By Brett Lyons
As a young salesman at Mars, I always assumed the emphasis on planning each call was normal practice in every sales organisation. I didn’t realise it then, but this focus on planning calls (and the sales day) was my first exposure to ‘Operational Efficiency’ –using time in the most effective way. Years later, it still surprises me how little attention some Sales Leaders pay to this area, often not understanding how or why their people organise themselves. This approach is justified with statements such as:
'We’re different’
or
‘My sales people are experienced’
But what does ‘experience’ mean? Several years of the same bad habits? Or constant adaptation to meet the needs of customers?
One of my closest friends is an ‘experienced’ golfer; he has been slicing it off the tee for years. He is in fact so ‘experienced' that his slice – or fault – is now perfected! Yet the limitations this puts on his performance will never be resolved until this ‘experience’ is corrected.
My friend’s golf is a hobby. However, if ‘experience’ gets in the way of improving sales performance it impacts on business success.
One consistent thing in every industry is that results achieved by Account Managers and Sales People are governed by two common factors:
1.Efficiency – the structures, processes and behaviours the individual follows in the role.
2.Skills – the personal skills of the Account Manager or Sales Person.
The time it takes to develop the skills for a role depends on the industry, complexity of the role and attitude of the individual. In professional organisations this is usually achieved through a structured training and development plan supported by field coaching. These are the organisations that develop the most successful teams.
Operational Efficiency is an area where Sales Leaders can effect change quickly. It requires two things:
1. Looking beyond 100%
This means the leader learning to look beyond the idea that 100% of objective is ‘good performance’. Instead, the leader starts to look at the structures, processes and behaviours that deliver performance and consider what could be if you push past 100.
I once met a Country Sales Director in a European Business. The message was clear that he did not want to work with us, summed up in the statement, ‘We don’t need help here. We’re on target’.
However, this was not the view of the European Commercial Director, his boss. In reality, the sales team was on target, but an analysis of existing and potential customers highlighted that out of 700+ targets in the country there were over 200 that the sales team had no contact or relationship with. The question ‘What could be?’ was met with the answer ‘But we made target’.
Given the size of the sales team, activity should have generated business from these customers. You may not get them all, but you should win some.
2. Recognising What ‘working smarter’ delivers
This is not about telling people to make ‘X’ calls per day, doing things at 9-10 on a Monday morning or working harder! It’s about people working in a professional, efficient and customer-focused way and should provide Sales Leaders with:
- A Diagnostic Model: a diagnostic model comprising of values and behaviours that act as the route map which leads to outstanding performance. Through this, the Sales Leader should be able to identify:
- Opportunity
- Threat
- Coaching Priorities
- Performance Foundations – a collective set of values and behaviours that provides the foundations on which the sales leader builds a ‘Right Things Right’ culture.
Ultimately, the activities and behaviours that a team need to be seen as operationally efficient will vary from business to business and sector to sector. As a starting point, a ‘Top Five’ for Sales Managers, Account Managers and Sales People to work on are:
- Contact Strategy –segmenting customer portfolios and planning a contact strategy that matches sales time with customer profitability and potential. The cost of a business to business sales call exceeds £200. Sales Leaders must be confident that time is used with the right customers in the right way.
- Performance Standards – a set of behaviours that the sales person is expected to deliver on a quarterly, monthly and weekly basis. This is not just about sales, it is the behaviours that lead to sales and ensuring individuals operate through a professional approach that will deliver consistency and growth.
- Meeting Planning – information and material that should be prepared every time you have the privilege of a customer meeting. Think:
what are the questions you would want to ask an Account Manager or Sales Person if you were visiting a customer with them?
- Sales Execution – achievements for every customer meeting. What would you expect to see from ‘Opening the Meeting’ to ‘Gaining Commitment’?
- Follow-up – what do you expect to happen after every customer meeting?
Brett Lyons is the Managing Director of TLSA International. His time is spent working with clients to develop world class Sales Leadership, account management and sales functions that deliver outstanding and sustainable business performance.
- See more at: http://www.tlsasalestraining.com/content/sales-operational-efficiency-how-work-smarter-not-harder#sthash.dqD3Oneo.dpuf(from: http://www.tlsasalestraining.com/content/sales-operational-efficiency-how-work-smarter-not-harder)
