Getting the Best Results From Your Sales Force
As corporations grapple with the aftermath of the global economic crisis, sales organizations are under ever-increasing pressure. "You have to sell more with less resources ;" "You need to increase sales before we invest in more resources" are the frequently-heard refrains. The question is whether this short-term focus will also drive long-term value.
Too often than not sales organizations fail to pay adequate attention to three important focus areas:
How does the sales team create value: The sales team – and even each salesperson– drives specific short-term and long-term value. These values are by net profit contribution and net present value respectively. However, sales organizations tend to focus only on revenue contribution.
What if scenarios: What if we had more resources deployed to Region A? How much would sales increase? How badly would Region B be hurt if we redeployed some of its resources to Region A? What if we changed our sales and service model? What would the effect be? Such questions usually go unexamined and unresolved. Sales organizations rely on instinct and field know-how without looking critically at their approach.
Projecting the potential value: Potential customer value is rarely considered during sales planning. Prior period sales only are used to set targets for the next period.
What are the costs for not focusing on these factors? Inaccurate sales force sizing, poor deployment of sales resources, less than optimal organization of field teams. All of which leaves money on the table.
Peppers & Rogers Group's approach to shaping effective and efficient sales teams addresses these critical considerations. We make a difference for clients by taking the customer's perspective by answering simple question: "How can our client optimize its sales planning while creating the greatest value for its customers?"
Our methodology includes five key phases:
Sales team sizing: Using short- and long-term value created by the sales team as the key consideration for team sizing, we ensure that our clients right size their sales teams to generate the highest shareholder value while meeting their short-term targets.
Sales team organization: Salesforce organization begins with segmenting customers by transaction history, buying process, needs and preferences of customers. Understanding the customer's net present value along with these key segmentation factors informs our organizational design approach.
Sales team compensation: We believe that the most effective compensation approach is the one that creates the greatest shareholder value by encouraging the right actions from the sales team. Of course, the structure must also work for the organization. We approach this delicate topic by looking at the problem from the viewpoint of customers, sales staff, management and all key stakeholders.
Territory alignment: Dividing a market geographically is a lot more than slicing it into territories. Allocating the right resources with territory value in mind is critical. Unline typical consulting approaches, Peppers & Rogers Group considers not only the immediate value of each territory, but also their long-term value to maximize results.
Sales network management: Selection and maintenance of sales partners, negotiation of working terms, and handling the not-so-infrequent complaints and demands are critical components of a successful sales strategy f. Peppers & Rogers Group brings our deep field experience and customer-focused expertiseto deal with such hard-to-quantify issues and provide realistic solutions that are specific to our clients.
To learn more about our Sales and Service Model capabilities, contact Peppers & Rogers Group today.
Join the conversation on the Strategy Speaks Blog:
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