You mean it’s not all about customer relationships?

Distribution executives rank the potential impact of “relationships management” 12 of 14 in a recent sales process assessment.

Ask any sales manager or professional to name the key to long-term sales success and more than likely the answer will boil down to establishing and developing strong business and personal relationships with customers. Not so, according to more than 130 distribution industry executives. In fact, they think there are 11 other aspects of the overall sales process that are more critical.

Talk about your counter-intuitive conclusions! It only seems odd, however, until you dig down into the details in a disciplined manner. What good is a handshake, a smile and a free lunch unless the products and services provided consistently create value for the customer’s business? Just how does a sales rep come to really understand customer needs and how his or her wares can be customized to address them?

The YPS Group, in cooperation with Progressive Distributor, set out to answer those questions with a Sales Best Practices Benchmarking Assessment. Its basis was the 14-point YPS Methodical Sales Process and 44 fundamental sales best practices. We asked participants about how well they execute each practice as well as the potential impact each could have if executed extremely well. 

The approach removed as much emotion and fluff from the equation as possible and focused on quantifiable results. Not that a sales rep would ever try to use bluff and bluster as a stand-in for consistent stellar performance.

Since business leaders and investors rightly demand concrete evidence – data – to support decision-making, that’s what this assessment aimed to deliver.

Bottom line, the study concludes that distribution industry execs should focus on the following:
• management and measurement of the sales process;
• ongoing support of customer operations; and,
• account and territory management.

The data showed that the largest gaps between quality of execution and potential impact on sales results were greatest for these three items. In addition, management and measurement of the sales process and ongoing support of customer operations were the two lowest ranking core sales activities in terms of quality of execution and all three of the above were rated “Poor” to “Fair.”

The study recommends implementing a “Sales Excellence Council” comprised of four to six of your best-performing sales personnel. This group should meet once a month for three to four hours and keep formal, well-organized documentation of its discussions, conclusions, recommendations and action plans.  Their overall objective should be to generate an 8 percent to 12 percent annual, incremental improvement in the details of sales performance.

The Report of Results provides extensive additional recommendations as well as a detailed roadmap for implementing a Sales Excellence Council and other initiatives to relentlessly and continuously grow your sales.

A free summary of this report is available. Purchase the full report for $75.

On the other hand, when all is said and done, it really might be all about relationships. The difference lies in the path taken to get there. Never, never stop measuring and improving your sales process. Place primary focus on providing support for your customers’ ongoing operations.  anage each territory in a disciplined, methodical manner to ensure that – every day – it lives up to the standards you have set. Do that, and the great customer relationships will happen all by themselves.

Todd Youngblood is managing partner and CEO of The YPS Group Inc., a sales process engineering and sales training firm. The YPS partners are all obsessed with the sales productivity of their clients. He can be reached at , or at www.ypsgroup.com.

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