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An ideal sales week

April 17, 2009 in Sales Planning, Time Management, Tips

  • Are you finding that you are over servicing your existing clients and not bringing in new business?
  • Are you running out of time each week to do the important sales jobs such as prospecting?
  • Are you at risk of not meeting your sales budget?

In my many interactions with sales people I have found that many find they have problems prioritising their week.  They often get caught up in activities that do not produce revenue, leaving them vulnerable.

Let’s look at the key activities that should feature as priorities in most sales people jobs:

Revenue Generating Activities
Direct

  • Prospecting (phone calls, etc.)
  • New business client meetings (with new prospects and existing accounts)
  • Account management
  • Proposal development, submission and pitch
  • Proposal follow-up
  • Referrals


Indirect

  • Advertising
  • Networking
  • Pipeline management


Support Activities

  • Customer service
  • Sales meetings
  • Internal meetings
  • Administration
  • Professional development

Where are you investing your time?

Without a systematic method of finding clients you will rarely produce outstanding sales results.

In order for a sales person to be successful in their role they need to organise their week and their time.

This concept quite simply is called an ideal week.

An ideal week is designed to help sales people be more focused and more productive by chunking key tasks together.  For example, in many ways it makes sense for sales person to be in the office in the morning followed by appointments with clients in the marketplace in the afternoon.  This means that all administration and prospecting activities are out of the way early, leaving the afternoon to really focus on clients’ needs.

There is no one ‘right’ ideal week, however having a structure and focus in how to set up your appointments, administration, and prospecting time will be one of the keys to you becoming rapidly successful.

Experienced sales people may need to come back every 3 to 6 months and review their ideal week to ensure that it’s delivering a great result.

A Systematic Method

A systematic method of finding clients is critical for a Salesperson’s success.

We need to ensure that time is put aside each day to prospect, so that we can continue to feed our pipeline of new clients.   Importantly, we need ensure that we have a consistent and ongoing focus on finding new clients.

Our ideal week needs to include personal time, finding time, and selling time, so that our time is filled with $ productive activity.

Example of an Ideal Week 1

In this example the sales person has chosen to have three days in the marketplace with Monday and Friday being focused on setting up for the current and coming weeks.  Monday is reserved primarily for prospecting and Friday is reserved for planning, administration, research, and catch up, as well as some sales management support*.

an-ideal-sales-week

Example of an Ideal Week 2

In this example the sales person has chosen to have mornings in the office and afternoons in the marketplace. examples can and will work well. Both of these examples can and will work well. The key is having an ideal week and using this as a benchmark for faster decision making. It’s important to understand that the week will probably never work out 100% like this, but it gives us a benchmark for how to structure our week for maximum productivity.

an-ideal-sales-week2

* Sales Management Coaching and SupportIt is unlikely that an experienced sales person would have a one-on-one coaching session every week, especially highly experienced sales people.  However, do not forget to spend regular time (say once a month at least) with an experienced sales person as they too can benefit greatly from personal development.Whereas, new sales people should be having a one-on-one coaching session every week to get them up to speed as quickly as possible.

Sincerely, your advocate for selling the right way.

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Account Planning, Management & Development

September 10, 2008 in Sales Planning, Sales Relationships

As markets tighten and market competition increases, it becomes increasingly difficult for companies to achieve product differentiation in their market place. As such, businesses will find it harder and harder to optimise their profits unless they develop effective strategies to achieve differentiation. One way to accomplish this is through the enhancement of customer intimacy.

Account Planning, Management & Development is the process that organisations adopt in order to prioritise their customers in terms of value to the business. In most businesses, the 80/20 rule applies where 80% of current and/or potential revenue comes from 20% of the customer base. However, in recognising the value that these 20% of customers hold, it is important to adopt a strategy that is going to ensure that they are handled in such a way that maximum effort is focused on the activities that will yield the greatest potential for the company in a profitable fashion.

Successful Account Planning, Management & Development ensures that a company recognises the importance of certain customer relationships to the future of their organisation and treats these relationships as an asset to the company.

The process used to categorise customers in terms of potential as well as the process adopted to manage and develop these customers effectively are paramount to the success of any Account Planning, Management and Development strategy.

So what is a Key Account?
Essentially, it is a customer who can help to shape your company’s future. This may not necessarily be your largest customer nor the highest spending customer. In this way, the top 20 revenue, one-size-fits-all approach can be costly and risky.

Once you have completed your customer research, a number of factors should be assessed when deliberating your Account Planning, Management and Development strategy:

  • Current revenue profitability vs. potential revenue profitability
  • Complexity of needs
  • The industry in which they operate and its viability
  • Financial stability

Although the process of developing and managing Key Accounts more intimately yields greater customer penetration or share of wallet, the costs of maintaining an intimate relationship with clients can also be costly. It is for this reason that the ‘biggest’ clients do not always make the ‘best’ clients. It is a common mistake for organisations to simply segment their customer base into key accounts based on their revenue contribution, consider:

  • Larger companies often require more attention and expect not to pay for it
  • Larger companies tend to exert their power and negotiate lower prices, often exploiting suppliers by creating price wars (thus reducing profitability)
  • Larger companies employ the resources of smaller suppliers, only giving them small orders but getting the lowest prices so they can squeeze on their larger suppliers (again, affecting profitability)

It is often a hard lesson for salespeople to learn that many big companies rarely provide the return on investment proportionate to the amount of effort that’s required. In addition, these customers often compromise the company’s profitability significantly.

Analyse your accounts

So you need to analyse your accounts carefully. When analysing an account, your core focus is to interpret the customer data in such a way that will provide you with an understanding of how you can yield maximum potential from the client.

There are five key areas that need to be researched:
Strategic Information
This is the big picture information it explains why they are in business and where they are headed as an organisation. This information is critical to your basic understanding of the company.
Operational Information
The nuts and bolts of the organisation, the what, the when and the where.
Financial Information
This information is critical in assessing the ongoing viability of the customer.
Competitor Information
Recognise their strengths and minimise them. Recognise their weaknesses and exploit them. Understand what they are doing and know how to combat their activity.
Your Company History
Have a basic understanding of previous dealings with the customer but also know where to find more detailed records if or when required.

I hope this helps you plan and use your selling energy wisely.

Happy selling

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Client Buying States

July 4, 2008 in Sales Planning, Sales Skills, Uncategorized

Selling can get quite confusing sometimes. Prospects or clients saying one thing and doing another. It’s hard enough that you put in all that effort and have your sale go nowhere.

It might help you to know, if you don’t already, when selling that there are mainly four different Buying States. They are classified as :

  1. Opportunity
  2. Problem
  3. Static
  4. Blinkered

Two Buying States show that a sale is possible.

Two Buying States show that a sale may be difficult or unlikely.

Opportunity: Your prospect recognises there is an opportunity to move forward or progress to a goal. This is a powerful motivator for the key decision maker clients who are independent, self sufficient and confident.

Problem: Your prospect recognises that there is a problem that must be rectified and addressed. This is a powerful motivator for the key decision maker clients who are concerned, responsible and accountable.

Static: Your prospect feels that business is going well and that significant change is unnecessary. They cannot see a reason to change. And even if you can see they need to change, if they can’t or don’t then you cannot make them change.

Blinkered: Your prospect feels that they are already doing everything to an optimum level and that almost nothing could improve upon their performance.
It should be noted that: Static and Blinkered buying states indicate a sale is unlikely if held by people of sufficient influence over the decision. If a new person enters the sales process with one of these buying states the sale is in jeopardy and a strategy needs to be developed to overcome that resistance (if possible).
Options to change Static and Blinkered buying states could include:

  • A change in a situation
  • Their viewpoint is swayed by another key influencer of the sale
  • New information changes their viewpoint
  • Other forces such as market changes, customer comments and competitors can force change

No relationship ever works effectively if it is forced. You will just have to bide your time in some cases. For instance I am waiting on the outcome of a large tender / proposal that has taken me 10 years to get to work on. The client has finally realised they need a contemporary selling culture. Did I prospect them every week? NO! But I kept them in my sights, made contact every now and then to see if they were ready and waited while I worked on other projects in the meantime.
I hope this helps you navigate your way on your sales journeys.
Happy selling.

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Preparing for your 2008-09 Sales Year

April 24, 2008 in Sales Management, Sales Planning, Value Creation

If you haven’t already it may be worth your while to hold a formal review and business/sales strategy planning session with your team before the new financial year kicks in.  Many markets have and are going through major changes and this requires us to be on our toes and ready for action.

The challenge for any business, especially those of us who run a small business with limited man power and resources, is to take the time out to work on our business and plan for the future rather than stay stuck in the day to day  of our businesses.  This is a vital part of our job and can set us up very well for the future.  If we stop and look to review and reassess our strategies, plans and actions and take into account what the market is doing, we in a better position to note the vital signs and opportunities that can help us secure our business future.  Ideally this type of process should be done on a regular basis at least formally twice to three times per year.

So with that in mind my team and I are putting aside Friday 2 May to come together and work on our business strategy for the next 3 years and our sales strategy for 2008/09 and beyond.  My business has gone though many iterations over the years and my long term goals are now coming to life.  I now what to ensure that we are on the right track and I thought I would share with you the process we are going through to help us put in place the best and right strategy for us to realise our goals and fulfill our market potential and expectations.

Now I confess that I am not the most detailed person and ‘planning’ is one of my challenges so to keep me focused and on track here are some of the questions we will be preparing to address and answer as part of our planning and strategising. Ultimately our aim in going through this process is to make sure we have a profitable and viable business.
Our vision and mission for being in business

  • WHAT do we stand for?
  • WHY are we in this market space?
  • WHAT do we want to best known for?
  • WHAT are the values the guide us in our work?
  • WHAT are our goals for the next FY, 2-3 years, 5+ years?

Our Customers

  • WHO are we specifically targeting?
  • WHY are we targeting them?
  • WHAT does a viable ‘ideal’ customer look like?
  • HOW do we find them?
  • WHAT do they specifically want or need now?
  • WHAT problems do we currently solve for our customers?
  • WHAT products/services to we use to solve their problems?
  • ARE our products/ services/ solutions solving their problems effectively?
  • WHAT might they want or need in the future?
  • WHAT can we offer them in the future?
  • HOW do they want to buy?
  • HOW do we need to sell to them?
  • HOW do they want our products / service delivered?
  • WHAT is our customer acquisition & retention strategy?
  • WHAT are their expectations of us?

Our Competitors

  • WHO is our competition?
    • Current Competition
    • Peripheral Competition
    • Emerging Competition
  • WHAT markets are they operating in?
  • WHY are they in this market space?
  • WHAT is their primary objective / goal?
  • WHAT do they do well?
  • WHAT don’t they do well?
  • HOW are we positioned against them?
  • WHAT is our competitive advantage?

Our Value Proposition & Service Standards

  • WHAT is our unique selling proposition (USP)?
  • WHAT is our promise?
  • WHAT is our sales expectation?
  • WHAT is our service level standard?
  • HOW effective are we?
  • WHAT do we do well?
  • WHAT do we need to be better at?

Marketing & Product

  • HOW effective have our current marketing activities and tools been? (i.e. PR, SEO, Brochures, Events, etc.)
  • WHAT marketing activities and tools do we need to keep on using? & WHY?
  • WHAT marketing activities and tools do we need to stop using? & WHY?
  • HOW effective is our current product mix? What are the most profitable areas? What are the least profitable areas?
  • WHAT is the $ value of our average sale?
  • WHAT product mix do we take to market?

Steps to ‘Yes’  (Sales Process)

  • WHAT is our current sales cycle? (how long does it take to make a sale?)
  • WHAT is our current ‘prospecting : sales’ ratio
  • WHAT are our current sales activities and HOW often did we do them to achieve our current revenue? (Prospecting, Sales Meetings, Account Management & Networking)
  • HOW effective have they been?
  • HOW often do we need to prospect to make enough sales appointments with viable prospects to make enough sales to meet our goals?
  • HOW effective is our current sales process?
  • WHAT do we need to change to be more effective as sales people? (Structured sales communication process & skills, human relations, motivations; values, behaviours & attitudes; problem solving & decision making; self management, planning, etc.)

Sales Inputs & Outputs

  • WHAT are our current Performance Expectations & Rewards
  • HOW do we need to allocate customers? (by territory, industry, size, etc.)
  • HOW do we set targets? (revenue allocation, profits, phasing, etc.)
  • WHAT levels of responsibility and authority do each of us need to have?
  • HOW do we currently manage revenue & profit?
  • HOW do we forecast?
  • HOW effective is our current CRM system in terms of capturing the right customer, marketing and other sales data?
  • HOW effectively are our people at putting in the right data into our CRM?
  • HOW effectively do we use the data we capture?

I hope this helps.

As many of you may be aware, putting together a business strategy and associated sales / marketing/ operation plans is all well and good, however they will remain intellectual abstractions until  we put them into action.  Good luck with your business and sales planning process.

If you want a Sales Planning template for your business call us on (+61) 03 9532 7677

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Territory Management vs. Account Management

November 15, 2007 in Sales Management, Sales Planning

Terms such as Account Development, Account Management and Territory Management are often interchanged indiscriminately by many a sales people and managers thus creating confusion when it comes to sales planning, portfolio allocation and recruiting the right kind of sales person for your business.

I thought it might helpful to define these terms and give you a little more perspective.

All sales people involved in developing long term viable business relationships with the right kind of customers should be doing Account Development: Here is our definition of Account Development taken from the BARRETT Sales Competency Dictionary.

Account Development: Develops account profiles and plans for each customer with a thorough understanding of the customer’s business and their needs and works with that business to yield greater penetration rates for further viable sales.

It makes sense.  However, when it comes to field sales planning it is critical, not just to know whom you are calling on and how you are calling on them, but to know what type of portfolio allocation and management your sales portfolio requires. 

Are you and your sales team working a territory or account management strategy? 

The difference is quite important if you want to run a successful well managed sales team and business.  Let’s look at the two most common terms used when it comes to sales portfolio management:

Account Management

Relates to a Sales Representative entrusted with managing an account or series of accounts.  This, for example, would include the responsibilities for locating and negotiating to acquire clients’ accounts within a Territory, State or Nationally.  Account Management is not necessarily territory bound in practice, however, it does involve:

  • positioning yourself and your business at multiple levels with the client account,
  • handling all major decisions related to that specific client and
  • working with all key people within that account including the key decision makers, influencers, coaches, etc. 

True Account Management is usually reserved for larger, more complex accounts requiring one or more of a team of people to manage the account(s) from the supplier.

Territory Management

Relates, in the main, to a Sales Representative or Merchandiser with a Territory to manage – this is most common in businesses such as:

  • Pharmaceutical Sales: calling on GP’s, Hospitals and Pharmacies within a specific geographical area.
  • Selling into Retail: selling into and managing all the different retail stores in their territory i.e. Supermarkets, etc.
  • Some Mortgage Franchise Sales: in a number of these franchises, they have set Mortgage Brokers up with a designated geographical territory calling on consumers within that area.

Therefore how should your sales team currently be operating?

If you are unsure about what is right for you here is some information from www.sykronix.com, a marketing research portal that might help you:

REASONS FOR ESTABLISHING SALES TERRITORIES

Better coverage – salespeople cannot cherry pick; territory assignments constrain salespeople to work with less profitable customers or prospects as well as the most desirable accounts

Reduced selling costs – assigning responsibility to a single salesperson ensures that there is no overlap in coverage; customers and prospects are called upon by only one salesperson

Improved customer service – assigning responsibility to a single salesperson helps to ensure that all customers and prospects receive adequate servicing

More accurate evaluation of performance – if territories are relatively equal with regard to workload and potential, then salesperson performance can be compared on an equal basis; if territories are unequal in a known way, then adjustments can be made in evaluation of unequal performance

WHEN NOT TO ESTABLISH SALES TERRITORIES

Sales coverage is far below sales potential – e.g., a new company wants to cherry pick for the most profitable prospects first

The sales force is highly specialized – e.g., when the sales force is organized along the lines of product specialty rather than along the lines of customer location

Sales are made on the basis of personal contacts and by referrals

SOME GUIDELINES FOR DESIGNING TERRITORIES

Sufficient potential – with insufficient potential, a salaried salesperson will not be used effectively, and commissioned salespeople will leave the company for greener pastures

Reasonable size – is a salesperson’s time being spent traveling or making face-to-face sales calls?

Adequate coverage – is the salesperson able to service all accounts and able to meet new prospects?

Minimum impediments – try to set territories such that rivers, mountains, railroads, etc. set the borders of territories rather than run through the middle.

DESIGNING TERRITORIES

Determine appropriate focal points and boundary areas

Political boundaries – state, city, county, etc.

MSAs –

Trading areas –

Natural boundaries – mountains, rivers, railroads, etc.

Determine territory shape for efficient use of time and routing

Wedge – slices of a pie; use when salespeople work out of a common office

Circle (or square) – use when salespeople work out of a home office

P.S. Then there is

Category Management: Relates to someone being given the responsibility of managing a ‘Category’, example ‘Footwear’, they would manage Shoes, Socks, etc. but they would not be responsible for shirts etc.

Also thanks to Tom at Golden Circle for the additional insights.

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