Technology

Sales Process Productivity: 5 Best Practices and 20 Key Questions

While many companies strive to improve production, distribution, and various administrative work processes, it is less common to find organizations that focus on applying the fundamentals of continuous improvement to the sales process.

However, our research and experience indicate that the sales process is more complex than many people realize. Additionally, we have consistently found that the biggest waste in most commercial and industrial organizations is the loss of gross margin that results from missed sales, suboptimal prices, and excessive costs in sales-related processes.

Therefore, leaving aside the “sales skills” or “charisma” associated with those who are perceived as the most successful salespeople, when considering the daily activities required of outside or field sales professionals, there are some Proven best practices that can help drive field day efficiency, including the following five:

  1. Pre-call planning– By planning each sales call in advance, in writing, sales people can position themselves to accomplish more in less time, thus increasing personal productivity and speeding up overall cycle time. Making more comprehensive sales calls will not only increase efficiency, but the habit will also have a stronger and more positive impact on customers. Many of those who have adopted this best practice report that their customers recognize the difference and, over time, are more willing to schedule meetings or sales calls, allowing them to make more calls each day more easily, an important part of the business. work, as noted. in the next panel.
  2. Set a daily call volume goal. This may seem like an unnecessary step, but a surprising number of salespeople can’t quantify the actual average number of sales calls they make each day. As author Jack Falvey has said, “Want more sales? Make more calls.” By setting a personal goal, which will vary depending on the nature of each territory, salespeople can often more effectively self-motivate themselves and make more calls per day.
  3. Geoplane: By creating a strategic travel or geographic plan for each day, external sales people can minimize drive time and optimize “on-site” time. The best plans will start by creating territorial quadrants and then mapping the locations of key customers and prospects. The general rule of thumb is to avoid traveling beyond two quadrants on any given day, so when scheduling an appointment in one area, try to schedule meetings or plan to visit others in the same general region to allow for a maximum number of interactions in one minimum amount of time.
  4. Bookends every day scheduling an appointment first thing in the morning and another in the late afternoon. This will promote “staying the course” rather than deciding to return to the office early to do clerical work. This best practice could also help you achieve point 2 above.
  5. Try to schedule the next steps (ie follow-up meetings, conference calls, etc.) “in the moment” before the conclusion of each sales call. This simple best practice can significantly increase efficiency for two reasons. First, it helps sales people more easily fill out their calendars for future sales days in the field; And second, it can help shorten sales cycles by securing time with buyers before it could be done otherwise.

But the sales process extends beyond a day in the field, since it encompasses everything from identifying a potential customer to delivering a solution.

Given this broad spectrum, it is no wonder that the biggest waste within most companies can be found in the area of ​​sales.

The first step towards improvement, that is, moving from “where we are now to where we would like to be if all was well”, is to identify specific areas of waste in the sales process, and a good way to start could be to answer the following 20 questions:

  1. What is our current market share?

  2. What are the requirements of our clients?

  3. How well are we meeting these requirements?

  4. What would it take to truly delight our customers?

  5. How long does the sales process take from lead to sale?

  6. What is our lead conversion rate?

  7. What were the top 3 reasons for lost sales in the last quarter?

  8. How many calls do our sales people make, on average, each day?

  9. How much time do we spend talking to disinterested or unqualified prospects?

  10. How do we continually improve the skills and habits of our sales team?

  11. What percentage of prospects contact us first?

  12. How does this percentage (# 11) compare to industry data?

  13. Does the sales process take less time to complete for inbound leads? If so, how much less?

  14. What is our response time to inquiries from clients or potential clients?

  15. How many customer complaints do we receive?

  16. How much time does our sales staff spend advocating or responding to complaints?

  17. What is done with the information associated with customer complaints?

  18. How do customer complaints or customer dissatisfaction affect our ability to make sales?

  19. How often are discounts extended and what is the average discount?

  20. Are discounts offered for competition or dissatisfaction?

Clearly, there are many ways to analyze and improve the productivity of an organization’s sales process, but these five best practices and twenty questions are good starting points.

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