Your Sales Management Guru

No Foolin-Sales Leadership Should be Thinking Summer

This past week during a consulting session with a client, with both the President and their sales manager we discussed several points that I thought would be good items to bring up in this week’s blog.  April 1^st is right around the corner and I want all of you reading this not be this year’s fool.

The first point, which is not an unusual topic, was to ensure both the president and sales management were in agreement as to weekly priorities. Often I find the sales manger focused on important activities during a their hectic weekly schedule; putting out fires, solving administration issues, coaching/mentoring, recruiting, oh and  trying to ensure sales are being achieved. Mean while the president is frustrated that other key objectives are not being completed.  While time management is a major topic for sales leaders, what I almost always recommend is that on Friday afternoons the President and Sales Manager’s meet to agree as to the priorities for the coming week and to discuss the achievements/problems of the past week.  This is what I call managing your sales manager.  On my web site, you can download The Job of Sales Management, it was created for this specific purpose, it defines the 40 top actions that sales managers must work on to achieve predictable revenues. By following this simple recommendation everyone is focused on the “agreed to” priorities.

The second point is about summer. What I mean about sales management thinking about summer is not about vacations-it’s about forward thinking. In my discussions this past week, it was obvious both the president and sales manager were thinking week to week, while that is important to attain revenue goals, it becomes a treadmill that brings exhaustion-both mentally and physically to everyone. As a result of the conversation I recommended the following actions:

1. Know what your revenue objectives are for the next 5 quarters and make sure you match your hiring plans to achieve the goals. Know when you need to hire salespeople in time to be trained to achieve your sales objectives.
2. Prepare a planned organizational chart that extends over 18 months, this will help in number 1, but also provide you an awareness of your resource needs.
3. Create your sales dashboards for a weekly, monthly, quarterly, and even year-to-date analysis. By doing this you will see a better trend analysis and you will be paying attention to both short and longer term results.
4. Plan and define your sales training plans quarterly, with topics, dates/times and people responsible. (frequent topic in this blog)
5. What sales promotions, contests, and sales games do you have planned for the second quarter and even this summer to maintain revenues and to create fun?

Advanced or forward looking planning will greatly reduce the stress and improve the functionality of the sales manager. It will also reduce the natural stress that is created when managing a sales organization and working with the executive team within your company.

Acumen Management Group Ltd. “operationalizes” sales management systems and processes that pull revenue out of the doldrums into the fresh zone. During the past 12 years, our consulting, advisory, and platform services have illuminated, motivated, and rejuvenated the sales efforts for partners throughout North America. Ken’s latest book is “Leading High Performance Sales Teams”.

Ken provides Keynotes, consulting services and products designed to improve business performance.           Ken@AcumenMgmt.com   www.AcumenManagement.com

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Posted in sales leadership, Sales Leadership Training, Sales Management Planning, Sales Management Systems, Sales Management Training | 1 Comment »

Sales Leadership and Management in a Recovering Economy

I am speaking this week in Houston on the title of this blog, it is March 19^th, 2012 and during the past few months the stock market has taken off and the papers shout out about the positive economic indicators that are being recorded: rents are heading up=housing will take off, (a leading indicator?) monthly job creation rates hit 200,000, etc….  What is your perception? More importantly what are you doing to lead and manage your organization and prepare of better times?

In today’s economic times, the companies most likely to thrive are those that invest time in scrutinizing their strategic sales-management plans. They review everything from their forecasts to their pipelines, looking hard at important numbers such as cost of sales, percentage of market share, salesperson-effectiveness ratios and customer lifetime value.

When we see companies struggling, it’s often because they lack such blueprints. Effective plans require combining an organization’s goals and individual salespeople’s business plans with a set of metrics designed to gauge everyone’s progress in meeting those objectives.

Following are what we believe are the fundamental metrics that partners should include in “dashboards” for measuring their sales teams’ effectiveness:

• Accuracy percentage for monthly forecast, by salesperson
• Dollar value of pipeline by stage; number of opportunities by stage
• Dollar value of pipeline ratio to future monthly quotas
• Actual sales activity compared to a defined set of standards
• Average order value
• A Win/loss rate percentages, by salesperson

Beyond the Basics
As you continue developing your company’s dashboard, you may wish to build in additional metrics such as the following:

• Value of net new account sales as percentage of total sales for month and year to date
• Existing account sales as percentage of total sales, month and year to date
• Rev salesperson profitability to sales volume
• Revenue per current customer per year as percentage of total sales
• Cost per lead, by source
• Sales-cycle time from initial contact by salesperson to decision
•  Number of days with sales outstanding, goal vs. actual
•  Blended billing consultant rate, goal vs. actual
•  Realization consultant rate, goal vs. actual
• Utilization consultant rate, goal vs. actual
• Consultant backlog days, goal vs. actual
• Direct sales expense as a percentage of volume, margin and quota

Looking Ahead: Leading Indicators
In addition, smart sales leaders increasingly rely on what we call “leading indicators.” These are activities or ratios that can predict revenues at least 60 days out. While simply looking at future pipeline values can provide a similar forecast, growth-focused partners may find these indicators useful as well.

In most cases, sales events occurring early in the sales cycle are most likely to lead to high-percentage sales opportunities. If these begin to fall, future pipelines and revenues will probably follow the same pattern. Potential leading indicators include the numbers of:

• New-prospect calls made per week
• Face-to-face sales calls made per week
• Subject-matter expert or pre-sales tech-support calls made per week
• Discovery calls made per month
• Demonstrations and executive presentations made per month

We also recommend creating graphs comparing these numbers to dollars booked or margins generated, which can help salespeople see the relationship between indicators and results.

Finally, remember that the ultimate goal is improving your ratios and results each month and each quarter-not simply tracking them. That’s the real reason for developing a dashboard-and the real route to success.

About the Author

Ken Thoreson is the president of Acumen Management Group Ltd., a North American consulting organization focused on improving sales management functions within growing and transitional organizations. You can reach him at ken@acumenmgmt.com.    (Web): www.AcumenManagement.com or (blog) www.YourSalesManagementGuru.com  His latest book: “Leading High Performance Sales Teams” is available on his web site.

Posted in Leadership Management, sales leadership, Sales Leadership Training, Sales Management Planning, Sales Management Systems, Sales Management Training | 4 Comments »

The Sales Manager that Does It All

First of all, the title of this blog is impossible and second of all, it wouldn’t be right.

No matter what size of sales organization you manage the sales leader that assumes they are responsible for everything or solving every problem generally fails to achieve the ultimate objective.  With the majority of new sales managers we find them wanting to make the sales team feel they are delivering value and helping the salespeople on the various tasks, problems and complaints they bring and therefore they tend to attempt become the main cog in the sales organizations.  Nothing can be further from the primary goal.

First, the sales manager must recognize that it is their job to make the salespeople independent of them, not dependent on them.  When I find that the sales manager is the first and last person to leave the office, I know this could be an issue.

Second, when I review the “to-do list” for the sales manager and find topics that don’t belong there; I am convinced this dependency factor exists.

The ideal sales manager shows up on time, takes a nice lunch break and leaves before his/her’s sales team.  How does this happen?

1. Focus on hiring only quality salespeople, I have written extensively on this, but without, the Sales manager is always struggling and generally fails.
2. The sales manager must recognize it is not their job to make quota every month, it is the salespersons.  Once this is clearly understood, the next elements fall into place.
3. Every six months, each salesperson must create a personalized salesperson’s business plan. This is more than a simple forecast, but a plan on how they will achieve their quota.  In fact we like to suggest they have to forecast 3 times their quota-by account, their own training plan, activity objectives, and personal goals.
4. The 90 day sales training plans are prepared each quarter, with dates/times and topics carefully designed.  Salespeople or other individuals within the firm are assigned the responsibility for delivering the training. The sales manager only plans the training.
5. Individual salesperson reviews are held once a month, formally each quarter.
6. The Monday morning sales meetings follow the pre-planned agenda/format and are positive events.
7. Sales Contests are fun and are planned on a yearly basis.
8. Individual salesperson coaching on sales skills occurs during regularly scheduled sales calls, not just whenever it happens…
9. The sales manager has figured out the recipe for the business.  They know what metrics to measure to comfortably predict revenue and each salesperson knows and measures these metrics themselves.

What is the over theme in this blog?  Being under-control.  There are systems are in place, the salespeople know the plans, they are held accountable and fully understand that management is there to support them, not take care of them.  If you want a more complete list and to help you develop a prescriptive approach to sales management, go to our website: www.AcumenManagement.com and download a free white paper: The Job of Sales Management.

Acumen Management Group Ltd. “operationalizes” sales management systems and processes that pull revenue out of the doldrums into the fresh zone. During the past 12 years, our consulting, advisory, and platform services have illuminated, motivated, and rejuvenated the sales efforts for partners throughout North America. Ken’s latest book is “Leading High Performance Sales Teams”.

Ken provides Keynotes, consulting services and products designed to improve business performance.           Ken@AcumenMgmt.com   www.AcumenManagement.com

www.YourSalesManagementGuru.com

Posted in Sales Leadership Training, Sales Management Planning, Sales Management Systems, Sales Management Training | 1 Comment »

Sales Management and the Impact of Social Media

Ken Thoreson

While in the process of writing a future magazine column on the future of sales and social media I interviewed three people and posed several questions in order to get their view points.  I thought for this week’s blog I would also introduce you to my current thinking and I would really enjoy hearing your thoughts on the direction of sales and the use of social media.

In the traditional sense of a new product introduction, social media is moving through various stages. It is my opinion  we have obviously crossed the chasm from Stage 1 into full blown Stage 2 product acceptance and in most cases salespeople and sales leadership have accepted and become comfortable in using forms of social media for their personal lives as well as in a limited business environments.  It is also my belief that if you aren’t actively using a variety of social media applications in your sales process/organization it is critical you begin to learn to use them and become comfortable with the current social media tools.   Lauren Carlson describes the top 5 uses of Social Media in sales very clearly in her recent blog:   http://tinyurl.com/8648dah

The acceptance of social media communication by all individuals for their personal use; Twitter, Facebook, YouTube,  texting, etc,  and corporations using it in marketing and even building their internal social networks, that current clients and prospects will begin to accept social media more easily in their sales relationships.

The question becomes, where do we go from here now that  social media as we know today has been generally accepted by individuals and corporations, what happens as we move into the Stage 3.

 Jay McBain, from Channel Eyes, a social media/network company focused on the IT Channel,  commented that in his research on the topic;  “social would overtake websites as the #1 source of information and online engagement in 2012”.  Jay believes there will be a split, a movement to enhance personal social media and the trend to create a “business social media” set of software solutions.

This is exactly what I believe is the direction we will move. As CRM applications improve and as more cloud based applications are developed there will be a greater integration and utilization of business social media. Salespeople will uncover more prospects, prospects will accept this kind of communication and both parties will interact comfortably.  As Peter Watts from Solutionize, a software business collaboration services company, predicts that “Sales Collaboration Networks” (SCN) will be deployed.  These will be highly integrated applications that will easily allow the salesperson to offer the right solutions with an interactive approach, generating huge value to the buyer, rather than simply data sheets or a nice web site.”  

The sales focus and sales leadership must focus on this changing sales process and this is the process change that SCN can facilitate.   The business outcome must be beneficial to the buyer, seller, vendor, and it is my belief that this more highly communicative process will make decision making easier and faster by removing any heavy lifting. SCN will allow salespeople to reach more prospects, work at a pace commensurate with today’s current demands and profit measures.

What changes do you believe will occur with more “business social media” solutions?   The world continues to change, are you?  Is your sales process? Let know your thoughts?

Acumen Management Group Ltd. “operationalizes” sales management systems and processes that pull revenue out of the doldrums into the fresh zone. During the past 12 years, our consulting, advisory, and platform services have illuminated, motivated, and rejuvenated the sales efforts for partners throughout North America. Ken’s latest book: Leading High Performance Sales Teams is available at his website.

Ken provides Keynotes, consulting services and products designed to improve business performance.           Ken@AcumenMgmt.com   www.AcumenManagement.com  www.YourSalesManagementGuru.com

Posted in Leadership Management, sales leadership, Sales Management Systems | 3 Comments »

You Don’t Just Hire a Sales Team–You Build It

Developing a great sales organization involves more than just bringing the right people on board. It requires providing the right opportunities and creating the right culture.

 By Ken Thoreson

(This is an excerpt from my latest book: Your Sales Management Guru’s Guide to:  “Leading High Performance Sales Teams”)  

 Recently, in speaking to two prospective clients, I heard the same complaint that I hear over and over from sales executives: “My turnover rate is huge.”

They’re not alone in their concerns. Consider these facts:

• In one Manpower Inc. survey of nearly 33,000 employers worldwide, U.S. and Canadian respondents both ranked “sales representative” as the job they were having most trouble filling.

• Nearly 25 percent of the nearly 2,200 sales executives surveyed in another major study reported that turnover had increased during the previous year.

Hiring the right talent is critical in building successful sales teams. Studies show that, if you bring in the wrong salesperson, you lose up to four times the cost of that person’s annual salary and benefits in missed opportunities, management time, fee’s and other factors. (If you’re experiencing turnover, you may find Acumen’s book Hiring a High-Performance Sales Team a valuable resource.)

 Building Your Team: Beyond Hiring

However, hiring is just one part of the equation. It’s also important to develop and retain your salespeople. Here are a few suggestions for achieving those goals:

• Buff up the “B” team. Obviously, you have a limited number of “A-level” salespeople. So it makes sense to invest some effort in grooming the B-level team members who seem most likely to be able to move up to the top tier.

If you’re recruiting regularly, you’ll have a constant pipeline of top talent available to keep enhancing the quality of your team. Conducting interviews regularly will improve your ability to identify both the winners and the runners-up—that is, the B-team players with strong potential.

Don’t waste time on salespeople who are C-level or below. Many sales managers spend too much valuable time attempting to save poor performers or trying to make their money back on their hiring mistakes. Instead, focus on providing B-level players with the management, coaching and training they need to advance.

 Emphasize education. Design a comprehensive orientation and training program to ensure that new hires hit the ground running–and that they keep moving forward.

We typically advise our clients to establish a three-week on-boarding plan for new hires. That effort typically includes having new employees do everything from reading past proposals to learning to use the customer relationship management (CRM) system and other technologies to making presentations to multiple people, including the president. Managers or assisting salespeople should sign off on each item on each employee’s new hire plan.

The plan should also include a 90-day list of planned objectives. While those objectives will be unique for each organization, they might include pipeline values, revenue goals, sales calls goals and proposals delivered. Having predefined objectives allows all involved to know whether each new hire is on track or requires some additional education.  

• Create a sales-oriented culture. From conducting numerous exit interviews, we’ve found that many top salespeople leave their jobs not because they’re dissatisfied with compensation, but because they’re frustrated by sales management. Typically, that frustration stems from a culture that blocks sales success via lack of support, poorly designed sales processes and inefficient internal policies that make it difficult to add new clients, generate proposals, process orders or even calculate commissions. Some organizations call this as “sales prevention.”

Recognizing success goes a long way in building a strong sales culture. Offering contests, awards and yearly incentive trips–and maintaining a fun environment—are all important ways to provide that acknowledge.

Sales leaders serious about improving performance should work hard to implement all three suggestions, helping B-level players move up while developing training programs and a culture that encourages and reward success.

 Building Your Team: Working with Company Leadership

Another critical step in building that culture is making sure that your company’s leadership views sales development as a top priority.

That’s not necessarily a given. Many companies’ management teams view their sales divisions as cost centers. In reality, those divisions are profit centers. For that reason, executives should be doing everything possible to help their salespeople execute brilliantly. Again, companies serious about gaining competitive advantage should emphasize developing, mentoring and coaching their sales teams in the same way that they focus on building certification levels for their delivery teams.

Executives from smaller companies often tell us that, unlike their counterparts at larger enterprises, they don’t have the resources to undertake professional-level development projects. (My typical response is: “That’s why you’re still a small company.”) In reality, though, effective sales, training and retention efforts are especially critical for small businesses. Cash flow and decreased sales can have a much bigger impact on monthly profitability for small businesses than for large companies, which can usually better weather a few bumps.

The takeaway: Building a strong sales organization requires developing programs dedicated to each salesperson’s short-term success and long-term growth—and it requires doing so in a positive culture that rewards achievement. Such efforts will help all team members reach their potential and go a long way toward keeping them on board.

 BONUS: a free web cast on “Hiring a High Performance Sales Team   https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/347130472

 Acumen Management Group Ltd. “operationalizes” sales management systems and processes that pull revenue out of the doldrums into the fresh zone. During the past 12 years, our consulting, advisory, and platform services have illuminated, motivated, and rejuvenated the sales efforts for partners throughout North America.

 Ken provides Keynotes, consulting services and products designed to improve business performance.           Ken@AcumenMgmt.com   www.AcumenManagement.com    www.YourSalesManagementGuru.com

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Posted in Books, Recruiting, sales leadership, Sales Leadership Training, Sales Management Systems, Sales Management Training | 1 Comment »

How to Take Emotion Out of the Sales Hiring Process and Hire the Best Salespeople

It’s the number one job of sales management and it is the most difficult, if you hire effectively the job of sales management becomes sooooo much easier.  If you are serious about building a high performance sales team I have something special for you;  I will train you on the aspects of building a recruiting process that will improve your odds of only hiring the best salespeople-not the best available.  What could be the results of attending this web cast?

• Increases in service, quality and customer satisfaction of over 50%
• Growth rates 60% to 300% greater than their competition
• Return on sales of 200%-300% greater than their competitors
• Return on assets of 150%-300% greater than their competitors

             Leonard Schlesinger  Harvard University

REGISTER Today:    https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/347130472

It’s a fact that when you miss hire a salesperson it may cost you FOUR times what you ended up paying that person while they were on your team.

In this webinar, author and sales management expert, Ken Thoreson will teach you how to remove emotion from the hiring process and improve your odds for hiring salespeople who will produce. You will learn:
• 5 techniques to increase interviewing effectiveness
• How to evaluate the traits of high performers
• How to create a sales recruiting scorecard that “takes the emotion” out of hiring decisions
• How to use and create a sales case study specifically designed for your business
• How to building an interviewing process to hire the best, not just the best available
• How to separate the average from top performers

This webinar is perfect for sales managers, executives, business owners, HR Professionals and anyone who is involved in the sales hiring process.

REGISTER Today:   https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/347130472

Acumen Management Group Ltd. “operationalizes” sales management systems and processes that pull revenue out of the doldrums into the fresh zone. During the past 14 years, our consulting, advisory, and platform services have illuminated, motivated, and rejuvenated the sales efforts for partners throughout North America. Move up and move ahead!

Ken provides Keynotes, consulting services and products designed to improve business performance.           Ken@AcumenMgmt.com   www.AcumenManagement.com

Blog:  www.YourSalesManagementGuru.com

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The Future of Your Sales Team     

This year, I anticipate we will see a reduction in external sales positions of around 20%: 10% will be lost for good, and the other 10% will move inside. I believe that this pattern will continue for the next three years, until we are left with less than 10% of the total sales population working externally. The reasons for this are obvious: Advances in technology mean that we can communicate just as easily from our desks, using video conferencing etc.

Jonathan Farrington www.topsalesmanagement.com

If Jonathan is right, your current sales process, current sales team and management systems will begin to change over the next 18-24 months.   He interviewed me regarding this topic last week and you can listen to the entire interview at the www.TopSalesManagement.com 

Briefly, I discussed how metrics will change, how sales training will be altered and that the efficiency ratios and cost of sales will be improved based upon the utilization of existing and new technologies.  As customers become more comfortable with technology, new salespeople come into the workplace and costs of running a sales organization grow (Gas=$4.50 Gal), sales leadership must consider new alternatives.

You will find the interview on the left hand side of the website. You will also find this site to be a wonderful resource for information on sales leadership from a select group of 15 sales leadership consultants from around the world, including myself.

I thought you might like to see the quote above to begin to stimulate your future thinking on your sales organization.   Jonathan is a global sales thought leader; the quote is from an editorial he wrote in our Top Sales World magazine. (You can download this free sales magazine at www.TopSalesWorld.com   It is on the left hand side of the website.

Ken Thoreson “operationalizes” sales management systems and processes that pull revenue out of the doldrums into the fresh zone. During the past 13 years, our consulting, advisory, and platform services have illuminated, motivated, and rejuvenated the sales efforts for partners throughout North America.

 Ken provides Keynotes, consulting services and products designed to improve business performance.           Ken@AcumenMgmt.com   www.AcumenManagement.com

Blog:  www.YourSalesManagementGuru.com

Posted in Leadership Management, sales leadership, Sales Leadership Training, Sales Management Systems, Sales Management Training, Sales Training | 1 Comment »

A Sales Manager’s Recipe: What’s Cooking in 2012?

Last week after a keynote program called Gourmet Living, an attendee came up to me afterwards and discussed her challenges as a sales manager.  The last three years have been tough and she was looking for new ideas for 2012 to excite her team and also to simply change up the routine.

Since my keynote program had been about creating a Menu for Your Life with many metaphors around cooking I  started thinking about what her sales management recipe should be, for about 30 minutes we discussed a variety of ideas. So if 2011 left a bad taste in your mouth, use the following ingredients to create a new recipe to make 2012 your best year ever.

Become a Detective: In sales management workshops we always talk about “inspect what you expect”.  Once a week; review your sales teams CRM system to ensure they are using it properly and casually ask each team member about their certain activities within their key accounts.  Once they know you are actually reviewing their accounts they will be more precise and begin to be more accurate. Next, make two extra sales calls per month with each sales rep.  Validate they can sell your firm and they are using the proper sales tools. These actions are not micro-management, they are designed to provide you greater opportunities to coach and grow your team.

Reduce Fatigue:  Recognize your sales team might be tired or somewhat challenged based upon the last three years of tight budgets and stress.  Fire them up with new products or packaging/pricing, change the game with new times for sales and sales training meetings-even re-arrange the sales offices.  Once a month, take your sales team on a “field trip” to visit a customer, let the customer “sell” your team on your products/services.

Find Creative Dust:  Read a book on creativity and share it with your team.  The truly great salespeople are the most creative and it is true that creativity can be learned!  As a sales manager, creative sales strategies will push you over your quota-get your entire team into a creativity fix.

Become an SOB:   That is a Student of the Business. Invest in sales management training, books, DVD’s. Create your own network of other sales managers where you can discuss ideas, learn what is working for others and explore new sales management concepts. Push yourself to become a professional in 2012, consider visiting other offices and view how their sales managers run their sales teams. At our website you will find free video’s on “hiring and training salespeople” and other articles I have written on sales management, you might also go back and skim through our blog to look for other ideas.

While these are just a few ideas, I would enjoy reading your reactions or other recipes for success below.  As a team of readers, let’s build up a complete for each as we work to make 2012 a feast we will always remember.

Acumen Management Group Ltd. “operationalizes” sales management systems and processes that pull revenue out of the doldrums into the fresh zone. During the past 12 years, our consulting, advisory, and platform services have illuminated, motivated, and rejuvenated the sales efforts for partners throughout North America. Ken’s latest book is “Leading High Performance Sales Teams”.

Ken provides Keynotes, consulting services and products designed to improve business performance.           Ken@AcumenMgmt.com   www.AcumenManagement.com

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Posted in Books, Keynote Programs, Leadership Management, Sales Kick Off Meeting, Sales Leadership Training, Sales Management Systems, Sales Management Training | 2 Comments »

SFA/CRM 15 Years Later: Now It’s Every Rep’s Best Friend

This week, I thought you might like to read someone else’s article and my comments regarding the article. My comments are first.

As a Sales Leadership consultant, I think the article below hit on many valid points; the Cloud and CRM usability are key elements in the acceptance of CRM, as is the price/cost issue, especially for the SMB market. The marketing campaign features are extremely important and the interface to accounting/ERP systems greatly improve the customer service aspect as well as giving a more 360 view, makes CRM a more than a salesperson’s tool.

 One other element should be recognized is the “tech savvy” nature of reps today, vs even 10 years ago, this has made CRM acceptance so much easier. 

However, what is interesting is 1) forecasting accuracy is still a challenge for the Rep/sales manager’s. 2) training and implementation of CRM is still greatly under emphasized and I find many organizations with salespeople using the same CRM system differently and not following a sales process properly and 3) this lack of discipline leads to pipeline and activity reporting to be inaccurate. 

These few issues are the direct result of sales leadership and are training and management functions. The mistake I see in many CRM systems and vendors are they focus on the salesperson, not on the needs of the sales manager or organization.  Sales leadership requires a more forward looking approach to build predictable revenue.  With a greater proactive approach and sales management focus, the 3 topics mentioned above would help the sales manager take greater charge of the CRM tool and it would be more of a useful tool for sales leadership.

by Lauren Carlson

www.twitter.com/crmadvice 

CRM Analyst, Software Advice

December 14, 2011

Sales force automation (SFA) systems hit the market in the 1980s, but it wasn’t until Siebel’s release in the mid-90s that they gained a foothold in the enterprise. Despite its increasing ubiquity, however, SFA quickly developed a bad reputation among sales reps, many of whom suspiciously viewed SFA tools as a way for management to track their every move. They were also frustrated by the kludgy user interfaces, slow data entry processes, and long ramp-up times.

Fast-forward about 15 years, and now most sales organizations are singing the praises of SFA. What changed? As it turns out, quite a bit. I see four innovations that transformed SFA into a sales rep’s best friend.

Four Tipping Points for SFA

1. 1.      SaaS made implementation cheaper and faster - Traditional client/server SFA systems had a very high total cost of ownership (TCO) and a long, sometimes unsuccessful deployment process that required a high degree of involvement and investment by internal IT departments. When Salesforce.com came onto the scene in 1999, they changed the TCO equation and implementation process for SFA. All of a sudden, there was no on-premise hardware or software to install, no reason for IT to get involved, and sales management could even customize the software—albeit within limits—on their own. Best of all, up-front and ongoing software fees were now a small fraction of what an enterprise-scale SFA application cost. The net effect of this sea change was that sales teams were able to get up and running faster, with less disruption to the rest of the company, and dramatically lower investments in time and capital.
2. 2.      The Cloud made SFA more accessible – In the 1990s, entering sales activity was a laborious process. The road warrior sales rep had to get out his bulky laptop, log on to the company server over a slow and unreliable dial-up connection, enter notes into a prospect’s record, and then sync it all back with the server. Ouch. Today, cloud-based SFA systems are accessible from anywhere, on any device—including smartphones and tablets—and high-speed Internet has become commonplace. In addition, because the application is accessible through a familiar Web browser, there’s no proprietary client software to master and no fussy VPN tunnel to set up. This gives the sales rep a much higher level of freedom and flexibility, and removes a key obstacle to wider adoption.
3. 3.      Analytics and marketing automation turned SFA data into gold – It wasn’t that long ago that sales force automation was primarily a glorified contact management system with some extra data tracking capabilities. Now, with the addition of sophisticated analytics and integration with third-party systems, SFA systems have become an invaluable tool that is finally helping sales teams do their jobs better. Reps can create detailed dashboards and reports to help them do things like forecast their quarterly pipelines, prioritize new opportunities, and track progress toward quotas. And because SFA can integrate with marketing automation systems, sales and marketing teams can jointly use the data these systems compile to plan and execute more effective campaigns to help reps secure more leads and push prospects through the sales funnel.
4. 4.      Process improvement compressed sales cycles – One of the original promises of SFA was that it would help companies improve their sales processes by, well, actually defining a sales process. This promise was rarely delivered on due to sales rep resistance and the trouble it took to modify the processes that were essentially hard-coded into early SFA applications. Newer SFA applications make process mapping and process improvement much easier. And the best practices built in to SFA systems today—based on years of learning what works and what doesn’t for most companies—help companies continuously improve their processes. The focus on sales process that newer SFA tools encourage has yielded tangible benefits for sales teams, ranging from reduced sales cycles to higher win rates.

These four developments have drastically changed the value proposition of SFA software, but the tide is still turning. We didn’t even hit on social media, which is a huge trend that some predict will have an even bigger impact on the enterprise than the cloud. What will that impact look like for SFA? We might have to wait another 15 years to find out.

About the Author

Acumen Management Group Ltd. “operationalizes” sales management systems and processes that pull revenue out of the doldrums into the fresh zone. During the past 14 years, our consulting, advisory, and platform services have illuminated, motivated, and rejuvenated the sales efforts for partners throughout North America. Ken’s latest book is titled: “Leading High Performance Sales Teams”.

Ken Thoreson provides keynotes programs, consulting services and products designed to improve business performance.           Ken@AcumenMgmt.com   www.AcumenManagement.com

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The Times are a Changing or Are You?

At the end of each year I write down my personal and business goals for the new year in seven different categories. The challenging part of that exercise is I have to review the goals that I had set from the past year and grade my performance. I have saved these sheets from the previous 20+ years and it’s a telling experience, I have found there are always good goals, just sometimes unrealistic timeframes.

 I would suggest you review your past 12 month’s performance; ask yourself: “have I changed or improved my organization?”  If you are a new reader make sure you review all of the previous blogs for idea’s and tips to improve your personal or professional performance.

 As I look forward into 2012 and think about current topics and potential new blogs, it occurred to me that asking you to evaluate your current status on a few basic sales management topics might be a great spot to get ready to leap into the New Year.

Please score these 1-5, 5=highest

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 Many of these topics are critical for building a high performance sales team as well as increasing the predictability of your revenue.  I believe it’s critical that a sales manager or owner know a few basic ratios of their business, as in the ratio of potential revenues in the pipeline to the defined  sales quota vs actual attainment. Over a 6-9 month basis of tracking these information you will find your closing ratio’s, the value of how much potential revenue must be generated each month to enter your pipeline and what you need at the beginning of each month to attain your sales quota.

 I also like the idea of “out of sight-out of mind”. If you have major accounts-you must have a written plan of action, for each account, for at least three months. If you have major sales opportunities to sell each month-you must have their name and action plans visibly defined on your wall or desk. This will ensure you are consistently aware of your important prospects.

 Since recruiting and interviewing are the number one most important aspects, making sure you do it right becomes critical! View my free video on www.AcumenManagement.com

Depending upon where you scored or in what area you didn’t score as well as you thought, stay tuned to this blog as we move into 2012. I will be touching on many of these topics and others in greater detail as the year moves along.  If you would like to suggest specific topics for me to cover in one or over several columns please send me your ideas too!

 Acumen Management Group Ltd. “operationalizes” sales management systems and processes that pull revenue out of the doldrums into the fresh zone. During the past 12 years, our consulting, advisory, and platform services have illuminated, motivated, and rejuvenated the sales efforts for partners throughout North America. Move up and move ahead!

 Ken provides Keynotes, consulting services and products designed to improve business performance.           Ken@AcumenMgmt.com   www.AcumenManagement.com

www.YourSalesManagementGuru.com

Posted in Leadership Management, sales leadership, Sales Leadership Training, Sales Management Planning, Sales Management Systems, Sales Management Training | 2 Comments »