13-02-25Global River News

Jon Hassett

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This article was posted 2 months ago and is filed under Global River News, Sales Consultancy.

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What does Sales Excellence look like?

• Your Sales team hit their targets consistently, margins and revenues consistently high
• Your Sales team are happy!
• Your customers give great Customer Satisfaction Feedback

Sounds like a dream right,  but at the foundations of a team like this, is a Solid Sales Process, KPI’s and Great Management. If you are reading this because you are not confident or comfortable with your Sales team’s performance, I have shared below the basis of the process I follow to repeatedly deliver Organisational Sales Excellence.

My steps to improve Sales

I was lucky enough to work with Clive Woodward during my time at O2 Telefonica.  His approach of making a hundred things 1% better always delivers fantastic and sustainable results. As Clive Says, the joy of this process is that you can keep repeating it again and again!

So where would we start? I have summarised the main steps below, but experience tells me to keep asking, looking and analysing. Finding as many improvements as you can along the way always pays dividends!

Step 1 – Previous Sales analysis

What does your perfect customer look like?

Start by profiling your perfect customer for all Products and Services – your most profitable is a great place to start. Speaking to these customers is an important part of the process. The Profile that results should include all sorts of useful data;

• Valuable Sectors?
• Problems that your product/service solves – the bigger the problem the less price sensitive the customer
• Key influencers in the account/customer – who made the decision and why?

This will then help in loads of ways;

• Profile and find lots of New Business targets that fit the perfect customer profile
• Compare similar existing accounts. Do they/did they all spend as much as your Perfect Accounts? 
• Compare Sales people. Do some Sales People seem able to find and then maximise accounts repeatedly?
  • How do they do it?
• Help decide how territories/account bases are decided upon.
  • Should you split geographically or train for Sector expertise, or both?

Step 2 – Sales Process Analysis and implementation

The above process leads on quite smoothly to the second phase. Plenty of call listening and field accompaniment will give me a clear picture of the perfect approach needed to win the perfect account. Whilst this sounds simple, for a Technical Product or service the process is likely to be complex, but rest assured the best of your sales team will be doing it already. Training and coaching the new Industry Leading process in to the entire team will pay amazing dividends. Sales Excellence is on its way!

Step 3 – KPI’s

Having the correct KPI’s for your teams is vital. You will no doubt already have much of this in place, but I usually take them to another level! So that I deliver Profitability as well as Revenue, every KPI has to be aligned to deliver this. In addition, I like each stage of the Sales Process top be measured. This helps diagnose problems either across the Sales Team or with individuals. Focusing in on fixing these problems always delivers quick results. 

Step 4 – Team Assessments

Once we have a World Leading Sales Process agreed, a process of training and coaching can begin. Upskilling your Sales Team can be a mixture of formal Sales Training, I have used IMPARTA ever since I helped set up the Award Winning Sales Training Academy at O2 Telefonica, and Field Coaching. If your Sales Team has numerous Sales Managers, IPMARTA‘s Coaching the Coach courses will help disseminated your new sales process across large teams.

Step 5 – People

The painful truth about an effective Sales Turnaround and the journey towards Sales Excellence is that not everyone on the team will make the journey. In addition, it is healthy to keep raising the bar! My tried and trusted solution to this is the old Performance Improvement Plan! I love this because it gives every Sales Person a plan and KPI’s designed to raise their performance, whilst giving the Sales Manager an HR friendly process if the Sales Person cant hit the targets. 

Evidence Based Interviewing

The earliest and toughest lesson I learnt as a young Sales Manager was that most Sales People are great in interviews! Worse still, the Sales People who have the most interviews are often the best at them! The turning point came with a training course on Evidence Based Interviewing. In simple terms this involves sharing the skills and experience you want from a great Sales Person and tasking them to bring in evidence of that skill or experience to the Second Interview. It works perfectly!

Step 6 – Start at Step 1 again!