Our sales consulting firm has helped dozens of companies map the buying process for their product or service.  Over time, we have developed a process to do this correctly.  Part of this process is to assign this responsibility to a department.  Here is what we have learned:

In most Channel Management books, we see multiple chapters outlining the key steps for Manufacturing Firms to choose their Channel Partners.  These publications, while valuable to “A-list” level manufacturing firms, conjure up images of ABC’s “The Bachelor”.   In this dreamlike scenario, the manufacturer chooses the top 10% channel partners while the tearful losers take the limo home.

How many sales processes should you have? Is one sales process enough? Is it possible to have too many sales processes? These questions are a frequent topic of discussion among sales leaders. This blog post will help you answer the question, “Do I need more than one sales process?”

Sales and marketing leaders have come to appreciate the positive impact that modern digital marketing has made on lead generation.  But somewhere along the line marketers became hyper focused on click metrics.   Far too often the science of A/B Testing has been lost in the late 1990’s along with your VHS Tape of the movie Braveheart.  The discipline of testing was abandoned for the new romance of digital click metrics that finally closed the loop on tracking.   The capability loss of formal testing has left marketers with limited ability to fine tune programs through a reliable approach. 

If your sales process involves more than a single individual interacting with a prospect from initial inquiry to close, you are potentially over (or under) paying for the value each of those individuals brings to the process. A key challenge when designing effective sales incentive plans is determining how to pay for the value each individual brings to the sale.

How much of every marketing dollar spent is directed toward your key accounts? Do you invest based on potential or spread your budget evenly across the entire portfolio?

Many factors should be considered when selecting a territory design vendor:

In 2011, we surveyed and interviewed over 12,000 sales people about sales training. When we asked what area of the sales process reps wanted help with, 4 out of 5 answered “Pricing/Justifying Costs/ROI for our product/service”.  Sales people are uncomfortable having the pricing discussion. And leadership is letting them down by not developing their skills.

Each sales role should have a cadence that defines which activities should be performed on a daily, weekly, monthly and quarterly basis.  The days of “sales as an art” are over.  While talent and skill are still major success factors, there is no substitute for doing the right things on the right frequency.

In a recent blog post we discussed how the biggest obstacle to Resource Planning is implementing the changes.  Once you have determined your optimal sales force size, the last step in the process always proves to be the heaviest lift.  Change is usually disruptive, whether you are adding or cutting headcount.  Having a Change Management Plan in place will mitigate many of the common pitfalls to implementing the changes to your sales force.