Breaking through the Sales Productivity Ceiling

Breaking through the Sales Productivity Ceiling Systemic Sales: Moving to a higher and sustained performance

Philippe CARRON

Gandamo bvbaProsper De Troyerlaan 28 9070 Destelbergen Belgium [email protected] www.gandamo.be

SYSTEMIC SALES I WHITE PAPER - � OF �2 6

The Author

There are probably more documents on sales productivity than grains of sand on our beaches. Most focus on boosting individual productivity and raising the skills of sales people.

Many, sometimes complex, processes impact sales. A single improvement in one of them, leads to a productivity increase for the whole sales operation.

Better still, multiple improvements reinforce each other and lead to an overall producti-vity gain, larger than the sum of all individual gains.

That explains the importance of having a scientific approach to sales force effective-ness and reach, what I call, a “systemic” sales level.

Although the word systemic is a common term in the medical world, it has a broader meaning that can be defined as follows:

Something spread throughout, system-wide, affecting a group or system, such as a body, a group of people, a market or society as a whole.

Applying this to (Systemic) Sales, gives the following definition:

A structured sales approach, process based, repeatable, focused on actions under di-rect control and touching the whole organization.

Systemic sales boosts productivity, not by hiring more talented individuals but by hel-ping existing sales people sell more.

It puts in place processes, data analysis, tools and execution instead of just relying on instinct, talent and training.

While even top sellers will do better, less performing sales people will improve much more significantly.

This increases motivation with all sales people, reduces the cost of hiring new sales people and avoids loss of knowledge/experience when leaving.

INTRODUCTION

Philippe Carron has a uni-que sales experience of more than 30 years.

He has a Master in Elec-tronics Engineering at the University Ghent and a Post-Graduate in Business Management at Leuven University.

He started working at IBM in 1984, where he quickly moved into the sales de-partment.

In 1991 he joined Compaq where he became EMEA director for Large Ac-counts in 1994.

Between 2000 and 2009 he had different roles as Ma-naging Director or Divisio-nal director at companies like Oracle, Vutek Europe and Tele2-Versatel.

In 2009 he founded his own consultancy firm Gandamo.

Philippe succeeds in com-bining the operational needs of sales and marke-ting with strategic know-ledge and insight.

His dual experience as Sales Director and Mana-ging Director allows him to have a broader view on Sales operations.

Sustained Sales Success comes by

design not luck


SYSTEMIC SALES IN 3 STAGES

Systemic sales focuses on structural improvements that impact the whole operation, not just an individual salesman's performance. This requires clear communication on methods, processes and execution. Two things are important:

• Right focus: on activities under full control of the sales team, with an (in)direct in-fluence on the sales result. Too many sales teams mistakenly believe they influence results through "pipeline" management, in other words, they want a direct impact on sales numbers by forcing prospects. That doesn’t work. The focus should be on things like number of qualified leads, number of visits, quality of content, demo’s…

• Buying cycle: Today there no longer is a "Sales cycle". Prospects have all the infor-mation via internet, so they are in the driver seat. It is key to know where the pro-spect is in the buying cycle, and align all actions accordingly.

AD-HOC

This is the first phase of an organization:

• No real processes pre-sent, or even an agreed way of working

• Nothing is documented • Actions are "ad hoc".

Everything is driven by the short term. Very little planning

• Knowledge and experien-ce acquired, is not main-tained or shared

Only individual players, with-out a coach.

INDIVIDUAL

Sales as individual activity, sales people playing “solo":

• Processes incomplete, not documented

• Limited resources. Actions based on indivi-dual talent of sales peop-le

• Knowledge present only with individual experts or top performers

• Best practices rarely sha-red between solo players

A group (not a team), loosely coached, focused on indivi-dual performance. Most companies get stuck here.

SYSTEMIC

This is the main objective of a sales organization:

• Processes are mature, documented and known

• All necessary resources are used

• There is a pro-active, successful method of working, applied by all

• All knowledge is maintai-ned centrally and shared

• Focus on actions under direct control

A real, successful team, with strong coaching.

“We are not focused on the numbers, we are focused on the things that produce the numbers”

Tim Cook, CEO Apple


FOCUS AREAS

PROCESSES

• Maturity: look at the quality of the pro-cess and make sure it is designed for maximum efficiency. Look at the maturity level of each pro-cess, because a mature process saves costs, efforts and resources.Maturity can be measured using CMM (Capacity Maturity Model).

• Impact: each process has to serve the overall objectives of sales. All necessary processes need to be present and superfluous processes need to be removed. Ha-ving the right processes has a major impact on sales productivity.

EXECUTION

• Efficiency: How efficient is your execution? Any wasted effort, resource or money?

• Effectiveness: Are the defined objectives met? If not, what can be done to increase effectiveness?

RESOURCES

• People: the human factor determines the quality of execution. Have you got enough resources? With the right profile and training?

• Budget: Have you got enough investment in the right areas? Lead generation, trai-ning, team building, etc…

• Tools: does sales have the right tools to do a good job? Do you have all analytics in place to steer your team in the right direction, focused on actions with impact, not numbers?

“If you can’t measure so-mething, you can’t under-stand it. If you can’t understand it, you can’t control it. If you can’t control it, you can’t improve it.”

H. James Harrington

“Vision without action is a daydream.”

Japanese Proverb

“Efficiency is doing things right; Effectiveness is doing the right things”

Peter Drucker


ACTIVITIES

PLANNING

Planning Sales is crucial and mistakes in this stage, dramatically impact sales.

If you walk off in the wrong direction, you will never reach your destination.

So this is the first area to analyse in terms of processes, resources and exe-cution. From Market segmentation to Go-to-Market, from channel selection to Commission Plan, any improvement will have a major impact on results.

LEAD MANAGEMENT

This is the “fuel” that makes the sales engine run.There are two focus points:

• Lead Volume: If the volume is too low, the fuel tank will become empty and the en-gine will stall.

• Lead Quality: if the quality is too low (wrong fuel), your engine will stall AND you will face useless costs.

So volume is important, but quality is even more crucial.

SALES

Today, informed buyers with Internet access control the “Sales Cycle” not the seller. “Buying Cycle” is a much more appropriate name today. A clear methodology and mapping of the Buying cycle to critical to succeed. At Gandamo we developed a me-thod called “Seasonal Buying Cycle” (SBC).

Two things are key in approaching the Buying Cycle:

• Knowledge on exactly where your prospect is in the Buying Cycle. This will determi-ne his priorities, focus, actions and expectations.

• An action plan and approach fully aligned with the prospect’s position in the Buying cycle.

Failing to do this will lead to wrong actions, misunderstanding, bad communication and ultimately lost sales.

RETENTION

Keeping & developing customers is much easier and cheaper than finding new ones. But many companies still “chronically” neglect this.

• Protect: by proving to the customer that he made the right decision

• Implement: take care of delivery, installation and communication, showing your commitment and involvement

• Develop: a long term, mutually beneficial relationship.

“Tactics without Strategy is the noise before defeat”

Sun Tzu

“Sales without planning is planning for no sales”

Philippe Carron, Gandamo


To get your Sales to a “Systemic Sales” level you need to know three things:

CONCLUSION

E-mail: [email protected]

Address:

Gandamo bvba Prosper De Troyerlaan 28 9070 Destelbergen Belgium

Website:

www.gandamo.be

CONTACT

WHERE YOU ARE NOW

The best way to know is by auditing your Sales organi-zation. This will expose issues, bottlenecks, which give a significant productivity boost, when solved.

You can do it internally:

• can speed up an audit • potential conflict of inte-

rest • More difficult to make

tough decisions

or externally:

• Add a new, “fresh” look • External experience to

benefit from • More neutral, which helps

with tough decisions

WHERE YOU NEED TO BE

Where do you want Sales to be in the next year, 3 years?Not just in numbers, but in terms of offering, market position, …This is determined by:

• internal expertise and vision

• Long term, strategic ob-jectives of the company

• External factors: compe-tition, market conditions, economic situation…

• Your customer: go and talk to them. they are a major stakeholder.

• Advice from an experien-ced 3d party like Ganda-mo.

HOW TO GET THERE

depends on:

• Issues detected during the audit

• Resources available • Support from top mana-

gement • Advice from an experien-

ced 3d party, like Ganda-mo.

• Shared experiences of companies who have already gone through this

Now it is all about getting the right support (internal & external) for managing the changes, developing an action plan and executing it.

If you want to give feedback or need any help, don’t hesitate to contact us.

Good Luck !