First and foremost, leadership needs to collaborate with leadership in other business units, with front line sales leadership, and with sales groups.  The focus will be to use available information to define as clearly as possible what the sales process looks like for the company, the product, and/or service the company offers.  I say available information because the process needs to be designed with actual facts (and as many as possible) in hand.  This can’t be done on a gut feeling.  Granted, some things are quantitative and easy to measure.  Others are qualitative and very difficult to measure if possible at all.  Do your best to get as much quantitative information as possible and I am not opposed to utilizing qualitative information to help frame the discussion.

If an organization hasn’t been tracking sales data on a regular basis then the job becomes more difficult.  Here are some things that one would want to get their minds around.

1. Sales Activity: How much time does the sales rep spend prospecting for new opportunities?  What types of sales activities yield the greatest number of opportunities for the sales rep? How many 1st, 2nd, and 3rd appointments does the sales rep attend?
2. Sales Cycle: What are the steps that a rep must take a customer through in order to be able to present a solution and close the sale?  Does one apply a percentage to each step in order to measure the opportunity on a scale and develop a weighted funnel?
3. Closing Ratio: Of the opportunities identified, created, qualified, and quoted how many close?

Based on this information one can begin building and refining the sales process and methodology.  It would be highly recommended to have a proper CRM to gather this information.  Since the information input into the CRM will be driven by the sales reps the entire organization must adopt a “funnel culture” in order to enable SPM to work.  Reps will come up with all types of reasons as to why they are not updating the CRM/Funnel; “Big Brother”, “Not my style”, “Too much work”, etc.  Be prepared to engage the sales teams into understanding the benefits of the SPM and the CRM.

Reps and managers will be able to determine if the rep has enough activity to feed a viable funnel, and to forecast sales along the sales cycle, and close the business.  One will quickly discover which reps must prospect more than others in order to meet their goals, who has trouble qualifying prospects and conversely is great at qualifying prospects, who is a poor/good/great closer.  Over time the information developed and reviewed will continue to improve the SPM and help the organization become more focused on:

1. The right activities
2. Enough activities
3. Qualifying skills
4. Closing skills

Check out this article…

Then check out my attempt…

Unfortunately, some leaders think it is an unproductive use of sales time.  I wonder what system these leaders do use, how it effects morale, what the rep turn over is, how effective sales spiffs are, how they manage performance (before it becomes a problem).

I found this article via Linkedin today.  It is from Inc. Magazine and makes a lot of relevant points on this subject.

The author (Eric Markowitz) is on twitter at @ericmarkowitz.  I will be following him and you should too.

Eric makes a few good points in his article that I want to build on:

sales quotas have risen nearly 33 percent, yet the percentage of representatives making their quota has fallen by 25 percent

only about 50 percent of sales reps made their quota

“The first thing you should look for when a rep misses a quota is if there’s a sales process in place,” says Levitt. “Most companies let the reps fly by night…and many times the rep is hung out to dry.”  Chad Levitt is another sales blogger.

Hmmm.  What to do… What to do…  A sales process you say.

The rest of the article discusses setting fair/realistic quotas and compensation and what to do when a rep does miss quota.  If  35% to 50% of your reps are missing quota you have big problems on your hands.

• Rep turn over
• Sales manager turn over
• Sales leadership turn over

‘Tell me about the opportunities that you’re working on, tell me what happened in this conversation.’ It’s literally getting down into the weeds and understanding if the pipeline is real, and if there’s hope. Good managers are doing that on a regular basis, and they know if their pipeline is well-qualified.”

Is it a top-down problem with ineffective management, or is a bottom up problem with lazy employees?

The post is titled; What one book has had the most influence on your leadership style and why?

For convenience sake I am posting the list of titles here.

Street Smart Leader

I particularly like his post of April 24th.

Building Teams with character matter

I have, unfortunately, had the experience of removing people from my organization that did not exhibit the character, behavior, or ethics expected of a person of high standards.  Some of these individuals were high performers and their separation from the company had a negative impact on my overall results – but keeping them around would have been more detrimental in the long term.

John Halter writes, and I could not agree more:

Character represents those attributes we expect our employees to stride through the door with. They include integrity, work ethic, quality, caring, accountability responsibility, cooperation, etc.  Character goes beyond just knowing what is right and perseveres in “doing what is right”.  Character is a habit which defies adversity and prevails with fortitude.  Leaders can count on people of Character to make the right decisions in the tough “moments of truth” even if it does not personally benefit them at the time.  People with Character allow you to focus on productive solutions instead of emotional motives.

If one finds members of their organization who are not willing to or are unable to exhibit true character in the sense expressed here I would highly recommend that you find a way to turn the individual around or separate them from the payroll.   If it is perceived that poor behavior will be tolerated it will permeate through the organization.  Like a rot it needs to be removed.

I just finished listening to a Miller Heiman recorded web cast regarding their 2010 World Class Sales Organization survey.  Miller Heiman is arguabley the best sales training organization in the world.

In the unlikely event you don’t know who they are then here is a brief commercial

Miller Heiman brings precision to the art of selling. Our simple, powerful processes and tools help drive performance.  Miller Heiman has been defining and documenting successful selling for more than 30 years. We produce the largest, most comprehensive global research study on sales effectiveness – the Miller Heiman Sales Best Practices Study. This study, combined with our experience working shoulder-to-shoulder with the world’s leading companies, has kept us relevant over three decades of change.

You can find more at www.Miller Heiman.com

I am going to paraphrase the final comment from one of the presenters, Bill Golder.

If there is no rigor around the funnel on the frontline or the senior level then GET SOME.  That is the place where you will get ahead or always be on a roller coaster ride if we are not focused on the funnel management side of the equation.

Very often it is measured at the end of the reporting period – either the rep, team, and organization made their goal or they did not.  Other times it is measured on a trend.  ”Based on our results yesterday, today, last week, or this week we are trending ahead or behind goal.”  Other methods include but are not limited to:

• Collecting Business Cards
• Self reporting (door knocks, phone calls, etc)
• Proposals sent

I submit to you that activity is not a key leading indicator.  Activity doesn’t measure skills, or real opportunities, and will not yield desired results.  Activity needs to be measured collectively in the context of the sales process – specifically the sales funnel.

Provided a representative is prospecting (collecting business cards, making phone calls, earning referrals, knocking on doors, etc) it will be reflected in their sales funnel.  If they are prospecting correctly and in the right places it will be reflected in an even more robust and accurate funnel.

A sales manager is a very busy person overseeing the activity and sales performance of 5 or more representatives.  I submit that it is nearly impossible for a manager to monitor the daily activity of their sales team members on a consistent basis and get anything else done.  And this is one of the most important responsibilities (if not the most important) of the manager.  So, what does one do?  Ensure that the manager has the tools to coach and develop their team members on proper prospecting techniques, funnel management, and forecasting and everything in between that makes up good funnel management and sales forecasting.

It doesn’t matter what product or service one is selling – Chevy Malibu’s or Boeing 747s.

It is the responsibility of the sales organization, the sales leader, and the senior leadership to implement and embrace a sales process that allows the manager to measure sales activity – THE METRICS – via a standard and uniform sales funnel.  They must also provide a CRM tool that is flexible enough to provide the metrics that are specific to the defined sales process.  The funnel must be rolled up to and inspected by all levels of management.

Why is this important?  Because it provides the representative, manager, and leadership a more predictable forecast of potential future performance than a view of history.

Manager’s don’t need to (nor have time t0) stand over the shoulders of every representative everyday to ensure that the team is actively prospecting/cold calling.  The representative’s activity will be reflected in a robust funnel and a robust forecast.  Through a regular inspection/audit the manager will be able to spot future pitfalls in the funnel and forecast before they occur and take action before the end of the reporting period rather than after the reporting period.

What good is a collection of 100 business cards if they can not be converted from prospect, to lead, to opportunity, and to close?  If the representative collected enough prospects they will go into the CRM tool where they can track them.  Then the manager can have a discussion with the representative about the prospect.  Is the prospect moving through the sales process?  If not why not?  If so, then why?  Is it really a prospect?  How many prospects to you have and who are they?  What are your immediate opportunities and why are they opportunities?  Are their enough opportunities to exceed plan?  How is the next sales period shaping up?  Why is this opportunity still in the forecast – it has been here for 3 months and it hasn’t closed yet, so lets take a closer look?

I am, for the most part, preaching to the choir.  However, many organizations profess to be world class sales organizations yet they simply do not see the value in managing a tight sales funnel and forecast.  In many cases these same organizations instead put bodies out on the street and expect the sales process to just happen like it is a magic formula.  They neglect the “science” to sales and sales organizational development.

On this same topic I once had a senior leader tell me their staff meeting that I was too smart for my own good.  Such a view and approach is negligent at best.  It represents an organization that does not understand the importance of a sales process and methodology.  It does not know how to properly invest in their sales team , leads to turn over, manager burn out, and an undeveloped under trained sales organization.

If that sounds like your organization then you should conduct a critical review of your sales process.

• The reputation of the company is damaged
• The sales department is not getting paid
• Performance and motivation begin to suffer
• Orders back up
• Costs increase
• Metrics (if their are any) are potentially tweaked to hide the problem

Supply chains have to work.  They must deliver the product/service in a timely fashion or chaos will reign.

Some experts will insist the most important part of supply chain management is analytics and reporting.  Well, I like reports and analytics too, but I don’t live by them.  They provide some insight and guidance on what kinds of questions to ask and how the business is functioning.  We have to be careful, I have seen such reports manipulated in the past for good reasons and poor reasons.  It happens.  The metrics that matter in the end are: 1) The difference between sold revenue and actual revenue, 2)  Reports from customers and front line employees.  If revenue is broken, and your front line employees are caught up in  escalation purgatory it is probably a sign that sales operations need to be reviewed.

What metrics and reports are useful in this context is the process review.  We need to know what did the informaion tell us about this issue before it became a problem?  Are we measuring the right things?  Are we measuring them correctly?

Supply chains are an integral part of the sales process and methodology (SPM) I wrote about in my previous post.  A SPM will provide operations a leading indicator of expected work load, capital and operational requirements, and work force requirements.  It is important that these SPM leading indicators are part of the operational processes.

Sales operations processes are not stagnant,  nor are they subject to constant and sudden changes.  Too often organizations react to poor sales operation processes by constantly “improving” the processes which only puts a band-aid on the issue and does not consider cause and effect relationships.  They change so often that their is little or no change control or communication around these changes.  This does not inspire confidence and it frustrates the organization.  Sales operations processes do need to be constantly monitored for improvements, but in a methodical and deliberate manner that represents stability and control.

Change control, documentation, and communication are critical components of sales operational process improvements.  These components must be thought out and developed prior to any process improvement reviews or changes.  Once that framework is developed then the process for addressing improvements can be defined.

Their are many ways to manage a process improvements.

• ISO
• TQM
• Six Sigma
• Dozens more

I don’t subscribe to any particular methodology as long as my sales operations teams subscribe to a methodology that works for the business.  If sincere it represents a commitment to meet company goals, customer expectations, and supplier needs.  I agree with the TQM philosophy that all stakeholders in the delivery of a product should be involved in process reviews.

In a previous work experience I asked my senior leader to have every aspect and potential variation of the sales operations process mapped out.  Once this was completed we could then take a look at where orders fall out of the system based on feedback from the field.  Yes, this would be a long, tedious, and expensive task.  However, no one had done it before and as far as I know they still have not done this.  The senior leader didn’t see value in the exercise.  What prevailed was a sense that sales operations lacked control and the sales teams felt they were at the mercy of a chaotic situation.

When I was a product manager and rolled out new products to the sales force and to customers it was done in this fashion.  We mapped out the entire process from identifying the prospect to the first bill that prospect (now a customer) received.  Then we reviewed it every six months utilizing feedback from the field and customers.

When an existing process is broken or being reviewed for potential improvements all hands have to be on deck.  Managers and senior leaders cannot be defensive when subordinates offer suggestions for improvement.  Leaders need to foster such feedback and ensure that their is a streamlined method to allow employees to make such suggestions.  Working teams are only one such method to accomplish employee feedback.  Management can not identify process issues in a box.

• One must identify and access what is the problem based on customer, marketing and sales feedback, and concerns of the sales operations staff.
• Go to the metrics and reports to inspect and remeasure if necessary
• Look at the process map and identify cause and effect relationships that identify why the problem is occurring.
• Adjust the process accordingly
• Be cognizant of changes to the process to improve this problem could have unintended cause and effect relationships.
• Document the changes
• Communicate the changes to all stakeholders
• Monitor changes and be prepared to adjust

Supply chain defects are going to occur.  One could have the best leaders in the business running the department but defects are still going to occur.  The leaders job is to put in place processes that allow a collaborative method of monitoring defects and providing solutions.  The sales leader’s role is to work closely and collaboratively with the operations leader on continual process improvements.

1. Do you think cold calling is a waste of time?
2. How do you fill your pipeline when it starts getting low?
3. What are the 3 most important professional Skills’?
4. How to constantly stay motivated and keep my passion ALL the time?
5. How do you define leadership?
6. CRM
7. Is training a waste of time?

For me, I find these all related to this: A well-defined sales process and methodology.

A sales process and methodology helps a sales organization on many levels.  It will  help leadership drive a funnel culture within their organization, identify sales skills (prospecting, qualifying, solution selling, closing) training requirements, monitor rep and manager activity metrics, and more.  It brings an organized and professional approach to sales.

A well-defined (and strictly enforced) sales process and methodology will link a company’s product and solution to a set of steps that the sales rep and the customer go through in order to make a decision to purchase (or not purchase) the company’s product/service. The CRM tool/s must be aligned with the process and methodology so management can review the funnel and forecast.   Perhaps most importantly is that reps and managers understand the process so when they review their own funnel they will know if they have enough activity and opportunity in their pipeline to meet and exceed their numbers and managers can have meaningful funnel review audits – face it, a manager cannot be in the field with every rep every day ensuring that activity levels are acceptable.

Directors and VPs can confidently communicate field activity to senior management.  But, all levels of management must understand the process and the associated steps so they too can review and inspect the sales funnel.   Senior leadership buy in is critical to the success of a sales process.  If it is ignored at that level it will never become part of the sales organization culture and sales will be managed in a chaotic manner.

A sales process and methodology defines the sales organizations key leading indicator.  “Are we on track to meet and exceed our sales and revenue goals?”

Training for training sake is a waste of time.  Targeted training to address a development issue is never a waste of time.  A sales process and methodology identifies skill gaps in the sales force. If during a funnel audit the manager (or Director during a skip level review) sees that a rep consistently cannot explain why an opportunity is at a certain stage in the sales process we may have identified a development opportunity or a performance issue or both.  Funnel audits are also important for working with HR on performance metrics; “Is the rep really working and capable?”.

If we find common problem theme in funnel audits across manager teams we may have identified a product positioning or value proposition problem.  It is just as likely that we may find best practices relative to positioning and value propositions.

Cold calling is not a waste of time. It keeps the funnel full and identifies new prospects.  One should never have a low funnel/pipeline if they are utilizing a well designed sales process and CRM tool.  One would know that the pipeline was getting low before it did get low and would go out and cold call to fill up the opportunity pipeline. Nothing motivates like a full and accurate pipeline.  Additionally, if a rep knows that from the CEO/President on down is reviewing the funnel they know they have some explaining to do during their next one on one meeting with their manager.  However, with that level of expectation a smart rep would never allow their pipeline to deteriorate to such a degree.

How do I define leadership in this regard? A leader understands their market, customers, product, company, and sales force.  They take that knowledge and collaborate with their peers and direct reports to create a customized sales process and methodology, they ensure that it is aligned with the capabilities of the CRM or they make the CRM adapt – not the other way around as there are too many great CRM tools out there. Then they train the organization on the process and methodology. They work with HR to develop performance metrics around funnel and forecast management, number of active opportunities, number of leads. They train on effective funnel audits. More importantly a leader is able to communicate the importance of this strategy to the senior leaders and the rank and file. 

A sales leader is doing their company and the members of their organization (to whom they are also responsible to) by not providing a structured sales environment through the use of a customized sales process.

For more on this subject please read “The Funnel Principle” by Mark Sellers.  It is the most concise book I could find on this subject.

Here is a quick power point deck on the subject.

Other members post some great questions and some not so great questions.  Regardless, even if it isn’t the best possible question someone usually provides an answer that spins the question a slightly different way and before you know it you have a very popular discussion on your hands.

Very often sales trainers and consultants will post a link to their website which can lead to another hidden source of great ideas.

Unfortunately, like any other social media tool, it is impossible to stay on top of every single comment, question, or piece of advise.  That is not the point.  The point is – if you are looking for a fresh perspective, looking for an unbiased opinion, or just looking to keep a slight edge on your sales skills or sales leadership skills I highly recommend participation in these forums.

If anyone has other group or website suggestions please post them here.