SALES PROCESS CHARACTERISTICS

Keep in mind that a proper sales process must have three characteristics. It must be repeatable, predictable, and scalable. In addition, salespeople and managers are more likely to use a sales process if it’s easy to use and is reinforced through sales tools or job aids. If a sales process is too complicated, salespeople and managers won’t use it. This is why some CRM systems are fraught with so many problems. It often becomes a garbage in/garbage out situation, where the only thing companies are automating is chaos.

Being repeatable means a company can use the same process over and over to achieve consistent results. Sales management should reward salespeople for consistency in making their numbers versus the big spikes in revenue, typically at month or quarter end.

Being predictable implies the use of Milestones to help the sales manager know where salespeople are in specific opportunities and know their pipelines. This knowledge helps to answer questions such as “Will I make my numbers this year, this quarter?” or “Is my pipeline balanced?”

Being scalable is important because sales organizations expand and contract according to economic cycles, product changes, marketing promotions, and changes in the size of a business. Moreover, the same sales processes should apply to any size organization, whether there is one salesperson or ten thousand.

Failure of Traditional Approaches

It never ceases to amaze me how often I hear executives say, “Sales is a mystery. Why can’t sales be managed like all the other departments?” I tell them that sales can be managed—with a sales process. They say, “We’ve tried that. We put all our salespeople through sales training, and it didn’t make any difference.”

Here’s what I find really happened behind the scenes. They held a one-day sales training event, but it didn’t stick. There’s a big difference in implementing an HPSC that includes a sales process as its cornerstone as opposed to a sales training event.

For many years , we’ve heard sales managers complain about the shortcomings of traditional sales training. Recently, Sales Performance International conducted a survey of 113 corporate sales executives to identify and analyze their complaints. We wanted to hear from these executives about the problems they were having with traditional training methods . Not only did we get a strong response, but we also gained some profound insights into how to help sales executives establish and maintain an HPSC.

One of the biggest misconceptions about creating an HPSC is that training is the key driver in sales performance improvement. As illustrated in Figure 16.2, the most important element in implementation is not the training event, but change management.

Figure 16.2: Perception Versus Reality

When considering the importance of change management, three key drivers enable successful HPSC implementations :

1. Design

2. Training

3. Implementation

4. Design. Make sure you design a tailored implementation that encompasses all the elements of an HPSC. Ideally, all four elements (sales process, sales management system, sales force automation, and marketing) are involved if you want to achieve an HPSC.

5. Training. Practice, practice, practice. Practice makes perfect. Training should involve salespeople, managers, executives, marketing, and anyone else in the company who interfaces with customers (for example, in technology markets, product and services technicians are frequently involved). Don’t waste your valuable investment.

6. Implementation. Support your HPSC rollout. Let it be known that this is what the executives want. Measure it, and remember that people tend to do what they’re measured on.

There are sound sales processes, such as the new Solution Selling, that can help you overcome your problems with traditional sales training, but only if you appreciate the scale of change necessary and are committed to making it happen.