Boosting Sales starts with an X-rayEssential for sustainable Success

Philippe CARRON

Management Consultant

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Knowing is not enough, we must apply. Willing is not enough, we must do.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail. Benjamin Franklin

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Everything is audited

Finance

IT

Logistics HR

R&D

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Everything is audited

Finance

IT

Logistics HR

R&D

Except for one critical department: SALES

Sales

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WHY?

§ Perceptions:• Success or failure of Sales strongly depends on individual talent and capability

• Training, Hiring & firing will solve most Sales problems

§ Not knowing what to audit

§ Don’t want to rock the boat and lose the best sales people in the process

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Sales productivity : Myth versus RealityDe-mystifying Sales

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Sales Myth I: Sales is an Art

Top Sales People are like artists Good Sales People are born not trained

CONSEQUENCES

§ The need to hire top “artists”• Difficult to find and to keep• Expensive

§ Prima donna attitude• Difficult to manage and give direction• No team spirit

§ Little Knowledge/Best Practice sharing§ Sales is a “Black box” where Management needs to keep the “Faith”§ Increasing productivity focuses only on:

• Hiring top talent• Firing bottom part of Sales Force

§ Not all new hires will perform as expected• As some of their past success was generated by the quality and fit of

their surroundings

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Sales Myth II: Sales Growth is about … more!

More Sales People, more Leads, more Sales Calls, more resources, more budgets, more…

CONSEQUENCES

§ “More” costs

§ “More” resources

§ No guaranteed increase of Sales - Law of diminishing returns

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Sales Myth III : Sales Growth is about Pressure

Increased Targets

Frozen or reduced BudgetsMore intensive and frequent Control

Management through “numbers”

CONSEQUENCES

§ Demotivated Sales people

§ Erosion of the Sales force

§ Pressure is passed on to customer base, resulting in customer

loss

§ Costly errors

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Sales Myth IV : Sales Management is about (Sales) numbers

Sales Management focuses on Sales Targets, Sales won, Revenue, Pipeline

instead of ”activities”, which impact results

CONSEQUENCES

§ Sales numbers cannot be managed:• They are a “measurement”• merely a direct or indirect consequence of actions

§ Little or no impact on actual sales results

§ Sales Management is ineffective

§ Lack of leadership

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Sales audit 6 Reasons & 6 Benefits

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Good reasons to do a Sales audit

Identificationofareasfor

improvement

Assessmentofimprovement

effort:resources,budgets,…

Newideas,anoutsiderview

BetterStrategicdecisionmaking

KeepsSalesTeamalert

AlignmentwithBestPractices

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Benefits of a Sales audit

IncreaseSales

ReduceCost-of-Sales

IncreaseSalesMargin

ReduceRisk(Accountsreceivable,fraud,etc…)

Reduceemployeeturnoverin

Sales

ImproveForecastAccuracy

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Sales AuditHow does it work?

3 areas x 4 activities

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4 Activities

LeadManagement

SalesCycleRetention

Planning

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Planning

§ Planning is crucial

§ “Planning” mistakes dramatically amplify the impact on the results

§ First activity that needs to be audited

“Tactics without Strategy is the noise before defeat”Sun Tzu

“Sales without planning is, planning for no sales”Business Translation

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Lead Management

§ Lead Generation is the fuel for your Sales engine

§ The best Sales Team in the world will not deliver results without it

§ Obviously an important area for Audit

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Sales cycle

§ Sales cycle really is a “Buying cycle” today• Buyers determine the cycle not the sales people

• Actions need to be focused on where the prospect is in this cycle

§ Failure to do that leads to misalignment between customer behavior and sales actions:• Misunderstanding

• Bad communication

• Lost Sales

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Retention

§ Keeping & developing existing customers is much easier and cheaper than finding new ones§ Despite that, many organizations “chronically” neglect this activity

Develop

••long term mutually beneficial relationship

Implement

••Delivery••Training••Communication

Protect••Prove the choice is

right

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3 Areas

Processes

Execution

Resources

Within each of the 4 activities, the following areas are analyzed and evaluated

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Resources

Peop

le

••Profile Analysis

••Alignment with Job

Requirement

••Recruitment Strategy

••Training Strategy

••… Budg

ets

••Training

••Demo centers

••Lead generation

••Recruitment

••Marketing

••Events

••...

Tool

s

••CRM

••Sales tools

••Forecast

••Reporting

••Marketing Automation

••Communication

••...

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Processes

§ Processes provide consistent Behavior and Measurement§ Good Processes make success repeatable and predictable§ Improvement Process:

• If you can’t measure it, you can’t understand it.• If you can’t understand it, you can’t control it.• If you can’t control it, you can’t improve it.

Measure

Understand

Control

Improve

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Execution

Effic

ienc

y

••Optimal use of resources

••Optimization of costs

Effe

ctiv

enes

s

••Are targets reached, both

quantitative as well as

qualitative?

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Audit Flow

Benchmark Recommendations report

Primary Audit

Datacollection240 questions

AnalysisData

missing?

Audit Report

DevelopAction plan

Follow-upAudit

Improvementproposal

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Return on Investment

§ The combined impact of improvements in each area and each activity creates an amplified impact § An average 0,4% improvement in each area and for each activity already generates 5% Growth in Sales results:§ The ROI of a sales audit is always positive, … unless your sales team performs perfectly today?§ A Sales Audit will pay for itself

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

0,1% 0,2% 0,3% 0,4% 0,5% 0,6% 0,7% 0,8% 0,9% 1,0% 1,1% 1,2% 1,3% 1,4% 1,5% 1,6% 1,7% 1,8% 1,9% 2,0%

Sale

s Re

sult

Impr

ovem

ent

% improvement per area/activity

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Conclusion

A Sales Audit:

§ is not a cost, but an investment with a positive ROI

§ Increases your Sales Results

§ Generates clear cost savings: freeing up budgets to invest in sales growth

§ introduces sustained sales success: your sales success becomes repetitive

§ Will lead to more reliable forecasts: stronger pipeline by better management of the sales cycle

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If you have questions or need help?

Don’t hesitate to contact me:

Philippe CARRON

Management Consultantphilippe.carron@gandamo.be

www.gandamo.be