Sales Process Management - The Key to Unlocking the Potential of Your Sales Force

According to legendary quality expert W. Edwardslate. After a few months of this I noticed that although I
Deming, there is one critical, but often overlooked,was working harder and longer, and sacrificing time
factor upon which success in almost any businesswith my family to do it, I wasn't seeing any appreciable
endeavor depends. The ability of your sales team toreturn on my investment of additional time and energy.
meet and exceed your revenue targets will beI began to realize that I wasn't addressing the real
determined largely by your awareness, or lack ofproblem. The market had changed dramatically while
awareness, of this one thing. It amazes me how manymy sales process had remained the same. I was doing
companies neglect it entirely, focusing instead onthe exact same things I had been doing when the
individuals and performance issues while the realmarket was hot. The only difference was that I was
problem goes unnoticed and unaddressed. Obviously itnow doing a lot more of them.
is vital for you to understand this important componentI began to analyze how the marketplace was different
and learn how to manage it properly so that you cannow and to think about changes I could make to my
unlock the full potential of your sales organization.own approach and what the results were likely to be.
According to Dr. Deming, the critical component is yourUnwittingly I was applying SPM to my own selling
system, or process. For the purposes of ourprocess!
discussion, we'll be focusing on the process that has toI recognized that during the time the economy had
do with generating sales--your selling process. In mybeen booming almost every company seemed to be
experience it doesn't matter how talented, educated,hiring. A salesperson could just pick up the phone and
or experienced your salespeople are, or how harddial a prospect (seemingly at random), and chances
they work at it, there remains a very large gapwere that they would be hiring or could refer you to
between the actual results they will produce and thesomeone who was. I had always kept data on the
results they could have produced had someone beennumber of sales calls I was making and the results and
paying attention to process. In today's ultra competitivesuccess ratios my efforts generated. The data
business environment, where the margin betweenshowed that before the bubble had burst, nearly one in
winning and losing is so slight, I am surprised at howthree of my sales calls resulted in a lead. It was the
many companies continue to ignore an area that holdsperfect market for making as many sales calls as you
such potential for drastic increases in productivity andcould possibly fit into the day.
bottom line results.The present situation was very different. I was now
It's easy to say that your salespeople could bemaking almost 30 dials, on average, to get to that
producing better results. It's not so easy to actuallysame lead. I did the math and found that increasing my
demonstrate it and then formulate a workable plan tooutbound sales calls by the suggested 50 percent
do something about it. Most managers would agreewasn't going to get me even close to where I needed
there's always room for improvement. The challengeto be. I would have needed almost a 1000 percent
lies in knowing where to look in order to find theincrease in call volume to come close!
weaknesses in the selling process that are holdingAnother difference was that, whereas during the
your people back. It's hard to stop the bleeding whenboom, I could approach a prospect without specific
you can't find the cut--or worse yet--when you don'tknowledge of their business or hiring plans and
even know there's a cut. Most companies don't eveneffectively communicate using very general terms,
know where to start. In that sense, it's easier tonow, leads were so few and far between that I
manage people than to engineer processneeded to have a more thorough knowledge, and a
improvement. It's always easier to treat the symptomspecific, customized solution prepared in order to
than to actually diagnose and treat the underlyingengage the prospect in any kind of meaningful
cause. The result is a selling environment where thediscussion. Each lead was too rare and too valuable to
true reasons for most mistakes and failures gorisk losing on a random, generalized cold call.
unaddressed and are blamed on people instead.I concluded that I needed to change my selling process
Companies who operate this way often findfrom one in which I was making a higher volume of
themselves grappling with the same basic problemsrandom sales calls, to one where I was making a
year after year with the only change being the peoplelower volume of more targeted inquiries. Talk about
doing the grappling. It's an ineffective and expensiveflipping conventional wisdom on its head! I couldn't
proposition, certainly much more so than teaching yourargue with the numbers, however, and, after some
sales managers how to apply the principles of Salesinitial hand wringing, my manager couldn't either. He
Process Management.agreed to let me try out my new process.
Sales Process Management (SPM) promises to doThe new approach began to yield results immediately. I
more than just identify and improve the weaknesses inwas opening up far more new cases than ever
your selling process. Another major benefit you willbefore and my sales numbers jumped up higher than
enjoy when you make the commitment to SPM isthey had been when the economy was booming! I
seeing the best practices in your selling processbegan to apply the same thinking to every process I
identified and duplicated across your entirewas using.
organization. I've heard many leaders talk aboutFirst, I would identify all of the activities within my
implementing best practices but have seen very fewcurrent selling process. Then I would analyze each one
of them actually manage to consistently achieve it.to try to understand its true importance to advancing
I first stumbled upon the benefits of SPM a few yearsthe sale and producing the intended outcome.
ago when I was on the other side of the managementWhenever possible I would look for patterns and ways
fence selling online recruiting solutions for a majorto measure the cumulative results of each activity or
Internet company. The Internet bubble had burst andbehavior. I soon found that by taking the time to isolate
the economy was starting to slow down. As a result,and understand the role each activity played within the
our prospects and clients weren't hiring at the samecontext of my whole selling process, I could better
rapid pace as they had been before.reason from cause to effect and more accurately pin
Sales started to slump. Salespeople who had alwayspoint the relative strengths and weaknesses of each.
hit their numbers were now coming up short everyThe result was a sort of behavior pattern algorithm
month. Management focused immediately onthat told an accurate story of my process from
inspecting and monitoring the individual performance ofbeginning to end.
the salespeople. The decision came back that weAfter gaining an understanding of exactly what I was
were not making the necessary number of daily salesdoing and how each component of my process
calls. A resolution was made to mandate ratcheting upcontributed to the outcome I wanted to achieve, I
the activity levels on the floor. If we failed to make Xwould look for ways to improve upon my results. I
percent more dials every day we could be penalizedwould repeat this process over and over again;
or otherwise punished. Incentives were introduced tocontinuously looking to identify inefficiencies and
reinforce and reward the required behaviors.replace them with new, improved ways of doing things
Employee morale plummeted. Salespeople expressedbetter. Often the improvements would come as a
concern that management was unfairly targeting themresult of talking with and observing other top
for blame. Management expressed concern thatperforming salespeople. Now that I knew what I was
perhaps many salespeople had been taking advantagelooking for, I could more readily identify what others
of the situation during the good times and didn't reallywere doing differently in the same area that was
care about the company, or, worse yet, were lazy andallowing them to perform at a higher level and
needed to be weeded out. The mandate had itsimmediately incorporate it into my own process.
intended effect... at least on call volume. The averageThe results were immediate and dramatic, enabling me
number of daily sales calls on the floor did increaseto finish 2002 as the top telesales rep in the entire
dramatically. Unfortunately this increase in the numbercompany. Since then, I've successfully introduced SPM
of sales calls did not result in a corresponding increaseto my clients and to my own salespeople and have
in sales and revenue.never seen it fail to produce the same outstanding
During this time, my focus was on finding somethingresults. SPM is easy to implement and works in any
that would work to produce measurable results forsituation, economy, environment, industry, or company. It
me. Initially I ratcheted up my activity levels too. In orderwill work for you too.
to accomplish this I began coming in early and staying