Building Sustainability with Performance

 

 

Some call it a Sales Management System, we call it Sales Performance Metric

The cost of selling has increased significantly over the decade. Firms are trying to use many approaches to minimize this cost as well as the margin of error in any sales force investment. Thus they run to keep an eye on salespeople’s productivity and performance, which is a challenge by itself.
It is a multi dimensional interrelated challenge that became the debate of many sales experts. Some believe that a key factor for sustaining such investment is secured by increasing salespeople’s productivity, thus getting them to work harder and spend more time selling, doing calls and putting more efforts with tough customer. On the contrast many others believe that the key factor is getting salespeople work smarter especially during their interaction with their customers.
As much as most agree that the challenging combination of both perspective is the best fit, I believe the visibility and the accuracy of sales forecasting is what every successful company strives to achieve most.
The Challenge – Easier Said Than Done
Building scientifically a sales budget and having an accurate sales forecast is very challenging. Indeed those challenges will be addressed particularly in a coming publication, but there is no doubt that the base of this problem lies in the lack of any scientific visibility for the sales productivity as well as a well defined metrics for their efficiency:
Productivity: Salespeople find difficulty in maintaining constantly their productivity; you can best describe it as a roller-coaster.
  1. Newcomers: in best cases they are given a certain $ value target or # of clients to be achieved and managers start pushing them to start doing on-ground sales activities with no communicated Key Performance Indicator. This approach leaves newcomers as well as the management with no visibility and clear idea what is being done properly and what requires fixing.
  2. Average salespeople: have difficulty reaching their numbers. They have difficulty generating enough new leads, or keeping their pipeline rich with qualified # of offers as well as reaching their targets. They are always overstressed with their final $ targets rather than small wins and milestones. The latter might and lot of time be a door opener for a big sales success.
  3. Good performers: with high closing ratio posses low productivity in terms of generating new leads, creating opportunities and maintaining enough number of active offers. They tend to focus more on the few opportunities they have while relying on their high closing ratio. Such practice is risky and does not build sustainability.

Efficiency: Since every sales stage within the process requires certain sales efforts, that require certain capabilities in return, and since both the efforts and capabilities are related to on-ground activities which are behind sight and difficult to monitor and evaluate with the absence of a well defined metrics, management ends up not knowing what challenges salespeople are facing or capabilities they require to acquire in order to have a good performance.

The Solution –

Performance Metrics
Productivity metrics provide the means to monitor and improve sales performance. Performance metrics can notify sales management when strategy, structure and management tactics needs adjustments.
Such exercise is an ongoing requirement for effective sales management as well as for salespeople themselves. It provides ample information for salespeople to track outcome and change solutions and tactics in a continuous fashion. Such measurement falls under three classes:

Planning Analytics: These measures include segment sizing such as potential estimates, categorizing of offering and their average deal….

Productivity Metrics: it monitors sales force production at all levels including their visits till the end. Combining both the total numbers with the $ values give better visibility & indication.
Performance Ratings: it assesses unit, team or individual performance within the sales process or in regards of comparative measure of the entire sales force.
Find below a table that reflects the three classes stated above. Each class has been colored respectfully.

This simulation is derived from a firm that provides diversified products and solutions that caters to different segments.
How We Could Help You
If you are looking to building sustainability among your sales organization and to have a better visibility on your sales forecast, we are happy to come in and aid in developing this system, develop the mindset required within your salesforce and deploy all tools needed to accelerate the performance by:
  1. Aggregate Data: We collect and aggregate all required data aligned with the vision and scope of the project
  2. Analyze the Data: We build up all hypotheses needed to do the required observations. Such scientific analysis will draw a better picture and good insights for developing a tailored performance metrics.
  3. Develop the right Performance Metrics: joining our expertise together we develop the right performance metrics that best suits your organization, business, industry, culture, salespeople, etc…
  4. Develop the mindset: We develop, train and coach the entire sales force on the new mindset.
  5. Guarantee Result: We continue to execute the set plans that link together people, plan, processes and systems.

As a boutique sales management consulting firm focusing solely on assisting organization on structuring, developing, transforming and optimizing their sales organization, we can help in any of your uncertain sales challenges, and sales performance optimization.

Feel free to contact us, or directly respond to mazen@logicshape.com.

What’s Different In Our Approach
Our unique boutique approach towards achieving results and the success of our engagements is based on three key elements:
  1. Science into Sales: Coming from a scientific analytical mindset coupled with our solid sales experience and understanding of the market gives us the privilege to set this analysis apart from common sales analysis and some comparative sheets and reports. Such exercise would aid in identifying the root causes of the challenges.
  2. Pragmatic Process Consultants: We believe that the best way for us to work for you is to collaborate with you. Thus coming from a third point of view and as process consultants we move in tandem with our clients to collaborate with the entitled people to develop, and build the best fit solution.
  3. Discipline of Execution: Companies have been hiring us to work closely with them to achieve results. Such projects’ success or failure could be easily spotted, thus it’s our main interest to “guarantee” results. As such, we follow closely in building up the momentum of flywheel model to insure consistency and coherence until we guarantee the success of the project.

 

Managing Partner
mazen@heed-mm.com
Founder of HEED, a sales management consulting firm focused on aiding companies to structure, transform or optimize their sales by integrating science into selling.

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