Prescription for sales effectiveness

by Steve Deist and Rick Johnson

If you could give your sales force a “Purple Pill” to boost their effectiveness by 25 percent or more, would you do it? Most salespeople are willing to try anything that offers the potential for a fast boost, a quick sale, increased value, or the strengthening of their relationship with their customer. Too often, however, this quick-fix mentality reduces the long-term focus and discipline of the sales force.

“This month we’re trying to promote a specific product line, last month we launched our sales force automation software, next month we’re bringing in that motivational speaker and the month after that we’ll introduce a new SPIF (special performance incentive formula) to move our dead and obsolete inventory.”

There is no “Purple Pill” to improve your sales team’s effectiveness, increase profit, revenue or market share. However, there is a proven process that sustains continuous improvement and will help you achieve every one of these objectives. It’s a simple methodology called a Sales Effectiveness Process (SEP). An SEP is simply a structure for continuously improving sales force performance through focus, discipline and a process built on a platform of accountability.

But we already have a system
An SEP is not a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system. CRM concentrates on how well you interact with customers, not the effectiveness of the sales force. It is not a Sales Force Automation (SFA) system. SFA deals with improving the efficiency of the sales force by performing administrative duties more efficiently. An SEP improves the effectiveness of the sales force (doing the right things rather than just doing things right).

Similarly, an SEP is not a canned sales skills training course. Training is only effective when the students are eager to learn and the material is immediately relevant. Offering an instruction or motivation course without having a structure that continuously encourages proper behavior is a waste of time. Training should supplement other initiatives. An SEP does not replace sales training.

A Sales Effectiveness Process provides critical structure and motivation for using tools such as CRM, SFA and skills training. It also provides a measurement system to manage the activities required to meet specific objectives. Without a focused sales management process, automation and training are wasted because their power is undirected. However, the SEP can provide tremendous value on its own merits even without the independent use of the other supporting tools. Used in conjunction with the SEP, these tools are much more powerful.

So what is this thing called SEP? It is a set of best sales practices with a small amount of automation thrown in. SEP is built on the concept of managing activities and measuring results. Focus, process, discipline and accountability become the engine that drives the process.

It all starts with planning
The key to planning is dealing with reality rather than wishful thinking. A quota from the boss may be called “the plan,” but it has no relation to how the salesperson will achieve it.

“I can set myself a goal of becoming 4 inches taller this year but it’s probably not going to happen. If, in contrast, I decide to lose 10 pounds and plan out the exact exercise regimen, a specific diet and the activities necessary to get there, I have a real plan and my chance of success is much greater.”

In an SEP, each field salesperson identifies a small set of target accounts in his or her territory to receive intensive sales focus. The number is limited because true targeting must be backed up by action planning, and that requires effort. (For more information about targeting strategies, see “TLS – Tier Level Selling” by Rick Johnson, available by e-mailing ).

The salesperson sets numeric objectives for sales and gross margin dollars for each target customer, along with detailed action plans to achieve them. The goals could be for the next year or the next quarter, and will be periodically adjusted to ensure they are always realistic. This does not mean that a salesperson gets to change his or her quota. The salesperson must reach the same final numbers. The SEP provides a realistic platform that allows salespeople to adjust how they will get there by tweaking their individual targets and goals, making course corrections as necessary during the year to make sure they will meet their objectives. The SEP helps salespeople identify and utilize any resources inside and outside the company to attain their goals.

Execution
The SEP circumvents the most common mistake made in distribution today: trying to manage results. Instead, you must manage activities because activities produce results. Execution involves the day-to-day activities of the salesperson. For most industries, this entails planned, proactive tasks and opportunistic, reactive events that salespeople uncover by doing the right things in the right place at the right time. It’s critical that the progress of the tasks in target action plans is carefully monitored to avoid surprises. This is the equivalent of monitoring your daily exercise before the effects start to show up on the scale. Once the results are in, everything you do from that point on is reactive. If you proactively manage the activities, the expected results will follow.

Feedback
The feedback process is where the real magic of the SEP comes in. A universal scorecard is essential for creating competitive energy within your sales force and motivating them to focus on strategic objectives. The scorecard should include a small number of well-designed metrics that are regularly updated.

This information is extremely valuable for:
• identifying the best opportunities for performance improvement;
• creating a level playing field;
• driving continuous improvement;
• providing performance feedback;
• encouraging and measuring cross-functional selling;
• offering key information for the review process; and,
• monthly territory review: the cornerstone of the SEP.

The monthly review process is a critical component of the SEP that enables the sales manager and his or her sales representative to discuss, plan and measure success. This is how a good manager enables salespeople to capitalize on their natural talents and abilities.

The review process should include the following:
• review of all target accounts;
• review of all cross-functional selling opportunities (or lack of them);
• review of specific territory objectives, including sales to plan and gross profit to plan, and assigned account objectives;
• knowledge of products, customers and customer organizations;
• ability to apply this market knowledge;
• development of a favorable attitude as it pertains to that knowledge and those applied skills; and,
• required course corrections.

This is not a session for reprimand or criticism. The review should achieve maximum participation by the sales representative. Industry best practices prove that representative participation is one of the most effective methods of developing an attitude for learning and a drive for successfully accomplishing goals and objectives.

Next, create enthusiasm. Enthusiasm is one of the most important traits for a sales manager because it is contagious. Remember, sales representatives learn very little if they are mentally falling asleep.

Finally, the sales representative must have confidence in the program. He or she must trust the content of the program and truly believe it will provide personal benefits. The review process is extremely critical to the success of the SEP. It must be taken seriously and performed at a standard of excellence that supports the intent and objectives of the overall program. It requires 100 percent compliance throughout the company.

The SEP gives more than it receives
The last thing you want to do is to burden your sales force with administrative tasks of limited value. Throw away the call reports. They aren’t necessary in the SEP. Besides, they are the closest a salesman will ever come to winning the Pulitzer Prize in journalism. How many times can a salesperson report: “I called on Joe, everything is great and we will get to bid on his next requirement?” A well-thought-out action plan is 100 times more valuable than any call report.

The focus of the SEP, especially the monthly review, is on improvement through coaching and counseling. It is not a human resources hammer for “slap & point” management. It is simple but powerful for the salesperson using it (by comparison, most distributors have way too many reports, measurements and programs that diffuse focus, dilute effort and indicate that upper management is really not clear about the company’s strategic direction).

Sales is a profession that requires professional salespeople
Distributors are in constant need of aggressive, creative and resourceful salespeople who can convince customers to specify, accept and use their products. Without informed and capable field salespeople, no distributorship could hope to compete in the marketplace today.

But how often do distributors consider the fact that good salespeople, the kind who can help a company really grow, don’t come along by chance or fate? There is no such thing as a “born salesperson.” Selling ability is much more than a personality trait.

Granted, selling does require certain attributes that some people are born with and some are not. Also, the person must be intelligent, grasp ideas and details easily, retain them and recall them whenever selling situations arise. These factors, and many others relating to personal and emotional characteristics, are contributing elements in the makeup of the professional salesperson. However, these attributes alone do not make a salesperson nor do they guarantee success. It takes more.

A salesperson must have adequate tools, resources and leadership to maximize his or her effectiveness. That is why the Sales Effectiveness Process is so vital. It is the program that provides the support and the resources to give each salesperson the opportunity to maximize his or her personal effectiveness.

The SEP won’t replace good sales management, but it can make it much more effective. Remember, it’s not the sales manager’s job to call on accounts and sell product. The manager’s job is to make the sales force as effective as possible can so they can achieve the organization’s goals and objectives.

The SEP is no Purple Pill, but it can light up the sales process like Edison lit up a dark room with his light bulb. Let SEP become your light in the darkness of the competitive world of distribution.

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