Sales Modular Training

As you know, insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. Unfortunately, your sales organization might be stuck in an insanity cycle.

How do I know this? Because I’ve seen it over and over again throughout my career. Does this scenario sound familiar?

The company gave the Sales team their sales targets, and they are working hard and calling their customers like crazy, but the monthly sales increases are just not moving the needle. The market is down, so that makes their sales targets feel impossible. The Sales Managers are all over the team 24/7, which hurts their productivity and does nothing to improve the monthly results.

Meanwhile, the Sales Director is trying to get the sales team on the same page, balancing the optimistic forecast from the West Coast team with the pessimistic forecast of the Northeast team. On top of that, your distributors provide minimal information, the detail and quality of which is all over the map, and it’s a huge productivity sucking vortex to reconcile and summarize for the Sales VP.

More time is spent chasing down information and formatting it rather than actually understanding the results and managing the sales channel.

The result? Senior Management is all over Sales Management, which waterfalls down to the Sales team and channel partners, and it starts all over again the next month.

This is what I call the “Sales Insanity Cycle”.

Breaking the “Sales Insanity Cycle” to Deliver the Results You Need

Nothing shows up faster or clearer than sales results. Why? The report card comes out monthly, or even weekly in some organizations. I’ve found that unfavorable results are usually a symptom of some common culprits: inefficient or lack of process; skill level; and what you are doing (or not doing) every day. Whether you have a CRM or not, a robust Sales process is the backbone of any high performing Sales organization.

Skills and knowledge can be elevated by training and processes, while improvements in efforts and activities are better handled through coaching. All 4 elements need to work together to yield significant and sustainable results.

While the basic root cause elements are the same, the specifics for any individual will vary. Identifying the root cause and then customizing the game plan is the key to change and success.

Together, we will break the Sales Insanity Cycle within your organization, and your results will reflect the quality and level of your efforts.

How My Modular Sales Training Works

Territory/Key Account Managers: First, we will pinpoint which parts of the equation need to be tweaked to change your outcome. Then after you take my Sales Self- Assessment to identify specific skills upgrades that are needed,  I will design a training specifically for you and tailored to your:    

  • Markets
  • Region
  • Products’ sales cycle

We will focus on the key items that will be most impactful in your work environment, and begin executing changes that will start to show up in your results in as soon as 60 days. I will provide unlimited remote support and coaching to ensure successful implementation.

Sales Managers: First, we will do a deep dive to understand what is behind the numbers in terms of people, skill sets and processes. We will identify how much time is consumed chasing down and translating information compared to how much time is spent proactively managing the sales channel(s). Then we will diagnose the skill deficiencies and process inefficiencies. Next, we will look at the management framework and develop consistent, streamlined tools and processes to utilize with all channels to optimize reporting quality, time management, and results. Finally, we will create Key Sales Metrics with tangible hurdles to minimize subjectivity and improve the quality of what does get reported, so more time is spent managing the channel versus chasing the numbers.

I can work with any existing sales reporting templates you and your organization may have, or I can provide my own templates along with a “How To” Guide at the end of training for reference. As with all my modular training, I will provide unlimited remote support and coaching to ensure successful implementation.

Want to know how you stack up? Take my Sales Skills Self-Assessment  to identify specific skills upgrades that may be needed. Download the PDF, or take the on-line survey to get a free analysis and see how your skills compare to your Sales peers.   

If you are a manager looking to assess your team, contact me and I can provide an on-line link that can be used for analytics and a summary.  

The matrix below illustrates the key core competencies for Sales, Sales Management and Distributor Management.
Click on any ✓ to get a more detailed description.

CORE COMPETENCIES

Account, Territory Management

Sales Management (Direct)

Sales Management (Distribution)

Financial metrics for Sales

  • Sales, margins and profitability
    • By Sales person, by region
    • Discounting impact
  • Identify levers to increase margins, profitability
  • Sales, margins by distributor
  • End to end profitability

Sales strategy and planning

  • Developing annual plan
    • Creating territory footprint
    • Target opportunities
    • Competitive strategy, tactics
  • Quarterly, monthly success metrics;
  • Robust, consistent planning process aligned with corporate goals;
  • Setting individual sales targets:
    • By territory, region, market
  • Quarterly, monthly management;
  • Resource requirements

Competitive analysis

  • Identifying weaknesses, how to attack/win.
  • Identifying strengths, how to defend

Territory/Account mapping

  • Mapping out all opportunity and current footprint;
    • Identifying existing business targets for taking share from a competitor
  • Identifying expansion opportunities
    • New business/existing customers
    • New customers

Managing Sales Pipeline

  • Moving opportunities through Sales funnel < expected Sales cycle timeline
  • Utilizing win ratio and sales cycle to develop Sales funnel required to deliver/exceed target
  • Risk mitigation planning
  • Metrics for management, reporting
  • Clear hurdles for stage transitions
  • Monthly, quarterly reviews;
    • Progress vs plans;
    • Sales cycle times
  • Identify risks and corrective actions

Forecasting

  • Trigger points
    • Sales stage transition
    • Timing
    • Probability
  • Contingency planning
  • Sales cycle timeline, time to revenue
  • Consistent, tangible probability hurdles;
  • Safety factors, contingency planning
  • Proactive management reporting revenue risks

New Customer Acquisition

  • Time management:
    • Current business, New opportunities
  • Prospecting
    • Create success profile to target new customers;
    • Networking into targets
  • Metrics:
    • Sales activities in new accounts;
    • Managing new customer vitality

Customer management

  • Building customer stakeholders vertically and horizontally across key accounts;
  • Utilizing customer metrics to build value
  • Customer communication plan
  • Metrics:
    • Account retention
    • YoY growth, footprint in existing accounts
  • VIP relationships in key accounts;
  • Integrating horizontally, vertically with other key account managers and executive sponsors

Channel Management

  • Evaluating direct Sales vs distribution;
    • Support costs;
    • Profitability
    • Accountability

Finding/selecting new distributors

  • Developing and utilizing selection tool:
    • Market, customer synergies
    • Complementary product portfolio
    • Dedicated sales resources

Managing Distributors

  • Developing consistent management framework 
  • Co-developing key account strategy, tactics
  • Developing regional performance thresholds
  • Transitioning out under-performing partners while maintaining revenue, customer service

Pipeline Management & Forecasting Distributors

  • Harmonize consistent hurdles for stage transitions, probabilities
  • Streamlined consistent reporting structure, requirements
  • Monthly, quarterly reviews;
    • Resource requirements

Contract review

  • Customer vs Company terms and conditions;
  • 1st pass review to identify key items for manager review
  • Identify potential disconnects between customer and company T&C;
  • Recommendations for next level manager review
  • Review distributor contracts for company’s key accounts;
    • Identify potential synergies with (global) company agreements;
    • Identify conflicts of interest

Employee Development

  • 9 Bock assessment to identify team strengths and liabilities;
    • Succession/development plan for high potentials
    • Robust PIP/improvement plans where required

Compensation/incentive planning

  • Designing Sales Incentives Plans (SIPs) that are aligned with corporate goals
  • Rewarding behaviors required to meet sales goals
  • Accelerated incentives for exceeding sales targets
    • Self-funded
    • Lowering Cost of Sales
  • Benchmark other distributor lines:
    • Sales cycle
    • Commissions
  • Accelerated incentive structure
  • Forecast accuracy incentives

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