Territory Planning – A Key Success Factor

One of the most important actions an individual sales rep can take to ensure success is to create a strong territory plan.  This plan is the sales rep’s personal business plan.  If done properly it will provide the rep a roadmap for success and  a means of quickly identifying when the rep has strayed from the path to success.

So what does a good territory plan look like?  I believe they should be:

Short: The more concisely you can express your strategies the better.

Focused: Don’t try to do too much with a account/territory plan.  Its one use is to help you identify and close business. It should be simple.

Achievable: Don’t set yourself up for failure at the start.

Measurable: You must be able to easily determine if you have been successful

Current: To be useful, you must update your plan constantly.  Things change and your plan must change with them.

Now lets take a look at the components of a well written plan:

One Page Summary: This summary should have four sections.  First in just 2 or 3 sentences it should express your vision for your territory.  That vision should be supported by some number of clearly stated objectives or goals that are in turn supported by a number of strategies.  The last section should be a list of actions.

Pipeline Visualization: One question every sales rep has to be able to answer is what does a full pipeline look like?  Once you know what a pipeline that will generate your number looks like then you must compare it to your current pipeline so you can find and fill your gaps.  This process is very important in a long sales cycle business because of the reaction time.  If your average sales cycle is six months and you don’t react to pipeline holes until the second quarter you can’t make your number!

Targeted Account List: The number of accounts on this list varies but in general this list should include the prospects in your territory that represent the best opportunity for a sale.  These prospects are where the majority of your time will be spent and most of the new entries into your sales funnel will come from this list.  Usually this list is at least 20 accounts and no more than 50.  These are the accounts that you will run specific prospecting campaigns to penetrate.

Prospect Profiles: In addition to your targeted accounts you will have groups of prospects.  To break the rest of your territory into groups you will need to create some number of Prospect Profiles.  These are pictures of what a great prospect looks like.  For example you might have a product that has worked really well for mid sized retailers with 20 to 150 locations.  Build yourself a group of these accounts so that you can run prospecting campaigns that are targeted to this group.

Territory Analysis: To be successful you need to understand what is occurring in your territory.  Are there trends that you can identify?  What are the current “hot issues”? Are there compelling events that you can leverage? This sort of analysis should be articulated in a couple of pages and will serve as background for the strategies you plan to pursue.

SWOT: Just a simple four block SWOT with key bullet points in each block will help keep your focus where it belongs.

Metrics: There have to be some key metrics that you check on a regular basis.  Maybe it’s customer touches or $ value of opportunities, or number of sales calls.  Whatever the ones you use write them down and keep a running history.  That way you will be able to judge your performance over time.

Resources: Lastly you will need to make a list of what resources you need to be successful and how you will obtain them.

When you are finished you will have a plan of 12-15 pages that can will be your key to success.  Now you have to work your plan.  Each month you need to review your progress, make any needed adjustments and plan your next actions.  Build your territory planning habits and you will find that success becomes the natural end result.

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The Open Question

One of the challenges salespeople have always faced is how to keep the prospect’s mind on their solution.  Many times in their zeal to stay in front of the prospect salespeople cross the barrier and become a nuisance.  Once that has happened the chance of successfully closing a deal almost vanishes.

Question : So how do you stay in front of a prospect in today’s world without becoming a nuisance?

Answer : You have to bring value to every engagement.

Now that’s a lot harder than picking the phone up and asking a prospect if there is any news.  It requires that you think about each prospect contact. understand the objectives of the contact and then articulate the value you will use to support that contact.  Normally the value you bring will be information.

The easiest type of value to bring is the answer to a question the prospect has asked.  This of course means that the prospect must ask a question.  One goal I like to have in a contact is to always leave at least one question unanswered.  This gives me the perfect opening to get back in front of the customer.  Now you don’t want to foster the impression that  you don’t know your solution so be a bit careful about the questions you leave open.  They should be the type questions that would normally require the input of another person or some sort of research on your part.

As you talk to your prospects my guess is that the same questions normally repeat.  Over time if you keep a log of these questions and the point at which they arose you will be able to easily see them coming and even facilitate their appearance.  Sometimes you might get a perfect such question that you could answer now…think about it.  Sometimes you might choose to leave that question open just so you have your next reason for calling “built in”.

The idea of staying in front of a prospect will be a reoccurring theme in this blog, just like it is in the daily life of a sales rep.  If you have a specific question or situation just post a comment or drop me a mail at jim@revenuewonk.com and I will help in any way I can.

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Salespeople and Driving Demand

Nothing happens in a High Performance Revenue Engine without demand.  Now this demand is driven in a variety of ways or what I call Demand Channels.  For example one Demand Channel could be email marketing.  In this channel some number of individual campaigns are created and executed against specific targets.  Another might be search engine optimization or SEO.  Here you would optimize your website and content for specific terms and when prospects search for those terms they will have a better chance of finding you.  A fully operational High Performance Revenue Engine could have an untold number of Demand Channels.

One of the most important Demand Channels is the salesperson themselves.  As  a salesperson you have a quota to make.  Your livelihood depends on it and at the end of the day it is your job to make sure you have enough demand to hit your number.  One of the best ways to accomplish this mission is to help your customers and prospect find and solve problems they don’t even know they have yet.

I think it is a three step process:

Challenge the way things are.  A great way to do this is by using third party or industry examples.  Companies like Forester and Aberdeen do a great job of providing information that can be helpful.  Your objective in this step is to create a question and hopefully a bit of fear and uncertainty in the prospects mind about the way things are.  By the time you are done with this step you should have the prospects attention and created their interest.

Paint a new picture.  Once you raise the awareness in the prospect that the problem exists you have to then show them the path to a solution.  As you paint your picture you have to get the customer to feel and see the way things could be.  This is the part of the process where you have to instill the desire to address the issue in the customer.

Provide the solution.  Now that the prospect has a clear view of the way things are and the way things could be it is time for the value.  You have to give them the solution.  When you get to this point you have driven demand.  You have  created a prospect with a defined opportunity now its time to jump right into the sales cycle and build your business case.

Of course this is not the only way for a salesperson to be a Demand Channel but it is one of the most effective.

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What is a Customer Centric Process?

I had to call the bank yesterday.  I am sure you have been through the drill.  The auto attendant asks you to input you account number, last four digits of your social security number and some other bits and pieces of identity info and then you get the menu.  Of course that menu rarely tells you how to get a live person on the phone so you have to try a few things like saying “representative”, pushing zero or hash.  Finally you get the right combo and someone comes to the phone.  What’s the first thing they ask?  What’s your account number!  Isn’t that were we started this circus?

This is a classic example of a non-customer centric process.  It is not built for the customer but rather for the vendor, in this case the bank.  Had that process been customer centric when I finally got to a representative the first thing out of their mouth should have been hello Mr. Walker how can I help you today.  I have already told them who I am and verified that for them…THEY SHOULD KNOW.

Problem is that same scenario is repeated time and again in all sorts of companies.  Marketing develops a lead and shoots it to sales without the proper details and the sales person calls the customer and starts at the beginning.  Sales closes a deal and the implementation process starts by hashing over a lot of the same information that was discovered in the buying process.  A call is escalated and the new technician starts right over at the beginning.  You get the idea and it is happening in most companies right now.

A customer centric process is built around the way the customer buys or interacts.  Information is shared seamlessly across all areas of an organization and common language and metrics are used.  In this sort of process a company aligns the processes with the buyer.  As the buyer interacts with various parts of an organization they encounter consistency which in turn builds and reinforces credibility.

The end result is the buyers like the relationship with your brand, trust your brand and buy more.  Isn’t that what we all want?

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High Performance Revenue Machine

Every company should have a High Performance Revenue Machine.  You put leads in one side and consistent forecastable revenue comes out the other.  A High Performance Revenue Machine maximizes a company’s application of both the art and the science of sales and creates a consistent end to end process that spans the entire Revenue Chain.  I think it looks something like this:

 

As you can see there are four distant components. Lets look at them.

Drive Demand

It all starts here. Our first machine component is build around three processes.

First we have to develop the Go-To-Market Strategy. In this process we need to accomplish such tasks as pick and segment the target markets, build our messaging, rationalize our pricing, understand the competition and decide what the distribution organization looks like.

Next we need to Build the Demand Model. Here we undertake such tasks as identify the demand channels, validate the technology infrastructure, create common definitions (i.e. what’s a lead), develop the hand-off mechanisms and other similar tasks.

Finally we start to Generate Leads. To accomplish this we need to build and execute marketing campaigns, track our ROI, nurture relationships and forward appropriate leads to sales people for follow-up.

Manage the Buy Cycle

This step is also known as the Sales Cycle. I like Buy Cycle because the real job here is to facilitate the customer’s buying process. Many companies have developed custom cycle steps and that’s ok but in general I think each of those steps falls into one of these general categories.

Qualify-no matter how good a lead is when you get it you have to make sure that the company is qualified. Ideally that means they have a need, a budget and some desire to use that budget to meet the need.  However, there are occasions when the company has a need they don’t understand yet and then the task is to guide them to an understanding of that need and instill the desire to address the situation.

Discovery-once a lead is qualified you need to go through the process of truly understanding the company. The most effective sales people will use this time to learn how the company makes money, the current challenges that exist and spot opportunities.  At the same time one must learn to operate within the political environment that exists in the prospect.  All companies have one and they way opportunities are pursued can vary widely depending on the company.

Opportunity Identification-the idea at this stage is to create a spreadsheet that looks something like this.

Some important points on creating your sheet.  First it is required that your prospect buy in on each line item.  The more concurrence you can create the easier the rest of the process will be.  It will take time to do it this way…it is worth it.  Next you will notice that I used an easily quantifiable point in the example.  There may be Value Opportunities that are not quantifiable, put them in a different sheet.  When you are done you will have two sheets that will form the basis of your business case for proceeding with the purchase.

Build the Business Case-here we will use the information we have collected to build both the business case and the presentation that will be given in support.  We will talk a lot more about the format of this case in subsequent posts but always remember that it must stand on it’s own.  When you leave it behind it will take on a life of it’s own.  People you may never meet will read and comment on it so make it as clear and unambiguous as possible.

Gain Concurrence-once your case has been built you still have to make the rounds of those that are involved in the decision to make sure that you have their concurrence and overcome any unforeseen objections.  The end of this step is when the prospect is ready to negotiate.

Negotiate-now it is time to agree on the details of the transaction.  There is a whole body of work that surrounds this particular stage and this stage has been impacted from the very beginning of the process.  Always remember as you set expectations at any place in the Buy Cycle they come back to you here.

Close-now it’s time for the ultimate buyer to sign the deal.  Always remember it’s never done until it’s done.

Before we move on remember there is a art to all this.  We could easily spend a week on any one of these stages and true sales professionals spend a lifetime on improving them.

Implement and/or Deliver

It doesn’t matter what you sell at some point its time to deliver the goods.  In the case of some products there may be an implementation process and for others just a product delivery process.  In all cases the execution of this component of the revenue cycle will have a direct bearing on future revenue from this client and others.

While the steps may vary wildly from company to company those steps generally fall into one of three processes.

Plan-no matter what your product after the sale you have to plan the specifics of delivery.

Execute-once the plan is in place it must be executed.

Validate-there needs to be a feedback loop established to ensure that the execution of the plan has been properly done and no adjustments must be made.

Grow and Extend

Every business knows it is far easier to sell to the customers you have than to acquire new ones.  This final piece of a High Performance Revenue Machine deals with how those relationships are managed.

This component is built around four processes.

Account Strategy-every account should have be a part of an account strategy process.  For larger key accounts that may mean the development of an individual account strategy.  Smaller or more regional accounts may be part of an account class that would then have a defined strategy.  This Account Strategy process is where you will make the decisions concerning resource deployment and account focus.

Account Planning-here you need to execute the Account Strategy.  Again for larger accounts this is an individualized activity and smaller ones may be combined into an account class.  In either case there must be defined objectives that support the overall strategy, a way to measure the attainment of those objectives and a regular review of the progress.

Relationship Management-there must be some framework associated with how each account relationship is managed.  Larger accounts will have teams of staff assigned and many contact relationships to manage.  Smaller accounts may have just a single contact and be assigned a representative that manages multiple such accounts.  In both cases there needs to be a systematic methodology that ensures proper attention is paid to each and every customer.

Customer Satisfaction-every High Performance Revenue Machine must have a customer satisfaction component. There are several defined methodologies that exist ranging from Net Promoter Scores to Differential Value Propositions.   It is important that one be chosen that best supports a particular business and that it be consistent over a period of time.  This is the only way you will be able to get a view of how your customers perceive your company and this is vital to the ongoing production of revenue.

Those four components combine to build a High Performance Revenue Machine.  To be really effective your machine must be consistent across all departments that are involved.  Terminology, definitions, KPI’s and other details must be common.  When they are you have enabled three cross functional activities.

Analyze and Improve-just as TQM, Six Sigma and Lean Manufacturing have impacted manufacturing and other process over the years now the revenue cycle must be impacted.  If your High Performance Revenue Machine is integrated across your enterprise then you can analyze its performance and make adjustments to improve results on a regular basis.

Reporting and Analytics-commonality across your enterprise will enable a range of insights and status reports across your Revenue Machine.  For example if incoming leads drop by 15% what is the impact on revenue next quarter, the quarter after that or two years down the road.  If we spend dollars to increase the percentage of prospects that move from Discovery to Opportunity Identification what is the impact on revenue.  With common data across your enterprise analytics can now be performed to help assess the ROI of individual actions, spot trends in data and pinpoint key spots in your process where improvement is possible.

Forecasting-revenue forecasting is always a bit of a guess.  But when you have a High Performance Revenue Machine you can measure each point in the process and understand the impact on revenue.  If you see your leads increasing you know how long you have to bring the resources to bear that will deliver on those sales.  If customer satisfaction starts trending down you can react to the problem and minimize the revenue impact.  The ability to review and include data from the entire revenue cycle in your forecast methodology will enable more consistent forecasts in the short, mid and long term.

Building a High Performance Revenue Machine will let your business focus driving growth and reap the rewards that come along with that growth.

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Happy Birthday!

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A Business Imperative

In college I studied a good bit of philosophy.  On of the more impactful Philosophers in history is a German named Immanuel Kant.  One of the concepts he put forth is the idea of an imperative which he defined as an ultimate commandment of reason from which all duties and obligations derive.

I think we are at a point in business where an imperative exists.  We all know that the last few years have been quite tough for most of us.  Our economy has struggled, our finances have suffered and our future sometimes doesn’t look as rosy as we would like.  We are in need of an imperative and I believe that imperative is growth.

The modern economy is built on many things not the least of which is the confidence and outlook of its participants.  When people are optimistic they take actions which reflect that optimism.  They buy and invest in the future.  When they do that our economy grows and nothing breeds confidence like confidence.

In times like now, people and companies don’t buy as much and don’t invest or hire for the future.  Instead they become insular and attempt to protect what they have.  The irony is that played across a macro stage these actions become a self fulfilling prophecy.  To some extend we are there now and the tide must be turned.

I believe that enterprise must play a significant role in this process by driving growth.  In fact it is the Business Imperative of our times to drive growth and restore the confidence in our economy.  If we do that all other problems become easily solvable.

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Art or Science?

In some of my sales training classes I pose the question is sales an art or a science?  In most any class you  get a range of opinions and the room ends up almost equally split.  Trick is both sides are correct, I believe that sales is both art and science.

The science of sales or revenue production lies in managing the messages, contacts and content involved in getting a sales rep in front of a prospect.  Another part of the science is leveraging the technology of today to understand what works and what doesn’t, where the key points of the buying process lie and how they can be impacted.  Then just like manufacturing you can apply analytics and continuous improvement methodologies to improve the process.

The art is when that sales rep is in front of the prospect.  How do you “peel the onion” to learn the issues?  What are the right questions to ask?  How do you create and nurture trust in the relationship.  How do you overcome an objection?  How do you deal with negative influences.  These are part and parcel of the art and like any art form some people are more naturally inclined than others but most everything can be learned if you are willing put in the effort.

For a company to be successful in driving revenue both the art and science of driving revenue must be understood and nurtured.

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What Is A Hunter?

As I talk with companies that are hiring sales reps a common refrain is “we need a hunter”.  That shouldn’t surprise anyone because if you look at sales jobs through the years that concept always stands out.  Question is what is a hunter?

In the past it was that great sales rep that always managed to get involved in sales cycle  before the competition.  That was important because that rep got to set the expectations and began to educate the prospect as to what could be expected from the solution.  The hunter was on the scene first and put themselves in position to drive the process and as a result won the most new business.

Another trait of this traditional hunter was the drive for immediacy.  When they engaged a client the objective was singular…sell something now.  If that objective can’t be met for some reason that lead is discarded and the traditional hunter is on to the next hunt.

Problem is that over the last few years the hunting dynamic has changed.  The old style hunter that’s out in the market trying to insert themselves into the process as early as possible will likely find a cool if not downright cold reception.   Customers today have access to information and like to do their research independently of the sales rep.  I have seen studies that indicate that sales cycles can be 60% to 80% complete BEFORE the prospect is ready to engage a sales rep and that changes the whole dynamic of hunting.

That means that a vital part of hunting today is content focused.  It’s the same concept as before.  Get your information in front of the prospect and drive the process.  In the past that was done exclusively via face to face sales calls.  Today you have to create compelling content then use and manage a variety of information channels to accomplish the task.  Now I know that when I say compelling content most of you are thinking that’s expensive, but it does not have to be.  Content can be anything from a text message to an email message to a YouTube video.  Compelling content is valuable not necessarily expensive.

In most larger organizations the Marketing Department creates some content and can even manage a lot of the pre-engagement information flow and lead nurturing.   In an organization where there is not a Marketing Department does that performs this function it is now up to the rep to manage that process.  In both cases that means changes to the traditional sales paradigm that I will talk more about in subsequent posts.

For now we will end with this thought…the trick for successful hunting in todays market is for the hunter to use content and a lead nurturing process to pave the way and then insert themselves into the process at the RIGHT time not just the earliest possible time.

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Sales, A Noble Profession

Everyone seeks a golden path.  A path that leads to the fulfillment of a noble purpose.  So how does driving revenue square with that ideal.  A first blush most people would posit that the life of a sales person might be the antithesis of a noble purpose but I think not, if done the right way, which is to always bring value to the client. Then by driving revenue you are creating a benefit.  Your solution is helping them to grow a more profitable business and your actions help bring all the fruits of success to the customers and employees of the client.

At the same time you are creating jobs and profits for your own company.  The resulting growth in both companies will add more jobs and more growth to the overall economy resulting in a host of benefits for all involved.   By driving revenue you are improving the lives of all you touch and that is indeed a noble purpose.  When training sales people I always tell them that the most important sale is to themselves because if they don t believe they can’t paint the right picture for the client.  This sale starts with the profession itself…done properly it is the most noble of endeavors.

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