Sales

One of our key skills is to help our clients to increase sales.

Typically our first activity will be to carry out a Sales and Marketing audit, in order to establish the status quo. During the audit we will interview management and staff who are directly involved with sales and marketing, and departments that have a direct interface with the sales department.

We will then provide recommendations on how to increase sales, also focusing on increasing margin and winning more orders for which you have bid. We always use a 360 degree approach to the audit, comparing and contrasting views of both management and sales people, with a sharp focus on current best practice.

We will work with you to create an overall strategy, or work to modify an existing one, and then design appropriate tactics to deliver the results you want.

The key areas that are important in maximising performance within a sales team comprise the 4 "M"s. These are:

• Management
• Measurement
• Motivation
• Mentoring

Management

Management is concerned with creating territories and allocating industry sectors, together with the appropriate procedures for making the sale of your product or service most effective. Putting in place procedures to provide regular sales forecasting and diary management systems is considered a major part of the sales management process. It also considers procedures for managing non-performance, and possible recruitment of new sales personnel. Recording of data on customers and prospects, possibly via a CRM system, with the disciplines to maintain the currency of the data is vital.

In the area of sales team growth, we help to define the key character traits that are needed for the job, and which candidate offers such traits.

Measurement

Measurement ensures that the appropriate Key Performance Indicators are implemented. Typically some KPIs could be:

• Orders against budget for the month
• Orders against budget year-to-date
• Three-month rolling order forecasts
• Number of customer calls per week
• Average margin earned per month
• Percentage of bids converted

There are clearly many other KPIs that will be company-specific, but without them it is impossible to effectively manage a sales department.

We can help you design the KPIs which will provide your management with the means to effectively manage the sales team.

Motivation

Motivation covers the areas of financial and social ways of encouraging sales people to operate most profitably. At its simplest level it represents the salary, commission, and bonus scheme, which must be appropriate to the person and the team.

For instance, is each sales person competing to be top salesperson, or should they cooperate for the good of the company. The commission and bonus scheme must reflect this need, and it should be remembered that the commission scheme will be considered to be the company's instructions to the sales person, on what they want him/her to do.

As well as the financial aspect of Motivation, one must also consider the social one. It is important to understand what motivates the individual from a non-financial standpoint. What will drive them to perform better? How should they be disciplined and encouraged, or what words should be used to praise them? Is the need for team approbation more important than money, or is it important for their partner to be aware of public praise or criticism?

Mentoring

When considering mentoring a sales team it is vital to train them in both knowhow and showhow. Whilst training them on the product is important, showing them how to sell it is more important. Thus, training becomes a key issue in managing a sales team, and going two-handed to potential customers is the best way in which transfer good sales skills to staff.

At Business Dynamics we can help you implement the above processes in order to maximise your sales opportunities, and also your margin.

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