Building Sales Process
- The building of an effective and efficient sales process is founded on three enduring KappaEast principles:
- Back to the Basics – The tools-based process must establish and maintain a proven, practical, fundamentally sound approach to selling.
- A Single Model – A set of tools, integrated in a single process, maximizes effectiveness and efficiency in planning and executing the selling job – moving seamlessly from targeting deals necessary to make the quarter to who to call on and what to accomplish to move a specific deal ahead.
- Enhanced Teamwork – Institutionalizing a single, common, consistent process facilitates communication and execution across the team, with partners and up and down the management chain.
- The focus of all sales process tools from funnel phase lines to call plans must be accomplishment, not activity.
- The approach must always be methodology before technology – that is, the consideration of any SFA software/platform is subordinate to the design of the optimal sales process methodology. The technology is a means to deliver the optimal methodology.
- Implementation must focus on two critical results:
- The sales reps must experience the tools-based process as a means to achieve success and increase earnings AND NOT as another way to increase management scrutiny of their efforts.
- The management team must experience the process as a means to increase their management effectiveness AND NOT something else to “police” – making sure the reps use the tools.
- Managers must be role model practioners of the process, incorporate the process in their everyday interactions with reps in the pursuit of business and be able to coach reps on the use of the tools.
- The tools and process must be practical/useable from the start and be consistent with any other ongoing sales operations processes and SFA/CRM strategy. It must not add administrative overhead.
- The Sales Operations Management Process must incorporate best practices and reflect the specific selling environment.
- The amount of training time to deliver the new methodology and technology should be integrated into one training experience versus separate sessions for methodology and technology/systems. The number of days a sales professional is out of the field must also be minimized.
- The investment in implementation only begins with initial training. Ongoing reinforcement and feedback is critical to success.