Is Your Sales Force a Sales Farce? - The 5 Steps to Sales Success

When was the last time you purchased a product based on the charm, professionalism, sincerity, and effectiveness of the sales person? These types of sales people are rare, comprising nearly 2% of the "best of the best", in the selling profession. They are the real force of their sales organizations. The rest are average sales people - mostly "order takers", who do not know how to articulate value and solve their client's business problem. And of course, there are sales people that are actually a disgrace to the profession of professional selling, doing precious little.

It is somewhat ironic that organizations spend a considerable portion of their earnings in developing a sales force for their businesses but many do not get proportionate returns. Habituated to working on auto-pilot sales systems, non performing sales people find the going gets tough when the system doesn't work in the normal way. Despite having an apparently well qualified and experienced sales team as well as having good sales practices and processes in place, organizations struggle. Their so called sales force actually present a picture that's close to a farce. You can avoid this and set your sales team on a path of success.

Here is how to go about it.

1 - The importance of sales leadership in an organization

You need to have sales heroes in your organization, at least one. There should be one sales hero, a leader that can lead from the front. Sales leaders are master salesmen, experts in timing their sales calls, flawless in their presentations, careful in their choice of words, and sensitive to the need of the customers. They do not buckle under pressure. They also have the capacity to inspire others with their hard and intelligent work. Such leadership talents are vital for an sales organization thrive and prosper.

They are ever vigilant and tread on new paths believing in the saying of Abraham Lincoln, "Things may come to those who wait, but only things left by those who hustle".

2 - Let go of the sales people that should not be in sales

Some people are really not cut out for the sales profession. They don't believe in hard work, don't like going out of their way to meet clients and discuss their requirements, and are constantly worrying about their monthly sales numbers. They participate in sales training workshops but learn little. They don't like meeting clients and understanding their problems. How can they sell? Remember that sales is the highest paying hard work and the lowest paying easy work.

The sales profession demands that sales persons should be extroverts and out going people interested in meeting people, solving client's problems with one-size-fits-one solutions. They should have healthy sense of self and self-esteem. Sales people should exude warmth, friendliness, and an eagerness to offer solutions to the client's problems. They also should like their job and the products and services they are selling. If not they should not be in sales and can utilize their talents in other professions.

3 - Motivation as a key to sales direction and success

The profession of sales is not a normal 9-5 job with a desk, a personal computer, a phone, and a cubicle. In fact, the most productive and highest paid professional sales reps do ALL non-sales related activities, reports, power point presentations, etc, between 6-8AM and 6-8PM. The sales day, prime selling time of 8AM-5PM is devoted to getting "belly to belly" with decision makers. A decision maker is defined as a prospect, not a suspect that has need, desire, financial capacity and authority. If the sales person doesn't create prospects there is no work for him. Unless there are the required numbers of sales he will not keep his job for long.

To keep doing this 5 days a week all through the year a sales person needs motivation. When the market conditions are tough and the internal conditions are far from perfect a sales person will require more motivation than normal to keep going. Some have the knack of motivating themselves. Others rely on their sales managers or professional motivational sales trainers.

4 - The sales rep who solves the clients problems and adds value succeeds

Each sales person brings his own unique personality traits in to sales. Some are sincere, some are thorough with technical details, others are helpful with after sales service.

There are sales people that are good listeners. They listen to the client thoroughly and understand the client's problems and offer solutions. By bringing a little effort they add value to the service offered to the client as well as the organization.

5 - Successful sales people like to make money

The profession of sales is a wonderful one where at the one end of the spectrum there lies the possibility of job loss for non performance. At the other end of the spectrum lies the possibility of making a good living, earning respect you're your clients and peers, and gaining a good reputation among colleagues. Successful sales people are driven by the zeal to solve client's business problems, articulate value and a by-product of that hard work is a healthy income stream and job security. That's quite healthy if ethical practices are followed to achieve the aims.

Check out if your sales team has the above mentioned characteristics. If the answer is no, find out what is stopping you from incorporating them? Save your sales organization from becoming a sales farce and turn them in to a potent sales force.

Doug Dvorak is the CEO of DMG Inc., a worldwide organization that assists clients with productivity training, corporate humor and workshops, as well as other aspects of sales and marketing management. Mr. Dvorak's clients are characterized as Fortune 1000 companies, small to medium businesses, civic organizations and service businesses. Mr. Dvorak has earned an international reputation for his powerful educational methods and motivational techniques, as well as his experience in all levels of business, corporate education and success training. http://www.dougdvorak.com

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Sales Force Productivity - Eight Practices That Ensure Your Sales Success

We have never needed to improve sales productivity more than we do in this dreadful economy. For decades, businesses have embraced  productivity and cost controls in operational functions like manufacturing and distribution; programs like Total Quality Management (TQM), Six Sigma and LEAN are thriving all over the map. Except in the sales department. We suggest that sales organizations can benefit dramatically from adopting some basic principles of productivity management, simple business techniques that lower costs, improve customer profitability and retention, and reduce sales-person turnover.   This article explores the eight key practices that contribute to productivity. Each practice can be either a contributor if it is in place, or an inhibitor if it isn't.

Practice #1: The Prospect Profile

If you don't have a documented prospect profile then you may be lengthening the sales cycle and driving your team to pursue under-qualified or unprofitable deals.

 

Sales people probably spend more time prospecting and qualifying than they do anything else. Sales people who have a documented prospect profile can qualify opportunities more quickly and with greater accuracy than those that have no such guidelines. The basic prospect profile includes standard factual data, such as industry sector, number of employees, annual revenue, and so on. The most effective profiles go beyond these facts and include more qualitative characteristics that describe buyer motivation, trigger events, corporate values and other psychographic elements. 

 

Practice #2: Clear Targets and Incentives for Acquiring New Customers

New-customer acquisition is clearly an element of sales success. In fact, it's the reason your sales people spend so much time prospecting and qualifying. Contribute to productivity by setting clear goals for acquiring new business, and provide incentives. When setting new-customer targets, establish goals for revenue from new customers, and also establish separate goals for numbers of new customers.

Practice #3: Clear Targets and Incentives for Retaining Current Customers

No matter how important it is to acquire new customers, it costs a lot more than retaining current ones. If you are not giving your sales people specific targets for retaining current customers, your productivity is in jeopardy. This practice ensures that sales people will invest effort in keeping the customer happy, and encouraging them to buy again. You need to know if your team is losing loyal customers, and figure out a way to win them back.

Practice #4: Clear Targets and Incentives for Developing Current Customers Through Up-Selling and Cross-Sell

If your team has a goal of retaining a specific number of current customers, give them an additional goal of cross-selling and up-selling those customers. Maintaining the current contract is great, increasing the size of the current contract is better, and adding additional products or services is best. But unless you assign those targets specifically, sales people may not perform at maximum productivity.

Practice #5: Available Sales Support Resources for Labor-Intensive Low-Return Activities (Database Cleanup, Proposal Generation, Collections, Dispute Resolution, Etc.)

Sales people have many demands on their time. One hour of opportunity time can cost as much as $1,100 or more based on calculations we have conducted with our clients. Tasks like database cleanup, email marketing campaigns and past-due collections cost sales people many hours but contribute very little to their sales success. Forcing them to manage these tasks is a false economy. It is far more productive to delegate, outsource or automate these tasks as much as possible, even if it might stretch your budget to do so.

Practice #6: Require Sales People to Take Adequate Downtime

Stressed, tired or burned-out people take twice as long to do the same tasks. And they tend to use poor judgment. So contrary to conventional wisdom, if you encourage your team to work extra hours, you are inhibiting their productivity. Don't simply tell them to work smart and take vacations. Demand it.

Practice #7:  Create Performance Metrics that Cover the Sales Process from Beginning to End.

The classic way to measure sales performance is that of revenue produced or performance against quota. This is a weak indicator of effectiveness of efficiency. It comes too late in the process to correct the situation. Figure out ways to measure the sales process from the very start, and at critical milestones along the way. Define the stages of the sales process, and give your people specific targets for each stage in a given period of time. For example, consider adding number of prospects qualified, number of prospects who request a proposal, number of prospects who negotiate the terms and scope of the proposal. When sales people reach each of these key milestones the probability of a win increases. You can also figure out where the process stalls. The use of end-to-end metrics is a major contributor to productivity.

Practice #8: Useful Methods for Managing Nonproductive Sales People

Figuring out who is productive and who is not.  A sales person may be nonproductive because he is the wrong person for the job, or because he has little clarity of expectations, inadequate or insufficient coaching from his manager, or encounters operational obstacles beyond his control, which impede his performance.  The most popular methods of dealing with nonproductive sales people may not be the most productive.  These include firing the sales person, more product training and more sales skills training.  These methods are relatively high cost and produce relatively low benefits.  Some other practices tend to be lower in cost yet produce significantly better returns.  These include providing more qualified leads to sales people, clarifying and documenting their performance expectations, and improving the management, leadership and coaching skills of sales managers.

Ellen Bristol is the founder and driving force behind Bristol Strategy Group, the Miami-based sales-force productivity company, and developer of Selling the SMART Way®, BSG's flagship solution for productive sales teams. BSG's latest offering is the SMART Way Scorecard, a web-based system for managing sales force productivity. Visit us at http://www.bristolstrategygroup.com email Ellen at ellen@bristolstrategygroup.com, or phone 305-935-6676.

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Sales Force Automation Inside Outlook

What is Sales Force Automation (SFA)?

Sales Force Automation (SFA) is one of many newer buzz-words in business today. SFA is essentially a system of managing and tracking the sales activities for an individual or for a group of sales professionals. This system allows easy review and retrieval of sales related activities and communication for a specific person, company, or even a specific transaction. The system itself is an established series of steps or business rules designed to provide a structured, repeatable process for managing sales. In the grand scheme of business processes, Sales Force Automation typically falls between Contact Management (the managing of contacts and related information) and Customer Relationship Management (managing all customer information including ordering, invoicing, accounting, support, etc.). When talking about Sales Force Automation you will often find the discussion moves directly to software programs designed for the purpose. In our business environment today Sales Force Automation and Sales Force Automation Software are so closely linked they often become the same topic.

Why use Sales Force Automation for my business?

Sales Force Automation provides your business the ability to review all the sales related activities and communications for the sales professionals you employ. A good SFA system will allow you to review this history for a certain Company account, a specific customer, or even for an individual transaction or deal. SFA gives you a look at your complete sales history as well as a granular look down to a specific deal for a specific salesperson. For a Management team this can be vital in reviewing sales trends, forecasting future business, planning Marketing strategies, and evaluating successes and failures. Sales Force Automation provides a repeatable process for a sales team, allowing the salespeople to easily track the deals they have going with their clients. This typically involves the creation of steps, or Sales Stages, in your sales process which can be followed through to completion of the transaction. There are often action items related to the Sales Stages of a SFA process. All this together creates a familiar and repeatable process which can be refined to improve and streamline sales. For the sales professional it makes tracking the sale easier, and provides a framework of logical "next steps" as they work with their clients. It also allows both the sales professional and Management to analyze each sale to see where it may have gone wrong, or how it went right.

What makes a good Sales Force Automation Software?

There are literally hundreds of products on the market that provide Sales Force Automation functions. Some are designed specifically for that task, while others provide SFA features as part of a larger or associated program. Many companies go in search of Sales Force Automation Software, and find themselves looking at products that do much more than what they need. When looking for SFA software, keep in mind what your goal is: to automate and optimize the sales process. Good Sales Force Automation software focuses on the functions related to this goal, and leaves out the fluff. As mentioned earlier Sales Force Automation software includes more than Contact Management, but is not as overloaded with function and feature modules as Customer Relationship Management.

Managing contact information is an important part of SFA; you must be able to review a history of communication and activity at both the company and contact level. Sales Force Automation software provides advanced Contact Management and focuses on the features and functions related to daily sales activities such as opportunity management, tracking Sales Stages, journaling sales activities, creating follow up actions, and reporting on the Sales Pipeline. Many companies get involved with Customer Relationship Management (CRM) when they are really looking for SFA. The complexity and vastness of many CRM programs quickly becomes overwhelming, and the salespeople stop using it. In order for a Sales Force Automation program to work, the salespeople must be willing to use it. Perhaps even like using it.

How do I choose a good Sales Force Automation Software?

Keep in mind your goal: managing your sales and the related information. Sales Force Automation software should allow you to organize and track your customer information at the individual contact level and at the Company level. It should create a relationship between your contacts and the companies they work for. Reviewing a history of the communication and activities (such as appointments and follow-ups) should be easily done for the contacts and companies. This is all part of good Contact Management, which is part of a strong SFA program. The most vital part of Sales Force Automation Software is the ability to track your sales opportunities. A SFA program should track each deal, the contacts and companies associated with that deal, and all the related communication and activities. When reviewing the emails you sent to a client, it can be very important to know which deal it relates to, and to have a history of the deal when working with the client. This is particularly important if you have multiple sales occurring with the same contact and/or company.

Most importantly, a good Sales Force Automation Software should be easy to use and familiar. As Microsoft Outlook is the default email and calendaring program in business today, those SFA programs that are integrated in Outlook are often the most successful. These programs are similar in appearance and layout to Outlook, offering an immediate familiarity with the application. The ability of a program to use the existing Outlook forms (email, appointment, and task) shortens the learning curve for users and makes acceptance of the new functions much higher.

Creating an effective Sales Force Automation system can be an ever evolving process. Many companies find their SFA system in a constant state of small change. In a constantly changing business environment, this is often a very good thing. Using a well designed and easy to use Sales Force Automation Software can make the development and evolution of this process a much more organized undertaking.

Many of today's most successful large and small businesses have chosen Avidian's CRM Software as their sales management and contact management software.

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Improve CRM With Better Sales Force Automation

CRM has some of the highest failure and lowest adoption rates of any software category. Customer Relationship Management software is famous for complex implementations, confusing features, and the killer--requiring lots of data entry to make it useful. These are the characteristics that make soles force automation so critical to your CRM success.

Customer Relationship Management

As marketing channels become increasingly diverse simple to use CRM becomes increasingly important. Your customers are expecting speedy responses, unique experiences, and the right person every time.

Marketing on the Internet and social media, in this Web 2.0 world, are increasing the challenges of information overload on sales forces. Sales people don't have time to figure out software, set-up confusing processes, or feed a system data.

This is where sales force automation can save your CRM implementation from a costly disaster. Sales force automation is the digital assistant every sales associate or call center agent wished they had. Simple, intuitive, consistent systems that move deals forward and inherently tracks your leads is the magic of good sales force automation.

Lead Capture

It all starts with lead capture. Helping a sales person get leads or load up there own is the first step in a full and productive sales pipeline. Sales force automation should have a simple, but robust lead capture suite. An agent flush with leads is typically a motivated asset to your team. A sales person struggling to figure out how to get precious leads into their sales management system or forced to type them in is an anchor on your sales production.

The most basic lead capture methods your sales force automation should include are:

Spreadsheet imports
Web form integration
Outlook, GMail, Yahoo!Mail imports


Increasingly, your sales force automation should allow you to connect in your social networks and Web 2.0 applications. Some important examples include:

LinkedIN
Plaxo
Twitter

Getting leads into your sales pipeline and fueling your sales force automation needs to be a one-click process.

Contact Management

Now you have leads. Let's start calling. It seems like the logical next step, but many CRM software even makes this process challenging. Many sales force applications leave the sales person wondering:

Who do I call next?
What are the best leads?
When was the last time I call this lead?
Which leads are close to closing?
Which leads need follow-up?

Basic stuff, but often neglected. Sales force automation puts contact management into an intuitive flow. Prioritizing and queuing for follow-up are key components to simplifying the sales process. The sales force can then concentrate on the sale, not figuring out who to sale to.

Sales force automation also improves the rate and consistency of follow-up. It is amazing the percentage of leads that never get a second call or contact. Charging your contact management with a set of automated follow-up routines will increase you deals immediately.

Sales Lead Tracking

Are you making your sales force update reports on their sales activities? Are they spending their evenings going back and annotating customer records? If so you have the makings of inaccurate reporting at best and no reporting at worst.

Sales force automation can turn sales lead tracking a simple and passive activity.

Simplifying lead tracking starts with lead statuses. Your sales management software should have intuitive sales statuses that can be assigned (automated and/or manually) to leads as they move through sales processes.

By making sales lead tracking easy you can see specific areas to improve. Your marketing analysis and sales processes tuning becomes a snap. And, individual sales reps are not spending their time typing reports or entering data.

Here are some common sales actions you want to know about in your sales force automation:

Attempt
Contact
Proposal
Withdraw
Disqualified
Do Not Call
Closed
Using simple statuses like these can give you additional opportunities. Incorporating the status data in your marketing automation system will enable you to give each customer a unique experience.

Sales ForecastingUnderstanding where and when your revenue is coming can be a messy art in any sales force. But, it shouldn't be. Sales force automation can allow you to quickly see where leads are throughout the pipeline, facilitating real-time forecasting and roll-ups.

Using a lead management software with sales force automation can give you the flexibility to forecast and drill into answers. Find out who and how your sales force is producing revenue by viewing:

Individual quotas
Team and division production
Territories and product segmentation
The consistency of sales process, provided by sales force automation, makes setting quotas, benchmarks, and forecasts easier and more accurate.

Sales Accountability and Consistency

Once you have efficiently captured, tracked, and analyzed your leads, you know what works! But, nothing is more frustrating than individuals on the sales team not adopting best practices. With sales force automation you can drive basic compliance with proven sales processes.

Enforcing best practices is not only an accountability issue, but one that simplifies sales persons' challenge with establishing their system and getting into a productive process. With sales force automation the process is there, and it will get results.

Bill Rice is a leading authority on lead management and the lead generation industry. He is a frequent writer, sharing insights on sales at BetterCloser.com, providing commentary on the lead generation market on Lead Marketwatch and speaker, featured at venues like Leads2007, LeadsCon, Ohio MBA, and Online Lead Quality Summit.

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12 Keys to Tuning Up Your Sales Force

Many cars today tell the driver when it is time to perform maintenance. Even better, some tell the driver that maintenance is needed in 1,000 miles with updates along the way. It would be great if as a business executive or small business owner, you had this kind of technology at your fingertips. Unfortunately, managing a sales organization will always be a manual effort. Sure, CRMs and contact managers help, but there is no technology that replaces the leadership associated with sales management. Not sure where to dig into your sales organization? Here are twelve areas that will show just how game ready you are.

1. Business Objective. In your capacity, I'll bet you can cite the objectives of the business easy as pie, but do the key members of the sales team know them? Better yet, do they know the current one(s)? Business objectives change. It is important that those affected by the change are in the know. The business objectives serve as the foundation of the company's sales architecture® which is the overall selling system framework. If the foundation changes without reviewing the selling framework, there is a high risk of not achieving the objective. It is the equivalent of constructing a building with the wrong materials, or worse, in the wrong place.

2. Differentiation. Some argue that differentiation is the job of the marketing team. I see this as a shared responsibility between sales and marketing. The bottom line is whether or not your company is successful winning business at your desired prices. George Carlin has a great line on this. "If you nail together two things that have never been nailed together before, someone will buy it!" The target for differentiation is always moving. What is unique today is passé tomorrow. However, sales people can differentiate themselves above and beyond the product by being a valued resource to their clients. This is critical in a competitive or commodity marketplace. One of my favorite questions to ask sales people is why someone should buy from them. The goal is to see what value they see that they bring to their clientele.

3. Ideal Client Profile. Hopefully, you already have one of these. This is the document that clearly defines the attributes of your ideal client. Think in terms of size, buying circumstance, budget, buying habits, etc. This is a profile which each member of the sales team should memorize and be held accountable for knowing. Their pursuit of new business should be aligned with this profile. As the objectives of the business change, this profile may change. Be sure that it still meets the needs of the business.

4. Messaging Consistency. You spend time and money investing in a new campaign. Your sales people position the company using this new message, but the print material and website still convey the old information. Not good! The outbound message to the market must be consistent. If the sales people say it, the corporate presentation should reinforce it. The printed collateral material and website should help position the message. In essence, the entire approach should be aligned.

5. Intellectual Capital. What is that, you say? These are your referenceable clients. Other than your employees, they are your most valuable asset. This asset is critical for your sales team to help them win business. How are you growing your portfolio of referenceable clients? How are you ensuring that your largest client is not over-utilized by the sales team for these purposes? Do you have clients who can speak to everything your firm does, coming from multiple buying circumstances (newbie, veteran, etc)? The use of references can serve as a key competitive advantage for your sales team. It is important that the portfolio be ever-growing and well-managed.

6. Sales Performance. How are the members of the team performing relative to their assigned goal? While you may be tempted to measure only revenue performance relative to quota, this is not always the best approach for longer-term buying processes. In those circumstances, review of performance in the buying process itself is an important area for study. That said, the rule of thumb is to look to upgrade the bottom 20% of the sales team. Recruiting is an ongoing initiative of any healthy sales organization.

7. Pipeline Analysis. There are various opinions on how large a sales pipeline should be to ensure it yields enough to meet the business objective. The challenge is that a strict quantitative value minimizes the importance of a qualitative one. I've seen sales people with a pipeline of twice their goal finish the year at 150% of quota. I've also seen sales people with a pipeline of five times their annual goal miss the target. Quantitative studies aside, the best approach is to conduct formal, periodic pipeline reviews so that you and your executive team can dig into the pipeline to see what prospects are real. Quality supersedes quantity. Pipeline reviews are very helpful for executive teams with respect to learning of market trends and competitive intelligence.

8. Ideal Sales Person Profile. Hopefully, you have one of these too. This tool defines the attributes of the ideal sales person for your firm. You need this if you are going to upgrade the bottom 20% of your sales team. This profile changes, however, as the business changes and matures. Think in terms of the Blackberry®. About seven years ago, their sales people had to create demand in a minimally competitive market. Today, the Blackberry® is a staple in business, but buyers have product choices outside of the Blackberry brand. The skill set required to be successful in their business initially is very different than today. Don't have a profile? See my article titled "The Sales Marriage" to learn how to formulate your ideal sales person profile.

9. Revenue Accelerator Program (RAP). Again, you are probably asking yourself what this term means. I could have just written "new hire training." That doesn't convey the importance of getting sales people to a productive level as quickly as possible. Every time a sales person is hired in your company, there is a cost to the business. Thus, the development of a program that is focused on reducing the time for a sales person to generate revenue is critical. To effectively formulate your RAP, ask yourself what the sales person needs to know to effectively sell your product and when do they need to know this information. Some err by using the fire hose approach. "Teach them everything in their first week and tell them to go sell!" The fundamental question is, how quickly is there a return on the investment for this hire?

10. Skill Development. Many think that sales talent is born; not developed. Oh, if that were only the case. Companies need to invest in their sales team development just as professional sports teams practice their craft every single day. Sales is a profession, one of the few professions in which ongoing training is not required to continue to perform in the role. However, it is critical to success. One of the biggest disconnects between executives and sales people is when the sales team is criticized for not "selling the value." When the executives are asked when and how they trained the sales team on demonstrating this value, a blank look appears on their faces. Sales people will perform based on how they are trained and how they are compensated.

11. Compensation. Does your compensation plan drive the sales behaviors you feel assist in meeting the business objective? It all comes back to the business objective. The blessing and curse of sales people is that they use their compensation plan as a job description. If you pay them for doing one thing, but expect another, you will be disappointed. This is also a very sensitive area. The plan must change as the business objective changes. However, if the plan changes too frequently, the sales team will grow distrustful and look to leave. Approach this with true circumspection.

12. Metrics. The beauty of sales is that just about everything can be measured. Some like sales for that very reason. It is incumbent on the executive team to create metrics with desired goals such that every aspect of the company's sales architecture can be measured and analyzed. This is a great way to use your CRM. They are designed to track what needs to be measured. I suggest analyzing performance of team members, product lines, and the sales organization in total. Who sells the most of what product? Who sells the highest margin deals? What product is not selling as expected? Which sales person has the shortest buying cycle? Which sales person has the longest buying cycle?

Review of these twelve areas will ensure that your sales organization is finely tuned and ready to conquer the selling world.

Lee B. Salz is President of Sales Dodo and author of "Soar Despite Your Dodo Sales Manager." He founded Sales Dodo with the fundamental purpose of helping companies remain competitive in the ever-changing business world. Adapt and Thrive! Those who fail to adapt become extinct, just like the dodo bird of ages ago. Many laugh at the use of the word ?dodo,? but there is nothing funny about a business losing its competitive edge due to unmanaged change.

Salz has spent over 15 years helping companies adapt and thrive. He has successfully differentiated seemingly commoditized products and services in a wide array of industries resulting in record revenues and profits for companies ranging from Fortune 1000 to small start-up ventures.

Lee is active in the speaking circuit sharing his message of adapt and thrive with business executives and salespeople. He can be reached at lsalz@salesdodo.com or via his website at http://www.salesdodo.com for sales consulting, speaking, or training.

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Mobile Sales Force Automation - How companies doubled its sales volume with wireless technologies

Introduction

In countless vertical business markets, mobile professionals are roaming far from their corporate campuses with laptops and cellular phones in tow. The increasing ubiquity of Wi-Fi hotspots and high-speed cellular networks, in part, has made these road warriors depend on real-time access to email, calendars and other corporate information systems.

Similarly, Sales force workers equipped with mobile devices such as Tablet PCs and ruggedized handhelds can be found in retail stores, on construction sites, in manufacturing plants, on service calls and everywhere else business is being done. Mobility gives them the tools they need for order-entry, shipment tracking and business intelligence reports. The use of mobile devices increases accuracy and eliminates redundancy, so there's no need to carry around a stack of manuals.

Throughout business locations such as factories, offices, hospitals and other facilities a new breed of mobile worker, often referred as corridor warrior are seen armed with lightweight, handheld devices linked to wireless local area network (WLANs). The real-time communications and information access made possible through these complete mobile solutions is redefining the ways professionals perform at their jobs and consequently the costs of doing business.

These solutions are helping to raise the standards that both businesses and their workers are held to. This White Paper will discuss how the benefits of mobile solutions, are empowering Enterprises and their employees to improve revenue, engage in industry best practices and offer the best practices possible with its new features, functions and capabilities.

Obstacles in traditional SFA

A firm that has mobile sales force has been facing a lot of obstacles in recent times. They must continue realigning as the market changes. Earlier SFA Applications served the basic needs of field workers such as access to emails, contact management, calendaring and scheduling. Even though these features remain the dominant in SFA, the portfolio of capabilities has started to expand. A firm must adjust the pace of rebuilding the mobile force to match expected obstacles. The common anticipated obstacles are

Focus - Wasting time, money and resources on uninterested prospects. Instead of focusing on best prospects, sales force spends time on all the prospects.
Access - The Sales person often are not able to satisfy customer needs as they do not have access to the information that are sitting elsewhere in a database back at the office.

This led to the expansion of Mobile Sales Force Automation.

Expansion in Portfolio of Capabilities

Quick Access to Information - Imagine having outdated and inadequate information when you are in a sales call. Sales people should have critical facts and figures on the field that help them to close a deal. By providing the sales people with quick access and communicate information to and from the field allows the sales people to get the most from the time they spend with the customer.

Shortened Sales Cycle - Sales people can access current product information, check inventory and quote prices during a customer meeting which gives an outlook that they are very responsive. During the sales call customer can be informed about their accounts receivable status and credit standing with the push of a button. By using their mobile device the sales professionals can remove tedious tasks and reduce the delay in sending accurate information about customer meetings. Remote order entry capability also eliminates manual input of data into ERP. With these sales cycles are shortened, accurate information is gathered, customer is satisfied and revenue is increased.

Sync Capability - Synchronization provides a simple method of sharing data and merging new and updated information between offline users and the Mobile Server. When the offline user comes online he should be able to retrieve the updated information from backend server through mobile server and the information in his mobile device should be updated with the backend server. This ensures timeliness and accuracy of the information. The changes made outside the wireless coverage should be reliably conveyed to the backend. This ensures the sales professionals have most recently updated information and at the same time they need not reenter data again and again into the database. For Example, the corporate network of a major banking industry is designed to provide sales professional with reliable real-time access to their server. In a customer's place network coverage is not stable always, it gets lost. They need to use their mobile device and enter data as they interact with customer and then make that data available to the server as soon as the connection returns.

Always On Sometimes Connected - During sales call, sales professionals are in consistent time constraint. They need to deliver their messages efficiently as well as effectively so that they don't waste the face time with the prospects. The required boot of the laptop can waste a considerable amount of time in front of the prospect, which makes it less optimal. In such cases, sales professionals needs a mobile device which can help them access critical information in a small screen. "Always On capability is a must and the sales professionals can connect sometime to retrieve information." An efficient and powerful search capability is an important requirement.

Security - With the growing functionalities in today's SFA security plays a very important role. The primary security requirement is that all users should authenticate themselves as a verified user into the corporate systems. This ensures the sales professional accessing into critical information is an authorized user. And also an insecure connection or a lost device can cause a loss to company's proprietary data, in turn lowers competitive advantage. Mobility devices should have strong encryption capabilities for application data as it is transmitted over a network using a standard communication. A strong encryption system such as Triple AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) or DES (Data Encryption Standard) is necessary in ensuring the application data on the device is protected. In case of any lost or stolen devices, they should have the ability to remotely disable it.

SFA Mobile applications open up new frontiers

Recent advances in both wired and wireless Internet access solutions have spurred faster growth of mobile sales force population in the last couple of years, with hosted applications promising to open up new frontiers. The following features emerged into SFA applications, assures companies to maximize its capability to effectively and efficiently manage mobile users and devices.

Policy-based Management - Can provide a way to allocate network resources, primarily network bandwidth and security (firewalls), according to defined business policies. Users can be defined as individuals, groups, communities, and have specific management capabilities applied to them. This can be easily changed, and can be tied to a directory.
Broad functionality - Can function with a wide variety of applications and data requirements. Most of the applications have the needed interfaces to allow customization and additions.
Directory integration - Can interface with already defined directory structure and policies so a stand-alone or duplicate directory is not needed.
Scalability - Can provide management for a large number of users with a large number of devices.
Single console for all network/application/device/security - can provide a single console from which it can define, control, deploy and maintain all aspects of the device, application, network and security.
Web-based console - can be managed from a web-based console from any standard browser, allowing management from local or remote locations, and on a variety of devices.
Support for diversity in devices, platforms, and networks - supports a variety of devices, connections and platforms, and will continue to expand on the device types and OS flavors.
Security components - Provides at least a minimum set of security capabilities within the product. Can be integrated with higher-level security tools.
Bandwidth aware - can adjust for whatever bandwidth is available for the particular connection (e.g., delivering massive file updates on a slow connection).
Dashboard - can provide a management dashboard of information on processes, users, devices, performance, etc.
Backend management integration - can integrate effectively with other back-end management infrastructure already deployed within the organization without needing to retrain existing staff already familiar with the application.

Emerging trends in Mobile Capabilities

Today, an assortment of technology is used by sales professionals, ranging from laptop computers to consumer-grade personal digital assistants (PDAs) to beepers and cell phones. These top features provide a solution for everything a sales professional may need while out of the office.

Integration - Ability to integrate with enterprise-level business applications.

Operating System - Defining a standardized OS environment has greatly eased deployment of devices. Much like the PC desktop environment, the ability to deploy a single platform to all users means allowing a uniform distribution of SW, and a consolidated support requirement. Can support Familiar Microsoft Windows Mobile-based operating system.

Deployment platform - Companies ultimately deploy applications on one of two major platforms: Microsoft .Net, or Java. However, many organizations will deploy both. Can run in either environment (e.g., running a JVM on a Windows Mobile device supporting .Net).

Third party application availability - Many application vendors now offer mobile extensions to their application suites, providing a convenient means of extending applications to a mobile sales professional. However, not all vendors provide such capability, nor do they support all platforms. Third party middleware extensions provide needed functionality when not available within the application.

Asset Management - Deploying devices to users is only part of the challenge. The greater part of the challenge is managing the deployed assets. Devices deployed in enterprise settings provide the appropriate tools to mange the devices adequately, even when used with a third party asset management application.

Connectivity - Companies are relying on the notion of the "real time enterprise" which requires up-to-date data acquisition of business activity information, as well as empowering employees with the data necessary to make the proper decisions. Mobile devices offer connectivity, even if not immediately used with the expansion of WiFi deployments within companies, as well as in public places. Can also allow a choice of radio connectivity options.

Battery Life - Battery life varies greatly depending on usage factor but the bottom line for most users is, can mobile devices get the user through the workday without a recharge? Most consumer PDA devices are challenged to provide a full day's operation when using a wireless connection (WiFi). Can provide sufficient powerful batteries to provide at least one day's operation, and allow full recharge overnight. Further, can provide field replaceable battery, as most batteries will only withstand about 300 charge/discharge cycles.

Data Capture - Data capture options provide linear and two-dimensional scanning or imaging.

Voice telephony - Voice telephony for push-to-talk (PTT), peer-to-peer (P2P), private branch exchange (PBX), one-to-one or one-to-many communications.


Future Technology Accelerators

Tablet PC

Tablet PCs combine the touch screen and handwriting features of the PDA with the computing power of a notebook computer in a compact and light weight design. End-user experiences the same look and feel in the office as in the field. Other advances in battery life and wireless capabilities are also eagerly anticipated.

Voice

Emerging technologies that allow natural text to speech dictation will allow easier data capture by both sales professionals and other members of the sales channel. Such services can run on mobile devices or via telephone services to a central server. Such solutions will tie directly into sales and marketing applications and can help increase the amount of useful data that can be captured in the field.

Extending into Field Analytics

As wireless networks improve, our ability to access information throughout the enterprise increases. Through integration of analytics into a mobile environment, we bring the sales professional in closer contact with the home office and help them to better highlight customer needs. We will be able to better measure and predict behavior and the interactions with the customer and, in turn, support changes in the business landscape, such as product launches and formulary changes.

RFID [Spell out] - Radio Frequency Identification

An RFID system comprises three main elements: electronic tags, tag readers and software to store collected data.

The tags, which consist of a silicon chip and an antenna, provide each individual object to which they are attached with a unique identifier. When scanned, the tag transmits a wireless signal to the reader, which in turn sends the data to a database. The reader can also write information to the tag if required.

RFID technology is becoming prevalent in logistics where the movement of mobile tags, for example on pallets of consumer goods, is read by static readers, say, in goods in/out bays of a warehouse. However, for Sales Force Applications, this concept is reversed: the tags are static and the readers are mobile, i.e. carried by the sales professional. Tags can be attached, say, to a fixed location for proof of attendance, or to a specific item of machinery to be checked.

Top 5 reasons to make SFA MOBILE

Company conducts business in a national or global market.
Sales professionals spend more than 25% of the time out of office.
Business depends on quick and informed decisions from people who are frequently on the road.
Sales professionals need to have quick access to information and provide quick answers to the customers when they are on the call.
Nimbleness is a competitive advantage for the sales professional.

Sample Case Study

Challenge

A famous Banking company needed a robust tool for managing sales leads and opportunities with visibility of the sales pipeline. The company desired a web-based, customizable solution that would be a good fit with that company's mobility offerings to their sales professionals. It also desired a low-risk solution that could scale as the company grews. They also wanted their sales professionals to have up-to-date information about the leads they handle.

Solution

They selected ZSL's middleware technology for its wireless capabilities, ease of deployment, configuration and customization. Through ZSL's middleware technology the sales professionals were able to wirelessly access the provisioning functionalities such as sales order management systems and hosted prospect database. In addition, they were impressed with ZyPrism's ability to synchronize data's with reliable real-time access.

Results

Because of availability of data at real-time sales professionals were able to respond to customers at a quicker rate, shorten the sales cycle, increased their productivity and greater revenue generated. Because leads are pushed via alerts directly to sales professional's Mobiles, sales professionals started experiencing faster response times to people who register interest via the web or its sales call center.

Conclusion

By providing quick access to information to sales professionals available at back-end data and applications helps them to shorten the sales cycle, gather accurate information, improves customer satisfaction and increase revenue. Sales professionals become more responsive to customers through expansion of capabilities in SFA.

With Synchronization feature in SFA sales professionals are equipped with real time and updated information, which in turn helps them to provide customers with up-to-date prices and inventory available. Remote order entry capabilities reduce the burden of entering the data again in the database residing at the server and help them to close the sale quickly and efficiently.

Business productivity and customer satisfaction can be achieved when mobile and wireless solutions are used wisely. Mobile solutions have truly come of age and can literally transform business to newer heights. Now is the time to evaluate how becoming more mobile sales professionals can be more productive. Its time to craft your mobile strategy otherwise your competitors are likely to go mobile giving them the competitive advantage.

Expansion in the capabilities of Sales force automation applications holds great promise for improving the efficiency of mobile sales professional and reducing the overall cost of sales. The enterprise network should be properly equipped to provide reliability, security, bandwidth, adequate remote connectivity and management controls. Mobility can give all the business advantages with these capabilities.

About the Author

John Solomon is with ZSL. ZSL realizes that salespeople are mobile by definition. ZSL uses technology to make sales team more focused and successful. ZSL?s solution is customized in such a way that sales professionals get the direction they need and managers get the information they need. The bottom line is increased profits.

ZSL is an ISO 9001 certified provider of Onshore, Offshore & Near shore technology services. ZSL offers substantial cost savings and enhanced performance associated with a secure and effectively managed global development model. For over 10 years, ZSL has been partnering with a loyal following of clients seeking to leverage our proven delivery methodology, as well as 24/7 access to the very best technical resources and development tools available anywhere.

http://www.zslinc.com

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If You Comp Them, They Will Come: The Simple Way To Motivate Your Sales Force

In most companies, the sales force is the most loved and simultaneously feared organization in the company. Often perceived as the corporate "breadwinners," any attempt to change the behavior or process of the sales force is met with skepticism and trepidation.

"You just can't risk upsetting the sales force! Do you know how much revenue is at stake here?"

Any initiative or strategy that might change the way sales works, or perhaps more closely track what it is the sales forces actually does is perceived as a threat in all levels of a sales organization. New systems or processes mean only one thing to sales: a learning curve that means less time to sell, which in turn leads to lower commissions. Therein lies the simple answer to all change management challenges when dealing with a sales force: commissions.

Arguing that commissions are the key lever to influence sales may seem to imply that salespeople are a bunch of money grubbing capitalists, forsaking all else in pursuit of the almighty dollar. This however is largely untrue, rather the sales force is one of the few areas in most corporations where a very simple metric, and corresponding lever exist to manipulate behavior. Commissions are both a key part of compensation, but also a hard, numeric metric to indicate how well a particular person has performed. If Jane received higher commissions than I did, there's a very strong case that can be made that Jane is a better salesperson than I.

Whereas many positions have complex evaluations, peer reviews and other "soft" analysis, in sales, you either made the sale or you did not. At the end of the day, a customer needs to cut a check to pay for the sale, so you know exactly what that sale brought in to the company's top line.

At their most simple level, commissions give the salesperson a "piece of the action" they generate, and encourage a beneficial behavior: selling more products. This is where some level of sophistication enters the process. Rarely does a company simply give a salesperson a fixed percentage of each sale, rather higher margin deals usually receive a higher commission, or new product sales are rewarded more than sales of an older product to an existing customer. Combining your commission model with your process improvement strategy is where the magic happens. If your sales force is consistently selling products in a manner that creates extra labor and sunk costs on the backend, change your commission model to encourage sales that follow the new and improved process, and generate higher profit on the bottom line rather than big dollars on the top line. All it takes for the new commission model to be wholeheartedly embraced is for one salesperson to get a higher commission using the new model, or for a hard line rep to lose his ticket to the annual sales meeting in Hawaii before word will spread that the company is serious about change.

I'll never forget a discussion I had with an Operations Exec at a large office equipment company, which I'll call BigCo for the purposes of this article. He had recently assumed the new role, and was telling me of his first experience with Sales leadership. A SVP had come into his office the prior week and proudly announced that one of the sales reps was closing a multi-million dollar deal with one of the large overnight package handling companies. The sales rep had promised that BigCo would move all of their shipping to this carrier and hand wrote this clause into their contract, and the SVP was thrilled that this deal would put sales well ahead of its quarterly revenue metric.

The operations exec, who had just signed a multi-year deal with their current carrier, and recently completed a nine month project to optimize BigCo's logistics operation, was stunned. He did some analysis on the costs of switching carriers and revamping the systems and processes he had just put in place, and even with the million or so of revenue generated by the sale, the entire deal would result in the company losing two to three times as much. On their next meeting, the operations guy tore up the contract in front of the sales SVP, to dumbfounded silence. Even with the reams of figures showing how detrimental the deal was to the company as a whole, he still spent quite a bit of time on the sales forces' "Top Ten Most Wanted" list.

The moral of this story is that sales comp must be analyzed from a holistic perspective. What is good for sales may not be good for the company, and the implementation of new systems or new business processes is the perfect time to perform this analysis and determine an appropriate commission model. Make no mistake that this is difficult work, but once completed, getting the sales force to change is as easy as sending out an email detailing the new commission model. Old behaviors, which were not profitable to the company as a whole should not be highly compensated (if at all), and profitable deals, which use the systems and processes correctly should be the most valuable to the salesperson. As soon as reps realize the new plan is there to stay, more "good" deals will begin appearing almost overnight.

The magic here is the simplicity of implementing the change. Existing motivational structures such as compensation, bonus programs and free trips to an exotic location are already in place, the new commission model simply changes the focus from what is good for sales to what is good for the company as a whole. If a new CRM system is deemed as good for the company, the commission model should provide compensation if a deal is correctly entered into the new system, and reduced commission (or no commission) if the systems and processes are not used. If you want to get even more rigorous, you could track the time required for back office processing of a sale, and deduct compensation for difficult to process (more costly) deals.

Despite all the dire predictions on sales acceptance of a new system or process change, like any other employee most salespeople want to be high performers (if they do not, they should be shown the door, but that is a topic for another time). If you add systems and overhead without showing any benefit, in the form of commissions, your company will join the litany of those complaining about and fearing their sales forces. If your commission model is designed to reward use of tools that benefit the company as a whole, not only will your sales force rapidly accept the new systems and processes, but will be bringing in new business that provides the highest margin for the entire company.

Patrick Gray is the President of Prevoyance Group, the leading consulting company dedicated to helping companies ensure their large IT projects deliver organizational value on time and on budget. To find out how to increase the value produced by YOUR IT organization and become a hero in the C-suite, please visit http://www.prevoyancegroup.com/whitepaper for a complimentary whitepaper.

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Finding A Sales Force That Pays For Itself

The elements involved in building a sales force, especially one that pays for itself and also adds value to any business, are many and varied. The whole purpose and direction of a sales manager needs to be directed to creating a sales force that causes the employing company to expand through increasing sales.

This is done by the following general steps: Training sales staff to be able to sell the company product in large volume; correcting how sales presentations are made; handling any customer flaps his sales people make; and then testing and hiring more sales people, to create an ever increasing sales force. This is a continual process that a sales manager must be doing to justify his existence. If he doesn't, the company cannot expand.

Training to make a good sales person

"Training them to be able to sell the company product in large volume." A very wise American philosopher once stated that all a salesman had to do was to continue to try to interest the customer and the customer would eventually buy, if the sales man continued to try to interest the customer! Like all great truths, they are 'obvious' once stated.

So, what does it take for a sales person to continue to try to interest a customer, no matter what objection the customer raises and despite the sales person's own impulse to 'give up' after a while? Lets look at the elements:

The sales patter: The first of these would be a successful sales patter. Here we are talking about getting a hold of someone or several people who are successful, at selling to customers, in the target industry, or a similar industry. Once such person(s) are found, you need to interview them to find out what they DO that made them a success. We are looking for the actions they take and the things they do, not what they think.

The best person to interview for this information is usually the most successful sales person, right there in the company, if one exists. Notes should be carefully made of the actions they take to get a sale and these notes should be very exactly written up and turned into a patter that can later be drilled on new and old members of the sales force.

Advertising and preparation: Next, a series of sale recruitment advertisements need to be created for the local newspaper. The receptionist of the company needs to be briefed on what to do when calls come in. The adverts need to be big enough to attract attention and have enough mystery in them so that people actually call in to find out what its all about.

The receptionist should understand that all she is doing with calls from the advertisements is routing them to the person doing this project. She does not answer questions about what the company is and what is being offered. She simply arranges for them to come in for an interview at a scheduled time or collects their phone numbers so that they can be called back and scheduled to come in, by someone else.

The interview: When applicants for the sales position come in, their interview is very specific and to the point. There are certain very specific criteria that are being looked for in a good sales person. The two main one are, (a) can they persist along a given course? (b) Are they are interested in people?

That is an easy statement to make, to be sure. However, to find such people requires very exact interview procedures. The first step is testing. We use a series of 3 tests. One of these provide a detailed look into the 10 most important job related traits such as Stability, Goal attainment, Composure, Certainty, Activity level, Aggressiveness, Responsibility level, Correct estimation, Appreciativeness and Communication level.

The other 2 tests measure an applicant's ability to solve problems and how well they are able to following instructions - a vital test for anyone operating machinery where understanding and following instructions are very important!

With the results of the 3 tests, one only needs to ask the applicant questions regarding his past job failures, past job successes and when they first decided that they wanted to be in sales. These answers, compared to the results of the 3 tests tell the whole story and can really make it very easy to select applicants most likely to succeed as sales people.

How the compensation is done: For this project to be successful and actually pay for itself, the sales applicant needs to be hired under very specific financial conditions. They need to be hired on a draw + commission. This means that they get a low amount of money weekly for a certain period of time and if they do well, they should be producing enough sales to repay their draw and start making money quickly, for themselves as well as the company. How this is worked out is key to the success of the project. If this is not worked out correctly, sales people will either not start, not produce and stay too long and drain the company or quit before their training is effectively completed.

The mastery of the conversation: A successful sales person requires one skill above all others. This is the ability to guide and control a conversation. If he or she can guide and control a conversation, it is then possible to continue to try to interest the customer and be successful at it.

For a salesperson to do this one action well, an in-depth 3-day training on the basics of conversation and how to guide and control a conversation, is vital. Communication between people (conversation) have very certain and definite laws, which if followed, puts a sales person in total control of a conversation without making the other person feel like they are being controlled!

Drilling the sales patter: After the sales applicants have successfully mastered the art of controlling a conversation, they now need to be drilled on the successful sales patter. If a full day is devoted to drilling them on this and they are drilled to a point where they easily and smoothly deliver their patter, without referring to notes or becoming tongue-tied or embarrassed, then and only then, will they be ready for the next step.

Get them out selling: After the above steps are completed and your sales people are ready to 'hit the streets', they should be divided up into groups of 3 to 5 people with one of them being the sales manager of the group. They are then sent out to find customers and deliver their pitches (sales patter).

This should be done in such a way that there is not great pressure on the sales people for the first few days. Tell them to go out and practice on any customer they find. The objective is to get them comfortable delivering their patter.

They are given realistic targets to achieve and when they flub and do not get results, they are corrected and sent back out by the person that is overall in charge of this project.

Failures: Not all will make it through this line-up. Correct them as much as possible and if they cannot make it, turn them loose and concentrate on the others that are making it. As the sales manager you also need to work on starting new groups through the process. Continue these steps until you have all the sales people you need to really boost the company sales.

Personnel: The number of sales force trainers required to train the company sales manager on this procedure and help him build his sales force is only 2 people. They will need to work in the company for 30 days. One of these would be the person overall in charge of the project. He or she creates the sales advertisements, get the people in, does the tests on them, interviews them and decide which ones to hire. This person also does the corrections. The assistant does the conversation-control training; the successful sales patter drilling and help the lead trainer with the corrections of the sales teams.

Summary: An effective sale teams can be built that pays its own way, enhances the company sales and increases the value of any business. The key to it all is having a hiring method and training program for the sales people that follows the exact laws involved in guiding and controlling a conversation.

About The Author

Willard Michlin is an Investor, Business Broker, California Real Estate Broker, Accountant, Financial Distress Consultant, Well known Public speaker and Administrative/Business Consultant. He can be contacted at his Ventura, California office by calling 805-529-9854 or by e-mail at kismetrei@earthlink.net. See other articles by Willard at [http://www.kismetgroup.com]; kismetrei@earthlink.net

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Sales Force Optimization - "Sales Team Compensation"

Many small business owners after reading the title of this article will assume this will be a short diatribe. After all (as noted in an earlier article), everyone knows that all you have to do to attract a great sales force is simply dangle a large bucket of money in their faces. Right? WRONG!

In that earlier article we covered how to attract and retain a high performing sales team. Also, we touched on the importance of structuring an on-target role profile and effective recruiting engine in the attraction process. Additionally, the role of education and career path were identified as two essential drivers of retention.

So what about the sales compensation plan? How do you both compensate and motivate them? An effective compensation plan is not the only factor, but clearly, it is a lynchpin. If a winning sales team is a NASCAR racer then an effective compensation plan is its engine and motivation is the fuel. Remember, salespeople are highly motivated (albeit not solely) by economic gain. Getting the comp plan correct for your business is essential to success in the marketplace. For the purposes of our discussion, we'll wave our magic wands and assume you have found and have in place a great sales team. Now your challenge is to create a sales compensation plan that will be the right mix of the three "M's" of comp plans - motivation, money, and measurement.

Before diving into comp plan structure a few notes, guidelines, and beliefs:

1. There exists no "one size fits all" sales plan. There are a myriad of permutations of comp plans. Plans must take into accounts many factors such as:

-a. Complexity of product/service - it's generically a harder and longer sell to move data warehousing than it is pencils

-b. The sales cycle (how long from first contact to signed order) can be minutes or years. Generally speaking, the longer the sales cycle, the stronger the requirement to have larger base salaries to "bridge" the sales person income until sales commission is realized.

-c. Pricing can be a factor. If the product/service is a large ticket item that has a more elastic/higher margin, then the commission is likely to be larger (data warehouses). Products and services which operate on razor thin margins (pencils) may have less elastic margins and therefore a large sales payout can only be realized via volume.

2. As a general rule, you should strive not to have caps on commission. Caps on commission are an anathema to a sales team. Telling a sales team that there is a limit to how much commission they can make destroys morale. Rightly or wrongly, they believe that as long as they bring in revenue, they should get paid. In the abstract, it's difficult to argue with this simple logic. Sales people would say no caps represents a win-win for the company and the sales person - if the company makes more money, the sales person should make more money. There are a myriad of justifications that I've personally sat through behind closed doors over the years with expansive diatribes rationalizing why business owners are reluctant to pay big commissions to sales overachievers. When you look under the covers, most of the arguments do not hold water. All too often, if you peel back the onion, the real reason is jealousy and greed. After all, a sales person should never be able to make more than their manager and certainly never more than the CEO! I say garbage! Logic dictates that if the sales team is all exceeding their goals, when aggregated, the company is exceeding its targets and everyone is celebrating.

3. As much as possible you want to use "KISS" philosophy (Keep It Stupid Simple or Simple Stupid). When the plan is uncomplicated it's easy to explain, understand, and administer/ measure. I've seen far too many comp plans that read like a novelette. Trying to get too fancy will only feed the fires of potential ambiguity and controversy. You need to remember the poor people in the back office (HR, Sales Operations, etc.) who are trying to track, report, and pay commission on these plans.

4. Make it a goal to have one plan against which all sales people are measured.

5. A sales compensation plan should never be changed mid-year. Only in the case of extreme emergency (changes to the business itself, ex. merger/acquisition, etc.) should a comp plan be changed mid-year. Otherwise, the business owner should strive to keep sacred the normal (annual) sales plan revision cycle.

6. Use "SPIFFS" to incent special behavior. Spiffs are like a focused mini-incentive plan outside the confines of the main plan. They can take the form of:

-a. beginning of the sales year fast start programs/incentives

-b. end the year with a "bang" programs

-c. product/service specific incentives to drive the sale of newly launched solutions

-d. create/refresh interest in an existing line

Whereas the main sales compensation plan tends to be largely cash based, spiffs can take the form of non-cash incentives such as trips, prizes, gift certificates, etc. Spiffs are not a substitute for the regular comp plan but are an addition to, much like another layer on a cake. Perhaps most importantly, they maintain the integrity of the main comp plan.

7. Comprehend how industry competition is aligned - what are "best in practice" sales motions?

8. There are always exceptions to the plan - but should be minimal and manageable. For example, people enter and depart the organization via; transfer, additions, eliminations, reorganizations occur, etc. Also customer profiles can change (M&A, bankruptcies, funding level changes, etc.)

Keeping in mind that sales plans can/should differ in construction and emphasis depending on factors such as the ones noted above, what are key sales comp plan drivers of a good plan and how do they work together to garner the desired results? Take a look at the graph below. The total compensation line has a funny looking shape to it. Why is it not a straight line from bottom left to top right (as a sales person would argue)? Why is it not a standard bell curve (as a financial comp plan administrator would argue)? Let's decompose what we are seeing as there is a lot going on in this chart.

First and foremost why the pretty colored bars? They represent "bands" of total quota attainment. By most standards, a sales person who has achieved less than 75% of their quota is having problems. It is not our goal to get into why sales people succeed or fail. Suffice it to say as a general rule, at year end, a sales person who has achieved less than 75% of their annual quota typically is in some level of trouble or under scrutiny at least (barring extenuating circumstances). Hence we have the RED zone.

As we progress from left to right the color bars become more green (the color of money) with each bar representing a higher level of quota achievement.

Now, the two curves. What do they mean? One, the black line that looks like a hill or mountain is the commission acceleration curve and the other is the total compensation curve.

The commission acceleration curve represents the commission earned for each sales dollar as a function of the sales multiplier. If, for example, the sales person earns $1 for each $1000 sold, then this is the base multiplier (a multiplier of 1 as seen in the red zone). In the blue band, you see the multiplier has doubled. This means that the sales person is making money at twice the rate as the red zone. It follows that the slope of the curve is steeper in this range reflecting the accelerated earning rate. Clearly sales people are motivated to get into this range as they are earning more money for each dollar they sell. Continuing this pattern in the range up to 100% attainment, the more you sell, the more you earn. This is great alignment between metrics and rewards, between company goals and individual sales person goals.

But wait a minute. The curve continues UP between 100% and 125% in our example. Why is that? Remember, the company goal should be to have every sales person exceeding their quota. If all sales team members exceed their quota, then the company has achieved its annual sales goals. Therefore, it behooves the company to incent sales people to get above 100% achievement. Therefore the multiplier goes up to 3 in our example. The sales person is drooling to be in this range as they are making buckets of commission in this range. Life is good. It should be a goal of the commission plan that every sales person is above 100% attainment and the payout plan should incent this behavior.

Hold on another minute. The curve then turns down after 125% attainment. Why is that? Although I'm not a believer in caps on commission (above discussion), and some industries and situations do lend themselves to a "the sky is the limit on commission" scenarios, it is often prudent from a total cost of commission plan scenario to control or curtail boundless commission. In any sales year, a few sales people will hit it out of the park or get a "bluebird" (sales speak for having a monster order drop in your lap from out of nowhere). Especially in the case of the bluebird, it is nonsensical to pay a large bucket of money for little or no work - pure luck. Also, the world is not running short of sales people who know how to manipulate a quota setting exercise when (for instance) they know they already have a large order essentially in the bag but hide that fact until after quotas are set. Indeed, the balance of the sales team can get bitter and unmotivated if they perceive that another member of the team is getting a large payout for little work.

Therefore, the key above 125% (in or example) is to continue to make it possible for the sales team to make more and more money (no cap), but after some point (125% in our example) they do so at a decreasing rate. That is, the multiplier goes back down. This way, we've met the goal of not capping commission - a sales person can always make more money, but keep commission plan expense in perspective (I've just pleased our friends in the Financial Department).

Now you will understand the reason for the dotted blue line in the chart. This total commission curve continues to rise forever. That is, sales compensation will always rise for the sales person. The acceleration slows past a certain point (125% in our example), but ALWAYS goes up.

This is but one example of a commission structure. The take away from this example is not the chart per se, but the discussion and points made are food for consideration as you construct a plan to motivate the sales team. Some compensation plan reality as reminder and take-away:

· There is no such thing as a perfect plan

· Worry when sales people stop complaining about the comp plan

· It is imperative to match comp plan (behavior incentives) with how our prospects/customers in industry traditionally/typically make purchase decisions

Hopefully you now feel better equipped to face the challenge of creating a sales compensation plan that will be the right mix of the three "M's" of comp plans - motivation, money, and measurement.

By Mark Francischetti
VP Marketing & Business Development
http://www.CxoToGo.com
937-272-6868 cell
mfrancischetti@cxotogo.com

Mark P. Francischetti is a Partner and VP of Marketing and Business Development and a member of our executive team. He has over 30 Years of executive leadership and management experience in a broad range of organizations and environments including start-up, turnaround, SMB, and Fortune 500 operations. Mark has repeated success in driving $50 million-plus revenue gains, capturing long-term client relationships, leading teams of up to 1,200 members in exceeding goals, and driving business expansion in multiple global markets.

CxO To Go is national professional services company headquartered in Denver, Colorado that provides on-demand C-Level expertise and best practices to client companies on a part time, flexible, and affordable basis. Contact CxO To Go at 888-745-8516, http://www.cxotogo.com, or Sales@CxOToGo.com.

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Improving Sales Productivity by Motivating the Sales Force

Christine had just recently been hired as a sales representative of a media company. Her job was to primarily develop new leads and generate more sales for her employer.

After going through the basic sales training (or induction) during her first week, Christine had been working real hard to meet customers and generate sales.

However, 2 months later and averaging 4 appointments a day everyday, Christine still had yet to made any inroads, let alone closing a sale. In fact, Christine was identified as one of the "high potentials" during her initial sales training with the company. She was supposed to become a "star performer" in the near future, and not the "laggard" she was now.

At the end of the second month, Christine was asked to attend "refresher" training, which was to re-attend the initial sales training (which she had when she first joined) with another batch of new sales hires. She was asked to "shadow" some of the experienced sales people, i.e. to go out with them on their sales meetings and learn from them. While most experienced sales people didn't mind bringing Christine along, a lot of those customers visited are old customers, and there's hardly anything that Christine could learn about developing and winning new customers.

Worse still, the experienced sales people in Christine's company were not transferring the sales leads that were meant for new sales hires and some are even transgressing into Christine's territory.

At the end of the 3rd month, Christine, along with other sales people in her batch of new hires, was fired for not being productive. In fact, most of the company's new sales hires did not stay on for more than a year. As much as 90% of the company's sales are generated by a handful experienced sales people, who in turn generated those sales from a number of existing customers.

The company had been trying to hire new sales people to develop new sales for new products in new markets with new customers, but with dismal results. Sales tanked, and there still isn't any clear indication how this pattern can be changed.

Striking the Right Balance

It is a delicate art for most sales organisations to strike a good balance to:

* Motivate experienced sales people to contribute more to the bottom line;

* Getting experienced sales people to adapt to changes in the market; and

* Hiring the right new sales people and getting up-to-speed ASAP

When experienced sales people get complacent or are resistant to changes implemented by management (in response to changes in the market), most companies are reluctant or even afraid to discipline (let alone fire) such experienced sales people. Since they generate the bulk of the sales results, and have built strong relationships with the key accounts over the years, they are pretty much "untouchable".

To counter the unhealthy bargaining power of experienced sales people, there are now some companies that are employing fresh graduates who have the energy, drive and commitment to be a lot more responsive to the decision makers, gate keepers and even the end users.

After some time, their hard work are likely to be paid off by winning new accounts. Some of these companies even went out of the way to cast more limelight on the high-performing "young guns" by giving them more attention during Annual Sales Meetings. Even though their sales figures may still have yet to catch up with the experienced sales people, it sends a clear message to the incumbents: If you remain complacent, your position as top sales person will be taken away.

Needless to say, some of the incumbents are not going down without putting up a fight. The more positive-thinking ones (who are the minority) will be motivated to work harder to win respect from both the rookie sales people and their management. The negative-thinking ones, on the other hand, may create some trouble, including:

* Leaving the company to work for the competitor (and bringing over their customers);

* Making things difficult for the new sales people by taking away their leads or transgressing into their territories;

* Using their clout to force management to give them preferential treatment

If management does not have the courage to intervene, the efforts to rejuvenate the sales force will fail.

Retaining the Right Sales Talent

Staff turnover in the sales department is always high. If the sales person performs badly, he will be fired. If he performs well, he will be poached.

To retain high-performing sales staff, companies have been offering all kinds of financial rewards and perks. Still, there will be some better offers that will beat your best offer. In such cases, you lose your sales talent.

To retain the right sales talent, companies will have to consider:

* What needs to be done to retain a person besides providing better financial rewards; and

* Who needs to be retained.

It is a common misunderstanding that sales people are motivated ONLY by money, and hence can only be retained via financial means. Research has shown that the motivating effect of financial rewards, even for sales people, are temporary at best. At worst, it makes experienced sales people using their relationship with key customers as bargaining power to ask for more money each time management wants to retain their services.

Neither is promoting high performing sales people to be managers a good way to retain them either. According to research, only 15% of the top performing sales people can be good managers. Appointing sales people who love to sell but hate to manage will simply lead to disastrous results.

A better way to retain sales people is actually to provide more public recognition of their efforts and contributions, as well as involve them in the formulating of new sales strategies and goals. Besides the money, sales people love the autonomy or freedom as well as the sense of achievement on the job. Giving them extra recognition company-wide sometimes beats giving them small increments in financial rewards over the long run.

Also, over the long run, it need not always be the current highest performers who will be future great performers too. Some experienced sales people that are not adaptable to increasing customer demands and subtle changes in the market may not remain as winning sales people in the future.

Training and Coaching as a Means of Motivation

Sometimes, new sales people will be de-motivated if they don't see the possibility of reaching their sales targets. In other words, if they feel that no matter how hard they try they will not succeed, then they won't even try at all.

Hence, many companies have used training and coaching as one of the means to motivate sales people too. Even most experienced sales people look forward to training and coaching session as well, as they feel there might be areas they can do better to win more sales.

However, most sales training and coaching programmes are implemented in sporadic and haphazard ways. Apart from sales training that are being outsourced to external trainers and consultants to train sales people, many companies have asked internal sales managers to conduct regular refresher training sessions, and more importantly, to be internal coaches for junior sales people.

While sales managers do have the experience, some lack the expertise to coach. To them, coaching is merely telling the sales people what to do, rather than getting the sales person reflect about what they can do to generate better results. In addition, since internal training and coaching can be perceived as something important but not urgent, as it is unlikely to be catastrophic if the training or coaching is postponed for a day or a week. Hence, many busy managers tend to postpone such training or coaching sessions so that they can handle their more urgent tasks on hand first. Unfortunately, there'll always be ore urgent things to handle.

So here are some tips for companies that would like to make their training and coaching sessions a little more motivating than it is right now:

1. If it's not written in the diary or the weekly meetings schedule, it won't be done. Get the sales managers to schedule in their training and coaching sessions AS IF it is an important sales appointment;

2. Keep the session short and specific. Unlike training that are conducted by external consultants, internal sales managers can conduct a 30-min or 2 hour training or coaching session that deals with specific work issues;

3. Don't just tell them what to do, get them to think as well. Given the current dynamic sales environment, sales people will have to think on their feet and adapt quickly. Knowing what to do sometimes is less important as knowing why to do it

c.j. is the trusted sales advisor who have helped international companies achieve quantum improvements in sales profits in China and beyond. He is also the 1st-ever sales trainer and consultant to speak at the American Society for Training & Development (ASTD) International Convention. So far, c.j. has helped:

* A leading international hotel to produce the equivalent of an additional 5,000 room nights in China in the lull summer months of 2007
* A global leading architectural hardware company to increase the sales revenue of a key account in Shanghai by 10 times within 3 weeks
* The world leader in PC sales to transform their sales force to be more collaborative and solution-focused, and helping them to regain worldwide pole position from their nearest competitor.

Prior to this, c.j. was Asia Marketing Manager for a Fortune 500 logistics company, as well as Corporate Training Manager for Ringier AG, Switzerland's largest media group, in China, where he was responsible for sales team development, and helped increase the percentage of new hires to close their first sales within 2 months by 30%, as well as increase overall sales targets by more than 50%. Visit http://www.psycheselling.com/page4.html for more details.

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Create Your "Ideal" Sales Force Blueprint

Now is the time to rethink your sales strategy and your sales force. Design the sales force your business needs and get great results.

Tip: It's all in the thinking and planning that happens before the execution. To help you start your thinking and planning here are two case studies from our work files where the businesses got it right.

Story one: Transform your current sales team into a new sales team

"The Sales Culture transformation and competency project we worked on with you in 2008 has been such a great success for our team. The culture is now fantastic and the morale of the Sales Team is very good. We aimed for the culture we wanted and got it. People have settled into their roles and are working out fantastically. It was the planning and thinking behind it that made it work. The Competency work has, without a doubt, made a difference. The Sales Competencies are 'Gold'. We refer to them all the time and the Sales People are using them as well to develop themselves and have clearer, more accountable, performance reviews. The competencies helped our team realise how responsible they need to be in their roles."

This is what can happen when you design your sales force to deliver your strategy. This quote comes from a Sales Director of a business we have worked with for many years. They had the same sales force structure over the last 15 years and a very stable sales force to go with it. The team and structure had worked very well, however the market was changing and the business and its sales people needed to adapt and evolve to ensure they were current, fit and productive.

In 2008, this Sales Director realised she needed to develop a new strategy moving forward and with that needed a new sales culture and team to deliver it. But she didn't want to get rid of the current sales team. They were good operators with great industry knowledge and experience. She knew it would be foolish to start from scratch with a new team and she didn't want to create confusion or unnecessary unrest or anxiety in her existing team.

Her concerns rested around getting buy-in from the team regarding the new strategy and, in particular, their need to adjust their roles somewhat. Despite not wanting to lose people she was prepared to do so if necessary.

What did she do?

Developed her sales strategy and then presented her strategy to her sales team, inviting feedback and explaining 'why' they all needed to move in this direction using a well researched, evidenced based approach. The team knew what was happening in the market place so it came as no surprise to them that they needed to shift. That is fine intellectually, however we knew the challenge would be in actually getting them to shift in real terms.
To get the real shift happening she then engaged her team in the development of the new Sales Roles by engaging in a 'job design' process with us.
Out of the 'job design' process we developed the right Sales Behavioural Competencies (DNA) and 'ideal' role/person specification matched to sales strategy, product and customer base.
Sales Behavioural Competencies were then linked to the Sales Team performance management reviews and are now being used in coaching, recruitment and succession planning processes.
Sales Behavioural Competencies were mapped to measurable sales metrics
The Sales Behavioural Competencies now act as a pivotal reference point in all their work.
As mentioned, the Sales People are using Sales Behavioural Competencies to develop themselves, have clearer, more accountable, performance reviews and better role clarity which means they know how they need to perform to achieve their strategy goals.

Story two: Design the sales team you want from scratch - green fields

A Divisional Manager of a large Australian corporate came to us because they didn't want to hire people from their industry as they didn't think they were competitive in the current market. They wanted to refresh the gene pool and bring in fit sales people who were not tarnished by the industry mindset and its way of doing things. They knew that in this over commoditised marketplace their sales people were their competitive edge.

They were on the right track but didn't know where and how to start. So here is what we did together to find elite sales performers:

Reviewed sales strategy, path to market, and products being sold
Developed the right Sales Behavioural Competencies (DNA) and 'ideal' role/person specification matched to sales strategy, product, and customer base
Built a structured sales recruitment process and kit
Targeted industries the new breed of sales people could come from and went to market to find them
Built and implemented the right sales induction training program matched to sales strategy, sales competencies, product, and customer base
Had new sales team present their 'go-to-market' action plan to senior management before they went to market
Implemented a sales management support system
Followed up with infield training and coaching
Mapped and measured sales metrics
The results were stunning from a sales initiative perspective. The 'new breed' of elite sales performers achieved a sales closing ratio of 4:3 within 2 months against an industry average of 3:1 and sold the annual sales budget within 5 months.

Feedback from the sales people was that this was the best sales recruitment and sales induction process they had ever been through. In all their sales careers, and many came from big name companies, they have never been set up so well to succeed. They felt confident, proud, and capable to really deliver.

Feedback from the client: "We worked in partnership to develop an end-to-end model for a new innovative sales team. The approach was unique in that they worked with us across recruitment, training, needs analysis, pitch planning and the end delivery. They added huge value to any sales process."

By designing your 'ideal' sales force blue print you can build and achieve the following in your business:

Change your culture by creating the sales culture you want
Design the ideal sales force you want
Recruit the sales force you want / your strategy needs
Refresh your thinking, ideas, actions and results
Develop career paths and succession planning
Clear performance expectations
Clearer, more accountable, performance reviews
Provide a framework for identifying what a high performing sales person looks for your business
Profiling of the core sales capabilities / competencies for sales managers/ sales people for use in recruitment, performance management, training, coaching and succession planning.
Provide a framework for assessing the calibre of candidates as defined by core competencies and values;
As you prepare for the next financial year and are developing your sales strategy take time to reflect on what your 'ideal' sales force blue print should be. Do not underestimate the value of taking time to think and plan, ultimately it could make you a lot more money.

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