Sales
management is a deep topic but this series of podcasts is focusing
on
the quick and easy ways to increase revenue. So let’s look
at some of the
obvious stuff which many companies forget to do.
The
adage “If you don’t measure it you can’t manage it” is
absolutely true.
“But I do measure sales results” you say!
Fair enough.. but do you just
manage the results or do you also
measure the activities that lead to those
results? Too many
organizations leave the sales team to be lone-wolf hunters
without
helping them to develop an effective framework for their
activities.
And it’s the activities that matter! And, to
expand on the adage – “What gets
measured, gets done”.
Think
of sales as a machine – leads go in one end and sales come out
the
other. What happens inside the machine? How are they
processed? There are
an infinite number of ways to break down
the sales process: Lead, Prospect,
Qualified Prospect,
Presentation, Demo, Proposal, Contract etc... Each
company will
have a unique framework depending on the type of customer
and
the product or service being sold. The important thing is to be able
to
measure the efficiency of the process and you do that by
measuring what
percentage of opportunities move forward at each
stage – and how long that
takes.
The
objective here is not necessarily to monitor your sales staff but
rather to
manage them and the process. If few leads are
converting to prospects then
your lead generation system is
inefficient. If you are investing in a lot of
demos and not
being asked for a proposal then perhaps your demos are
flawed.
With this data you can start to improve the process. In an ideal
world
100% of all leads become clients. (If you can achieve that
let me know!). The
earlier in the process you can weed out those
who won’t buy, the less time
and energy you’ll waste] and
you’ll be on your way to a continuously
improving lean sales
process.
Note
that we are talking about activities here - and not skills- and 80%
of
sales is simply doing the work. Sure the skill level matters
but only if you also
do the work.
This
will also allow you to forecast sales with more accuracy. For
example, if
you have few leads and a sales cycle of 2 months –
you’ll have some lean
days ahead.
At
a minimum, your business plan forecasts the annual, quarterly
and
monthly targets. Have you broken these down into weekly
objectives? Are
you reviewing your sales team’s activities
each week?
So,
codify your sales process, set objectives based on your business
plan,
measure your team’s activities and review progress
weekly to provide
coaching and identify ways to continually
improve your process.
If
you’d like some help designing a sales framework for your
organization,
will you give me a call?
Podcasts. We
have started a series of Business Podcasts. Click this link to
hear how you can take your company to the next level: Next
Level Thinking for CEOs and Business Owners
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