Patrick Stakenas, President and CEO ForceLogix www.forcelogix.com
If you are a Senior Sales Executive and like most, need to drive more revenue out of more of your team, put the process in place with your managers and you will see the results:
Getting started on a Sales Effectiveness initiative; here are five questions every Senior Sales Executive should be able to answer... and if you can't.. consider the benefits if you could!
Read below and decide if this makes sense. If it does, lend your sales managers a hand and start a sales effectiveness initiative.
1. What's holding back your B and C players from driving more revenue and attaining quota?
2. Do you believe that coaching really has the impact that industry leaders have proven to be true and what leading analysts have studied, surveyed and documented?
3. What would it mean to have access to detailed rep. information on skill level, selling ability, product knowledge, marketing messaging or key leading sales indicators in real time?
4. How important is it to understand who is moving up, who is moving down, or who is not moving at all before the results come in?
5. Do the excuses of CRM or SFA challenges or other competing IT priorities trump the opportunity to improve team performance today?
In recent studies done by Ventana, Sirius, Nightingale Conant and the Conference Board of Executives, they found a common dilemma - a tremendous need for a sales performance and effectiveness plan, which is often thwarted by a lack of resources. This isn't surprising considering the current statistics: According to the Bersin & Associates Performance Management 2006 Study, "only 32% of organizations have a consistent, enterprise-wide approach to this important business process." And almost 90% still do not use specialized tools or software services to help get the job done.
Even though most senior sales executives are overwhelmingly enthusiastic about the possibility of implementing Sales Performance Effectiveness (SPE) it has been cited that internal time, resources, and budget as enormous barriers.
Here is the Reality: Implementing a Sales Performance Effectiveness plan actually may be the most cost-effective way to improve the results of your B and C players and remove the burden from your IT and HR teams to support the information you need to get the job done and improve the performance of your sales team.
The questions you need to answer:
1. What's holding back your B and C players from driving more revenue and attaining quota?
Could it be a lack of attention to sales drivers and leading indicators?
Ultimately, a well-functioning and appropriately-used process can deliver real, bottom-line business results through understanding why people are not performing. Paying close attention, using automation, to track the critical leading indicators will give you and your managers a clear view of what is really going on with every individual and every team. Understanding these indicators and tracking, monitoring and measuring them provide insight on if a salesperson is doing the right things to get them to greater revenue.
2. Do you believe that coaching really has the impact that industry leaders have proven to be true and what leading analysts have studied, surveyed and documented?
Fact is fact.. Coaching works, question is what do you do about it and how do you get consistent coaching and tracking of the coaching events.
Studies from the Center for Management and Organizational Effectiveness (CMOE) and the Sales Executive Council (SEC) who have analyzed over 2,500 sales professionals and as many as 500 sales managers determined coaching has a significant impact on sales results.
Understanding this and implementing a coaching process to track, manage and monitor these results provides significantly greater value - up to 17% for your B and C players cites the CMOE.
The SEC study also revealed that the amount of sales coaching a person receives drove greater performance and had a direct link to retention. These studies and others have also drawn strong conclusions that tracking the individual being coached increases the level of engagement and overall effort given by these individuals on a daily basis as they can see themselves getting better and are acknowledged more often by both peers and managers. This translates to increased revenue and profitability.
Establishing a coaching environment and providing the tools necessary to track and manage can take the results even higher. But what if they only improved your B and C players by 10%, or even just 3%? Chances are that would still drive a huge increase in your numbers across the board. You would know who is coaching, who managers are spending their time with, and what they are coaching on.
You would know if it is really having an impact, the subjective nature of coaching becomes objective and actionable, it becomes real. HR, marketing, senior management, supporting functions and everyone in the company will know that you are doing everything possible to drive more revenue to the company and that you care about your people.
3. What would it mean to have access to detailed rep. information on skill level, selling ability, product knowledge, marketing messaging or key leading sales indicators in real time?
Could it mean that you would finally have a simple way to understand the strengths and weaknesses of your team and how to correct them without having to rely on the IT, HR or finance team every time you are looking for information?
Often the IT department will tell you they will deliver this information... but it never comes or it comes on their terms. Don't be held hostage: the need to view and access to sales rep. information on sales performance data for actionable insight is a must. You should expect to have detailed, rolled up information that gives you the power to be able to make decisions and realistically report to higher management on why thing are the way they are.
4. How important is it to understand who is moving up, who is moving down, or who is not moving at all, before the results come in?
Unlike most senior sales executives, you may be clairvoyant and know each week over week, month over month or quarter over quarter who is going to hit their numbers, but most senior managers do not know until the results hit.
OK, there are that select few, that 20%, who deliver for you time and time again. But what about the 80% that does not. Again, we are talking about the B and C players and understanding where they are headed is critical in order to improve team performance.
Managers who are activity engaged with their team and are using data and coaching on this data, based on the criterion you or your sales training or operations group have established will see who is engaging and getting better well before the results come in.
Chronic underperformers will be called out continuously as they will be measured against the leading indicator criterion: are they making the calls? are they calling on the right prospects? do they understand the product or service? can they deliver the latest marketing message? are they at least working towards getting better?
Managers will be freed up from the tasks of gathering information to know who is getting better or worse. Accenture cites that sales managers spend 2 hours per day hunting for data, 50% of which is useless. Managers will have the opportunity to spend the time with the people who need help, they can gauge and adjust to upward positive changes and have the knowledge and documentation to take action with those who will not or cannot perform to expectation.
5. Do the excuses of CRM or SFA challenges or other competing IT priorities trump the opportunity to improve team performance today?
Let's face it, this is holding you back. Your livelihood is dependent upon your ability to deliver, but the priorities of the day are preventing you from taking action.
Every day, more and more senior sales executives are coming to terms with the fact that CRM and BI tools have helped with efficiency, but it is very hard to link it back to growth and optimization of the sales talent.
Even with the are countless articles from analysts and consultants that support this fact that tracking, measuring, monitoring and coaching will drive 15% to 30%+ productivity improvement in your B and C players, you let IT, HR and others prevent you from doing what is right. Maybe it is a convenient excuse to dodge accountability?
CSO Insights, Accenture, Bain, The Corporate Executive Board, Ventana, Sirius and countless others have cited the importance of getting grounded with their sales management, and it is time to wake up to this.
Patrick Stakenas, President and CEO ForceLogix www.forcelogix.com
The Management Curve is a blog dedicated to discussion and debate about the impact sales metrics programs such as CRM, Sales Performance Management and Sales Force Automation Programs are having and will have on how the sales function is managed. Hosted by Paul McCord, the blog also features articles and commentary by other sales trainers, consultants, product developers, and the sales managers and salespeople who actually use the products.