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Summary of Isurus\' approach to sales effectiveness analysis.
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Sales Effectiveness Analysis
Isurus Market Research and Consulting | www.isurusmrc.com | 617-547-2400
Sales Effectiveness Analysis
Why Sales Effectiveness Analysis?
Improving your sales effectiveness requires a systematic understanding of your
strengths and weaknesses across all of the factors that influence the outcome of
an individual sale; before you can improve your sales process you need to know
what is working and what is not.
Framework
Sales Effectiveness Analysis
Framework
Isurus’ sales effectiveness analysis framework focuses on 5 dimensions that can
be measured, managed and improved.
Barriers: Inertia Competitors External Factors
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Marketing Sales Rep Performance Offering
Corporate Field Product Pricing
Prospect
Purchase Trigger Purchase Process Decision
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Product knowledgeResponsiveness
Identifying needsQualifying deals
TrainingCompensation
Sales Effectiveness Analysis
1. Prospect behavior
Improving sales effectiveness requires understanding 3 key elements of prospect
behavior.
Sales Effectiveness Analysis
Prospect
Purchase Trigger Purchase Process Decision
Sales Effectiveness Analysis
Prospect behavior: Purchase trigger
Understanding what triggers the purchase process enables you to target prospects
more effectively throughout the marketing and lead generation process.
A number of factors can provide the trigger for a prospect to begin evaluating new products
and vendors, for example:
A change in management often drives a review of all systems and vendors.
The failure of an existing system makes prospects more interested in other options.
Competitive pressures may force prospects to change the way they do business and the systems they use.
Management consultants often identify specific systems or processes in need of improvement.
Sales Effectiveness Analysis
Prospect behavior: Purchase process
What criteria are used to create the short list?
Reputation
Initial pricing
Macro features and functionality
Basic technical infrastructure issues
How formal is the process?
Documentation
Timeline, milestones
Use of decision matrices, score sheets
Consultant assistance
Understanding the typical purchase process enables you to create more effective and targeted
corporate marketing efforts, lead generation, sales presentations, and field marketing materials.
Who are the decision makers, influencers?
Titles/functions involved
Functional roles and responsibilities
Number of decision makers
Evaluators, influencers, decision makers
How are potential vendors identified initially?
WOM, market knowledge
Trade publications
Trade shows
Analyst reports
Consultant recommendations
Sales Effectiveness Analysis
Offering
Specific features and functionality
Integration
Pricing
Brand perceptions
Sector experience
Confidence in the vendor’s ability to deliver
Belief the vendor understands the company’s business needs
Vendor attitude; belief the vendor truly cares
Prospect behavior: Decision
Sales effectiveness analysis provides the prospect’s viewpoint on why they selected your
company or a competitor.
Sales tools and tactics
Results of site visits, customer references
Product demonstrations
Vendor-provided ROI analysis
What drove the final decision?
Sales Effectiveness Analysis
2. Sales Rep Performance
Qualify opportunities Successful reps assess opportunities correctly and allocate their time to legitimate prospects, rather than those with little real likelihood of buying.
In complex purchases, sales effectiveness depends heavily on the sales rep’s performance.
Know the product Prospects expect sales and technical reps to know your product inside and out, be able to speak to how it will work in their environment and how it is different from your competitor’s product.
Connect business needs to the offering
Sales reps must understand the prospect’s business and processes, identify the problems the prospect wants solved and make the connection to your offering.
Deliver a high level of service
The level of responsiveness and attention prospects receive in the sales process influences their perception of what it would be like to work with your organization.
Receive the right kind of compensation and training
Compensation program structure can create incentives or barriers to sales force effectiveness.
Sales performance can fall short if training is inadequate, particularly when the sales force is being challenged with a new set of offerings, changing markets, or new types of buyers.
Successful sales reps:
Sales Effectiveness Analysis
3. Marketing: Corporate
Sales effectiveness relies heavily on corporate marketing.
Creates awareness of the company and its offerings
Shapes the market’s perception of the company
Differentiates the company and its offering from competitors
Generates sales leads
Successful corporate marketing:
Corporate marketing activities help Sales gain initial consideration, establish credibility with decision makers, and defend against competitors.
Sales Effectiveness Analysis
Marketing: Field
Sales effectiveness relies heavily on field marketing.
Field marketing support and materials—demos, fact sheets, case studies, ROI calculators, play books, etc.--play an important role prior to, during, and after a sales presentation.
Demonstrates the technical qualifications of the product
Provides proof points of where the product has been successful elsewhere
Enables the rep to do ROI calculations, estimate maintenance fees, etc.
Compares the product to competitors
Successful field marketing:
Field marketing materials must appeal to both prospects and to sales reps - the most carefully crafted field marketing materials do no good if the sales reps do not consider the material useful.
Sales Effectiveness Analysis
4. Offering: Product
Sales effectiveness depends on how prospects evaluate the product.
The degree to which the product or offering itself influences a sale varies by category and individual deal. In many cases, all of the vendors being considered meet or exceed the prospect’s needs.
Features and functionality – Not which has the most, but which best meets their specific needs
Manageability (perceived)
Integration with other products and systems
Fit with existing business processes
How it compares to what they are currently using--why is it better than the status quo
Evaluation criteria include:
Sales Effectiveness Analysis
Offering: Pricing
Price always factors into the decision; the key is to understand the true importance of price relative to other factors.
Initial license or purchase price
Implementation and professional services fees
Ongoing maintenance and support
Cost of upgrades
Financing options
Price dimensions include:
For most prospects, the ROI of potential solutions is not a key driver of the decision. They are skeptical of anyone’s ability—including their own—to accurately estimate the long term cost and return on any technology investment.
When prices fall within a range of tolerance (which varies by product, market, etc.), price is typically not a key factor. When prices among vendors are perceived to vary considerably, price becomes more of an issue.
Sales Effectiveness Analysis
5. Barriers
Understanding the common barriers to sales effectiveness enables both marketing and sales to anticipate and react more efficiently.
Your product or offering not only needs to be a better fit than your competitor’s, it must also overcome all of the barriers to switching from the status quo.
The perceived value of addressing the business issues
The pain and suffering of switching (e.g. data migration, training, downtime, integration)
Existing contracts and relationships
Preference for suite or best-of-breed solutions
Delivery preference
Common barriers include:
External issues such as the economy, market trends, mergers, regulations, etc. also affect the sales process. Products that have exceptionally long sales cycles—and which are more expensive and complex--are more likely to be effected by external issues.
Outcomes
Sales Effectiveness Analysis
Outcomes: benefits
Increase win rates A systematic approach to understanding why deals are won or lost increases the probability of winning each individual deal.
Improve efficiencies Allocate sales and marketing resources optimally.
Inform marketing efforts
• Where and how do prospects get information?• What are there current perceptions of your brand? Competitor brands?• What value propositions resonate with them? Why do they buy?• What are your strengths and weaknesses? Competitor’s?
Inform product development efforts
• What is the market currently buying?• What do they ask about? What do they create on their own?• What do competitors have?
The benefits of sales effectiveness analysis:
A systematic Sales Effectiveness Analysis provides benefits across the organization.
Sales Effectiveness Analysis
Outcomes: deliverables
Generally, companies should not expect immediate or short-term improvements—changing the sales process can take as long as the sales cycle.
For sales effectiveness analysis to be valuable, managers need to be willing and able to act on the data to make changes in the sales process.
Sales effectiveness deliverables include:
Individual reports Reports on individual deals.
Summary reports Reports that look across multiple deals to identify patterns and look across time to gauge trends and measure improvements.
What drives wins? • Statistical tools to identify key drivers of wins (and losses)• In-depth qualitative interviews explore the factors and dimensions of wins and
losses
What are the deliverables in Sales Effectiveness Analysis?
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