why customers do business with you? Are you known as a group that knows how business is done? Or are you branded as a company that has ‘outsourced’ its future? These ‘costs’ are often overlooked as being less important than the business of the business. This mistake has probably killed more companies than any other. How you are known determines how seriously you are taken … and that largely determines what opportunities you will see and how successful you will become.
Business development is a tough nut to crack for any management team intent on growing a business out of the teens towards the ‘century’ mark. There are more dead bodies in that field than live travelers. Without careful planning and disciplined execution, the results are likely to be both disappointing and frustrating.
This is often a challenge that did not limit growth in the early stages. During that early growth, the contacts and reputation of the founders and key executives drove the ‘top line’. Most often the client base came to resemble a silo in a corn field … one client dominating the business mix surrounded by other smaller clients that represent stunted attempts at broadening the base.
To be sure, this start up strategy is one of the preferred ways forward during the initial phase. In fact it is an early indicator if the management team has any business starting the business at all. If they don’t have ready clients for their product of service, they should get them before going forward.
But why, once the early growth phase is over, is it so difficult to get business development going? Why do the business development slots look so much like revolving doors? And, why is it that growing a company from nil to ten or fifteen million in annual revenues often does not seem to prepare management to take it to thirty or fifty million?
Here are some suggestions that might serve to channel discussions towards productive areas.
One: The senior management (particularly the CEO) is not really committed to making the journey. This is more common that you might think. Corporate growth requires significant self-reinvention among key members of the senior team. Often they are not prepared to give up control or manage a larger operation. Some prefer ‘writing code’ or whatever the company’s principal business happens to be. But whatever their ‘rationale’, they don’t want to or can’t become managers. In this case, expenditures on business development can just be a waste of resources. Better save the money and buy the new car.
Two: The structure pretty much guarantees failure. Business development is often an afterthought add-on to the evolved organizational structure. It seems to operate in a quasi-independent status with loose reporting arrangements to the CEO or COO. It is an appendage after the fact. Business development has to be integral to the company’s organizational structure and the CEO needs to be the senior business development member of the team. I once attended an all-hands retreat of a company where the COO gave the business development report. That spoke volumes on how the company saw the three business development employees standing in the wings. They were, of course, replaced by newer models by the next retreat and the revolving door was kept in good working order.
Three: Business development is seen as the province of middle-level people. Think of the message that such an approach gives potential new clients. “Talk to the ‘lessers’ and, if we deem you worthy, we will let you talk to the senior people.” New clients need/want to see the top person right off the get-go. It is the CEO that represents the Company’s commitment to client satisfaction, the ability of the company to commit as well as the ability of the client to find some person to rely on. Each time a decision-maker chooses to go with a new company they take a huge risk. If it goes wrong … how much faith do you think such a person would put in a middle level person with no real connection to the Company’s culture or senior management team?
Four: The wrong people for the job: A company often will bring in ‘business development’ types as a first attempt to attack the problem of widening the client base. These people are ‘specialists’ in chasing business … but frequently not specialists in the business of the company. Most often they are walled-off from the Company’s principal clients and are limited to higher risk longer cycle targets. What is most interesting about this approach is that it resource-starves functions that a company needs to provide in order to successfully grow its top line. Money is spent on business development types while the proposal development, capture team and red-teaming are radically under-resourced. In the end it is often the case of a middle level employee identifying a marginal piece of business that the company cannot properly pursue and capture.
Five: What is all this making us look like in the market place? The process is called branding … establishing the reputation of the company in the minds of actual and potential customers. It is by far the least understood and most dangerous threat to any company’s future. How is your company known … what is its reputation? How well do you understand why customers do business with you? Are you known as a group that knows how business is done? Or are you branded as a company that has ‘outsourced’ its future? These ‘costs’ are often overlooked as being less important than the business of the business. This mistake has probably killed more companies than any other. How you are known determines how seriously you are taken … and that largely determines what opportunities you will see and how successful you will become.
Business development is a tough nut to crack for any management team intent on growing a business out of the teens towards the ‘century’ mark. There are more dead bodies in that field than live travelers. Without careful planning and disciplined execution, the results are likely to be both disappointing and frustrating.
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