Each fiscal year begins with the same nightmare: the sales counter
is once again reset to zero. And what’s worse the goal for the new year is
higher than the previous one and includes an additional growth percentage to
hedge the wage and tax increases, the effect of inflation, the rising costs of
raw materials, etc.
At the same time the market is increasingly competitive and
selling is also much more difficult. We are not talking only about the effect
of the crisis, which has waned considerably the size of most of the markets,
but also about the emergence of substitute products, new competitors, new
market channels, etc.
Sometimes we may be tempted to think that a good solution to
achieve the desired sales growth can be hiring more salespeople. In some cases
it may work, but unfortunately it is quite often expensive and unrealistic to
find well trained salespersons willing to help us get results in the short
term. Therefore, before opting for this alternative, it seems reasonable to
make sure we've done everything possible to ensure maximum productivity of the
sales force we already have.
Before passing the responsibility for meeting sales goals to field
salespeople it is important to align them with the marketing plan. A good
research of current customer base and an appropriate segmentation will help the
sales representatives to know what to sell to each customer and how.
Planning
Commercial activity requires good planning and for that there is
nothing better than to incorporate it into the daily salesperson work.
When dealing with a few clients, but with a significant business
potential, it is highly recommended to develop an account plan (typical in B2B environments) where you fix your
strategy and decide how you are going to attack that customer, what products your are
going to sell and through which people. If the customer is really important you
should include the specific sales funnel and the status of every single
opportunity that may exist.
In the case of the sales reps who have to deal with many customers
or prospects the daily work can be planned through activity
monitoring tools (time management, number of cold calls or visits to be carried
out, etc.)
Incentivation
plans
Another powerful tool for sales productivity growth is the incentive
scheme that has to drive the activity of every single salesman in the right
direction. Very often we find that incentive plans are not properly designed
and end up blurring commercial activity and generating many inefficiencies.
Of course we assumed that the main responsibility of a salesperson is
meeting the targets, but at this point it is also important not to forget the
sustainability of our business. Therefore when evaluating sales reps we have to
ensure we incorporate practices that
encourage business development in the medium and long term. If we are too
short-sighted, we can end up making the mistake of promoting only short-term
sales and ignore more substantial sales processes that require longer decision
times.
So the incentivation plan must not only respond exclusively to
sales targets. You should also consider the strategic objectives of the medium
and long term: a sale today that generates customer dissatisfaction is usually
a very bad deal. If we see our sales force as a key part of our customer
loyalty strategy, we have to ensure and encourage actions that are designed to
improve customer satisfaction and generate better customer experiences. And you
should incentivize them as well!
Automation
Traditionally this concept has been linked to large organizations
with a large number of salespeople. However today there are many platforms
accessible to small and medium enterprises . They allow to minimize the time
that sales reps spend on administrative tasks or reporting activities. Many
typical suppliers of these solutions for large companies (eg Salesforce) have
services tailored for SMEs in their portfolio. There are also many solutions
specifically designed to be used through applications for mobile devices
(smartphones and tablets).
Regarding technology as a facilitator of business productivity, we must not forget the 2.0 world. One of the main values of a salesperson is his
contacts network and how he is able to manage on a day to day. Well, at this
point social networks can help maintain a quality contact especially in the B2B
world where you can not always access easily to the most influential or
decision-making person. Social networks are also a source of information of the
first magnitude to get to know more about the competitors and, therefore, to
improve the approach to the customer.
According to a recent study by Google and Millward Brown, social
networks are used by 41% of experts and professionals to find information
quickly, by 37% to collaborate and share knowledge, by a 34% to manage their
networking and relations and by 31% to reduce the volume of emails received.
Undoubtly these are all aspects which contribute to a considerable improvement
in productivity.
Productivity
Techniques
As José Miguel Bolivar says, "productivity is not measured by
the number of things you do, but by the quality of the decisions you
make." The implementation of a GTD model (Getting Things Done) may
generate an improvement of up to 30% on a sales staff productivity. Just make
your own calculations about what this may mean in terms of new sales...
Talent
management
If we accept that satisfaction generates productivity then we will
accept the importance of a proper talent management of our salespeople. There
are plenty of studies that show that a high level of employee engagement
dramatically improves sales figures and margins. Our number one priority when
designing professional development plans, loyalty and motivation schemes, etc.
must be the commercial staff. After all who is going to make the sales counter
work once again? Our salespeople, of course.
