Sales Strategy: The Path to the Non-Emotional Sales Strategy Decision

 Sales Performance Improvement, The Path to the Non-Emotional Sales Strategy Decision  Comments Off on Sales Strategy: The Path to the Non-Emotional Sales Strategy Decision
May 122012
 

Sales Strategy: The Path to the Non-Emotional Sales Strategy Decision

Sales Strategy: Posted by Joshua Meeks on Mon, Apr 30, 2012

Today more than 650 million people in over 190 countries will watch Manchester United take on Manchester City in a football match that will likely determine the winner of the Premier League. Millions of dollars, pounds and euros will be bet all across the world on this one game and approximately 80% of those bets will be based on emotional and gut feeling.

Believe it or not, a lot of sales organizations are run the same way today. Decisions are made on emotion and gut feeling with little sales data analysis or insight. In fact, through my experience, most organizations are operating based on “feel” more than any other metric.

The chaos stops here and now by creating a step by step method based on criteria that matters for sales force strategy. It will take the gut feeling and the unknowns out of evaluating your sales force and enable a road to success.

Step One: Leverage current data available in your CRM & focus on easy-to-run reporting

Effective Sales Performance Management always starts with basic reporting with information you have today. Focus on answering these questions at this phase:

  1. How is my overall performance?
  2. How is each individual performing?
  3. Are my Sales reps pursuing the right leads?
  4. What leads/prospects should I pursue?
  5. Am I achieving my sales goals?
  6. How accurate are our forecasts overall and in each territory?
  7. In what part of the Sales Process do I need coaching?
  8. Which reps need coaching and in what?
  9. How are pipelines progressing? Is anything stuck?
  10. What clients are expanding/contracting the fastest?

Step Two: Engage data not captured (or not yet tracked) in CRM

This is where organizations typically fall short. They think their CRM solution is the “end all, be all” to their sales management worries. It isn’t. If you want to continue the shift from emotional to emotionless, begin to answer these questions:

  1. What is my upside potential?
  2. Is my team meeting the territory’s potential?
  3. Who are my best performers?
  4. Should the team be expanded or contracted?

Step Three: Identify CRM data gaps and information impossible to track

The final step in taking emotion out of sales force strategy is to consider the big picture and how your team measures up.

  1. How are compensation levels trending?
  2. What products are in the highest demand?
  3. Are we pricing our products effectively?
  4. Are sales expense s in line with budgets?
  5. Which managers/reps stand out as the most effective?
  6. How effective is our compensation plan?

Call to Action:

To identify the reports needed to answer these questions in steps 1-3, download the SPM Self-Assessment Tool Here and conduct your assessment today.

http://www.salesbenchmarkindex.com/bid/82645/The-Path-to-the-Non-Emotional-Sales-Strategy-Decision

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To Discuss how these Solutions will add value for you, your organization and/or your clients, Affinity/Resale Opportunities, and/or Collaborative Efforts, Please Contact:

Tom McDonald, tsm@centurytel.net; 608-788-5144; Skype: tsmw5752

sales strategy, McDonald Sales and Marketing, LLC